Metroid Topic

[VO.SUPER]

You know, when you look at this footage from Other M, it really looks like Metroid material. Samus is absolutely silent, and the fight is intense to look at.

Of course, Nightmare has to sound like a five year old. Whatever symbolism Sakamoto had with the sound department is lost on me.

Oh, and I miss that feature from fusion where Nightmare's face would just melt as you damaged him more. Say, why was Nightmare on the bottle ship anyway? What was the point of creating such a thing. I mean, it makes sense out of the Fusion fight, but that doesn't explain why he is there, and why he is important enough to impact Samus' memories in Fusion.

[Gregzilla]

The Zero Mission rendition will always be one of my favorite Metroid songs. Next to

(both of them) and Ridley's Theme.

That rendition of Kraid's theme is fantastic, I love the synthesized choir in the background. In fact, the digital choir is one of my favorite things about the music in the series, especially the Prime games.

Gonna take a break from Other M hate for a while (hopefully), so if we're talking music, I think this is my personal favorite.

It's sad, it's creepy, it's lonely, and it's everything I want from a Metroid song. It really pushes the atmosphere of exploration to a whole new level. Plus, it plays in my favorite area in the game.

I'm also a huge fan of the entirety of Metroid Prime's soundtrack, especially the Underwater Frigate. And Ridley's theme from Other M is mind-blowingly awesome.

[VO.SUPER]

I really liked the remix to Kraid's Lair in melee. It's just something about that echo.

Edited September 14, 2012 by VisionaryBlur

[Old dead account]

If we're talking about music now then I love this little gem right here

It sounds like a buildup to an awesome final battle against Ridley, the area was pretty damn hard in parts as well.

[SuperStingray]

Yeah, much as I hate Electra Complex: The Game, seeing Nightmare again in a 3D Metroid game was my biggest highlight. Well, that or seeing the speed boost work in a 3D setting.

[DarkDefeater]

About Other M, the whole parental issue thing, I find it mind-boggling that no mention is made of the Chozo or how Samus got the powersuit. How did the other soldiers feel about the powersuit? Were they jealous of it or did they just find it as a curiosity? I like Other M's gameplay, (really I do), but the story has so much story potential untouched.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

You know, when you look at this footage from Other M, it really looks like Metroid material. Samus is absolutely silent, and the fight is intense to look at.

(video)

I gotta say, when you remove the crappy dialogue and story, Other M looks... really, really boring. Let's pick out a few things Other M does wrong just game-wise:

• Having the camera aimed at the PC's face may have flown back in the N64 days but goodness gracious it does not work well here in any capacity. Having enemies shoot at you from locations the player literally cannot see coming when the PC is maybe five feet in front of them is just cheap.
  
• Boss fight is highly generic in pretty much all regards. It's not bad per-se, but it doesn't look fun in the least.
  
• The action is choreographed very gracious and showy, which doesn't really work for a more down-to-earth (or down-to-oddly-shaped-ship. Whatever.) game like Metroid.
  
• The game just outright says GO HERE with big arrows as if a string of linear hallways is difficult to navigate. This would work if we were in any danger of not being on a straight pathway at any time, but here it just looks like they don't trust the player's intelligence.
  
• Fighting amounts to just cutting through enemies like they were made of butter. There's not much of any strategy in dispatching them, which wouldn't be bad for lesser enemies but also seems to be the case for Space Pirates (?), which is rather disappointing.
  

Now this is just from what I gathered in your video. On their own these problems don't really break the game per se, but they do bring it down a bit with no clear trade-off. It just looks very mediocre, like it can't support a whole game by itself (and the story certainly doesn't help).

[VO.SUPER]

I gotta say, when you remove the crappy dialogue and story, Other M looks... really, really boring. Let's pick out a few things Other M does wrong just game-wise:

• Having the camera aimed at the PC's face may have flown back in the N64 days but goodness gracious it does not work well here in any capacity. Having enemies shoot at you from locations the player literally cannot see coming when the PC is maybe five feet in front of them is just cheap.
  
• Boss fight is highly generic in pretty much all regards. It's not bad per-se, but it doesn't look fun in the least.
  
• The action is choreographed very gracious and showy, which doesn't really work for a more down-to-earth (or down-to-oddly-shaped-ship. Whatever.) game like Metroid.
  
• The game just outright says GO HERE with big arrows as if a string of linear hallways is difficult to navigate. This would work if we were in any danger of not being on a straight pathway at any time, but here it just looks like they don't trust the player's intelligence.
  
• Fighting amounts to just cutting through enemies like they were made of butter. There's not much of any strategy in dispatching them, which wouldn't be bad for lesser enemies but also seems to be the case for Space Pirates (?), which is rather disappointing.
  

Now this is just from what I gathered in your video. On their own these problems don't really break the game per se, but they do bring it down a bit with no clear trade-off. It just looks very mediocre, like it can't support a whole game by itself (and the story certainly doesn't help).

1. That actually comes from a Japanese design philosophy. The Japanese find it really difficult to control the camera. They like to have the game move it for them because it's less, "complicated".

2. I thought it looked pretty fun, it just needed to be a little shorter.

3. It's a Japanese design. The Japanese like for extraneous movement in characters to give an understanding for the character. It's why you can't skip the Morph Ball cutscenes in Prime.

4. I guess the game wants you to feel powerful at that point, you have the screw attack after all which acted the same way in Metroid 1, 2 and Super Metroid.

Edited September 14, 2012 by VisionaryBlur

[SuperStingray]

About Other M, the whole parental issue thing, I find it mind-boggling that no mention is made of the Chozo or how Samus got the powersuit. How did the other soldiers feel about the powersuit? Were they jealous of it or did they just find it as a curiosity? I like Other M's gameplay, (really I do), but the story has so much story potential untouched.

The lack of Chozo is probably what offends me the most about this game, because you'd think in a story about parental issues, the ones who actually raised the main character would be instrumental to the story.

[VO.SUPER]

You know, I want a game about Samus growing up with the Chozo. Or a game where Samus interacts with the Chozo in some way that isn't through their long gone culture. I really want to see them allying with Samus.

[Speederino]

I don't really remember having any substantial issues with the gameplay of Other M. But to be honest, I didn't have that much time with the game and I don't recall getting that far. I'd still be curious to try it again just so I can see how that ultimately ends up.

Sadly I no longer have Gamefly, which pretty much means I have to buy it. I'd imagine used copies are pretty cheap now, right? Holy fuck, yes they are. I can seriously get this for a PENNY off of Amazon XD

[VO.SUPER]

I don't really remember having any substantial issues with the gameplay of Other M. But to be honest, I didn't have that much time with the game and I don't recall getting that far. I'd still be curious to try it again just so I can see how that ultimately ends up.

Sadly I no longer have Gamefly, which pretty much means I have to buy it. I'd imagine used copies are pretty cheap now, right? Holy fuck, yes they are. I can seriously get this for a PENNY off of Amazon XD

Wow, you'd have to really hate the game to only charge a penny. Either that or the disc is ruined beyond belief, either way wow.

[Speederino]

Wow, you'd have to really hate the game to only charge a penny. Either that or the disc is ruined beyond belief, either way wow.

This isn't the first time. I got the PC version of Spider-Man 3 for that exact amount on Amazon, really good condition. The seller was Barnes & Noble, so I figure it was just excess inventory they were desperate to get rid of. InB4 snide remark about being desperate to get rid of SM3 game. Hahaha I LIKE IT ALRIGHT, DON'T JUDGE ME! It feels like there was something else I got through Amazon dirt cheap too. I have pretty good faith that the disk would be in good condition.

Now...should I get it now while it's this cheap even though I have no plans to play it anytime soon? Serious problems are serious.

[Gregzilla]

Now...should I get it now while it's this cheap even though I have no plans to play it anytime soon? Serious problems are serious.

Well, - oh, damn, I said I was gonna try not to bash Other M any more.

I'll politely withhold my opinion on this situation.

It's up for you to decide.

...

...

...

A PENNY IS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR OTHER M.

Welp, I tried.

[Speederino]

A PENNY IS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR OTHER M.

Well, technically it's a penny PLUS SHIPPING! So overall I'd be paying somewhere between $3-$5 which might be astronomically high for this.

[DarkDefeater]

In some ways, Other M is the Sonic 06 of the metroid franchise. Personally, I like both, but both have fundamental problems that very understandably cause people to dislike the games.

For Other M, I feel there are bits of good gameplay, especially the sections before the 'secret' final boss, but they are weighed down by story elements that can be hard to swallow.

Personally, I feel it's worth a penny...perhaps you could watch some youtube videos to help you with your decision.

[Speederino]

Personally, I feel it's worth a penny...perhaps you could watch some youtube videos to help you with your decision.

Oh I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy it at some point either way. I'm just wondering if the price will always stay this low, because I really have no plans to play it anytime soon. And I just don't like spending money on things I'm not going to use right away. It's a thing of mine.

...Though I guess it makes more sense to just take advantage of this while I can.

EDIT: Turns out the penny offer is disk-only. Not a big deal considering the price, but I really prefer having a case (Hell, S-M 3 came with the case, the box, and the manual. It was practically brand new). That and it ships from Canada, so adding in international shipping fees it would probably be cheaper to just go with one of the other deals. And I'm sure prices like that will still be around for a while, so I'll hold off for the time being.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Original Character Blonic

[Old dead account]

I don't see why people treat other M like Sonic 06, I think it's more like Heroes. The gameplay wasn't objectively terrible, the story was bad but not nearly as bad and, honestly now, this is the ONE subpar game the series has had (Metroid 2 and Hunters are debatable to some) and I doubt they'd let it happen again (at least not while it's in the hands of Retro Studios) so this is not Metroid RUIND 4EVAR!!! It's just a harsh bump at best. If Sonic can survive several bombshells and a nuke (figuratively) then surely a well respected series like Metroid can survive this little fender bender. Right?

[Gregzilla]

I don't see why people treat other M like Sonic 06, I think it's more like Heroes. The gameplay wasn't objectively terrible, the story was bad but not nearly as bad and, honestly now, this is the ONE subpar game the series has had (Metroid 2 and Hunters are debatable to some) and I doubt they'd let it happen again (at least not while it's in the hands of Retro Studios) so this is not Metroid RUIND 4EVAR!!! It's just a harsh bump at best. If Sonic can survive several bombshells and a nuke (figuratively) then surely a well respected series like Metroid can survive this little fender bender. Right?

...I don't speak for everyone, but I personally think Sonic 06's story is more enjoyable than Other M's.

EDIT: And Heroes didn't focus that much on story so I don't really compare them in that regard.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Gregzilla

[Speederino]

I don't see why people treat other M like Sonic 06, I think it's more like Heroes. The gameplay wasn't objectively terrible, the story was bad but not nearly as bad and, honestly now, this is the ONE subpar game the series has had (Metroid 2 and Hunters are debatable to some) and I doubt they'd let it happen again (at least not while it's in the hands of Retro Studios) so this is not Metroid RUIND 4EVAR!!! It's just a harsh bump at best. If Sonic can survive several bombshells and a nuke (figuratively) then surely a well respected series like Metroid can survive this little fender bender. Right?

That's what I think. The division Other M has created is really all about the story. Generally speaking, the gameplay is rarely even mentioned when people talk about it. And from what I've heard, a lot of people seem to think that aspect is pretty okay. Not groundbreaking or even great, but passable. Reputation-wise, that already puts it leagues above Sonic 2006. And yes, if Sonic can survive that then Metroid can definitely survive this.

[VO.SUPER]

Of course, I believe someone here did a no cutscene run and found the game to be passable. I've never played Other M, but from the gameplay I've seen it certainly seems like it would be a fun time killer.

[Diogenes]

I can't comment on specifics, as I haven't played it, but from what I've heard the gameplay really isn't much good either. Like, in the best case it might make for an okay action game, but it's a pretty shitty Metroid.

[Emmett L. Brown]

3. It's a Japanese design. The Japanese like for extraneous movement in characters to give an understanding for the character. It's why you can't skip the Morph Ball cutscenes in Prime.

Huh. Never actually thought of those morph ball transitions in Prime as cutscenes. Technically you can't move for a moment while you transform, but you still retain some of the momentum from before. I see it as an in-game limitation of Samus's suit, that she has to slow down for a moment while transforming to/from morph-ball mode and naturally her directional controls are locked while she changes because it'd be silly otherwise.

Almost as silly as being completely locked in place while aiming a missile, something Prime Samus can do while walking, jogging, running, jumping, falling, strafing, dodging, hopping, space jumping...

[SuperStingray]

Huh. Never actually thought of those morph ball transitions in Prime as cutscenes. Technically you can't move for a moment while you transform, but you still retain some of the momentum from before. I see it as an in-game limitation of Samus's suit, that she has to slow down for a moment while transforming to/from morph-ball mode and naturally her directional controls are locked while she changes because it'd be silly otherwise.

Yeah, those are hardly cutscenes. They're more of a state transition like reloading a gun or unsheathing a sword. The connection doesn't even make sense anyway since Retro is an American developer.

[Salamander]

I'm not sure the "Sonic recovered from '06 so Metroid can recover from Other M" comparison quite stands up. Sonic was and is a major gaming icon and Sega needs to push him into at least a game a year to stay afloat. Nintendo could drop Metroid any time and there have been so many years between some of its installments that you might have reasonably thought it was dead anyway. For the same reason, though, Nintendo can afford not to let the franchise die after Other M. It's not such a big deal as '06 was.