Metroid Other M Review
The most controversially divisive entry in the Metroid series, I take a look to see if it's really as bad as everyone makes it out to be...
Developer: Team Ninja/ Nintendo SPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Wii
Release Date: 3rd September 2010 (EU), 2nd September 2010 (Japan), 31st August 2010 (NA)
After an 8 year hiatus, Metroid returned with Metroid Prime on the GameCube and for the rest of the 2000’s Metroid would do pretty well. Prime would see two sequels released, Echoes on the GameCube and Corruption on the Wii, and get a trilogy release on the Wii in 2009 with Prime and Echoes getting a remaster with a new control scheme matching Corruption. The GameBoy Advance saw the newest 2D entry Fusion and 2 years later a remake of the first game in Zero Mission. Arguably, it was a good decade for Samus. Nintendo would try to keep the momentum going by releasing Other M, a revolutionary first for the series with an entirely third person 3D adventure for Samus. Upon release it was critically well recieved, but among the Metroid community it’s seen more as the black sheep of the series for its poor story and characterisation of Samus.
However, I don’t believe it to be a bad game. Not entirely.
Metroid Other M takes place after Super Metroid and sees Samus answering a distress signal from the Galactic Federation Bottle Ship, a ship that had been running experiments for bioweapons led by Dr Madeline Bergman. Upon arrival on the ship, Samus encounters GF troops led by her former CO Adam Malkovich. He agrees to let Samus along and help, uncovering intrigue and sabotage as each of the GF troops are killed off one by one and uncovering conspiracies on the Bottle Ship of its true intentions; creating a new Mother Brain AI who has inhabited a new humanoid body and to telepathically control Metroids.
The story isn’t that bad at all, if a little flawed in places. I appreciate it trying to do something new with Metroid and taking a much more anime cinematic approach, which does pay off nicely in some areas and lets us see Samus and her world in a new perspective. As a science fiction story it’s good and adds a lot more to Mother Brain as an AI, Ridley’s cloned rebirth, and further use of the Metroid Queen, those elements I really like to see. Seeing Ridley’s growth from a seemingly harmless yet hungry bipedal bird-like creature molting into larger forms leaving a husk of its former body behind for Samus to discover until the grand reveal of Ridley in Sector 3 is fantastic. There is some dodgy dialogue though, at least in the English dubbing, from the GF characters. Some treatment of Samus calling her princess and the like is irksome but in the Japanese dubbing it sounds less demeaning.
However, it’s biggest fault is its characterisation of Samus. Agreeably that is its weakest point. The most criminal fault, I would say, is her portrayal. Unfortunately, Jessica Erin’s portrayal of Samus is incredibly flat and robotic leaving not a whole lot of emotion to her. Perhaps it’s a side effect of Samus’ PTSD leaving her cold, but even the Japanese portrayal of Samus by Ai Kobayashi she’s much more authoritative and stoic instead of emotionally dead. That isn’t Samus’ character at all. She is much more akin to Superman or Captain America if also quite reserved and introverted, but she’s still emotive and warm despite that and always looking to save others no matter how dire the situation. Otherwise, there are some good ideas there for her development. Samus’ history with the GF and operating under Adam Malkovich and her comrades, like Anthony, but the execution makes it seem a little like a mockery of her. There is potential buried there and the idea is good, it just needed much better handling and care taken to give us a more respectable portrayal of Samus.
As for her harping on about “The Baby” I personally don’t see an issue with, aside from perhaps it only being repetetive. The Super Metroid is an integral character and element to the Metroid lore. Its significance does lend a lot of weight. Samus does, however, react appropriately to seeing Ridley once again.
The fault in the story does, however, lie in the localisation. The Japanese voice acting is, additionally, much more energetic. Samus has greater depth in her portrayal and she doesn’t sound hollow, and the rest of the cast don’t sound like they’re mocking Samus. A direct translation of the Japanese version of the story shows how drastic the changes were in the English localisation of the game. Immediately you notice this in the opening cutscene; with Samus suspended by the Super Metroid, in the english version she asks “Why am I still alive?” while in the Japanese version she asks “How am I still alive?” Throughout there is greater clarity in the dialogue and better characterisation in the Japanese version than the English version. So to remedy the fault of the story, I would implore to watch the Japanese version with English subtitles (and a more up to date version here) to see more directly Yoshio Sakamoto’s intentions with Other M. There are still some minor issues but they are a lot smaller to pick at in Japanese than in English simply because the writing and voice acting is miles better than the English version. The localisation of Other M did this game dirty.
Visually it does look pretty extraordinary. The cutscenes are high quality and well directed, and you do get a fair bit of them in the game with over 2 hours worth of cutscenes making Other M the most cinematic Metroid game in the series. Some cutscenes felt a little Metal Gear Solid or Resident Evil to me. It opens with the ending of Super Metroid with Samus defeating Mother Brain and the Super Metroid baby helping Samus out, although bizarely Samus isn’t wearing the gravity suit during this. I feel they don’t like the gravity suit at all in this game either because when you do get the gravity suit all you get is a purple glow around you that activates when you’re underwater or in an area with dense gravity, which is only in one area with a few spotty areas where you’re underwater. So, perhaps, as you’re not dealing with these issues that much in the game, to even save some cost, they didn’t bother making a new model for Samus’ gravity suit. Which is a huge shame because the gravity suit is one of my favourites. Bit of a waste that.
However, the rest of the game does look really nice. The creatures are pretty creatively designed and look great. Samus looks great too and her suit is a little sleeker than, say, Super Metroid’s varia suit, or even Prime’s, particularly in the shoulder pads. But I believe it’s hard to fault how she looks, even in her zero suit and in general how she looks out of her power suit. Her visor switching from opaque to translucent depending on the situation is a nice touch and it’s wide enough to get a good visual on her face inside of the helmet, even if she may not be that emotive… Still, it’s a nice looking game. The hud is clean and simple, the map is easy to view and navigate with objective prompts on where to go, as well as indicators on hidden items in the area. There is good lighting and visually distinct areas; a muggy jungle area, scorching volcanic area, and bitter snowy area. It’s all very nice to look at. Give it shit for its visuals and graphics I shall not.
I shall also not give it shit for its gameplay. For being its first full 3D adventure I think it does a pretty good effort. Items are pretty well hidden in spite of getting the occassional blip indicating where one is. There is good challenge and difficulty in combating enemies and bosses, some later ones really testing you in the epilogue. Navigating around the Bottle Ship is easy enough and it’s hard to get lost, although this does make exploring pretty linear throughout. Despite that, you’ll find there are some areas you can’t get to without a certain item, like super missiles or speed booster, so you will end up backtracking picking up everything you couldn’t before. After you finish the game you get an epilogue, picking up one last item and finally getting to use the power bomb, as there is now no plot reasoned restriction at risk of evaporating GF troopers. This also counts more like a victory lap, one last go through the entire bottle ship, exploring every nook and cranny picking up every last item, of which all become highlighted on the map, but it’s still up to you to figure it out how to grab the item. Most of which are high out of reach or blocked behind something. Throughout you can find missile tanks, energy tanks, reserve energy tanks, and acceleration charges, a first for the game. These acceleration charges help you charge up your beam faster, very useful in the end game. Also, if you charge up your beam and press A to change into morphball you’ll drop a litter of morphball bombs around you. Handily, there is a percentage on the map menu of how many items you have collected. The more you pick up, the more concept art in the gallery on the main menu you can view, of which are all really nice designs. They did do good there.
As you explore the Bottle Ship, the GF steadily grant you abilities you need to progress; your ice beam, wave beam, missiles, super missiles, speed booster, shine spark and screw attack, and grapple beam, all of which make you feel more powerful as you go along. One common complaint about being drip fed your upgrades I do not agree with. The whole “Only I say when you get this upgrade” limiting you is stupid. Metroid Fusion did the exact same thing and nobody complained about that there. It’s more unwarranted bias here because there’s enough negativity surrounding this game that it is giving license to complain about every other little thing about this game just because you’re angry. It’s a little ridiculous and immature. It’s a fine workaround to get more abilities and contextually it works. Bare in mind this Bottle Ship incident is otherwise a GF operation and they’re the ones in charge here and Samus is more a freelance assistant. They can’t afford to have her running off and taking charge and sabotaging their mission, as highly capable as she otherwise is, because of how sensitive the whole ordeal is, as you soon learn. Whining you can’t get an upgrade until they say so just makes you a snotty brat.
Controlling Samus is pretty nice too. You use the Wii remote (Wiimote, I say) much like a NES controller for the most part, directional buttons to move, A to turn activate morphball, 2 to jump and 1 to shoot, hold it to charge up your beam, + opens the pause/mp/status menu. But pointing it at your sensor bar you go first person ala Prime to fire off missiles and blasts and look and scan around. You don’t need to scan everything like Prime, this is more action focused than a lore heavy adventure after all. There are some moments in the story where you’re fixed into this first person view to scan around at a point of interest to advance forward, although in some points it takes a lot of looking around for what you’re supposed to find because what you need to look at isn’t entirely obvious or visible. For example facing Ridley, you are to find a hatch to blow up to clear the smog but it’s so obscured (naturally, sure,) you spend longer than is necessary trying to find it. There are also some short moments where you will be fixed behind Samus pacing through an area cautiously before scanning a point of interest, or following a fleeing Madeline Bergman. Namely, though, you will be in this position in elevators or exploring the station’s toilets.
Otherwise, this is probably the most atheltic Samus has ever been in a game. Pressing any direction as an enemy is about to attack, Samus can dodge out of the way with her back jets firing off for an added speed boost, and can quickly charge up her canon to blast them away. And you can duck, roll and backflip out of danger incredibly stylishly and flip into a screw attack to obliterate the enemy. It’s really nice. Naturally you can jump between walls again to climb up to higher platforms, which is much easier to pull off this time around compared to Super Metroid. All you need to do is come into contact with the wall and press 2 and you’re bounding. Even Shinesparking is easier to pull off. Run down a corridor and soon your speed booster will kick in, then either press 2 to immediately launch forward, or stop and hold 2 to charge, release and launch high up into the air, or press 2 and left or right and dash off into a side direction. When you pull it off, especially leaping off to the side, it is so satisfying.
Morphball is pretty fun too and there’s fair enough use for it. Press A and you’ll roll on along. Press 2 to jump and 1 to drop a bomb, hold it for a slightly more powerful bomb, but in the epilogue holding it until fully charged will drop a power bomb. There are plenty enough sections where you’ll stream down a long tube or rail with a nice vista of space to observe or sector below you.
As for the boss fights they’re alright. The more memorable bosses are the series’ mainstays with Ridley and the Metroid Queen and a surprise and grotesque appearance from Nightmare, but as for everyone else they’re a little forgettable. Which is a shame because visually they’re quite unique but they don’t stand out too well. The most is probably the construction machine piloted by a GF trooper. The battles themselves are alright to do otherwise. You dodge around, shoot at their obvious glowing weaknesses, freeze up sections of their body. It’s fine and none too difficult and you feel rewarded enough for slaying them. I did have some trouble with the first encounter with Ridley, however. There are times where you will need to switch to first person to fire off missiles or be caught in a scripted section stuck in first person and have to shoot the right thing to proceed. The final boss you’re fixed in first person and surrounded by the strongest enemies in the game who are continuously assaulting you while you’re trying to shoot who you need to shoot making the challenge a touch annoying. But other than that, yeah. Could be worse.
The music, composed by anime composer Kuniaki Haishima, is pretty nice too. It reuses a fair amount of classic Metroid themes, particularly the opening eerie Metroid theme for the main menu, Ridley’s theme, and the escape theme. But the rest of the soundtrack easily adds depth to and enhances the unsettling, frantic and foreboding sci fi adventure. Maybe not too many themes stick out but it creates a great atmosphere for the Bottle Ship and it all feels appropriately Metroid with a cinematic approach. Could it do with some more iconic tracks? Sure. But it’s hard to find a fault in it when it does its job very nicely adding the right mood and tone to Other M. The Vorash theme does remind me of Batman v Superman though, preceding the film by 6 years.
Even the sound effects are pretty great. The blasts, the creature sound effects, the activation of the speed boster, Samus’ grunts and groans of effort. It all speaks the Metroid language.
Metroid Other M is a bit of a mixed result, but it is nowhere near as bad as it’s been made out to be. Not by a long shot.
Sure, the story might be a bit hokey in places with dodgy dialogue and flat voice acting and the portrayal of Samus is wrong in the English version, but as a game it’s interesting with some good ideas there, if not very well presented. Seeing flashbacks of Samus working and training with the GF and her relationship with Adam is a great idea and adds more to Samus’ worldview, though of course it wasn’t quite as well executed as it could have been. The twists and unravelling of the mystery of the Bottle Ship does have an intriguing development and conclusion of the identities of the Mother Brain AI and Madeline Bergman, I can get behind it. The heavy gravity section I had never seen done quite like it before and was a nice problem to solve, even if the reward was your suit glowing purple instead of getting a proper gravity suit and only ocurring in one area.
In terms of continuity, it being canon is muddied and the details are uncertain. It’s implied a lot of times that it’s a spinoff, yet in Metroid Dread one of the unlockable ending images highlights Other M which implies it is still canon despite some contradictory details within Other M, such as Samus not wearing the gravity suit fighting Mother Brain. Perhaps it is more acknolwedging certain details of Other M, like Samus’ time with the GF and training with them and her relationship with Adam Malkovich, as in Fusion her relationship with Malkovich is a core plot point. But Nintendo still behaves iffy on it to this day due to community reception. Which is a shame because I believe, despite its flaws, it is quite ambitious and even if you choose to ignore the story, as a 3D action adventure game it is a bold effort.
I would hope that Nintendo isn’t afraid to attempt something like this again in the future, learn from the mistakes made here, have better localisation control, and truly make a remarkable 3D Metroid game because there is huge potential unrecognised here. And doing another story driven Metroid game like this is very desireable and not a bad idea to pursue. They just have to refine the story a little bit better, have better dialogue, and give a much better portrayal of Samus because undeniably she is very beloved. Anything less than what she deserves in treatment of her character and people will evidently kick up a stink about it. So it just needs a little more care and consideration.
Otherwise, I like this game, despite its flaws, and I’m very happy I gave it a chance. I appreciate it for what it attempts, even if the experimentation doesn’t pay off as desired as a whole. It plays great, looks amazing, sounds right and above all it is fun. I like the ideas in the story despite it falling a little flat in execution, at least in the English version anyhow, eesh. It may continue to have an unshakable stigma as the least succesful Metroid game but it is far from the worst in the series (Federation Force, I’m looking at you) and I will defend this game. And as a Wii title, it has that Wii charm to it that most other Wii games have. It’s hard to explain, but put in Twilight Princess, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Kart Wii or even Metroid Prime 3 and it just feels like Wii, you just know. So, additionally, it’s a rightfully belonging Wii game as well as a Metroid game that is worth giving a chance. Forget the venomous and biased criticisms, I promise it isn’t anywhere near as bad as it’s been made out to be. It has problems, yes, but there is a fair amount of good in there for it to just about redeem itself to at least show what it can be.
Where to Purchase:
eBay: £7.45 - £200 (imprisoned in a plastic box)/ $6 - $1,500 (also imprisoned in a plastic box.
Amazon: £6 - £48 / $10 - $50
CeX: £5