Zero Punctuation: Metroid Other M
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
MovieBob has always had some extreme fanboy issues but they've only really become a massive detractor after he was picked up by Screwattack, for me anyway. Recently he seems to be going on tirade about how much he hates FPS and it culminates in his most recent episode where he flat out states that FPS are the reason for all of gaming's problems, without actually saying why of course. It comes to no surprise to me that he hates the thought of Metroid being an FPS, probably sees it as some sort of mutation of a beloved childhood franchise or something.Flamma Man said:
Anyway, as for the game and the review; Yahtzee seems to have pretty much hit the nail on the head. A lot of people are trying to avoid the pathetic characterization of Samus by saying that it takes her from a 1D character to a 3D character which is pretty much false, it takes her from a silent 1D character to a 1D character that bitches a lot and needs saving from the final boss, and that this is good writing. It isn't good writing folks, it's terrible. She's a whining ***** who exposits everything, basically becomes a damsel in distress during the cut scenes but turns into the hero during gameplay. The story is contrived and tries to cram it's imagery and metaphors down our throats and generally treats us like morons. That's bad writing folks, it's really bad writing and as Yahtzee is a published Author while Moviebob and his ilk are not I know who I'll trust in regards to story. Not to say that Yahtzee is always 100% right, however here he definitely has more credentials than Moviebob and random Nintendo fanboys.
I also want to address the Real Women Never Wear Dresses [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealWomenNeverWearDresses] trope that this thing is likely going to come down to, if it hasn't already. I hate that female characters have to have 'male' attributes to be considered a positive role model. She can't bake, clean, be a mother, wear dresses, have any real weaknesses and can't dare have high levels of affection otherwise she be considered sexist. I hate that for two reasons, one) it encourages cookie-cutter characters, and 2) it's complete bullshit. A good aversion of this trope is found in Sailor Moon and I actually have to recommend checking out a couple of episodes of the original Japanese version because it's interesting stuff.
Anyway, defense of Samus' new character direction seems to be falling back to this with people claiming haters don't like her because she isn't there vision of a 'perfect female protagonist' and for a female to be a liked character she has to be as close to a 'male character' as possible. Bullshit I say. Samus has gone to far into the deep end and isn't hated because she has weaknesses and emotions, but because she is those weaknesses and emotions. She has become a ball of angst and whining which is what people hate, not because she doesn't fit into the preconceived notions of what a 'feminist' female character should be.
My thoughts exactly.Argol228 said:
I had the opportunity to play the game before this review. It's a real shame that so many would see the game as "crap" rather than see that the video is critiquing the game, because it's his job to nitpick and be very critical of a game, hence video game critic.
I really enjoyed playing other M and would have never guessed that there would be such an opinion on the voice acting, as she spoke very honestly and intelligently. "Robotic" or "dry" voice? "Over the top emotional"? No, I don't think so, she was very composed and her responses were very human.
A great video, it's just a shame that they ruined Samus character. What Yahtzee said was right, she just was a woman in previous games. I always respected her character since she managed to be a woman without being one of the god awful stereotypes in the entertainment industry. I'll just go play Metroid Fusion to remember how she used to be.
You know I could have also guessed from the box art that Samus' armour was going to fall off every 5 minutes. There are seemingly 2 picturs of Saumus, one where she is not wearing her armour and another where we can see her through her face through her armour.
Admittedly, I didn't get into the Metroid franchise til just last year. I played Prime and then Fusion and enjoyed both, but I'll never understand why people almost exclusively compared this game to the Prime trilogy rather than what Metroid originally was and what even the gameplay currently pays homage to. The Prime series was the first drastic step towards drastically changing the gameplay and the reason why I think people universally accept it here in the West because we're comfortable with this style of play already. Admittedly, Retro did an amazing job regardless to keep Metroid's original feel, but if it weren't for a comfortable controller and the level of detail/execution, I would have gotten frustrated with its slow, clunky controls and annoying camera.
Haven't people been asking for Nintendo to do something radically different anyway? Be careful what you wish for.
I am pretty much indifferent to this whole squabble of RUINED FOREVER! [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER] probably due to my limited time in the fanbase, so to speak. I don't see Samus' character getting ruined probably because I don't feel the connection with what little there was to character her by and therefor, don't care too much, but this thread sounds nothing more than a raging feminist column.
Haven't people been asking for Nintendo to do something radically different anyway? Be careful what you wish for.
I am pretty much indifferent to this whole squabble of RUINED FOREVER! [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER] probably due to my limited time in the fanbase, so to speak. I don't see Samus' character getting ruined probably because I don't feel the connection with what little there was to character her by and therefor, don't care too much, but this thread sounds nothing more than a raging feminist column.
Since when has any Metroid game since Super Nintendo not needed good FPS mechanics? The main character's defining traits include a GUN ON HER ARM. If Team Ninja was trying to make a non-FPS game, they picked the wrong franchise. This isn't Zelda.BlueInkAlchemist said:
Arguing that a protagonist is some quality because the player controlling them does stupid things is ridiculous. So if I play Arkham Asylum and make Batman die over and over by missing punches, does that mean Batman is an incompetent klutz? NO.
It doesn't matter if Samus is a silent protagonist, there are tons of pieces of information from the earlier Metroid games that establish who she is, including most glaringly the audio/scan logs from Prime et. al. Samus is a bounty hunter but she hunts Space Pirates, Ridley, and the rest out of a determination to seek the unknown and keep others safe (remember how every mission ever begins with her responding to a distress call without promise of reward?). She is, in every game, either the first explorer or the one-woman rescue team. If there's any part of this description that doesn't scream bold and independent then I challenge you to find it.
Yahtzee has made plenty of biased questionable reviews. This is not even close. The fact that he shares criticisms with many other sources should tell you that the game is, in fact, shit, and the plot makes me personally cringe.
Yeah, nobody likes the story. Nobody. Also, where are the Chozon? You know, the bird liek aliens that developed her suit which is the MOST ADVANCED PIECE OF PERSONAL MILLITARY HARDWARE IN THE GALAXY. I mean, Jesus the thing FUSES with the wearer, except for the carapace which is removable via command sequence for maitinance and repair. Anyway, how does somthing three centuries ahead of everyone else get taken out by one low powered shot to the back? This isn't even a space pirate level gun, and we know that Samus can take a ton of those. And why is she only NOW scared of Riddly whom she's killed officialy 17 times. And don't give us that childhood trauma crap, that would have been resolved in the first game timeline wise, which I think is still the origional for the NES even after all the inserts over the series.
Samus is a total badass with limited emotions. No seriously, she actually has limited emotions as she was trained for most of her life by her foster parents to suppress all emotion. She is a cold blooded mercenary killer for hire that none the less has a strict personal code that dictates what sort of jobs she'll take. i.e. she won't attack inocent people, but criminals are not only fair game, she'll even give a discount! Why would you take a tough as nails positive female empowerment rolemodle and suddenly make her a weepy, emotional mess that needs to be rescued, has 'dady' issues, and has her armor fall off? That's like depowering Wonder Woman....oh wait they tried that. It was an attempt to show that women didn't need super powers to be powerful. Curious about how well that worked out? It took less than a year to change back due to accusations of sexism to have depowered the only well known major female hero, and whats more ironic is that the public felt that it had the oposite message, that even the best amoung women would never have a chance to meassure up to males. I can see if they were trying to make Samus more sympathetic and relateable, but they flubbed it on such a massive scale I'm not even going to give them a chance to repent.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to go pee through their mail slot. And by that, I mean throw a letter bomb in there. And by letter bomb I mean you might want to avoid that city for the next fifteen to twenty years, depending on how long it takes the radiation to fade.
Samus is a total badass with limited emotions. No seriously, she actually has limited emotions as she was trained for most of her life by her foster parents to suppress all emotion. She is a cold blooded mercenary killer for hire that none the less has a strict personal code that dictates what sort of jobs she'll take. i.e. she won't attack inocent people, but criminals are not only fair game, she'll even give a discount! Why would you take a tough as nails positive female empowerment rolemodle and suddenly make her a weepy, emotional mess that needs to be rescued, has 'dady' issues, and has her armor fall off? That's like depowering Wonder Woman....oh wait they tried that. It was an attempt to show that women didn't need super powers to be powerful. Curious about how well that worked out? It took less than a year to change back due to accusations of sexism to have depowered the only well known major female hero, and whats more ironic is that the public felt that it had the oposite message, that even the best amoung women would never have a chance to meassure up to males. I can see if they were trying to make Samus more sympathetic and relateable, but they flubbed it on such a massive scale I'm not even going to give them a chance to repent.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to go pee through their mail slot. And by that, I mean throw a letter bomb in there. And by letter bomb I mean you might want to avoid that city for the next fifteen to twenty years, depending on how long it takes the radiation to fade.
SO DECREES THE GAME OVERTHINKER! [http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/]Moviebob said:Look, I appreciate and am grateful for people posting and linking the show throughout the web, but can I ask a small favor?
When you do, can we maybe NOT do it as part of an "eff you!" or "your opinion is WRONG, here's the RIGHT one!" thing on a forum or talkback or whatever? I appreciate the passion and enthusiasm, but when the show - and, by extension, *I* - get used in such a way, it reflects bad on the show and reflects bad on me. Y'know?
Especially since, regarding the "Other M" episode... I wasn't looking to "refute" or "take-down" any other game critic or site; mainly just respond to recurring message-board trolling and memes.
So... by all means, re-post... but let's all have some tact, eh?
I myself would still like to see a battle of the death between Yahtzee and Moviebob over this, but que sera sera.
Holy Shit! I didn't think you would beat this one to death. You literally threw it to the ground and stepped on it's face, and I loved every second of it.
I already knew giving her a voice wouldn't work out well and I was against it in the first place because the original Samus was practically perfect. You don't change something that's pretty much perfect, the games were amazing as well. All they have to do is improve the game play with the new technology and that's it.
I already knew giving her a voice wouldn't work out well and I was against it in the first place because the original Samus was practically perfect. You don't change something that's pretty much perfect, the games were amazing as well. All they have to do is improve the game play with the new technology and that's it.
honestly one of the worst videos he's ever done, on par with Brawl, the jokes aren't funny, again I disagree with him and he is beating on the dead horse that both me and http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-40-Heavens-to-Metroid [moviebob] wish people would stop beating.
Recipe for a terrible ZP.
Recipe for a terrible ZP.
