Nintendo Puzzled Over Other M's Poor Performance

[Logan Westbrook]

Nintendo Puzzled Over Other M's Poor Performance

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime believes that Nintendo did everything right with the latest game in the Metroid series, Metroid: Other M.

On paper, Metroid: Other M [http://www.amazon.com/Metroid-Other-M-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSC4ZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289849965&sr=8-1] sounds like one of the best games in the world: the 2D gameplay of the classic Metroid games, mixed with the 3D gameplay of the Metroid Prime series, and made by Team Ninja, a studio with a long history of making excellent action games. But the game has sold much more slowly than Nintendo expected, and Fils-Aime says that the company isn't sure why.

Fils-Aime said that Team Ninja and Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto had done a great job with Other M, adding that consumer reaction to the quality of the game had been very positive. Unfortunately for Nintendo, that positive reaction hadn't translated into strong sales. Nintendo had hoped to sell a million copies, he said, but it was clear that that wasn't going to happen before the end of the year. Fils-Aime didn't think that these slower than expected sales were the result of ineffectual marketing, saying that the presence for Other M, both in terms of traditional advertising, and social networks, had been very strong.

Fils-Aime also touched on the complaints about characterization of lead character Samus Aran, which a number of reviewers - including our own Steve Butts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8051-Review-Metroid-Other-M] - commented felt different, and much less appealing, than it had in previous games. Fils-Aime didn't think that this had been the reason for the poor sales, although he did acknowledge that there might be some validity to the complaints.

Despite Fils-Aime's comments, it's almost certain that Nintendo has been monitoring gamer reactions to Other M and thus is well aware of why people didn't like the game. As a high-ranking Nintendo executive, Fils-Aime isn't about to openly criticize Other M to the press, regardless of his personal feelings. Any confusion that Nintendo might be experiencing is likely just the company trying to figure out what do with the franchise next.



Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5688617/nintendo-trying-to-figure-out-what-went-wrong-with-newest-metroid]




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[Aura Guardian]

Personally..I loved it. It's just that you can't please all fans. Fans are fans after all.

 

[WOPR]

I say it's because of what consoles have become

The Wii as having action games became a joke after Metroid Prime 3

If people want action games they probably have a 360 or PS3

As for me

I have a Wii, and the last game I got for it was No More Heroes 2 (because 1 was that great!)

 

[Gamegodtre]

maybe if the game was not a total bag of bad choices it would of sold good
like how the plot turns Samus into a big wuss

 

[Gralian]

The slip to first person to fire missiles felt disjointed and looking for clues broke up the experience even more, and not in a good way. It felt awkward and out of place. Not to mention the moments where they force you to slow to a walk, presumably to hide loading times. Most grievous of all though as everybody has already said is the bastardisation of Samus' character in turning her into a monotone melodramatic little girl with daddy issues.

For those of you who are interested, watch ZP's review of Other M and MovieBob's video Heavens to Metroid!, both offer very contrasting points of view. MovieBob points out that we shouldn't be mad that Samus now has actual feelings and characterisation beyond "Oh look, she has boobs and she can kick ass!" but Yahtzee of course dotes on the asinine nature of the game in the way that you have to, in one bullshit scene, traverse a fire-hazard cavern before your ex-boyfriend(?) tells you it's okay to turn on your Varia Suit. What the fuck?

I haven't played through Other M myself, though i have played Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime games. I think they should characterise Samus primarily, if not entirely through her actions. I think her choosing not to kill the last baby metroid in one of the earlier games is one of the greatest expressions of her character and that's without the need for all that dialogue and cinematic effect. We don't need her whiny life story and we don't need a voice actress so dull and sedated that it sounds like she's trying to force out every single line. Grrr, i didn't need to play the game to know how annoying that was.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Didn't Shyamalan say the same thing about The Last Airbender?

 

[Lullabye]

I didn't like Samus in that one. She went all....."girly". Ugh.
Where was the badass that I've come to love?

 

[The Rascal King]

I love Nintendo and I love me some Team Ninja, but I will testify to the world that it wasn't worthy of the Metroid name.

I hated the camera so fucking much and the story was pretty....well if you care about Metroid you know what.Really? Samus is going to bow down to some dumpy man-**** to the point where her life is endangered by not activating heat shields? She could kill Adam 100 times before he could blink.

 

[Tharticus]

Word of mouth is that the fans hate it quite a bit therefore leads into poor sales.

Of course, Metroid Other M was designed for new Wii owners too but I doubt that it went well.

 

[WolfEdge]

Because they tried something different.

Because the things they tried different didn't work out very well.

Because giving a silent protagonist a voice has never worked ever.

 

[Okysho]

I made a few comments about the game on Yahtzee's review myself... I'm not about to regurgitate them... but a few points I will make, the fact that samus actually has feelings is nice, they just took it too far.

like Gralian said, the First person mode is completely disjointed, but we have Nintendo and retro studios to thank for setting that new standard for metroid games...

I like the combat system and especially the dodging. The jets, THEY WORK!

and other than Samus' whiny bits and... a few repetative plot points, I'd say the story was alright too.

BTW SPOILER ALERT!

James... he did it

 

[Twilight.falls]

I admire Nintendo for experimenting with one of their franchises, they usually stick to a formula and are very hesitant to change things up.
It's a shame Other M sold poorly, perhaps Nintendo shouldn't diverge from formula too much?
Perhaps customers just don't like change? Food for thought...

 

[Gxas]

The Wii is the reason that I have not bought it. You're telling me I have to change my grip on the controller every time I want to shoot something? Yeah, no.

 

[mythgraven]

Part of the appeal of Super Metroid was, to me, the boundless freedom of exploring the rebuilt Zebes... Solo. Here we have a planet chock full of peril, and ancient Chozo weaponry... but thats ok! Because this is Samus. Shes got it under control.

Ditto for Metroid II.

Cut forward a bit, to Metroid Prime. Ok, so there is now this fully (sorta) fleshed out story, about how the Chozo raised Samus, and about how her family was lost to Ridley's indigestion. Ok, that works too, it just gives me extra impetus to blast him when I see him. And blast him I shall. And did. And it was good.


Right about here was the nadir of what I honestly felt Samus's character to be. No whiny, over the top emotional reactions, nor deadpan, monotonously delivered lines. Its Samus, the planet, the upgrades, the enemies. Small, working backstory. Good to go.


Then we get... this. M:OM was in alot of ways, a let down. For the very first time ever in my gaming life, I ran out on release day and grabbed a copy of a -well established, much lauded IP, that had churned out one high quality offering after another-... and felt myself underwhelemed. Hell. Underwhelmed doesnt begin to cover it.

This bombshell has actually caused me to rethink my strategies on purchasing games. I can no longer count on an excellent IP to produce an excellent game. :'(

I just cant get over how Samus reacted to seeing Ridley. I was almost embarrassed.


Whiskey Echo!!
Mythgraven

 

[Arec Balrin]

Team Ninja's best known for Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden. Their production values are not Nintendo production values. I haven't played the game but it's obvious when you compare the general output of all developers that there are similarities in them that expose what the developer found to be acceptable standards. Other M probably isn't a Metroid game; it's a game that could have been another game except it had Metroid wall-paper.

There are certain games that give that Metroid feeling: the Castlevania games on the NES and SNES before they went rubbish, Duke Nukem 3D, Half-Life and Arkham Asylum. It's the sense that you are alone and no back-up is coming but it doesn't matter; you're too much for the monsters to handle even if you're down to the last half a centimetre of life, your weak default weapon and what ever happens next can still be done. It won't be easy and having full life and equipment wouldn't actually make it easier, but it can be done.

Now games have become obsessed with checkpoints rather than quicksaves(or 'passwords' back in the day that loaded a game identical to the one you left); it's changed the nature of all the challenges in between those checkpoints. Some games(like Arkham) redeem themselves by making the checkpoints so frequent that they're like quick-saves. But Team Ninja appear to have made a game where yet again a supposedly independent protagonist is wholly reliant on others and not actually capable of much otherwise.

 

[Worgen]

well the gameplay was awesome but it was sooo hard listening to the story since it was sooooo bad

 

[[Gavo]]

Just give us another Metroid Prime game. Without a massive story like Metroid Prime 3, but the free exploring that made the original Prime so fun.

 

[Monsterfurby]

It's pretty simple, really. Everyone in the target demographic with a Wii already bought the game, but no one would buy a Wii just for Other M. In other words: Nintendo is starting to reap the results of its own, casual-obsessed* Wii marketing strategy.

* - note: not saying that casual gaming is bad. There's a market for it and the more people enjoy video games, the better! However, Nintendo outright encouraged cheap, casual titles over quality, high-profile, high-budget titles and was pretty much defeated by Sony and Microsoft in that department. In the words of an UbiSoft employee: "Horse-shit [i.e. "My little horsey"-games] sells better." Again, that, too, does not necessarily translate into S&M (gee) making more money than N off their consoles/games.