It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:37 pm

All times are UTC




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Wii - Metroid: Other M
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 4:34 pm 
Offline
Level: 41 Machinist
HP: 268 / 5376
268 / 5376
MP: 2567 / 2567
2567 / 2567
EXP: 2797 / 2806
2797 / 2806
User avatar

Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 2797
Location: Brampton, Canada
XBL Gamertag: J58P4
PSN ID: MadSketch
Steam ID: afororange
Metroid: Other M
Players: One
Age Rating: Mature

For some reason I decided to play my Wii again. Being driven the near nausea by the muddiness of Majora’s Mask, I needed a break for my eyes. Something with more graphics, which is kind of ironic since I picked up a Wii game to play.

Not having a SNES or knowledge of any other NES game outside of Mario as a child, Metroid was a new series for me when I got Metroid Prime when it came out. Prime was slick; it knew its limits and worked within them. I like details, so to have the world painstakingly documented with logs and a bestiary had me nerding out for hours. Playing it recently, I give it the greatest compliment for a video game: it’s still good. There are no qualifiers following that. No “at the time” appendages like you have to apply to GoldenEye. Metroid Prime is maybe slightly less timeless than Tetris, on par with Sonic 2 and SMB3, and far ahead of whatever shooter people are playing right now. Prime made me a fan of the series.

Other M isn’t quite so good. Its draw is peculiar.

Other M would appear on the surface to be a game for fans. Two dimensional gameplay but we’ve also got first person gameplay and secret rooms and a story with voice acting and finishers and Team Ninja and dodging and great graphics and orchestrated sound and CG and you only need a Wiimote to play and RIDLEY! Other M couldn’t feel more design-by-committee unless it sent out survey questions on the Everybody Votes Channel.

Despite this, Other M gets some key areas right. Good, but not Metroid Prime great. The third person control is fantastic and one of the reasons I played the game to 100% completion. (The other was that, hey, I was already at 86% by the time I got tired of it in the Epilouge, so I might as well go for broke.) I love how it feels to play. Samus feels lethal. Her movements are sharp, honed and precise. Shooting gives a satisfying thud of force feedback and sound. 3D movement works well despite using the D-Pad for control. Samus is always running – she’s on a mission! – so it’s not like you need granular control anyways. The game becomes much easier with the Screw Attack, though.

This satisfying feel is overblown a bit with the addition of Lethal Strikes, Overblast and the SenseMove. Lethal Strikes are finishers that Samus can do. You simply run up to a downed enemy and Samus will do some fancy acrobatics to finish the enemy off. Overblasts are where Samus jumps onto an enemy’s head and fires a charged shot into its skull. The SenseMove is the dodging technique; tap and direction when an enemy is about to hit you and you’ll dodge out of the way.

These aspects bring the overall impression of the control down a bit, from great to slightly annoying at times. That feeling of satisfaction is dumbed down when you see the ridiculous ranges from which you can SenseMove, or the repetitive Lethal Strike and Overblast animations. The problem with design-by-committee is that there are drawbacks everywhere.

First person control is activated by pointing the Wiimote at the screen. You can only stand still here, and it’s the only way to shoot missiles. The scanning ability I loved so much in Prime is gone. You really only use this view to observe objects which the game cheerfully points out or to smite people. Sometimes you have to search for something in an “investigation mode” where you are forced into first-person and have to look for something specific. Many people made a fuss about this and they are justified; you sometimes have to move the Wiimote very specifically over something for no specified reason in order to activate the next scene. Again, a good idea with not exactly the best implementation.

Personally the only thing the game gets unequivocally right is the presentation. This game looks gorgeous. It’s sharp, the enemies are colourful and the ship dour and depressing, as expected. I really love the soundtrack for how creepy it is. It doesn’t have music as much as it has atmospheric sound. The CG looks great, but honestly these are things you expect from a Team Ninja game. There’s not much to say aside from it’s the superficial things it nails.

The sense that Other M is a game at odds with itself builds. And that’s not even considering the story!

Much has been made about how Samus isn’t what we expected. Samus has definitely been dumbed down to Generic Female with Huge Tits and Issues that is supposed to make us care for her. I personally take offense to this definition of Samus, but I would be willing to accept it if the developers defined this as an alternate take on the Metroid series. But setting it in the same storyline makes no sense. She freefalls down a 16 kilometer shaft in Prime 3 to kill Ridley but gets post-trauma at the appearance of him in Other M? It doesn’t make any sense.

Samus is defined in Other M as unconfident, searching for Adam’s approval. Yet she jumps on enemies heads to blast their skulls open? The pieces don’t add up and you get that same divide that ruined GTAIV; Samus in cutscene and Samus in gameplay are completely different. And here’s the problem with making a game around multiple ideas than one solid concept; nothing meshes completely. The most successful games are focused. Other M is not.

And it’s this lack of focus that kills it. Despite the mostly great gameplay, the game is held back by aspiring to be too much in its peripheral elements. If you accept Other M as a game, and a game alone with the brain turned off during the cutscenes, it’s fine and mostly fun. If you expect anything more you will likely be disappointed.

Ratings


Graphics: A Glorious colour!
Sound: A minimal at times, huge at times, wholly effective.
Gameplay: B could have been better with some pruning or more polish
Replayability: C hard mode unlocks by 100% completion but that's about it. There is also a short Epilogue.
Story: D wat.

OVERALL: B Flash and Dazzle, not a whole lot of substance.

_________________
Image

Inspired by PhoenixGamma.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Wii - Metroid: Other M
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 8:53 pm 
Offline
Level: 45 Judge
HP: 420 / 7015
420 / 7015
MP: 3349 / 3349
3349 / 3349
EXP: 3530 / 3604
3530 / 3604
User avatar

Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:07 pm
Posts: 3530
I liked it, cant remember if I reviewed it ever, but I liked it.

Nice review, I concer.

_________________
What I think Dofuss wrote:
Something about Firefly? Hang on, thats definitely something about Chobot. No more ugly something or other jesus fuck what is this.
I KNOW I AM DOING MYSELF OUT OF A JOB MAYBE, AND THATS "MAYBE" AS IN "I THINK THATS WHAT WAS WRITTEN".
YES I could right (but probably meant write) better if you convented, hang on thats not even a real word, what the shitting fuck, screw this I'm off for a kebab and then bed.

http://www.appspy.com/author/268/alex-beech


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Wii - Metroid: Other M
PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:23 pm 
Offline
Level: 41 Machinist
HP: 268 / 5376
268 / 5376
MP: 2567 / 2567
2567 / 2567
EXP: 2797 / 2806
2797 / 2806
User avatar

Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 2797
Location: Brampton, Canada
XBL Gamertag: J58P4
PSN ID: MadSketch
Steam ID: afororange
Less semi-colons this time :D

_________________
Image

Inspired by PhoenixGamma.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 

All times are UTC


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Blue Moon by Trent © 2007
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group