Zero Punctuation: Metroid Other M

[andsoitgoes]

Samus talking was enough to make this a no buy for me.

I love, love Metroid and have enjoyed EVERY game in the series... when samus DOES NOT TALK.

The gameboy version, what was it - Zero missions? when she talked, the gameplay was fine, but the last thing I need is to hear someone write terrible lines for a very interesting character.

Samus is like Boba Fett. She doesn't need to talk to get her point across, she's on a mission, the reasons are unknown, end of story. The fact that they've abolished that, took an ENTIRELY solo character and added her into the mix with other people? No.

I agree that you need to change up a game, make things more interesting, unique, different - but not if that comes at the cost of making it a craptastic game with terrible writing.

Regardless, it saved me however much the game costs that I can now put towards something else. Like porn mags!

 

[esperandote]

"Check out my screw attack"?.... I didn't get it but i think it was a shot to the guys on gametrailers.

 

[capacollo]

Hah, very funny but also on point as with other reviews... Why would they portray Shamus as they did Ill never now ...

Hmmmm this Friday special has me intrigued...

Me too

 

[eva243]

Metroid Other M is the worst game in the series it is sad to see a Metroid title sink so low after an amazing record track. I think I will take Yahtzee advice though and go back to playing Prime 1, fuck the whole trilogy is better than Other M :/

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

Then what the hell is sustaining your relentless Nintendo fanboyism? Why are you so gentle and forgiving to the slightest smell of bullshit coming from a Wii title?

How am I a Nintendo fanboy? How is this supposed fanboyism relentless? What other Wii titles have I commented upon that support your claims? Finally, how is my critique of the hatred leveled at a particular character in a particular title considered "gentle and forgiving" towards that title when I admittedly have never played it?

 

[Mr. Omega]

Yeah, the whole "OMG IT'S RIDLEY!" thing might have actually been a good, impacting moment... except by this point in the series, she has fought him (Original Metroid), fought a cyborg version of him TWICE (MetaRidley, Prime 1 & 3), an upgraded cyborg version (Omega Ridley, Prime 3) , and a somehow-not-cyborg version (Super Metroid). By this point, it has no meaning even going by the game's "logic".

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I was really hoping that the "Check out my screw attack" comment wasn't just a reference to Metroid. I was sincerely hoping there was something at screwattack. Sad day

There is. And it comes to us from none other than MovieBob.

I give you the Game OverThinker [http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/09/episode-40-heavens-to-metroid.html].

 

[BigText]

The murder-mystery subplot WAS resolved. You come across the guy wearing the glasses after he's been killed by a metroid, and since he was the last guy remaining, he was the traitor. That doesn't really matter, though, because none of the characters except for Adam and Anthony even REMOTELY mattered.

I had fun playing the game, but I do pretend that this was just some idiot's fantasy. The game destroyed Samus as a character, making her some weak-willed pathetic little girl. That, and why would Nightmare be on this ship AND the one in Metroid: Fusion? Lastly, the fact that the Galactic Federation was creating metroids in Metroid: Fusion was a huge plot point. If they were making metroids on the bottle ship, AND on the ship in Metroid: Fusion, then how many more metroids are on how many more ships?

 

[Mannayz]

Thank you, Yahtzee, for hammering down this game in the most cynical way possible. I also thought that this game was a huge pile of "meh" for a lot of the exact same reasons.

The combat was kind of fun for awhile, though.

And now I do want to play Metroid Prime again.

 

[MichaelMaverick]

I love how this review turned out to be the EXACT opposite of what MovieBob said.

This desperately needed to happen.

 

[Henriksen]

Great review. This game was awful compared to the Metroid Prime series.

 

[Krantos]

You know, the funniest thing, IMO, is that Team Ninja always claims that they develop their games specifically for western audiences. It reminds me of when Yahtzee claimed it seemed like a developer (a Japanese one no less) got everything they know about Western Audiences from the tourist locked in their basement.

It's becomes obvious that their "market research" is nothing more than social stereotyping (and a little bit of ethnic prejudice) when you compare their games to western developed games. You know, games developed be people who actually are western and therefore understand western audiences better. Their games are way too over the top and full of Big-titted women.

And now Metroid arrives to further prove the point. They turn a previously strong and independent female character into a whiny little school girl.

Go Team Reta- wait, that's not PC.

ummm... booo...

 

[Magmabear]

Oh man, Yahtzee. You really nailed it right on the mark. You brought up everything that I thought about the game as well, and then some. This is probably the funniest review I've seen (because it's so true).

 

[Mr. Shoggoth]

I'm glad that Spoony and Sean Malstrom hated other M. And like Spoony said, I don't think Metroid series will survive after this.

Sean Malstrom is an idiot strawman with only illogical hatred for the world around him who claims to know what makes Metroid good even if he has bashed Zero Mission, Fusion and Super Metroid in the most illogical way possible. Also, he thinks "Metroid should be a trippy game where you kill Metroids!"
Also, even if he has a point here and there, he is a horribly boring writer. Don't give this man any more attention.

And while I really like Spoony because he is funny and one of the most entertaining web reviewers, he didn't even play the game through and really overreacted.

I don't mind people hating on Other M, but at least do it with some actual reasoning.

 

[Sebenko]

When was Samus established as having a "bold, independent spirit"? I don't remember that being mentioned at all in any of the games other than the fact that you, the player, are controlling her and she's completely alone. She blindly followed our orders even if it meant smacking into a wall repeatedly when our phones rang or falling into an acid pit when we mis-judged a jump she probably could have handled were she in control of her own body.

Oh, I know! Let's make a game where the main character completely ignores any input from the player! That will make the character more independent. I think I saw that once... oh yeah, it's called a movie.

 

[Sylocat]

So I'm not the only one who thought the writing is terrible.

Did you honestly think you were? Have you even been paying attention to anything written about the game on this site (articles OR forums) for the past month?

If I said I was the only one who thought the game was GOOD, at least I'd have some justification for saying so.

 

[DutchAssassin8]

hilarious:
Spoiler:
NNNIIIIIIIIIINNNNNEEEEE!!!

 

[Flamma Man]

I was really hoping that the "Check out my screw attack" comment wasn't just a reference to Metroid. I was sincerely hoping there was something at screwattack. Sad day

There is. And it comes to us from none other than MovieBob.

I give you the Game OverThinker [http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/09/episode-40-heavens-to-metroid.html].

Well, a lot of us have pretty much established that Bob missed the point completely.

People aren't mad about GIVING her a personality.

They're mad about giving her a SHITTY personality.

Also, the Strawman bit was terrible.

 

[Raithnor]

"Check out my screw attack"?.... I didn't get it but i think it was a shot to the guys on gametrailers.

It's not on slam on anyone. I got the joke and it's pretty much trademark Yahtzee.

 

[Boaal]

That spaceship early on came from a development screenshot of an open source game called Vegastrike, I'm amazed it ended up in a yahtzee review. That's pretty cool. If anyone's interested, the thread is here:

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15345

Yes: it starts off looking nothing like that, i know. But check out somewhere around page 10 or onwards, and you'll see what I mean. Nice going.


Also: To the comment about Nintendo making the same game over and over again: while I won't say you aren't right, you make it sounds as though the exact same thing hasn't been done with Sonic, Final Fantasy, Halo, and a whole fuck load of other games throughout ever different system over the ages, do you really think it's that stable a criticism?

It seems that this whole game got fucked over by the fact that is was allowed to be done by the guys who bought you "Oh, jiggle physics, I bet the pathetic worms who live in their mothers basement and wank to anime every five fucking seconds, will lap this shit up!", rather than a competent developer, or maybe just one who's ethos doesn't begin and end with "OH TITS LOL!".