Well, that was certainly interesting! This game has a reputation, so to finally play it myself was quite the experience. I don‘t really go for the whole performative outrage thing, so I’ll be taking a more positive and fair approach with this review. For starters, I’d like to say that I’m impressed with Team Ninja’s work here. They managed to do a lot of great stuff within their limitations: the environments look good, combat looks and feels responsive, mechanics are introduced at a good pace, the game is polished etc. However, the qualifier there, “within their limitations”, is doing a lot. Small-scale work, the responsibility of lower-level staff, is commendable. Other M’s major issues are traceable to big-picture, top-down creative decisions that are confusing and poorly considered, so much so that Team Ninja didn’t stand a chance of withstanding them. I’ve identified three key creative decisions which I believe set the foundation for failure: the choice of narrative/narrative presentation (particularly Samus’ characterisation), the game’s structure (downstream from its narrative design), and the decision to make a Ninja Gaiden-esque action game that uses a single Wii Remote turned on its side.
So, what’s wrong with the narrative? Beyond dreadful writing and voice acting, the whole thematic drive of Other M is misplaced within the series. A game where Samus, acting directly under her Federation commander, learns instead to act of her own free will… this ought to be an origins story. I cannot understand the decision to set this game as the 7th chronologically. Samus’ characterisation here is so mismatched with Samus’ characterisation to this point, it’s hard to recognise Other M as canonical as a result. The Samus I’m familiar with thrives in isolation, will act on behalf of others but only answers to herself. That she’d be so subservient to this guy Adam Malkovich doesn’t ring true at all, and it severely disempowers her. This poor characterisation extends to the gameplay, where Samus technically has all the Super Metroid powerups, but will deliberately refrain from using them until Malkovich approves of it. This reaches its zenith in a lava area, where Samus will allow herself to burn to death before activating the heat protecting function of her suit without Malkovich’s permission. I like the idea they’re going for near the end, where the player has to independently decide to use a powerup without permission, but the agency finally granted to Samus in this moment still falls short with the context of the series. The protagonist of Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, and the Prime Trilogy has learned to act independently? This wasn’t a lesson this character needed to learn. It’s patronising, perhaps even misogynistic.
Two aspects of the narrative design have negative impacts on the game’s structure. Malkovich giving permission to use powerups instead of Samus acquiring them in the environment, as well as the prevalence of cutscenes, force the game into linearity and away from exploration. It’s a shame, because the game actually does look and feel the part. I know it won’t happen, but I’d really enjoy a sequel or remix which opens up the game’s structure, as I think a 3D Metroid game that feels a bit closer to the 2D entries holds a lot of potential. Not too much to say on this point, the game is just restrictive as hell. I will say that the cutscene-to-gameplay ratio is fine, with nice long stretches of nothing but pure gameplay, something I did not expect based on the game’s reputation.
Finally, this game should have used a Nunchuck. They come with the console, why limit your 3D action game to so few buttons? I think Team Ninja do a great job with what they have, but there’s only so much they could do, leading to simplistic and repetitive combat. The dodge being tied to the D-pad along with movement leads to a lot of accidental dodges, and turning the Wii Remote toward the screen to aim in first-person is incredibly clunky. The latter would have benefitted so much from having the Wii Remote already pointed at the screen, something that would have been the case with a Wii Remote-Nunchuck combo (you could press B to go into first-person, something like that). This might be the least comprehendible creative decision of them all, and I commend Team Ninja for rolling with it and trying to make do.
So that’s Other M, a game so conceptually bad it’s a miracle it turned out as good as it did. I mean, a 5/10 isn’t great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse in less competent hands. Next up is Samus Returns, the final major Metroid game I’ve yet to play, after which I’ll be repaying Dread to close this whole thing off!
So, what’s wrong with the narrative? Beyond dreadful writing and voice acting, the whole thematic drive of Other M is misplaced within the series. A game where Samus, acting directly under her Federation commander, learns instead to act of her own free will… this ought to be an origins story. I cannot understand the decision to set this game as the 7th chronologically. Samus’ characterisation here is so mismatched with Samus’ characterisation to this point, it’s hard to recognise Other M as canonical as a result. The Samus I’m familiar with thrives in isolation, will act on behalf of others but only answers to herself. That she’d be so subservient to this guy Adam Malkovich doesn’t ring true at all, and it severely disempowers her. This poor characterisation extends to the gameplay, where Samus technically has all the Super Metroid powerups, but will deliberately refrain from using them until Malkovich approves of it. This reaches its zenith in a lava area, where Samus will allow herself to burn to death before activating the heat protecting function of her suit without Malkovich’s permission. I like the idea they’re going for near the end, where the player has to independently decide to use a powerup without permission, but the agency finally granted to Samus in this moment still falls short with the context of the series. The protagonist of Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, and the Prime Trilogy has learned to act independently? This wasn’t a lesson this character needed to learn. It’s patronising, perhaps even misogynistic.
Two aspects of the narrative design have negative impacts on the game’s structure. Malkovich giving permission to use powerups instead of Samus acquiring them in the environment, as well as the prevalence of cutscenes, force the game into linearity and away from exploration. It’s a shame, because the game actually does look and feel the part. I know it won’t happen, but I’d really enjoy a sequel or remix which opens up the game’s structure, as I think a 3D Metroid game that feels a bit closer to the 2D entries holds a lot of potential. Not too much to say on this point, the game is just restrictive as hell. I will say that the cutscene-to-gameplay ratio is fine, with nice long stretches of nothing but pure gameplay, something I did not expect based on the game’s reputation.
Finally, this game should have used a Nunchuck. They come with the console, why limit your 3D action game to so few buttons? I think Team Ninja do a great job with what they have, but there’s only so much they could do, leading to simplistic and repetitive combat. The dodge being tied to the D-pad along with movement leads to a lot of accidental dodges, and turning the Wii Remote toward the screen to aim in first-person is incredibly clunky. The latter would have benefitted so much from having the Wii Remote already pointed at the screen, something that would have been the case with a Wii Remote-Nunchuck combo (you could press B to go into first-person, something like that). This might be the least comprehendible creative decision of them all, and I commend Team Ninja for rolling with it and trying to make do.
So that’s Other M, a game so conceptually bad it’s a miracle it turned out as good as it did. I mean, a 5/10 isn’t great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse in less competent hands. Next up is Samus Returns, the final major Metroid game I’ve yet to play, after which I’ll be repaying Dread to close this whole thing off!