Metroid Other M For Wii

Half way through Other M (see if you can work out the puzzle behind the title before the end of the review) there was a point where I strongly thought this could well be the best Metroid game ever. Then the game peaked about 3 quarters through and sadly never went any further, promising us a moment we were cruelly denied. I will be discussing (in brief) a couple of these latter moments so please be aware of minor spoilers.

Other M is the result of the collaboration between Team Ninja of Ninja Gaiden fame and Nintendo themselves. What we have is a wonderful continuation of the classic Metroid gameplay but also a nice nod to the phenomenal Metroid Prime titles, in that you can look through our heroine Samus’ mask at any time you desire. It’s a little confusing a system at first but one soon adapts thanks to some decent design decisions which we’ll look at in detail below.

Metroid Other M is set an undisclosed amount of time after Super Metroid and before Metroid Fusion. Wasting no time getting going the game is opened with a glorious FMV recreating the ending of Super Metroid, showing that game’s final boss – the Mother Brain- laying to waste the last Metroid that existed and one that took Samus as a sort of surrogate mother. After this fight Samus is taken in by the Galactic Federation (who we now have fleshed out through flashbacks and her own voice) and much of Samus’ past choices are revealed here. Returning back to her bounty hunter duties she stumbles across a distress signal titled ‘Baby’s Cry’ and follows the signal to its source, a large bottle ship owned by the Federation. Once she gets on board she runs into a small squad of Federation marines, including her old CO and father figure Adam Malkovich, (who series fans will remember is mentioned in Fusion). From here the story twists and turns as you run into wonderful monsters, some decent if understated bosses, and some great exploration and characterisation – the latter being a real first for the series.

See, Samus has always been a masked character – her persona and appearance always hidden behind her battle suit – but this is the first game where he she is seen oft outside her suit. We see her as a reckless teenager, we see her frightened and shook up for the first time in the series. This has caused various voices within the gaming world to shout heresy for daring to show Samus as anything other than she has been before. But I welcome it with open arms. Nintendo have always had a thing for silent heroes and Samus was before now no exception. But where Link should truly stay silent, the Metroid universe is rich with its story and Samus has a background worth telling; of all of Nintendo’s flagship characters she is the one who truly deserves her voice, and damn it’s nice to see an indestructible hero vulnerable for a time. Team Ninja explores Samus' past in some beautiful FMV cinematics, very cleverly directed and a general delight to look at. The voice actors do their part but the actress of who plays Samus tinges the role with an element of sadness which was a nice and unexpected turn, and copes well enough when she needs to rise up to the challenge.

The game, coming off of the back of the Ninja Gaiden games has been made to retrofit the 2D style of the previous Metroid games. Much of the running around and platform jumping is done viewed from the side like the days of old, but once the combat takes place, arena style combat takes over in the same vein as God of War/Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden, but naturally more simplified here. Dodging, for example, is done simply by pressing a direction away at the right time, all the shooting is auto-aimed and the overall difficulty is much simpler compared to the referenced peers. This decision is a welcome one. Metroid has always been about having fun with the environments and monsters and putting a Ninja Gaiden level of challenge would have simply not suited the universe or the series. The system Team Ninja have employed here is wonderful – definitely some of the best gameplay I’ve experienced on the Wii in quite some time, despite the fact that you are playing (and can only play) on the Wii mote held sideways it performs admirably, with a small amount of buttons used to do everything. The small D-pad may cause some slight discomfort but I only noticed this after a marathon run through. There are various combat techniques bestowed upon Samus and experimenting with them and playing with all your weapons and abilities really helps mix up much of the fighting, and because there is so much fighting it does sometimes cause a small amount of repetition so it’s sometimes left to the player to mix it up- otherwise the combat does risk becoming a sequence of the same events throughout the backtracking and such. It’s hardly an issue though.

The first person system homages the Prime series well, using the wiimote pointed at the screen the game shifts from its external camera to Samus’ visor view. This allows you to not only fire your missiles (a long-time staple of the series) but also target specific weak points and hidden/destroyable scenery – often leading to power ups that are marked on your map should you kill everything in the area. In the heat of the boss battles switching can sometimes be a chore and getting your bearings together ready to fire a missile in the small windows of time you are given can be a challenge, but it’s something that I actually found quite easy to get to grips with and a generous slow down when the view changes (which quickly resumes normal speed after a couple of seconds) makes it all the more smoother.

With everything working as well as it should – the game should have reached the great heights – a 10, I thought at one point. But I noticed despite the classic approach to gameplay the first major flaw of the game is the way your abilities and weapons come available to you. The previous games had a wonderful sense of discovery and accomplishment when you finally found or earned that key ability to allow you to progress further into the game. Here Samus has all her abilities at the start but is only allowed to use them after she has been authorised to do so by Malkovich himself. This is a different way of controlling the games progress, but it’s not a better one, the reward of hunting power ups dampened somewhat.

Another area is the bosses, there are a couple that really excel in the title, but after the superb and epic battles of the previous games, particularly the Prime series where each boss was a set piece in itself, this is very much a by the numbers approach, none are particularly taxing and having to change view -though simple enough in the end- still breaks up the flow of many of the fights. They are superb, don’t get me wrong, but I just feel something was missing from them in way that other series games, whether it’s Prime, Zero Mission or Fusion, excelled. It’s nice to see some bosses realised in full 3D though – a couple being a very nice surprise. The game is also astonishingly fair with its check pointing; you never have to retrace many of your steps should you die, and to be honest it’s not a frustrating game either. If you die it’s simply because you haven’t worked out how to do it, not because the game is riotously unfair.

The final telling flaw is in the story toward the end of the game. Certain decisions made within the story essentially nullify and make redundant much of what Samus accomplished in Super Metroid – but by the end of the game she’s essentially achieved it all over again. Bar the appearance of Adam Malkovich this game doesn’t really push the series forward – it’s nice to have Samus fleshed out and learn much of her past – but I would argue they don’t show enough. I’m longing to see the attack of Ridley which ultimately leads to Samus’ parents dying. I’d of liked to see her get the power suit for the first time and be taken in by the Chozo, but alas we aren’t shown that either. There’s simply not enough solid meat to really appreciate here, but there are moments of brilliance, and one truly incredible moment which I actually herald as one of the best moments in gaming history – it’s that good.

See, I adore Ridley; he’s up there with my favourite bosses in the entirety of video gaming. We all knew he’d be in this – I just didn’t know where. When he finally shows up, we are shown a side of Samus which has seen much scrutiny in discussions online. She essentially clams up and cannot fight to begin with. People call this a contrast from who we’ve been given in the past but I think it’s wonderful they have been bold enough to show it. See, Samus has best Ridley time and again, a total of 5 times by the time Other M starts, the last time supposedly 'fatally' killing him. When he finally shows up in Other M, Samus is in utter disbelief she has to fight him all over again. It reflects in the cut scene and the subsequent boss battle is without doubt the best moment in the game, just like it was in Metroid Prime. The Ridley battles are extremely special in that tactics all but go out the window and it becomes a massive duke out between these two arch enemies. The series has always been about this and it’s nice to see it replicated here. It’s the peak of a brilliant game, but sadly it never achieves this dizzying height again. It wouldn't matter – but following on from this we are promised a final Ridley fight, but the game denies us this by the end and we are left feeling slightly empty of our showdown with this supremely great villain.

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