Nintendo Puzzled Over Other M's Poor Performance

[thepyrethatburns]

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, then in had in previous games. He 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.

Translation: We're well aware everyone hated the characterization.

Look..... As I've said before, this could have worked. There are ways to have written Samus Aran to have more emotional depth without sacrificing her badassery. There are ways to write in Daddy-Daughter issues without sacrificing her badassery. They could have had a Samus who was willing to work WITH Adam but not FOR Adam.

Metroid:Other M, quite possibly due to Sakamoto/Team Ninja's issues with portraying strong women, did none of that. They gave us a Samus with the emotional stability of a 15-year-old girl who is going to her first prom. They gave us a Samus whose independence was traded in for meek submissiveness to Adam MANkovich and had to have her formerly tough-as-nails ass saved by MANthony Higgs.

After rental, I did eventually buy the game because, despite the story and characterization being crap and a few unnecessary dumb design decisions (Other M team, make a choice. Either let us play in Prime view or let us play in Classic view but stick with one rather than two gimped modes), there is potential here and there is some enjoyment to it. But Team Ninja left it largely unexplored to make the weakest Metroid game that didn't involve pinball.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Did everything right?

Ha! Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahano.

 

[Super Toast]

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

Ahem.

Spoiler: My Counter Argument

 

[BehattedWanderer]

...yeah, still liked it, personally. Had it's faults, none of which were enough to not buy the game, the reason it's currently sitting on my shelf.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Giving Samus a Voice and Personality, great.

Making her an emo animesque character with the typical uncertain shrinking violet apathy all anime female heroines have, bad.

Also, shitty english voice acting.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

I don't really see how her character was much different than the "normal" samus when she really didn't have a personality to begin with.

The Silent Protagonist is a plot device that lets you imagine what she's saying rather than letting her say it herself, after all. Sort of like a blank slate for you to imagine the character you're playing.

All she did was grunt and breathe in the metroid prime series and she was completely silent in most if not all of the side-scroller metroids...

I suppose that's the only commentary I have for this thread for now, though.

 

[GoldenShadow]

Well, there are Metroid Fans like me who will buy anything released with Metroid in the title. I grew up with Metroid and I've played all of the games in the series except for the spinoff, Hunters, just because I don't have a DS.

I like the gameplay in Other M the action is fun and fast. The game mechanics have been streamlined to keep things moving. Most of the story is to my agreement, but some parts aren't. The Ridley scene is not one of them. I love that scene, Samus falls apart and almost gets killed by Ridley but finally pulls herself together in an act of badass composure to engage in an epic fight sequence. Thats how I see it. The Gravity suit moment was another pure Epic win. Getting dragged into the vaccum of space and last minute activation of the gravity suit, a device usually used for water levels is being used in an original fashion.

The parts I don't like, especially after the 1st playthrough are the slow walking levels. It is boring and it lacks the Metroid Prime detail ebbing out of the environment. Its just regular hallways. Those sequences would have been way more awesome if they had decorated the environments more.

Overall the lack of atmosphere is the main problem. I can not fault a game for bad Voice over work, since good voice work is itself rare in any game. The attention to detail in Metroid Prime was really great, you could stop and examine things closely to observe cool new details. Other M has almost none of this.

I feel like this game was made for me, and everyone else who grew up with Metroid. If you only played Metroid Prime on Gamecube, this is not the game for you. That is why it is not selling. And I selfishly thank Nintendo for it.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Well, I've yet to play the game and I doubt I will. I'm currently going through the process of watching the cutscenes and I've got to say it's painful. The game leaves nothing for the player to piece together, EVERY bit of subtext is narrated. Honestly, is it too difficult to express an emotion without blabbing on about it for several minutes? The result is, ironically, that the game feels emotionless. Out of all of the scenes I've seen so far none of them came even close to capturing the amount of emotion Samus had in metroid prime 2 when she saw all of the dead soldiers. I'm not saying that was a particularily emotional scene, I'm just saying that without ANY dialogue I could tell what she was feeling. Why did Other M have to go and choose the polar opposite of a silent protagonist?

 

[PeterDawson]

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

Yep. Coincidentally both projects had really bad scripts and questionable actors. Effects were nice though.

 

[GoldenShadow]

Here's a quick rundown:

Samus before "Metroid: Other M" = Ellen Ripley. Badass
Samus according to "Metroid: Other M": Whiny, approx 13 year-old girl with massive emotional problems and insecurities. NOT COOL.

Oh yeah, and the control were terrible, the story was bad, and it's buggy like nothing else.

Samus has never been characterized like Ellen Ripley. Just so you know, Other M is the first time Samus has ever been characterized at all. This game shows us Samus is just a regular girl inside of her Chozo power suit.

The main controls are actually really good, the main complaint is the missile aiming. Once you figure out you can still use the "1" button to fire your missiles instead of shifting your hand to the A button, it becomes more intuitive. You can even pre-charge super missiles.

A lot of people hate the characterization. I didn't. Go back to Gears of War.

I didn't have a single bug on my multiple playthroughs. There was one massive showstopper, which is avoidable with pre-knowledge of it. To say "it's buggy like nothing else" is to ignore Fallout New Vegas. Enough said.

Only insecure juveniles would see the Ridley scene and be embarrassed. Everyone has the wrong idea. It is about overcoming fears, not the fear itself. The Ridley fight would have just been another random nostalgic boss fight without the scene. *cue Phantoon, Nightmare, Metroid Queen*

 

[Senrab]

Clearly our bodies weren't ready for Other M.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Here's a quick rundown:

Samus before "Metroid: Other M" = Ellen Ripley. Badass
Samus according to "Metroid: Other M": Whiny, approx 13 year-old girl with massive emotional problems and insecurities. NOT COOL.

Oh yeah, and the control were terrible, the story was bad, and it's buggy like nothing else.

Samus has never been characterized like Ellen Ripley. Just so you know, Other M is the first time Samus has ever been characterized at all. This game shows us Samus is just a regular girl inside of her Chozo power suit.

The main controls are actually really good, the main complaint is the missile aiming. Once you figure out you can still use the "1" button to fire your missiles instead of shifting your hand to the A button, it becomes more intuitive. You can even pre-charge super missiles.

A lot of people hate the characterization. I didn't. Go back to Gears of War.

I didn't have a single bug on my multiple playthroughs. There was one massive showstopper, which is avoidable with pre-knowledge of it. To say "it's buggy like nothing else" is to ignore Fallout New Vegas. Enough said.

Only insecure juveniles would see the Ridley scene and be embarrassed. Everyone has the wrong idea. It is about overcoming fears, not the fear itself. The Ridley fight would have just been another random nostalgic boss fight without the scene. *cue Phantoon, Nightmare, Metroid Queen*

Incorrect. Samus has been characterized and her past expounded upon in official comcis. This is not the first time she's been characterized, and Samus is NOT a Regular girl. She watched her entire family die when she was a child, she was raised by jedi-esque hyper advanced aliens, who were also later killed I believe. She joined the military, excelled, and left because she felt they didn't go far enough in protecting the far flung reaches and quit to become a bounty hunter and professional killer for hire. She had also faced and killed Ridely twice by the time of this game.

A scene where she is struck by memories of her family? Great. Scene where she FREAKS THE FUCK OUT AND GETS ALL GIRLISH AND MEEK AROUND AN OLD COMMANDER? NO, EFF THAT. Samus and Adam's relationship was characterized GREAT in fusion (adam was said to be DEAD in that game by the way), where she mentioned Adam used to call her "lady", but he didnt mean it insultingly because he RESPECTED HER, and he was also the only one with the Balls to ever do it.

PS: Even one bug that can crash a whole game in a linear easily testable 8 hour game is inescusable.

 

[Why do I care]

Let me tell you something.

I have been a Metroid fan since the first game. Ever. Every game I enjoyed thoroughly. I honestly think that M:OM was not that bad, but it could have been WAY better. Let me list the problems.

1. Story

Ok, ok I've heard that the story is shitty, and I can only partly agree. Most can only make sense if you actually played Metroid Fusion and Super Metroid (to make sense of the Adam and Baby part though). But good god they made Samus look WEAK man! I mean, come on, HOW DO YOU FUCK UP A KICKASS SPACE BOUNTY HUNTER?! When I played the games, I thought that her voice was to be strong and never like this.

2. Items that only Adam can unlock.

God damn it where do I start?

You can't fuck this up. You just can't. Metroid is about exploring to find your items so that you can advance further into the planet/base you are on. Making the game so that you can only get specific items after Adam decides that Samus needs to live for another hour just seems wrong.

Overall, I enjoyed the game myself, but there are some things that they need to work out.

 

[pneuma08]

Seriously? Without even mentioning the characterization, long and unskippable cutscenes, or even the elements of its story, I could easily write an essay about what Other M did wrong or poorly.

I was pretty excited about Other M too. I'm so glad I played it without purchasing it. I was angry enough at the game without spending any money on it.

 

[mattttherman3]

I say, put it on the shelf for now, wait for the next console generation, then bring it back along the lines of metroid prime, just call it metroid appocolypse or something

 

[duchaked]

not that I'm a fan or play the games, but I mean well at least it wasn't BAD overall I suppose

 

[Angeryterrano]

its because the Wii cant run shit

 

[Zeromaeus]

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

Ahem.

Spoiler: My Counter Argument

-claps-
Good show. I almost forgot about those wonderful games. Note to self: Play them again.

OT: I can't really add much that hasn't been added already. The gameplay was pretty good, barring a few exceptions. The story... well... not so much. They characterized Samus very badly. She was shown as weak and dependent upon others. How are we supposed to believe that that person could do all the things she already did. Take for example her HBSOD (heroic blue screen of death (I blame tvtropes for this acronym))when she saw Ridley. Does this seem like something Samus from the previous games would do? If so, how in the world did she survive all of those previous encounters with the space-dragon? Also, the whole Adam thing was overplayed to the point of ridiculousness. Metroid: Fusion implied a sort of give and take between a superior officer (Adam) and Samus that implied a sort of mutual respect. All I saw in M:OM was Adam lording over Samus and Samus rolling over and allowing it for some odd reason.

I also disagree with the people who claim that Samus wasn't characterized before M:OM. Even excluding Fusion's little monologues, I feel that Samus was characterized quite a bit. It was subtle, however, and I can understand how people would believe otherwise. Her actions spoke much louder than words when it came down to it. The act of saving the baby metroid alone spoke volumes, to take a popular example. It spoke of her motherly nature, her willingness to divert from mission parameters and even the extent to which she's willing to risk herself for what she feels is right. As anyone who's played the games before well knows, having a Metroid within your general vicinity is generally a very dangerous situation, but she decided to take the risk and take the baby with her. The fact that she always deals with the 'space police' infers a great deal to. She's a bounty hunter, and a skilled one at that. I imagine that someone of her skill is known quite far and wide and would have bounties pouring in from all sectors of space just for her. However, she always works with the 'space police,' the established law, the good guys in other words (Fusion grayed out this last one quite considerably). Speaking of Fusion, her persistence toward the end of the game was quite considerable as far as characterization goes. She was ordered not take further action, but instead defied her orders and acted on her on judgment for pretty much the rest of the game. Its little things like these that establish a character in a way that simple dialogue never could. Well, it probably could be established in dialogue, but it would probably come out a great deal more ham-handedly than it did.

...
...

Everyone always forgets Old Bird, Samus' adoptive father-figure...

 

[mechanixis]

It had nothing to do with the quality of the game; Nintendo has just cornered the casual market so well that the Metroid fanbase has migrated away.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

]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.

But Prime 3 didn't really have a massive story, did it? Basically it was

Spoiler

"Freaky new Virus, oh no wait, it's attacking your friends! And it's growing inside you! Kill your friends, find source of virus and kill it. TEH END

I have yet to play Other M yet, but I don't think I'll like the whole "Silent protagonist given a voice" thing.