Poll: Metroid: Other M killed Samus

[Racthoh]

Why is she so scared of Ridley!? She's killed him, like, a bajillion times!!!

Alright, this is probably the easiest argument out of them all.

Remember when in Super Metroid, the game Other M directly follows, Samus "kills" Ridley? Of course you do, it's one of the times you counted in the "Samus vs. Ridley" tally of why she shouldn't be afraid of him. Now, do you also remember the part where the entire planet blew up and no one saw Ridley escape it!?!? By all accounts, Ridley was still on planet Zebes when it blew up. Now, I understand Samus is pretty cool under preasure, but if I had an arch-nemesis that just survived a brutal beat-down by me, which was followed by a planet exploding on him(!!!!!!!) I'd be seriously considering my life decisions and career goals at that moment, right before I crap out my intestines and cry to anyone near-by to make the bad space dragon monster go away! Yes, there's hyperbole in there, but that's just how rediculously scary that would be! This guy survived an explosion from something that killed Mother Brain, which would probably be that of many, many megatons of blast force, after getting the crap kicked out of him. Hope that puts some perspective on that.

... that doesn't explain why she would be afraid. At all. She had already killed Ridley many times over, we can then assume that she realizes he has just been flying away and not dying. Why exactly would she suddenly think he didn't fly away again when Zebes blew up? And wouldn't she want revenge on Ridley anyway, the one who attacked the space colony at the start of Super Metroid? If they're going to give her this motherly attachment to the metroid hatchling (her bond couldn't have been too strong if she was willing to just ditch it for resarch but anyway) then maybe she should've showed the other side of those motherly emotions when given (another) opportunity to trash Ridley who set the wheels in motion that caused the hatchling to die. You telling me if your child was ever kidnapped, then killed saving your life by the guy in charge, you wouldn't jump at the opportunity to exact some revenge? There is no defense for her acting like a coward in front of Ridley.

 

[Warachia]

HAHA. No. No it didn't.
It's just that Nintendo can't win when you think about it. People wanted Nintendo to add voice acting and emotion to their franchises. They listen and the fans hate it.

Ruined? No, it added character to an otherwise uninteresting character.

Other M made the series much more interesting and I hope to see more Metroid titles like it.

Thank you.

Glad I saved you a bit of opinion typing. It's sad how fickle many fans can be, the same fans who praised OoT as the best game ever and comparing every following Zelda game to it saying they were not as good criticized Twilight Princess for trying to be like OoT. I kinda feel bad for Nintendo, no matter how much they listen to their fans they just can't seem to please them.

Let's not be so specific. Fans can never be pleased in general. When you like something, it's generally because you can or want to identify with it, and once you do that, you create something of your own version of it. Not necessarily what the game creators intended, but what you wanted them to portray. After that, it's all gonna be screwy. There will be a million threads like this when Duke Nukem Forever comes out(Even though we know it won't).

OP: No Samus was not ruined by Team Ninja. It's not unusual for Nintendo to completely break continuity in their games. Zelda hardly makes sense any more, as far as a concise timeline from game to game goes. The next Metroid game can be completely bad ass and everyone will forget about this game. Or at least they'll all stop bitching about it ruining the series.

When something is done wrong, it is done wrong. People who jump onto the fans claiming it is personal opinion simply that is what they happen to like can be objectionably explained to why they went wrong on this particular game.

Let's keep this short and quick: A game should never have to rely on exposition to help a player understand what is happening in the game, it should rely on previously inserted elements to carry that weight for them, player: "there are experiments going on in this facility? and that tube is broken? Something must have excaped!" The fewer words stated the better, second would be to have the characters in-game actions, match their personality and appearance. I've already stated that even if Kratos never said a word or never had a cutscene, you still knew he was a psycopath by his appearance, and the way he fights, whereas in other m, Samus can grab onto a giant eyeball before shooting it, shove her gun down other creatures throats, and intentionally get swallowed so she could blow open the monsters stomach, and we are expected to believe inside the suit she is a skinny, borderline helpless woman incapable of making strategic decisions for herself.

Longer than I wanted, but the point is to make the character fit the bill, and in that regard, whether you like it or not (go right ahead), other m falls short.

 

[u4527646]

I'm actually glad Samus has some character to her now... She now has a basis and story behind her actions, it's like she's a fuller character now. It makes me happy

 

[Kurt Horsting]

What, you would rather have a robot with tits? She had no character before the game, now she does. Literally, everything said about what her character is has been inferred. NOTHING in the games shows her having even a little personality. But because she isn't a man hating ice queen that does everything on her own, people think that she is a step backward for strong female characters in video games. Grow up.

 

[Captain_Coolio]

it may not have killed samus, but its definately a black mark on the series. i liked it when she wouldnt talk, i could put in a personality i thought she would have myself. i got super pissed when i found out they gave her actual dialogue.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

... that doesn't explain why she would be afraid. At all. She had already killed Ridley many times over, we can then assume that she realizes he has just been flying away and not dying. Why exactly would she suddenly think he didn't fly away again when Zebes blew up? And wouldn't she want revenge on Ridley anyway, the one who attacked the space colony at the start of Super Metroid? If they're going to give her this motherly attachment to the metroid hatchling (her bond couldn't have been too strong if she was willing to just ditch it for resarch but anyway) then maybe she should've showed the other side of those motherly emotions when given (another) opportunity to trash Ridley who set the wheels in motion that caused the hatchling to die. You telling me if your child was ever kidnapped, then killed saving your life by the guy in charge, you wouldn't jump at the opportunity to exact some revenge? There is no defense for her acting like a coward in front of Ridley.

Sweet, discussion. Alright, here's goes...

1. Ridley was presumed "dead" when she had beaten him on Zebes. No one ever actually sees Ridley fly off so you can be sure he was beaten to within an inch of his life.

2. The planet blew up. Nothing Samus has in her aersenal can blow up an entire planet, let alone deal enough damage to come close to that.

3. The game can effectively be beaten within the time span of three hours (set by game devs via bikini Samus) so we'll say that's roughly the time span the mission takes.

4. Motherbrain is directly after Ridley, which means he has about 30 minutes breathing time.

So what you're suggesting is that Ridley can recover from a near death experience within thirty minutes to escape a blast radius of an a planetary core explosion? Really there's two explinations:

1. Ridley can survive that blast, even in his near-death state.

2. Ridley can't survive that, but has the ability to recover enough to escape said blast radius to recouperate, when within thirty minutes time, Samus barely makes her own escape powered by a Metroid.

So really, either Ridley can become empowered close to that of a Metroid without the frailty of being a Metroid, or he's just that unkillable and can survive a planetary explosion. Either way, it means nothing that Samus can throw at him will even dent him, and if I was Samus, I'd be really worried about a guy that can avoid being killed by a planet exploding (really, I can't stress the entire planet exploding enough because it'd be that huge) through either of those means. I mean, we're talking about an explosion that would probably only be matched by if we fired all our nuclear warheads at once. Even then I doubt that would be even close to the amount of power that blast would create. In any case, Samus does get her act together and fights Ridley, and wins! If you read the rest of my post, you'd see the explination as to why that's a great thing and now the narrative of the game is told within gameplay as much as within cutscenes. Her initial running away is certainly justified within the context of what had happened previously with Ridley.

 

[Nieroshai]

The characterization was off in that Samus looked at Adam as a daddy too much. In reality I suppose in Fusion Samus did talk about him as such, but I always figured the hero-worship caame from his sacrifice, not their actual time in the same unit. Although, he and the black guy were supposedly the only humans she respected and felt respeected by. I felt that this was overdone. The only reason I had to struggle through the game with lesser equipment was because Adam said so. You're a BOUNTY HUNTER! Kill or be killed!
The whole being portrayed as a weaker person thing doesn't fit with what I saw, because the most-cited example is when she freezes up on seeing Ridley. But seriously. Your arch-nemesis keeps coming back no matter what you do to him. Clever escape artist? But then you drop him in lava (again) and proceed to BLOW UP THE PLANET. NO ONE survives that. So when your arch-nemesis who murdered your entire home colony turns out to need more than a detonating planet to kill, would YOU be scared shitless? She's a bounty hunter, but she's human.
Samus is very chatty, uncharacteristic in a Metroid game. Somehow, I actually enjoyed this. "It's her first time having a real voice actor," I thought, "let's let her actually narrate her thoughts Fusion-style." And it did not kill the game for me.
Gameplay was oversimplified in some areas and overcomplicated in others. I hated HAVING to do finishing moves. I LOVED the ability to regen missiles and health, which I always figured she could do since Prime hinted that her suit had interdimensional storage. I hated having to stand still in first person mode. I hated not having access to missiles in 3rd person mode.
Overall, I'm glad I got this game but it's not as good as the Prime trilogy.

 

[DaBozz]

oh come on really? voice acting finally being used in a nintendo game and someone moans its ruined it well excuse me princess!
that aside I think its good that nintendo are finally catching up with the times, now we just need to see some other famous characters get a proper voice:

Yes I'm looking at you buddy....

 

[Noose]

How about we make Gordon Freeman talk. And have emotions. And essentially angst.
Then we can all also count on Valve going out of business.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Other M was probably the most sexist mainstream game released this year, just think about it.

A female character who can only be capable when a male is controlling her in some way.

The only time where Samus acts in any way self reliant, strong or motivated is when
A. Shes under the players control, and
B. When shes being ordered around by her bossy boyfriend.

Shes a shining testament to the rampant sexism that lies under the roots of gaming.

The message Other M sends is as follows: in order for a women to be on equal footing with men in terms of capability and "baddass-ery" then they need to be either acting in order to win the approval of a man or being controlled by someone else.

This is a giant step back in terms of gaming being taken seriously in the greater culture and its a miracle that the media didn't pick up on this. This behavior is immature and offensive, stop it Team Ninja.

 

[thahat]

A single game can't "ruin" a character. Neither can several: Just ask Sonic.

If a certain title portrays a character unfavorably to a player, the bright spot is that the next game may be completely different. I don't see why some people have so much difficulty viewing Other M as another director's interpretation of a character.

sonic.. is not a good example XD, he hasent made good games since he was 2d XD
says me, a big time sonic fanboy of old XD ( hell i grew up with the old cartoons with SONIC SAYS! in them XD )

 

[Dark Knifer]

If it wasn't for the incredibly monotone voice I'd say no. But the voice for samus is so terrible...

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Other M was probably the most sexist mainstream game released this year, just think about it.

A female character who can only be capable when a male is controlling her in some way.

The only time where Samus acts in any way self reliant, strong or motivated is when
A. Shes under the players control, and
B. When shes being ordered around by her bossy boyfriend.

Shes a shining testament to the rampant sexism that lies under the roots of gaming.

The message Other M sends is as follows: in order for a women to be on equal footing with men in terms of capability and "baddass-ery" then they need to be either acting in order to win the approval of a man or being controlled by someone else.

This is a giant step back in terms of gaming being taken seriously in the greater culture and its a miracle that the media didn't pick up on this. This behavior is immature and offensive, stop it Team Ninja.

See, I can't agree witht his. The problem here is that you jump right at the throat of what invalidates the argument: Adam is a guy. Aside from point A being the obvious oversight of gameplay being narrative, I'll just side step that right into point B. The one thing you need to ask yourself is "what was her motivation?" Why did Samus follow Adam's orders? Most would say it's because she had a connection with him. He was her parental figure. Others (like me) would also note that she is still bound by Galactic Law being a licensed bounty hunter and has to abide by the juristictions in place. However, the real question under all this would be if Adam was Eve, would the situation have played out any different? Considering those two motivations, no, it wouldn't have. That's what makes it not sexist.

 

[Treblaine]

Ruined? No, it added character to an otherwise uninteresting character.

Are you talking about Samus from Metroid or Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels?

Both "add character" but if that is a SHIT CHARACTER then it is not the right thing to do. "add character" is not in of itself a good thing, stories are not written by pointless box-ticking.

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

I can't believe people have been saying it makes a 3D character out of her.

IT DIDNT
it was UNINTERESTING, went against the reason she was silent in the first place, and worked Backwards, make her a 0D character. there isnt any real SUBTLETY to it, and god damnit, MGS,FF, and now metroid, you NEED SOME DAMN SUBTLETY OR SHIT WONT WORK.

god, Im not even a fan but this pisses me off.

 

[jboking]

Personally, they decided that she wasn't the silent killer I knew and loved. Being scared by Ridley is ridiculous when you consider the number of times he has been 'resurrected'. "Oh my god, how did you survive....again!" If this is the cannon Samus .... I'll just be done with new Metroids. I'll go back to my Metroid II: Return of Samus now.

 

[Treblaine]

Let's not be so specific. Fans can never be pleased in general.

Well that is just a stupid thing to say, because it so obviously is not true.

Hardcore Metroid fans LOVED the Metroid Prime series to spite it being hugely different and from a new developer pre-release it was heaped with so much scorn but the thing was it was done RIGHT!

If you truly believe fans can NEVER be pleased in general then you are pretty naive and don't know what you are talking about. Clearly your mind for some reason tunes out all the times that fans praise work and only focus on the rare times they are disappointed. A strong fixation on the negative.

(obviously when you say "in general" you cannot use that to imply "every single one of millions are pleased".)

But Other M is not just bad for the fans, it is bad IN AND OF ITSELF! The fans just have extra reason to be disappointed about it.

I'd ask you to stop repeating such nonsense generalisations about fans as it spreads the false impression that it is the fan's opinion which is the one opinion that people should NOT listen to which couldn't be farther from the truth. These are the reason for the franchise's continued relevance and they key to the new releases success.

 

[Jimson]

I find it odd, that Samus is a lot MORE visceral when dealing with her enemies. Yet they undermine that by making her a patsy in comparison to the other Main character in the game (Adam)

 

[Z(ombie)fan]

oh come on really? voice acting finally being used in a nintendo game and someone moans its ruined it well excuse me princess!
that aside I think its good that nintendo are finally catching up with the times, now we just need to see some other famous characters get a proper voice:

Yes I'm looking at you buddy....

your kidding.

you... fucking... OH MY GOD. hes SILENT. that IS his character. he is the adventure boy. the kid you control and don't pay attention to. he isnt the only one is much better silent. whats wrong with silent protagonists? look at the doomguy. I wouldnt change a thing to him. there is a character there: he likes to kill monsters. there. good enough. silent protagonists work. have a couple things point to what they are, but for the love of god, DONT MAKE THE PLAYER CHARACTER TALK.

 

[RelexCryo]

Yes and no. They tried to humanize her, but they didn't do it well. They attempted to make her seem like a fragile creature who only does what's necessary in cutscenes, but during gameplay might as well be the mute murderess counterpart to Master Chief.

It's not that it ruined, or killed Samus at all. They just tried to characterize her half way.

You, and everyone else, need to stop incorrectly using the term "murder."

Murder and killing are not the same thing. The difference is justification. Considering she generally runs around killing space pirates, imperialistic invaders, and other mass murderers, she is not committing murder, generally. She is killing, yes, but not murdering. Killing Hitler, for example, would not have been murder. Killing an innocent person would be. The difference? Justification.