Other (M)etroid Game

So Metroid: Other M was really...interesting. I felt like I couldn't skip it since it had Metroid in the title. But I'd heard a lot about how it was such a departure from previous games.

The combat is mostly great. But I see too much Ninja Gaiden in it from developer Team Ninja. For that game I only played the 360 version for a few hours since it was too hard and frustrating. Other M also has more cheap "instant death" scenarios than I cared to count. This is quite a departure from the hand-holding fair world of Nintendo-produced games.

I really hated the third person slow walking sequences. I don't remember one where I actually find anything interesting while forced to walk around like this. Sometimes for far too long. Come on. I just wanna run around and shoot stuff! And speaking of that, I miss not getting health and missile drops from dead enemies. It changes the whole dynamic of the game. Where in other Metroid games I'd proceed slowly and take out every enemy, this one rewards me for rushing through and avoiding unnecessary enemies. That, coupled with the lack of much exploration changes this game quite a bit from the Prime or Fusion series. Mitch over at Insult Swordfighting talks about how the game changes after you've finished and you can do this kind of quiet exploration, but I wasn't motivated to stick around after the finish.

Much has been said about the lame cut scenes, terrible voice acting, and the character assassination of Samus. Really, that stuff didn't bother me too much. Sadly, that's because I've played a ton of other games that were just as dumb.

For the last hour or two you pretty much have all the upgrades and get to run around like a badass swatting aside any small enemies they throw at you. This seemed nice, mainly because they're often the same enemies that annoyed the crap out of me earlier by jumping in front of me and taking way too much health away when I ran into 'em.

So it's not a game I recommend you run out and buy, but it's a decent rental.