Gaming Metroid Other M - Why you think it failed

Thoughts on Other M?

  • It was awesome!

    Votes: 12 44.4%
  • eh, it was fine I guess.

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • It was pretty bad.

    Votes: 1 3.7%
  • It's a convoluted mass of terrible.

    Votes: 7 25.9%

  • Total voters
    27

osaka35

Instructional Designer
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,735
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,921
Country
United States
Only negativity allowed in here.

Because Metroid: Other M is just the worst. The absolute worst.

I'm slowly putting together a comprehensive video as to why it's such a huge disappointment. From a character standpoint, a plot standpoint, a logic standpoint, a continuity standpoint, it has fundamental flaws. It is the star wars prequels of the metroid series.

So! In an effort to express the sentiment of disappointment, why do you personally feel that other M failed as a game? as a metroid game? as a wii game? What annoyed you the most progressing through the game?

I'll add more when I have time. This will be my dumping ground for outline junk and stealing ya'lls good ideas and points, including counters to my own points. I really like those, helps keep me honest. I'll eventually add the video.

Plot stuff:
may contain spoilers

Good concepts they got horrible wrong:

- instead of losing all her abilities, she waits for adam to give permission.
It was a good idea. I mean, having a logic to go from rather than "whatevs, just start from the beginning". How did they get that wrong? Well, there was no good reason for her to hand over all of her abilities.

The reason given, "but you could totally, like, destroy the station", is specious. The only real thing Adam seemed terribly worried about was the power bomb, as it apparently now has the power to destroy everything in its path (rather than just being wide-range, but weaker than a straight shot of a plasma weapon). Why not just disable that? And why rely on her to disable or enable the tech? why not just trust her to not use it if you're going to do that?

It was also completely optional. The only reason she followed adam's orders was because she respected him for some reason (that's a different topic). She's shown time and again, she'll do whatever she feels is the right thing to do, regardless of what the federation wants. She did it later in this game, though perhaps for different reasons than she had previously. So the only reason she'd go along with this is because she wants to respect adam's wishes

How could they have easily made this better? Given a stronger reason for her to submit to adam. Remove the optional control over enabling her gear. Her curiosity about the SOS isn't enough to give complete control over her abilities, it's not believable. Perhaps her ship exploded, and she was stuck there. She would need the federation to give her a lift or help them out. She could either help out and give adam control of her tech, or Adam would confine her to their ship. Samus wouldn't just sit still and do nothing, and would have to submit to Adam. Or perhaps the thing they're looking for is sensitive to her tech, and enabling it alerts the bad people to her presence. Since this is a super secret mission, that would at least be slightly plausible. I'm sure there are for more plausible reasons that could be added with almost no change to the overall story.

Adam locks her tech and only he has the password to unlock, via voice-command. Samus should complain loudly about this and be disgruntled about the handicaps, and especially question such scenarios where it's harmful to her. This would give Adam the chance to explain why, would help create a better sense of connection between the two for you as the player, and help grow the story.

But nah, just do whatever adam says for no real motivation other than "he's my daddy figure".
- The "eraser" plot line is just kind of...dropped
What was this all about? It makes no sense. On the surface, it creates tension and drama because who could be next?!? person 1 you don't care about? or person 2 you don't care about? Because you sure aren't in trouble; you're samus aran. But the mystery is there to keep your interest and suggest something deeper is going on, until you get to the actual plot.

At which point the game just kind of forgets we're trying to figure out who the deleter is. There are bigger fish to summon now. In reality, it's most likely that the deleter got killed (probably the moustached person, but hack writers do hack writing), though absolutely none of the good guys know this, only the writer does.


Character stuff:

- Samus: who is she?

the baby. baby. bottle. baby cry. the baby. the infant. the baby.

subtle, this game is not.

The entire character of samus, in this game, is defined by the loss of her parents, the loss of her daddy, and the loss of her "baby". That is her character. And that's all there is to her character in this game. There's no mystery, no awesome, nothing to look up to or connect with. Pity is the most you can feel for samus, and even that wears thin as the game progresses.

The game attempts to draw a parallel between her and Mother Brain, wanting you to pity mother brain and her plight.
-Adam/Daddy
-Mother brain
-Ridley
-"remember me?"
-the colonel
-The federation

Themes, setting, and environment:

-The bottle ship

The environment for this game is the bottle ship, which has many similarities to the research station of metroid fusion. It is not, unfortunately, similar where it counts, and has some unfortunate similarities.

Some of the environment would actually be pretty creepy, if the game didn't constantly remind you that it is an entirely fake environment (minus most of the lava, dirt, water, animals, and a few of the trees). There is zero sense of isolation, as adam is actively watching you at all times and can easily help you out whenever he wanted. The sense of exploration of not knowing what's coming up next, is taken from you. You're not exploring squat, Adam just isn't telling you what's coming next. The most effectively isolating and environmentally engaging parts of the game happen when Adam isn't a part of the picture.

See, the environment is one of the crucial aspects of metroid. It is essential to having a metroid game to feel like a metroid game. Super metroid nailed this one, spot on. The pulsating, creepy, slimy, rugged, barely functional space, mixes exploration and suspense perfectly.

...
 
Last edited by osaka35,
  • Like
Reactions: hobbledehoy899
D

Deleted-379826

Guest
Only negativity allowed in here.

Because Metroid: Other M is just the worst. The absolute worst.

I'm slowly putting together a comprehensive video as to why it's such a huge disappointment. From a character standpoint, a plot standpoint, a logic standpoint, a continuity standpoint, it has fundamental flaws. It is the star wars prequels of the metroid series.

So! In an effort to express the sentiment of disappointment, why do you personally feel that other M failed as a game? as a metroid game? as a wii game? What annoyed you the most progressing through the game?

I'll add more when I have time. And eventually the video.
As my first metro is game I LOVED IT although I'd like to see another perspective what makes it all that bad? Sorry for not being negative I just want to know why everyone is like that
 

The Catboy

GBAtemp Official Catboy™: Boywife
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
27,800
Trophies
4
Location
Making a non-binary fuss
XP
38,777
Country
Antarctica
The gameplay was solid, it was the storytelling that just sucked. The story was melodramatic and over the top, but it just wasn't fun. You didn't feel like the powerful character that Samus is, you felt like a helpless version of her. I am not against making her more "human," they just didn't do it right.
 

TheLittlestBowl

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2013
Messages
119
Trophies
0
XP
1,093
Country
Canada
The only thing I found wrong with the game were the times when you had to scan something to progress the game. Some examples are the ship in the beginning and the bush with the baby Ridley in it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: osaka35

osaka35

Instructional Designer
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,735
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,921
Country
United States
As my first metro is game I LOVED IT although I'd like to see another perspective what makes it all that bad? Sorry for not being negative I just want to know why everyone is like that

Being your first metroid game, most of the continuity, canon, atmosphere, and characterization problems probably won't be a thing for you. Many of the problems come from the fact this game is a sequel...sort of. But In your case, it's like watching episode I without knowing anything about the rest of star wars. Hard to use those as reference points if you've never seen them.

Some people didn't like the controls, but I didn't mind that too much. It felt weird and not very fluid, but it wasn't the worst thing. I enjoyed it from time to time.

Mainly it was the story. Full of
"why are they doing that?" "because the plot needs them to!"
and
"why don't they just do this very logical thing?" "because then the plot wouldn't happen how I want it to happen"

I'll be trying to write out something comprehensive eventually about why the writing is bad.
 

Rockhoundhigh

Man with a mission
Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
477
Trophies
0
Age
28
Location
Southern California
XP
712
Country
United States
They felt the need to drown the player in text, not just any text but just awfully written and badly delivered text. Samus until Other M had been a no-nonsense certified stoic badass but in this game of all things their rationale for why she "loses" her items is because some guy said so. Patronizing and unbelievable to the point of being hard to swallow. From a gameplay perspective I actually thought Other M was fine barring the wonky 3rd to 1st-person transition. I just think it's safe to say Team Ninja had no idea how to write Samus as a character.
 

endoverend

AKA zooksman
Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
2,846
Trophies
0
Website
zooksman.com
XP
2,906
Country
United States
I thought the gameplay was really exhilarating and fun at most times. The boss fights were always extremely clutch and I never really understood why people hated this game so much. Sure, the story was over the top, but at least it's not just reading walls of text like the Prime games.

I think people just can't take any kind of variance in their games. Nintendo fans these days cry for games to be *canceled* when they aren't just exact repeats of their predecessors. That's what's keeping Nintendo from moving forward; the cries of their fans who want to live the same exact games they played in their childhoods. I don't even know why Nintendo even tries to make sequels anymore.
 

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
Three words: "Samus turned moe." It'd have been just as bad "Samus turned sex symbol" but I think westerners, like me, would have overlooked it more. The rest of the complaints about story, logic/continuity inconsistencies, etc? A lot of that came from the attempt at "moe". Fusion too had too much unskippable story (not nearly as bad) and linear gameplay and that too was (mostly) overlooked and in Metroid: Other M it could have been overlookable--they might have pushed Metroid: Other M into the unremarkable and still black sheep but not into the possibly-terrible range.

*sigh* Seriously, the second we saw the obviously-not 6'3" Samus that should have been red flags. *shrug* In short, Metroid: Other M is in the unremarkable territory for a game, the pretty terrible for a Metroid game, and overall it's just made the story line worse (which is saying a lot given how far out Metroid Prime and Fusion goes with their respective MacGuffins). Good have been far worse if the actual gameplay sucked.
 

DDTarZan

Never getting laid again /s
Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
311
Trophies
1
Age
32
Location
In some trees
XP
1,805
Country
United States
Other M controlled like a 3D Super Metroid, which is what I liked it for. I'm likely guessing the mixture of first-person and third-person segments and action areas is what drove people away. o yea and the voice acting.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

but at least it's not just reading walls of text like the Prime games.
Pretty much totally this. The logbook was shit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: endoverend

Justinde75

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Messages
2,529
Trophies
1
Age
23
XP
4,527
Country
Germany
I really liked Other M.
The Mechanics and the Gameplay were really fun and i had a really good time. Not as great as Super Metroid or Fusion or Zero mission, but defenitly not the worst Metroid game. That title should go to Metroid Prime Pinball. I hate that game
 
Last edited by Justinde75,
  • Like
Reactions: endoverend

osaka35

Instructional Designer
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,735
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,921
Country
United States
I thought the gameplay was really exhilarating and fun at most times. The boss fights were always extremely clutch and I never really understood why people hated this game so much. Sure, the story was over the top, but at least it's not just reading walls of text like the Prime games.

I think people just can't take any kind of variance in their games. Nintendo fans these days cry for games to be *canceled* when they aren't just exact repeats of their predecessors. That's what's keeping Nintendo from moving forward; the cries of their fans who want to live the same exact games they played in their childhoods. I don't even know why Nintendo even tries to make sequels anymore.

It may be just a matter of what you get out of metroid games. For me, the sense of exploration mixed with an uncomfortably creepy atmosphere is what does it for me. Other M was like a telenovela in space.

I didn't mind all the reading, personally, in metroid prime. I'm one of those weird people that like visual novels, though. If you're in it just for the action gameplay, I can see enjoying Other M. Just ignore the fluff/put it on mute and enjoy the playing.

And that's true, change is pretty dang difficult for nintendo fans. But I'd like to think the likes of metroid prime have proven that as long as the game delivers, nintendo fans are perfectly happy with change. Even if they grumble and complain about it beforehand (you should go read what a terrible idea people thought metroid prime was back in the day). Though, to be honest, I'm not sure how that's different from any other franchise fan.
 
Last edited by osaka35,

endoverend

AKA zooksman
Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
2,846
Trophies
0
Website
zooksman.com
XP
2,906
Country
United States
It may be just a matter of what you get out of metroid games. For me, the sense of exploration mixed with an uncomfortably creepy atmosphere is what does it for me. I didn't mind all the reading, personally. I'm one of those weird people that like visual novels, though. If you're in it just for the action gameplay, I can see enjoying Other M. Just ignore the fluff/put it on mute and enjoy the playing.

And that's true, change is pretty dang difficult for nintendo fans. But I'd like to think the likes of metroid prime have proven that as long as the game delivers, nintendo fans are perfectly happy with change. Even if they grumble and complain about it beforehand (you should go read what a terrible idea people thought metroid prime was back in the day). Though, to be honest, I'm not sure how that's different from any other franchise fan.
Personally I still got a sense of exploration from Other M. I'm the type of guy who's not that into huge open worlds, so that could be it. I just don't understand how people can call Other M a trainwreck when the gameplay is objectively fun.

The reason i bring up Nintendo fans is because of the way people have been acting recently, what with Federation Force, Color Splash, and the Fe:Fates localization stuff, people whine more than ever about things that don't matter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NEP

CuriousTommy

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
524
Trophies
0
Age
27
XP
647
Country
United States
The only thing I dislike about this game was the point at the screen to shoot missiles and some of the questionable scenes where Samus was forced to walk without any build up. I felt the pointing machinic was a useless gimmick that makes the game slightly annoying. Other than that, I thought it was a fun game. Maybe not as good as the Prime series, but never the less good.
 

Garro

Pendulum of souls!
Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Messages
713
Trophies
1
Age
31
Location
Somewhere
Website
garrothedog.tumblr.com
XP
2,358
Country
Chile
Actually this game made me play the rest of the series, I can see where people come from when they hate Samus portrayal in Other M (Though I'd say she's more worried/thoughful/meditative than weak, most scene are about Samus thinking over the current situation, the one time she appeared weak was with Ridley). And I actually prefer Adam rules in item than the overused "Samus crashed, lost all items, recover them again" plot. But then, the game was very linear for a Metroid game, and the "point at the exact spot" events where annoying.
 
  • Like
Reactions: osaka35

osaka35

Instructional Designer
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,735
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,921
Country
United States
Personally I still got a sense of exploration from Other M. I'm the type of guy who's not that into huge open worlds, so that could be it. I just don't understand how people can call Other M a trainwreck when the gameplay is objectively fun.

The reason i bring up Nintendo fans is because of the way people have been acting recently, what with Federation Force, Color Splash, and the Fe:Fates localization stuff, people whine more than ever about things that don't matter.
I'll agree that the gameplay is the strongest element of the game, perhaps only second to the graphics. It was novel and something new. It wasn't exactly the best thing in the world, switching from 3rd person to 1st person made me die more than once.

Federation force would be okay, I think, if they weren't touting it as the next main metroid game in the canon. Like, it's not a side-game, or anything. They're making it a cornerstone of the metroid franchise and it's...weird. It's like if they made a silent hill game filled with sunshine and perfectly functional amusement park rides, back before it went all evil. Just feels like they're keeping the name, but missing the magic. Kind of like how they did with Other M.

Actually this game made me play the rest of the series, I can see where people come from when they hate Samus portrayal in Other M (Though I'd say she's more worried/thoughful/meditative than weak, most scene are about Samus thinking over the current situation, the one time she appeared weak was with Ridley). And I actually prefer Adam rules in item than the overused "Samus crashed, lost all items, recover them again" plot. But then, the game was very linear for a Metroid game, and the "point at the exact spot" events where annoying.

Those "point at the exact spot" events were asinine. I find it more enjoyable to just imagine everyone just standing there, looking uncomfortably around.
 
Last edited by osaka35,

endoverend

AKA zooksman
Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
2,846
Trophies
0
Website
zooksman.com
XP
2,906
Country
United States
Federation force would be okay, I think, if they weren't touting it as the next main metroid game in the canon. Like, it's not a side-game, or anything. They're making it a cornerstone of the metroid franchise and it's...weird. It's like if they made a silent hill game filled with sunshine and perfectly functional amusement park rides, back before it went all evil. Just feels like they're keeping the name, but missing the magic. Kind of like how they did with Other M.
Personally, I think people are taking the name a bit too seriously. There are Zelda spinoffs that people don't consider to be a cornerstone of the series, and a ridiculous amount of Mario spinoffs. And it still takes place in the Metroid universe, so frankly i don't see why they shouldn't use the name.
 

Garro

Pendulum of souls!
Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Messages
713
Trophies
1
Age
31
Location
Somewhere
Website
garrothedog.tumblr.com
XP
2,358
Country
Chile
Personally, I think people are taking the name a bit too seriously. There are Zelda spinoffs that people don't consider to be a cornerstone of the series, and a ridiculous amount of Mario spinoffs. And it still takes place in the Metroid universe, so frankly i don't see why they shouldn't use the name.
Well, you have guaranteed a main Mario game and at least 3 Mario spinoff each year. And for Zelda we get a new one at least once a year. Metroid is like one per console if we are lucky, so Federation Force was a dagger in the guts for those who wants the original Metroid formula back. (And probably with how badly Other M was received, they went back to the Prime formula).

To be honest, I'm actually looking forward it, a Metroid Prime multiplayer sounds like fun, and as long as it keeps the elements that made Prime successful, I won't mind Samus not being there, or the chibiness of it.
 

osaka35

Instructional Designer
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,735
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,921
Country
United States
Personally, I think people are taking the name a bit too seriously. There are Zelda spinoffs that people don't consider to be a cornerstone of the series, and a ridiculous amount of Mario spinoffs. And it still takes place in the Metroid universe, so frankly i don't see why they shouldn't use the name.
True that, but in this case, it's the official stance. nintendo themselves saying it's a huge piece of canon and is the official "next big metroid game". Which is weird. Should still be fun, though, just feels like them missing the appeal of the metroid series.
 
  • Like
Reactions: endoverend

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Took along time to fit it in?
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Snow days $25 on steam may grab it
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    Measuring sizes with AncientBoi, I see.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I guess Ancientboi would be Peter
    +2
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    Loooooool :rofl2:
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    So true
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    @K3Nv2 Snow Day is pretty fun. My only bitch would be the camera controls, when you move around, say down, you have to move the right stick left or right to get camera to turn and get your view, other than that I like it so far.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    From what people say pvp isn't even worth it
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I just been playing offline, and they give you a few bots here n there on your team to help battle. I don't think it's as funny as the other games tho, more battle oriented than humor, which kinda sucks, but I'm still early in it
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    @BigOnYa, doesnt the game have a campaign mode?
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yea, and co-op, but you can also start a pvp session and battle just with friends. You get special skill cards (powers) the more you play. And higher value cards, but you can only enable so many cards at a time.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    If you can find enough for it
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Toilet paper is considered the money, you collect and buy stuff with TP, kinda funny. Graphics are def better than the other games tho, I think they used Unity 5 engine.
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Look if I zoom in enough I can see the herpes!!!
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    In fact I'm gonna go make a drink, roll a fatty n play some, good night to all!
    +2
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    I bet most people at the time still watched it in black and white
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    @Xdqwerty, Many of them did before colour television was common.
  • SylverReZ @ SylverReZ:
    Likely because black and white TV was in-expensive.
    +1
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It certainly wasn't inexpensive it cost the same as a new car back then
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    How much did a 1965 color TV cost?

    For example, a 21-inch (diagonal) GE color television in 1965 had an advertised price of $499, which is equal to $4,724 in today's dollars, according to the federal government's inflation calculator.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: How much did a 1965 color TV cost? For example, a 21-inch (diagonal) GE color television in...