Nintendo Puzzled Over Other M's Poor Performance

[sdfasdfhfgfgjtyisdgdfdfj]

This is what a good game developer would say:
"Well, we've tried!"
"Yup, let's try something else or stick with the old formula (Or a mix in between)"

 

[inkheart_artist]

Well shit, after Nintendo alienated the audience I was part of for so long I lost hope for the Wii and gave it away; all's it ever did after a brief stint of intrigue was collect dust. I was still interested in Other M until I saw the lackluster reviews. Samus is one of my most beloved video game characters but I'm not buying a half decent game on a system with a crummy line up and a future I'm not looking forward to just because it has the Metroid label on it. Did he expect the non-casual crowd to just start giving a shit out of nowhere for one game? Did he think the casual crowd would be excited for a character that they may have only vaguely known about getting a new game?

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

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

HERE HERE!

I also really enjoyed Other M, in fact probably not just of my favorite games for the Wii, but one of my favorite games periode.

Is this really that hard to figure out? Other M did poorly because it was a shitty game! I don't think I need to embellish on that, we've been all around the mulberry bush on that one.

*blows raspberry* THHHHBTHTHPPTTHTHT!

 

[Xerosch]

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

Wouldn't it be nice if the next Metroid refined the good parts of Other M (no matter how little here was)

let Samus wake up from a nightmare in the very first scene (thus removing Other M from the canon without saying it) and...

let her be attacked, resulting in a scar on Samus' throat and her becoming mute (See? Character development plus missing voice)

 

[Cid Silverwing]

They didn't do one damn thing right. Refer to Yahtzee's review and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Xander_VJ]

Most probably it was because the game didn't really reach the casual audience, and in the hardcore community (the one the advertising was aiming for) mouth-to-mouth utterly killed it.

And for good reason, I'm afraid.

It was not a bad game, but it was definitely not on the average "Metroid" quality either.

Samus' character is THE SAME she had before. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't played "Metroid Fusion", nor knows the "expanded universe" (AKA the official manga). Hell, even in "Super Metroid" we have glimpses of her insecurities.

The problem was not in "WHAT", but in "HOW". There is where everything went wrong.

First of all we need to clarify something: Team Ninja DID NOT write Samus' character. Sakamoto did. And it was jarringly obvious that he doesn't know the first thing about good characterization.

Making her banging her head over her insecurities over and over... and over, and over, and over... and over (a mistake that bad japanese writers seem to make every time), doesn't make her a likable character: it makes her annoying.

In "Metroid Fusion" Samus talks about her insecurities too, but since she only does it from time to time, and in the RIGHT moments, that made her more human.

The same could be said about every other story issue the game had. It was not a matter of giving a "Metroid" game a heavy story. It was a matter of HOW that story was executed.

And gameplay wise, yes, it was a matter of bad calls and sticking to them out of sheer stubbornness. You want to make a "Metroid" game with retro-feeling gameplay in a NES way? Fine by me. But when you do it with controls like MoM... YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!


Finally, I feel sorry for Team Ninja too.

Despite their obsession with big boobs (which makes some people to unfairly underrate them), they are a great team. "Dead or Alive" is a great fighting series and "Ninja Gaiden Black" is still the best 3D hack'n slash ever.

But with this game they are receiving some harsh criticism about things that are NOT their fault. The only thing that they truly deserve to be blamed for is the uninspiring level and character design. Not that those are minor issues, specially the first one, but the REAL game brakers (story and control decisions) were not their fault.

 

[Grygor]

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.

Four times, actually. She's fought Ridley four times at this point in the story. Other M is chronologically the next-to-last game in the series - only Fusion comes later.

Never mind that Other M is fundamentally the same story as Fusion anyway, making it also unnecessary - not to mention it introduces plot holes into Fusion (namely, why would it surprise her in Fusion that the Federation is breeding metroids if she's already seen them breeding metroids in Other M?).

 

[GloatingSwine]

Oh hey, a complete gameplay shift from open exploration to linear platforming, overblown cutscenes and a main character that was suddenly completely unrelatable.

In short, it's the exact polar opposite of everything a Metroid game, sidescroller or first person had been up to that point.

And they wonder why no-one liked it?

 

[10BIT]

I'm surprised no one has posted this yet:

http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html

It is by far the most accurate and detailed article on the faults of Other M reaching over 7,000 words and yet only looks at the characterisation. If it were to include gameplay changes and controls, I'm sure there would be a lot more to complain about.

 

[ItsAPaul]

They should just realize no one gets a wii to play real games since its a terrible console and all. No one I know played it since the whole "have to have permission to use upgrades" thing is retarded and no one in their right mind could like that story.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Is it just me, or dose team ninja just like changing what the game is about and making the fanbase rage?

Don't blame Team Ninja, Nintendo is the one who had mapped out Samus' personality and the plot.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Also, in response to the official manga, I don't think those can nor should count, ever.

So what if they're 'official', Samus' character was being designed into gamers minds way before they were invented.

Hell, I have official Zelda manga, but when do you ever see Link's Apple Orchard in the games?

Not to mention, most people didn't read these manga, they played the games and got use to Samus from the games. Not some manga tossed out with 'official' labeled on it.

Hell, when do you see an Arbok's head seperated from its body, then regenerate the body in the games? Yet according to the official Pokemon manga I've got, it can regenerate body parts.

And also, The Elite Four are all evil and want to kill off humanity for a Pokemon paradise.

Yet I still haven't seen Lance do that in the games.

 

[Moktarr]

Never mind that Other M is fundamentally the same story as Fusion anyway, making it also unnecessary - not to mention it introduces plot holes into Fusion (namely, why would it surprise her in Fusion that the Federation is breeding metroids if she's already seen them breeding metroids in Other M?).

Technically it doesn't introduce that plot hole.

------SPOILERS------

At the end of the game Adam jettisons the Tourain Sector, destroying any Metroids in it. Later, after killing Phantoon, -- Which, by the way, came completely out of nowhere for me. I mean, PHANTOON!? -- and retrieving Adam's helmet from the command deck, the Bottle ship begins to self destruct, destroying any Metroids that may be left. It's explained in the story that they're trying to cover up what they did by sending in an "Eraser" to kill anyone who might spread word, and all the data relating to the MB project. By the end of the game, that particular plot-line is closed, by the report from the head researcher at the facility, and the correlating reports from both Samus and Anthony. So it's completely plausible from Samus to be surprised by the breeding of Metroids by BSL, because by that time, to her knowledge, all data relating to the Bottle Ship incident had be destroyed, save for the last DNA of the Baby metroid.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

"Another difficulty with the scene is that, even if we go into it knowing that Samus is supposed to have been emotionally scarred by Ridley as a child, by this point in her life she?s already killed the beast several times (at least twice, in the original Metroid and in Super Metroid; twice more if you include the ambiguously-canonical Metroid Prime trilogy). Even the manga has her overcoming her childhood trauma by this point in her life."

lmao Wow, that sure puts a hole in the "manga" defense.

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

From the videos i watched, it looks remarkably 'stiff', bland and just plain 'old'. I don't want to get into the characterization of Samus and that sort of stuff because i've obviously not played it, im speaking from the perspective of someone who didn't buy it (and i don't own a Wii, but that's besides the point, i wouldn't buy it anyway).

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I'm surprised no one has posted this yet:

http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html

It is by far the most accurate and detailed article on the faults of Other M reaching over 7,000 words and yet only looks at the characterisation. If it were to include gameplay changes and controls, I'm sure there would be a lot more to complain about.

Wow, just wow. That is one messed up 'relationship', even shooting her in the back and almost killing her to the fact that Samus is sooo obessed with him, she's become so obedient that she only acts independent when she thinks he can't hear her.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

I guess it's either because it's a hardcore game on a platform dominated by family friendly casual games, or because it isn't a Mario game.

 

[JediMB]

ex-boyfriend(?)

Former, and sort of current, commanding officer in the Galactic Federation Army.

I'd re-post my problems with Other M from Kotaku, if not for Kotaku mysteriously rejecting my comments. But I will say that waiting for permission to activate weapons makes sense, but needing permission to activate purely defensive abilities does not.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

"This is the bounty huntress who laid low the Mother Brain and destroyed Zebes. This is the woman who ventured alone into the caverns of SR-388 and exterminated the feral metroid bioweapons. This is one of the the first and most enduring heroines of gaming, an icon for female gamers. After all these years, it turns out that Samus Aran is a battered housewife who takes it and likes it. This is the way in which Yoshio Sakamoto chose to ?correct? the popular conception of Samus Aran."


Wow. After reading that, he's right. Either Sakamoto sucks at writing stories, or is sexist.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

ex-boyfriend(?)

Former, and sort of current, commanding officer in the Galactic Federation Army.

I'd re-post my problems with Other M from Kotaku, if not for Kotaku mysteriously rejecting my comments. But I will say that waiting for permission to activate weapons makes sense, but needing permission to activate purely defensive abilities does not.

It does if you see that Samus is blindly loyal to Adam.

And if you note that Adam is a cold, bitter man and doesn't want her to ever disobey even once.