Metroid: Other M for the Wii review




I have to be honest with you all, there are some franchises that I just don’t get, sometimes. I don’t see why people want to be thugs and sleep with hookers in Grand Theft Auto, but I have heard that the stories and characters are good, so I don’t hate it as much as I used to, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t like other franchises for some odd reasons. For example, I don’t get the Metroid series. I can understand the action and exploration, but it doesn’t seem right to keep pushing the gamer to see Samus without the armor. Yes, she is hotter than any woman ever, but it isn’t like she’s naked under there. That’s all going to change since I decided to rent and try out, Metroid: Other M! Yes, I am finally going to try out a Metroid game since I am sick and tired of not playing one for some reason or another. However, I did have my doubts at first since Team Ninja (people who made Ninja Gaiden) was doing a co-op thing with Nintendo. My first thoughts came up like “ Oh dear, this is going to be frustratingly Ninja Gaiden hard”, but I will look past that and give an honest review of this game. Well, as honest as I can be. I also want to give a heads-up to everyone that I will not and I mean WILL NOT review the prime series. I don’t like the games in that series and I’ll explain later in this review.
         
   The main story of Metroid: Other M takes place after Super Metroid, as Samus returns to tell the Federation that Mother Brain and the space pirates are all gone. Months later, Samus is out in space when she picks up a tracking signal of an unknown ship known as the bottleship. As she takes a look around, she finds out that a group of Galactic Federation soldiers are on the ship also. Of course, like any sci-fi flick, it turns out that the abandoned space ship has quite a few secrets up its sleeves. It is up to Samus to stop whatever is happening. The story has a lot of unexpected twists throughout the narrative, which is told by Samus, by the way. I also want to get this opinion out of the way. I DON’T CARE IF SAMUS TALKS! It seems like everyone moans and groans about Samus talking a lot about her past and such. To be honest, I think the criticism is very overblown. I think it’s actually nice that she has some character development. I don’t really look too deep into these things, but I think people who complain about this feature in the game needs to take a chill pill. If you look at Samus from the past, she is BLAND! She basically had no character back then. She was just a chick with a gun. Either way, like I said, I like it. Let’s move onto gameplay.
            The gameplay featured in Metroid: Other M is a mix between the normal action platforming, and mixing it up with item searching, backtracking, and first person shooting. The main portion of the game is seen from a third person perspective, like God of War, as you traverse the giant ship, looking for new power-ups like more missiles, health, more recharge energy, and so forth. From time to time, you will be able to get new beams, and armor abilities like withstanding heat and the powers of gravity. The beams range from freezing enemies, to going through solid walls to hit enemies. There really isn’t anything new, but considering this is Team Ninja’s first Metroid title to make, I think they wanted it to play a little safe to see what people thought. In certain areas, Samus will need to switch to first person to examine areas and launch missiles. It’s not used often, and isn’t much of a gimmick in the game. You can also do quick takedown moves to take out enemies’ quickly, since enemies do get tougher.
The graphics are very sharp for the Wii. Everything looks pretty good. Granted, some areas look a little “meh”, but it’s an overall nice package. A lot of time and money went into the well-done CG cut scenes. They are elaborate and well made. There are also certain areas of the game that use a very creative camera position, which gives the game a very cinematic-like feel. Metroid: Other M is more on the line of a story focused game rather than just pure action, and I like that. I think a lot of people need to get used to seeing some franchises change, like Metroid. When I first saw that Metroid was going 3D and saw that it was going to be first person, I thought it was going to be horrible. I think the reason why I don’t like it is that Metroid is a very explore-heavy game, and it just seemed way too complicated to do it in first person. I was right, and I don’t see the big deal with the Prime games, though that is just my opinion. The music for the game is very well done with some pretty good tracks and some remixed versions of old tracks. The composer of this game is named Kuniaki Haishima, who composed music for animes like Blue Gender, Alien Nine, and Neo Ranga, along with live action shows like Kamen Rider Kabuto. The voice acting is pretty good also. While some lines can go on a little longer than they should, it’s a pretty good script.
Now, it is time to talk about the bad parts of this game. While I like the idea of the controls being set up like an NES, they feel awkward at times. Sometimes, I kind of wish that the controls were set up on the Classic Controller Pro, since it would make dodging enemies and shooting them down A LOT easier. I also think the game should have been more linear, in my opinion, since it seems like backtracking is sent in ONLY to lengthen the game. It just seems pointless since all I am doing is backtracking through the same area. I also found some of the bosses in the game to be overly tedious, like the fight against the Queen Metroid, and the multiple, and I mean multiple, encounters with this prehistoric shrimp-like monster who uses its tusks to block attacks. I can’t count how many times I died because of some cheap hit from a boss.
All and all, this is definitely in the top 20 best Wii games list with a fun story, good gameplay, solid graphics, and an overall enjoyable experience. Even with its flaws, I still recommend it for you to check out. Will this be a sign for me to try out other Metroid games in the future? Maybe not, but at least I spent a few days with an interesting game.
This game gets an 8 out of 10.

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