Metroid: Other M

[deoxys]

It's so amazing it deserves it's own thread.

Haven't seen the trailer yet, but it's developed by Team Ninja. Aka it WINS

[Vran]

Originally Posted by deoxys

It's so amazing it deserves it's own thread.

Haven't seen the trailer yet, but it's developed by Team Ninja. Aka it WINS

Team Ninja without Tomonobu Itagaki is like AM2 without Yu Suzuki is like Nintendo without Shigeru Miyamoto is like ...

[Doppleganger]

I had no idea Samus was a woman!

[ZoraJolteon]

Metroid isn't a girl. Metroid is the general guy who yells OBJECTION!

[Weebos]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I had no idea Samus was a woman!

That fact was such a controversy back in elementary school during Super Smash Bros. sessions.

[Vran]

Originally Posted by Weebos

back in elementary school during Super Smash Bros. sessions.

Now my arthritis has started acting up again. Gee. Thanks.

[Lady Kuno]

Originally Posted by Weebos

That fact was such a controversy back in elementary school during Super Smash Bros. sessions.

elementry school?

I remember looking forward to super mario rpg in the 5th grade. lol

[Vran]

Originally Posted by Holy Emperor

elementry school?

I remember looking forward to super mario rpg in the 5th grade. lol

This cat knows what I'm talking about.

I remember playing this in the 5th grade.

[Lady Kuno]

Minor difference is that my game was actually cool.

[Vran]

How is a racing game with Lombard Street on the map not cool?

In my opinion, it was the inclusion of this and other fun-though-silly features which we can point to in saying that Vette! paved the way for the #1 recreational race car game of the mid-1990s, Cruisin' USA.

This picture gives you a better sense for the hilarity of attempting to race a Corvette down Lombard Street.

[Lady Kuno]

Driving games suck. Unless you can hit each other with red shells, rockets, missles, or some sort of laser.

[deoxys]

For what it's worth, Kuno, I tend to agree, except I will have to say that Burnout Revenge is a badass game. It's like a Michael Bay movie turned into a racing game.

[ZoraJolteon]

Driving games suck. Unless you can hit each other with your cars, using a spin attack or a side attack.

[iAmDewgong]

Burnout 3: TAKEDOWN was fun :'D

[Vran]

I picked Metroid Prime 3: Corruption back up. Hadn't played it in a little over a year. Put it down right before you go off to fight the first Leviathan Seed boss, the golem with the four red orbs. Putting it back down now at the 3rd stage of the final boss. Ridiculous. Considering I put down Metroid Prime 1 right after defeating Ridley and confronting Metroid Prime, and considering I put down Metroid Prime 2 right after confronting the Ing King's 3rd stage (the one where he's a quadruped with a box-cage for a mouth), I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. The game is sorta easy ... sorta easy ... sorta easy ... and then whammo, out of nowhere, "you must have the hand-eye coordination of Apollo if you wish to beat me :3".

[ZoraJolteon]

That boss is easy. You need to l2p.

[Vran]

Originally Posted by ZoraJolteon

That boss is easy. You need to l2p.

Thanks to your condescending reply, I went back and beat him. The end of the game makes no sense, but whatever. Started up a Veteran file, got bored after plowing through the first boss, saved, turned it off.

But at least now I can say I've actually beaten a Metroid Prime game. Almost makes me want to load up the original and finish off Metroid Prime (the character). But not quite.

[Weebos]

Originally Posted by Holy Emperor

Driving games suck. Unless you can hit each other with red shells, rockets, missles, or some sort of laser.

Beetle Racing or something for the N64 anybody?

[Muyotwo]

Carmageddon.

[Talon87]

Killing Samus

How Metroid: Other M Ruined Gaming's Greatest Heroine

by Audrey Drake
September 20, 2010
original article here

WARNING: Contains spoilers.

"I felt that if I let my guard down I would easily be broken. Beyond that, I was scared."

This self-conscious statement is one of the first that players hear spoken by Samus Aran, the ruthless bounty hunter and heroine of the classic Metroid series. In Metroid: Other M, the formerly silent character is given voice for the first time, a voice that goes against everything her character once stood for and backtracks on the trails she once blazed.

As this new game would have it, the same Samus who single-handedly destroyed an entire alien species and murdered countless space pirates was actually a fragile, emotional mess beneath all that armor.

As a longtime Metroid fan, I beg to differ.

The new direction of Samus' character is completely out of left field. It's hard to reconcile the woman portrayed in Other M with the one who, in Super Metroid, lobbed missile after missile at Mother Brain's face, and afterward was still composed enough to hastily return to her ship before the planet exploded.

While under the player's control, she is exactly the Samus of old, fearlessly dusting off dozens of enemies at once, all without losing her cool. The moment a cutscene begins to roll, however, she is transformed into someone completely new and unrecognizable. Someone who is insecure about what a former employer thinks of her, gets hurt when called an outsider, has serious daddy issues, and even, at times, chokes in the face of fear. The duality of her character within Other M is confusing in and of itself, and only lends to the feeling that the Samus of the cinema scenes simply doesn't belong, and just plain isn't the woman I grew up idolizing.

In a videogame landscape filled with helpless princesses and brainless bimbos, the concept of a woman who was indiscernible from her male counterparts was novel to say the least. She wasn't the wide-eyed, innocent damsel-in-distress, nor was she the objectified, scantily-clad hussy (you never so much as caught a glimpse of her outside of her armored Power Suit until the end of the game). Instead, the Samus of past titles was a rare example of a female character whose actions, and not her gender, were what defined her, and who was as uncompromising, steady and in control as any other hero out there.

Other M takes these formerly defining traits away from her, making her into just another generic, overly emotional female character. Where she once broke gender stereotypes, in Other M she exemplifies them. Her independence is reduced to subservience, her fearlessness to panic.

In the opening cinematic, which recreates the final fight with Mother Brain from the end of Super Metroid, one of the first emotions we see out of Samus is her remorse at the untimely death of a baby metroid at the hands of the giant boss. We then find out that this moment has been haunting her, and that she is crestfallen at the idea that she'll never see the metroid (which she refers to as "the baby") ever again.

This is the same metroid she willingly gave up for study at the beginning of Super Metroid. In Other M, however, a creature that she is never previously portrayed as having any real attachment to becomes something of a maternal metaphor. In an irrationally overdramatic stupor, Samus loses all track of time after the baby's death. This maternal shift is completely out of the blue, as these feelings are never so much as hinted at in previous titles.

The dynamic between Samus and her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich, is also entirely unbefitting the bounty hunter who was once known for her independence. The reason behind her departure from Malkovich's command is shrouded in mystery and built up to be something of considerable significance. I was shocked at how anticlimactic the revelation turned out to be, not to mention how drenched the moment was in undue melodrama. Samus departs the Federation after questioning one of Malkovich's commands, and it seems the fact that she doubted him has caused her endless grief. Seriously, the entire incident that players wait most of the game to hear about solely amounts to Samus momentarily questioning her commanding officer's authority.

But this is only the tip of the subservient iceberg. Throughout Other M, and even up until the final, climactic scene, Samus follows Malkovich's orders to the point of absurd submissiveness. This is a stark contrast to how Samus was portrayed in the past. Even in Metroid: Fusion, in which she follows the directions of a computerized commanding officer, she clearly states at the game's outset that she dislikes taking orders.

In Other M, however, this sentiment is never echoed. In fact, there is never an example in the entire game of her disobeying Malkovich, even at the cost of her own safety. She is so determined to not break orders that she would rather burn alive in a lava pit than engage her Varia suit, which would protect her from the heat. As her soon to-be-corpse is frying, she insists on taking the damage rather than defy a single order from Malkovich, who isn't even officially her commanding officer anymore. He didn't even tell her not to use the suit upgrade, he simply hadn't specifically authorized it yet.

Samus' obedience is not the only new trait she is given in Other M. She is also, at several points, fearful and irrational. After taking on the life of a solitary bounty hunter—and rising to acclaim as the toughest in the galaxy—Other M would have players believe that Samus would actually cower before a returning boss from a previous game. She is literally shown transforming into a helpless child, unable to move or protect herself. The same Samus who has killed countless bosses (this one included) without breaking a sweat is rendered fear-stricken, and this behavior is never given any justification or context. As Other M would have it, beneath the visor of the intergalactic hero is a scared, little girl.

In Other M, I heard Samus speak for the first time, and I was devastated to find that my longtime friend wasn't the woman I thought she was. Someone who was once my favorite heroine, and an inspiration, was now a woman I wish had just kept her mouth shut.

[McSweeney]

That's just like when they have Link talk in the 1980's cartoon or the infamous Philips CD-i games.

[Doppleganger]

Not surprised, that kind of pop writing has been making its way into video games for the past 10 years, it was inevitable even the most hallowed of franchises would be consumed someday.

Why was Samus voiced though? I thought it was an honoured tradition she, MegaMan and Link never get voices...?

[Talon87]

Apparently, it turns out that this game has proven to be more controversial -- and divisive -- than I would have thought. So I've gone back through and found a bunch of reviews from all manner of gaming websites. I've split them up into two categories, Like and Hate. I hope that makes it easy for you. Keep in mind, "Like" is more like "Did Not Hate." For instance, one reviewer in the Like group gave the game a B-. That's a pretty abysmal Like, but it's still a Like.

Like:
1Up: Justin Haywald
IGN: Craig Harris
Gamepro: Tae K. Kim
Famitsu, by way of 1Up

Hate:
G4TV: Abbie Heppe
IGN: Audrey Drake

The most common complaint? The story. Even the positive reviews agree that the story is silly. The difference between them and the more negative reviews is that the positive reviews only take issue with the plot's nonsensical moments whereas the negative reviews take issue with the sensible yet sexually stereostyped moments.

The most common praise? The graphics. Even the people who hated every other element -- gameplay mechanics, replay value, plot -- agreed that this was a very pretty game.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Hate:
G4TV: Abbie Heppe
IGN: Audrey Drake

It is sadly unsurprising the loudest hate comes from two female reviewers. Although even redder, more fiery antipathy can be found on IGN's message-boards in response to the second article. From male trolls, I'd think.

I'm a bit uneasy that this topic is pretty high on search engine hits when "Audrey Drake Samus Hate" is queried.

/doesn't actually know if Audrey Drake is female/male, brash assumption since I couldn't load the original page in either browser. But the name seems feminine, but...

[Talon87]

If I liked Metroid games a whole lot ...
If I had my Wii up here ...
And if I thought the story would be any good ...

I'd probably buy it and check it out. But that's a lot of If statements. And none of them hold. (They're okay; I don't; and I don't.)