Metroid: Other M

by Nintendo

Product Features

• Metroid - Other M takes the best elements of 1st-person and 3rd-person gaming to create a seamless blend between game play, story-telling and dynamic cinematography, that feels like a movie you can control; you can hold the Wii Remote controller sideways while navigating and battling in 3rd-person; however, at any moment, you can switch immediately to Wii Remote pointer controls to examine and explore the environments in 1st-person perspective
• Metroid fans know more about Samus' suits and weapons than they do about what drives her; that's about to change, the story begins immediately following the events of Super Metroid, when a baby Metroid gave its life to protect Samus, with voice acting and a rich story, you will learn the engaging back-story of Samus as she weaves through an action-packed adventure aboard the Bottle Ship, a decommissioned space facility; as she hurtles into this new adventure, Samus will encounter her first men
• The development of Metroid - Other M is an exciting collaboration between Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto and Team Ninja; Sakamoto was the director of Super Metroid in 1994; Team Ninja is the renowned action developer of Ninja Gaiden. Metroid - Other M pairs Sakamoto's expert level design and exploratory focus of the classic Metroid series with Team Ninja's signature stylish, no-holds-barred action

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002BSC4ZS
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches ; 5.4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: August 31, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (241 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #20 in Video Games > Wii > Adventure

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Metroid: Other M is a single player shooter for Wii that takes the beloved Metroid franchise into uncharted and exciting new territory. Set between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, the game features unprecedented access to the backstory, thoughts and in-game interactions of the usually closed off heroine of the series, Samus Aran. Developed jointly by Nintendo and the celebrated Japanese development studio, Team Ninja, the game also features exciting play options, including the ability to switch between first-person and third-person perspectives, pointer and sideways Wii Remote controller orientation, stunning in-game cinematics and a classic blend of Metroid action and puzzle-solving gameplay. Continue the Metroid saga and learn much more about Samus Aran. View larger. Metroid Franchise's Heroine Gets Personal For decades, Samus Aran has been known as one of the first female protagonists in video games, and one of the most enigmatic. Having traded her haunted past for the solitary life of a bounty hunter, Samus finally tells her own tale in this revealing, personal story of her failings, her flaws and ultimately her motivation. Metroid: Other M is an unprecedented collaboration that blends the slick, action-packed production of the world-renowned Team Ninja development team with the game design talents of the creators of the original Metroid. Metroid: Other M is a dramatic new direction for a legendary franchise and a bold new blend between cinematics, storytelling and the best in interactive entertainment. Key Game Features Metroid: Other M takes the best elements of 1st-person and 3rd-person gaming to create a seamless blend between gameplay, storytelling and dynamic cinematography, that feels like a movie the player can control. Players hold the Wii Remote controller sideways while navigating and battling in 3rd-person. However, at any moment, players can switch immediately to Wii Remote pointer controls to examine and explore the environments in 1st-person perspective. Metroid fans know more about Samus' suits and weapons than they do about what drives her. That's about to change. The story begins immediately following the events of Super Metroid, when a baby Metroid gave its life to protect Samus. With voice acting and a rich story, players learn the engaging backstory of Samus as she weaves through an action-packed adventure aboard the Bottle Ship, a decommissioned space facility. As she hurtles into this new adventure, Samus will encounter her first mentor and Commanding Officer of the Galactic Federation, Adam Malkovich. The development of Metroid: Other M is an exciting collaboration between Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto and Team Ninja. Sakamoto was the director of Super Metroid in 1994. Team Ninja is the renowned action developer of Ninja Gaiden. Metroid: Other M pairs Sakamoto's expert level design and exploratory focus of the classic Metroid series with Team Ninja's signature stylish, no-holds-barred action. Additional Screenshots: 1st & 3rd person play options. View larger. Classic Metroid action. View larger. Beautiful in-game cinematics. View larger. 2D & 3D puzzle-solving. View larger.

Product Description

Metroid Franchise’s Heroine Gets Personal. For decades, Samus Aran has been known as one of the first female protagonists in video games and one of the most enigmatic. Having traded her haunted past for the solitary life of a bounty hunter, Samus finally tells her own tale in this revealing, personal story of her failings, her flaws and ultimately her motivation. Metroid: Other M is an unprecedented collaboration that blends the slick, action-packed production of the world-renowned Team Ninja development team with the game design talents of the creators of the original Metroid. Metroid: Other M is a dramatic new direction for a legendary franchise and a bold new blend between cinematics, storytelling and the best in interactive entertainment.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

183 of 230 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Metroid: Other Movie - A Lifetime Channel Original, September 16, 2010

By 

John (Spring Hill, FL United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Metroid: Other M (Video Game)

*Introduction*
The Metroid series is one of Nintendo's finest, and the new entry, Metroid: Other M, is finally here. After the excellent first person Metroid Prime series by Retro was concluded, it was announced that Metroid was returning to both third person view and Japanese development. Many fans were made uneasy when it was announced that Team Ninja would be heavily involved in the project, but the fact that it was being headed by Yoshio Sakamoto, who has been heavily involved with Metroid from the beginning, gave hope that the game would live up to its classic name. Sakamoto promised that this game would flesh out Samus's character as the most story heavy Metroid yet, but has this decision ultimately backfired?

*Story*
The story is the most controversial aspect of this game. Rather than opt for the minimalist approach of the other titles in the series, Metroid: Other M inserts a full blown Final Fantasy XIII style cinematic experience. The story begins with a recap of the events that took place in Super Metroid's final moments and leads into Samus receiving a distress signal from a space station called "the bottle ship." She arrives to find out that the Galactic Federation has already sent a squad of soldiers, led by her old commanding officer Adam Malkovich. She ultimately joins up with them and politely agrees to follow Adam's orders.

The most jarring aspect of the story is the way it fleshes out the character of Samus. While Samus has had spoken lines before in Metroid: Fusion, but they were never overly intrusive and didn't reveal a whole lot about her. However, in Other M, she not only talks, she talks a lot. For a series that has largely lived on letting the player form their own ideas about the character of Samus, this is a bit disconcerting. The personality she reveals as she narrates the storyline is bound to infuriate many fans who have long seen Samus as a stoic and strong individual who is in control of her emotions.

Throughout the game, Samus has many flashbacks to her time in the Galactic Federation with Adam which portray her as an insecure little girl who has trouble handling the fact that she's a woman in a man's world. From giving a thumbs down as a salute, to her monologues about how father figure Adam is the only one who understands her, this becomes cheesy and embarrassing to watch. Back on the bottle ship Samus continues to act submissive to Adam as she instantly agrees to disable all of her abilities at his request with zero hesitation. Later on in the game, there's a scene where Samus is so frozen in fear that she is unable to do anything. Samus comes across as insecure, uncertain, and even submissive at times.

Watching the story play out, it is incredibly difficult to believe that this could be the same bounty hunter who has courageously saved the galaxy on numerous occasions. In an attempt to make Samus more human and relatable, Other M goes overboard. It's one thing to have emotions. It's another thing to be crippled by them to the point of endangering lives. For a game series that has never had a lot of story and never really needed one, I have to question why the game creators felt the need to insert this melodramatic poorly plotted mess. The story is a major part of the game, and since you can't skip cut scenes, it is impossible to ignore.

Once you complete the game, a cinema mode unlocks where you can re-watch all of the cut-scenes strung together like a movie. Whether you'd want to is another story.

*Gameplay*
The gameplay in M:oM is also a controversial element. Other M opts to use only the Wii pointer and nothing else for control. You hold it sideways like a NES controller leaving only the d-pad and two buttons for input. If you want to fire a missile, you have to rotate the Wii remote so it is pointing at the screen, which changes the perspective to first person. This shift is rather awkward, and you can't move while you are in this view aside from an awkward dodge maneuver accomplished by quickly shifting the pointer off the side of the screen. The controls aren't broken, but they are not particularly good, either. They work, but only just.

The game itself plays more like an action game than a Metroid game. Almost all of the exploration you would expect from the series is gone, and for the vast majority of the game you are restricted to a linear path where doors will often lock behind you to prevent revisiting previous areas. There are some hidden missile expansions and energy tanks along the way, but the game pretty much tells you their exact position once you clear a room of enemies. The game only opens up to allow free exploration at the very end. This exploration makes it very clear why they decided to restrict the main story line so much, because when you have a few options of where to go, every other area is "now loading" for ten seconds, especially when you use the speed booster.

The combat in this game is very easy. Due to the limitations of using a digital control pad in 3d space, Other M includes a dodge move that occurs automatically when you are pressing a direction on the d-pad. This means you will almost never get hit by anything as long as you are moving around. Samus's gun also auto-aims, so most of the time you can just shoot blindly down a corridor and not worry about whether or not you hit anything. The only challenge comes from shifting to first person to fire a missile, which is only required for boss fights the majority of the time. This is more annoying and awkward than difficult, since it merely involves waiting until you have a large enough window of time to get a missile off without getting hit.

Throughout the game, Adam restricts the use of Samus's abilities until he deems them necessary, which means no more finding your abilities along the way, and also leads to illogical moments such as Adam not deciding it was appropriate to authorize the Varia suit to protect Samus from heat damage until she is already most of the way through the lava sector taking heavy heat damage along the way. This approach also means that there are no substantial new powerups for Samus to acquire. All of the significant abilities Samus has in this game are repeats from Super Metroid.

Also worth noting are frustrating sequences that involve freezing you in the first person perspective until you find some tiny hard to find object. Often you will pass the Wii cursor directly over the object you are supposed to examine without the game registering it, leading to a lot of time wasted passing over everything over and over in an attempt to find what you are meant to scan. These moments completely kill the pacing of the game.

*Replay Value*
After you complete the game, every door unlocks, and you are finally completely free to finish your collecting spree of leftover expansions. At this point, there is also an extra boss and epilogue sequence to find. However, this can all be done in less than twelve hours the first time through, and once you do, the only reason to replay the game is the hard mode that unlocks upon 100% completion. There is also a cinema mode and art gallery that unlocks. If you don't care about getting everything, a regular main story play-through only lasts around eight hours.

*Graphics*
The graphics look pretty good for a Wii game, but the actual art design is lacking. The game is filled with generic looking hallways and rooms that don't really stand out visually, and the themes never go beyond the typical generic fire, ice, and jungle areas. The only thing that stands out about them is the holographic effect that appears sometimes to remind you that these are only simulations on a space station. One high point of the visuals is that the animations are some of the most fluid I've seen on the Wii.

*Sound*
One of the most disappointing aspects of Metroid: Other M is that the game has almost no music during actual game play. The background noise consists mostly ambient sounds and, very rarely, one or two recycled tunes from past Metroid games. Expansions are also missing the familiar tune that used to play when you picked them up in other Metroid games. This is a very disappointing aspect of the game. The voice acting is alright, but it's not spectacular. Samus sounds monotone throughout the game and you'll be hearing her a lot. The sound effects for weapons and enemies are adequate.

*Overall*
In more ways than one, this game is a massive disappointment. The game is playable, but in a series as outstanding as Metroid, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and even taken on its own terms it fails to impress.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Epic fail, October 14, 2010

By 

Pikminfan "bobsworld3" (Rossburg, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Metroid: Other M (Video Game)

If you've ever had the pleasure of playing Super Metroid on the SNES, The Metroid Prime series on Gamecube and Wii, Metroid: Zero Mission and Fusion on the GBA or any of the other great games in the Metroid series, you are no doubt familiar with the concept of "fun". Well, I'm here to tell you that "Metroid Other M" is the exact opposite of that. Words can't describe just how much I truly hate this game.

Let me just start by saying that this is the most disappointing entry in the Metroid series by a long shot. That is a given. Even the nut-busting difficulty of Metroid Prime 2 is no match for the abomination that is "Metroid Other M". I pre-ordered this game assuming how incredible it would be as has been the case with every Metroid game that has preceded it. Shame on me. This is the first game in the series I considered abandoning and selling promptly while it still had a high resale value because I was having ZERO fun with it.

The biggest offender of "Metroid Other M" is the controls. They are "clunky" to put it mildly. Why you are forced to use the Wii remote only-with it's hobbit sized control pad, is beyond me. Why no nunchuck control? We've been using this crazy little thing called an "analog stick" for well over a decade now with good reason. My left thumb would often protest after even the shortest bouts of slogging through this game. it's pretty much like using your entire hand to operate a door bell. Also, the forced switch between 2d and 3d by moving the remote is awkward at best and completely jarring at worst. It doesn't work. Fail on Team Ninja, fail on Nintendo. This is the sloppiest control scheme I've seen on a Wii game for some time now. And considering the sheer amount of garbage games available on Wii-that's really saying something. Also, certain segments of the game were just plain clumsy. Climbing up elevator shafts for instance was an unnecessary chore. Not because it was difficult mind you, but because 90% of the time you can't make a jump without falling down a few rungs. No matter how many times you try, you can't connect the jump-then all of the sudden it works, even though you didn't do a thing differently.

The next "Other M" offense is the graphics. I know some reviewers have commented on Other M's "great graphics". Surely they must be referring to the cinematic scenes (which really are great) or the graphics of Samus and the Federation officers themselves, because everything else in this game looks like puke. The environments in "Other M" are uninspired, flat and "ugly" looking atrocities that probably wouldn't have looked good even in the N64 days. The bosses (besides Ridley) are also very uninspired and weak. The Metroid queen for instance looks like something out of "Ocarina of Time" circa 1998. Even the original Metroid Prime for gamecube which has eight years on "Other M" runs circles around it in the graphics department. Even for a Wii game, this game is truly ugly.

Offense number 3 is game play. First off, the enemies just aren't fun to kill. They don't leave bits of health behind for you to collect either. I was amazed at just how much I missed this small detail-but just like most of Metroid's other hallowed trademarks, this too has been unceremoniously dumped from the experience. The game play is also linear to a fault. No more serious exploring folks. Exploration is discouraged in Other M which pretty much goes against the grain of the entire Metroid series. No more unlocking weapons. No more colored doors. It's all scripted and you are shoved from room to room with your ability to explore and find secrets all but taken from you. Activating your weapons because "Adam" finally allows you is a ridiculous gaming device. This just smacks of lazy game development. Was progression through the discovery of new weapons too much to ask of team ninja? I guess just like everything else associated with Nintendo this generation though (outside of maybe the Mario Galaxy series), cutting corners is the name of the game.

You may want to skip this next offense, as it has no bearing on the experience-it is just a personal quip. It concerns the art direction. What happened to Metroid? This game bears very little visual resemblance what-so-ever to the Metroid series outside of Samus herself. That in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing in gaming as the same can be said for "The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker" when compared to the rest of the Zelda series. However, unlike that game-this game doesn't even feel like it's part of the same universe. It's such a complete variation of the Metroid cannon-and the creatures here just don't seem to fit visually at all with what we know of the Metroid series. It would be like putting Jar Jar Binks into The Lord of the Rings. The universes just don't jive for me. But like I said, that is more of a personal gripe-it's nothing that affects the gaming experience.

Overall, I found the whole "Other M" experience a completely un-fun drag. I slogged through this game and even played the epilogue only to justify my investment in pre-ordering it. Trust me though, the minute I finished, I literally went to my computer and listed it on amazon in the used games section. This will be the last time I pre-order a Nintendo game without playing it first. I've never been burned by Nintendo before given their track record, but this game was pathetic on just about every level. Boo and hiss to the biggest dud in Metroid history. Fail.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Other Mediocrity, September 4, 2010

By 

William C. Rives (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metroid: Other M (Video Game)

Move over, "Super Mario Sunshine." There's a new king of mediocrity in the world of almost-always-amazing-but-occasionally-not Nintendo. Okay, so maybe mediocre is a little too harsh for the description of "Super Mario Sunshine," but it's likely a tad generous for "Metroid: Other M"--Nintendo and Team Ninja's ambitious joint project. In the months leading up to its release, fans were promised that this entry would be both "the ultimate Metroid experience" and that it would be a "return to the series' roots." Unfortunately for fans, neither promise was fulfilled, as I found out for myself two nights ago when I finished it. In this comprehensive review, I will try to cover all of the game's major aspects, both the good and the bad.

First, I'll go over the story, since Nintendo has made it evident that this is one of the most important parts of the game (don't worry, I'm not going to spoil any of the surprises). The game starts off with an amazing CGI cutscene, depicting the end of the climactic showdown between Samus Aran and Mother Brain at the end of the SNES classic, "Super Metroid." After Mother Brain's destruction, the game fast-forwards a little bit to Samus recovering from her battle and setting off once again to search for any, new bounties. Suddenly, she receives a distress beacon, which she immediately follows to a giant space station, called "The Bottleship." After landing, Samus meets up with her old squad, of which she was a part in her earlier, military days. The squad is led by her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. Deciding to join forces, Samus assists the group in finding out what has happened on the station. That is when her adventure begins. Throughout the game, Samus continuously has flashbacks that are meant to flesh out her history for the gamer. These are done through the use of CGI cutscenes, like the one in the introduction. These cutscenese all look fantastic; it's obvious that Nintendo made this a priority in helping tell Samus' story. Nintendo has never been known for story-intensive games, which is why this change-up is a little bit refreshing. However, in every cutscene I saw, I never found myself actually liking Samus any more. Mostly, this is because she is depicted as a rebellious punk in her youth. Also, as each flashback unfolds, Samus gives the narration, which is overly melodramatic and only carries a tone of depression. Yes, as a kid, Samus was rebellious and bitter, and now, she just mopes around all the time, speaking poetically to everyone, who will listen to her. How is that likable? How is the player supposed to connect with such melancholy? It's as if her true mission is to make every gamer as depressed as she is.... I think we may be onto something here. Additionally, the present story aboard the Bottleship takes far too long to develop. It does start to pick up toward the end, but in all honesty, it's a bit silly. Although Nintendo went to great lengths to make story a much more important factor than in past games, this one mostly fails to have any resonation with the player.

Next, I will discuss graphics and sound. In all fairness, for a Wii game, "Other M" looks okay, but when you compare it to other first-party games on the console, it doesn't meet the bar (it's amazing what developers can do with the Wii's graphical power, when they actually try hard). Also, the character designs look atrocious. I understand that the team probably wanted a simpler look, since "simplicity" was the main theme Nintendo wanted to incorporate for this game, but why change the look of characters just for the sake of making changes? Regardless of the team's intentions, the characters and creatures look terrible, with absolutely no detail or life to them. Unlike the excellent Prime trilogy and Super Metroid, "Other M" has absolutely no memorable music or atmosphere. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the Prime games, but it's very hard to accept downgrades of this number and magnitude. If you played the original Prime, you may remember what it was like exiting the claustrophobic, fiery Magmoor Caverns and stepping out into the wide-open, chilly Phendrana Drifts; there is no such moment or any of the Primes' other great moments in "Other M". Also, you will not find any of the near-perfect level and creature designs found in "Super Metroid." As for the voice-acting, Nintendo has not made many strides in catching up to the rest of the industry. I normally would not ridicule Nintendo for this, because they did try, but because they insisted on making this such a story-intensive game and because there is so much dialogue, I have to place it in the equation. In both the areas of graphics and sound, the Metroid series has taken a major step backwards.

Lastly, I will discuss the game play. For most Nintendo games, this section would take up the majority of a review, but in the case of "Other M", it gets an equal share. I won't say whether that was a slam or a compliment. After finishing the game, I still can't quite figure out who this game was meant for. On the one hand, it seems like Nintendo wanted a "simple" feel, forcing players to hold the Wii remote horizontally, without the use of the Nun chuck. On the other hand, the movement and combat that's required all feels more complicated and extremely awkward, especially at first, when the player is trying to adjust to the controls. If this was a true return-to-roots sidescroller, this control setup would work, but because players are often running through 3D environments, it becomes nearly unmanageable. The nun chuck attachment would have certainly remedied this offset. Regardless, combat can be real pain. Without a doubt, the most frustrating part of combat is firing missiles. In order to fire them, players are forced to turn the Wii remote and point it at the screen, switching the view to first-person. And because the Wii remote is the only controller allowed, the player cannot move while in this view. Also, the player cannot fire missiles at will. Instead, he or she has to hold the "B" button to lock onto a creature or destructible structure and then fire. Obviously, this can cause problems in intense firefights, in which missiles are required. You can literally lose one or two seconds in the process of switching to first person, actually locating the enemy, locking onto it, and firing the missile (or in some cases, charging up a shot to fire a super missile). Another complaint about the combat is auto-firing. Because of the strange 2D-meets-3D setup, players are forced to fire at enemies automatically, using the "A" button, without any precise aiming required. Yes, this is simple, but because enemies aren't always visible on the screen, auto-firing won't always detect them. Aside from combat, another sore spot for the game play is the process of regenerating health and missiles. In past Metroid games, players could destroy enemies, which would then drop items that Samus could use to recharge herself. In "Other M", however, enemies do not drop anything when they are destroyed. Instead, if the player wants to recharge Samus' missiles, he or she has to hold the Wii remote up and hold the "A" button. After between three and five seconds, Samus' missiles will be completely replenished. In the same manner, Samus can replenish her health, but there's a catch--in order to recharge Samus' health, the player has to come within an inch of dying (about 30 HP), and after three to five seconds of holding down the "A" button, Samus' health will only partially replenish itself. In the case of most battles, this becomes problematic, since most enemies aren't going to stand around to let the player replenish his or her health. It's obvious that the developers had the mindset that if the player's energy gets too low, then he or she deserves to die. However, you can replenish both Samus' health and missiles at navigation stations, which are also used to save your progress. Just hope that you can always make it to the next station before your health gets too low. Lastly, exploration has been largely scaled back. For some people, this may be more of a preference than a complaint, but because this is a Metroid title, I felt it was worth taking into account, especially since players were promised that this would retain all of Metroid's core elements. As for what does work, there are new moves made especially for this game: sense (a quick, evasive action), lethal strike, counter-attack, and overblast). All of these work well and become almost automatic for the player, thanks to Team Ninja's expertise with Ninja Gaiden's combat system.

"Metroid: Other M" is an ambitious change to the familiar Metroid formula. It seems like there were opposing viewpoints for what should be done with the series, instead of a united, cohesive effort. "Other M" could have been an amazing game; I'm almost sure of it. I think that if Nintendo and Team Ninja were intent on working together on this project, they would have been better served choosing one control layout--either simple, 2D side-scrolling or full 3D exploration, with the nun chuck. Instead, what we have is a mish-mash of good and bad ideas, mixed with underdeveloped visual design and audio, and wrapped up in a mostly bland story. To me, it is shameful that Nintendo would allow this series to take such a fall, especially since the Nintendo development team behind this is the same team responsible for all of the early 2D Metroid classics, as well as Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance. I sincerely hope that Nintendo learns from this mistake. If the company can retain its focus on solid game play and take gentle, productive steps on injecting more presentation value, I think it can keep its key franchises fresh, while making sure that gamers always see what makes each one so special.