Metroid Other M
I got into an argument about Metroid a while back. Out of my petty, childish spite, I decided to replay Metroid Other M. I would like to be correct about my distaste towards things. This is kinda like when I replayed Persona 5. I wanna update my feelings. Who knows? Maybe I'll enjoy it this time!
So off the bat, I actually like what this game sets out to do by being a 3rd person action game for Metroid. It's easy to draw parallels from this series and to Ninja Gaiden. 2D platformer series into 3d action game. Appropriately, the primary dev for this game was Team Ninja. On paper, that should be a fantastic match. Recently I've found myself absolutely loving their action RPGs. Nioh 2 is one of my favorite games ever. I even like Wo Long and Rise of the Ronin. Team Ninja is a very talented studio. Even with their bad games like Ninja Gaiden 3, you can still have fun pushing buttons. Unfortunately this is not the case here.
So to start with combat, it's really fucking bad. The controls are with a sideways Wii remote. That's not a good combination with a 3rd person action game off the bat. You're using the dpad to move around in a 3D space. It's like Mario 64 DS. Press 2 to jump, 1 to shoot and charge. That's not all though. You also have to turn the Wii remote to the screen in order to enter first person mode to shoot missiles. It cannot be understated how awkward this feels. You're getting swarmed by multiple enemies and the game will, at times, require you to lose all situational awareness, stand still, and lock on to shoot a missile.
There's no more annoying way to control a game than by changing your hand positions. This game desperately needed to use the nunchuk but Sakamoto said no to that, even though Team Ninja pitched doing that. It's especially annoying because I'm left handed so I need to swap hands to be comfortable.
The way dodging works is laughable. Just mash the fucking D pad. Nothing else. It feels bad and mindless. It looks cool but it's so dull once you get past the flash factor. Also you can't dodge when you're in the first person mode which enemies very consistently require you to use. It's primed to be annoying and frustrating.
There's also a mechanic called lethal shot. Jumping on an enemy let's Samus perform a cool animation of a shot and do a bunch of damage. Unfortunately the game has absolutely 0 indicator on when you can do this. Sometimes enemies appear downed and ready for a shot but they just shake you off. Other times they'll be ready to shoot back but you can just do it anyway. It's a very poorly telegraphed mechanic.
Overall, this is the worst combat Team Ninja has ever made. It's clunky, enemies are spongy, the mechanics do not mesh well at all, and overall I prefer just skipping fights. This is a 3d action game and I don't like fighting. That's just a failure, especially for someone like me who LOVES action games like this.
When I think Metroid, I think exploration, finding upgrades, fighting bosses, figuring out your way around the world. That's the case for nearly every game in the series. Level design is a huge part of that core design. Bafflingly, the level design in this game consists of just a bunch of straight hallways. You just go through with little thought or engaging platforming. Sometimes there's a platforming challenge but often it feels bad to do. It's like platforming in a DMC game which is easily the worst part of those games. Unfortunately this doesn't have DMC combat to back it up.
As far as map design goes, this is just dreadful. There's 3 sectors that are all connected by ONE elevator. Going back and forth between sectors involves just running back the exact same way you came. This game should've had fast travel which is a fucked up thought for a Metroid game.
Now let's talk about the "upgrades." This game tries to dodge the issue of Samus losing her gear by having her turn things on as the story progresses. The English version frames it as Adam "authorizing" the use of her equipment as needed. Now off the bat, getting new tools is wildly unsatisfying as it just happens at random now. The game just decided to throw Samus into a situation where she needs her wave beam or heat shield (as Adam is fully watching her sweat and lose health btw) so it comes off as either Samus is stupid, or a bottom. It happens all the time and it's such a baffling decision.
With just all of that, this would be simply a bad Metroid game but thats not all that's here. This game has the most involved story in the entire series.
Acting as a sequel to Super Metroid and prequel to Fusion, Other M aims to provide more characterization to Samus, her relationship with the Galactic Federation, and her surrogate father figure, Adam. In addition it tries to have an Aliens style crew. Metroid hasn't really tried to have characters like this before. So I wanna go over each of these aspects.
The crew Samus hangs out with is bad. They range from characters who exist to die or passively condescending "friends" that exist to demean her by calling her princess or to disrespect her during a fkashback cutscene. Quite frankly, this is a poor crew. They don't hold a candle to the thing that inspired it, being Aliens.
For Samus as a character, I genuinely do not understand how this script got approved. Not only does this portray the strong heroine as weak willed and whiny, but it comes off as a disrespectful statement. It focuses on her relationship with Adam as her father figure. Early on, there's a flashback where we see Samus as a soldier in the Federation. We see her get disrespected by her crew and CO, because she's young and a woman. Adam calls her "Lady."
Now I would assume the purpose of this is to show how Adam will come to respect her as a soldier and person later on but I don't think that was the intent. Samus's takeaway on that reflection is "they were right. I was stupid. I had a chip ony shoulder." WHY would a character show acceptance to that kind of disrespect?
Fine, Samus thinks very little of herself as a person and soldier. Whatever. I still hope this results in Adam gaining respect for Samus and showing he knows she can take care of herself.
NOPE. Adam's story concludes with him shooting her in the back, sacrificing himself, and for Samus to BEG ON HER HANDS AND KNEES to not do that, all ending with the thumbs down, as she did as a stupid child. This is character regression. There's no other word for it. They go out of their way to show that Samus is the same stupid lady that should know her place and let the man do the work.
I absolutely fucking hate this game. This might be my least favorite game of all time. This is my Chibi Robo Ziplash. The story is offensively terrible, the character I like is utterly assassinated, the platforming is finicky at best and non functional at worst, the controls go out of its way to be an inconvenience, the health and ammo mechanics remove any semblance of what Metroid was about for the past 8 games, the upgrades are miniscule, FINDING the upgrades is tedious and not exciting as it's just out of camera bullshit, the level design is JUST FUCKING HALLWAYS, combat is both unfun and an active waste of time if the doors are unlocked (also due to how ammo and health work), almost nothing about this game is good.
I have more I could say but I'll just cut this long winded rant here. To be nice at least a little, I do think the presentation of this game is solid. Samus's design across the board is clean. The cutscenes, particularly the prerendered ones look great, and are shot well. The animations in combat, at the very least, look cool.
Unfortunately that's not enough to save it. I never want to touch this game ever again.
Metroid Prime 4.....
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