no shit that whole "look at all these AWESOME combatants!" is a goddamned letdown. Seriously, if you're gonna throw some people that were straight out of a Futaro Yamada (The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, Samurai Reincarnation, and an inspiration for the anime classic Ninja Scroll) or Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D) book then for the love of Buddha USE THEM. It's not much better than that whole letdown in Twilight where we think there's going to be a giant monster battle and then nothing happens. If this had been Ninja Scroll Catfish would have had to kill EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE GUYS in spectacular fashion using her wits.
And yes, the visual metaphors can get a bit unfortunate. What's really bad about that is that kind of visual style is REALLY outdated. It was understandable in the 80s with Running Man due to the time period, but doing it in 2013 is kind of archaic.
Also, I would argue that unlike Maycrest, Samus breaks down all of TWICE in the course of her story while Katniss really is just a useless mop. Say what you will about Other M, Samus could kick the SHIT out of everything in that game with one hand tied behind her back