Metroid: Other M

It's plainly evident from spending even a few minutes with Other M that this isn't a full-blooded Nintendo game. Nintendo first-parties absolutely can't release a game until it's polished to a blinding sheen, even if it means a shallow general experience. Other M, on the other hand, is a risky proposition: the ambitious storytelling, voice acting, and franchise-changing action gameplay make it unlike any game Nintendo would ever make on its own. The result is, well, imperfect, and could very well be underwhelming depending on your expectations.

In its first hour, Other M suffers from overlong cutscenes, filled with hit-or-miss writing and acting (literally, while some lines work great, others are shamefully bad). It aims to make Samus more believable as a character, and while it succeeds in making her impossible life story more relatable, the cutscenes are simply too lengthy and uneven to be consistently satisfying. Fortunately, they dissolve as the game moves on, and it becomes more about some fast-paced action that... well, takes some getting used to.

First thing's first: holding the Wii remote sideways like an NES controller is not comfortable. It never has been. While this set-up can be tolerable if the game suits it, having to navigate a 3D environment with a D-pad isn't exactly a perfect fit. To its credit, Team Ninja has implemented an impressively functional control system, that auto-aims at all the right moments; but at a very basic level, it still doesn't feel right.

I could say the same of the game's general design. Other M puts Samus aboard a surprisingly big space station with a substantial map to navigate, but exploration is, at least as far as I've played, a non-issue: this game doesn't just guide you to your next objective, it forces you there. In general, you can go forward, or backward. Sometimes, not backward. The optional upgrades (yes, there are still energy tanks and missile expansions) feel more like bonus items than like organic parts of the game.

But I don't want to sell Other M short. While it's easy to pick out ways in which it falls short, and somewhat obvious solvable problems (I won't even go into the point-to-first-person thing), it still gets an impressive number of things right. A recharge-anytime mechanic means that the game can be difficult moment-to-moment, without punishing you for making a mistake here or there. A generous checkpoint system mitigates the frustration even further. And like I said, despite the fundamental weirdness of using a four-directional pad to move in three dimensions, and not being able to move while aiming in first-person, the gameplay works more often than it doesn't -- in fact, I would say, most of the time.

If you're coming at this game from an action-game standpoint, i.e. a fan of Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry, you'll probably be somewhat disappointed. By action standards, Other M's gameplay isn't very deep; and it doesn't bring enough of the Metroid franchise formula with it to feel substantially different. But if you're nothing more than a Metroid fan, like myself, then Other M is an interesting twist on the series with some refreshingly new (again, to the franchise) mechanics.

Progress: Killed a weird tree monster thing