For years, there have been several Metroid games that I couldn’t get around to playing due to the systems they were on. Now, since I was lent a Wii, I finally can. And I decided to start not with the games I will surely like (the Prime trilogy), but instead with something that I’ve attempted to play several times before and always got frustrated really quickly – the infamous Other M. Now that I have given it a proper 100% run, is it any better than you might’ve heard?
Haha, no, of course not.
Let’s get the most infamous things out of the way. The cutscenes/storytelling are dreadful and invasive. Even ignoring the fact that the series are usually known for short, rarely if ever voice acted scenes between the gameplay bits and that almost everything is told via gameplay, you cannot ignore the fact that the story and script are just plain trash. Everything is over-explained for no particular reason, with flashbacks to things that happened a minute ago, sometimes in the very same cutscene, lots of pointless internal monologue told by the monotone voice of Samus. All of which is there to tell an “emotional sci-fi story” as if written by a person who has no idea how stories work. The only good thing about the cutscenes is that they blend in with the gameplay very naturally.
That said, the gameplay is also a huge problem, which isn’t as often talked about. The flow of the Metroid games is usually focused on exploration and special one-off tougher battles with bosses or difficult enemies. While most of the time you’re running through the locations not really paying as much attention to the enemies, as to the level and platforming. Other M is almost purely an action game, in contrast. There’s still some exploration (mostly locked until post-game), there are still some puzzles. But most of the encounters, especially in the first half, are really hard to just run through. The action mechanics are improved to compliment this, but that’s where another issue appears.
The best way to win combat encounters in Other M is to stand in one place for most of the battle. You see, there’s a dodge move now and it works by tapping any directional button right before you get hit. It can instantly charge your shot and only works when you are standing still. As such, a lot of battles work as extended QTE-like encounters. It’s cool to pull dodges off and the animations for Samus in the game are stellar. But this approach gets quite tedious. Especially since from around midpoint of the game it starts becoming easier and never stops, and you realize that underneath it all it’s still the same combat as before, except you started the game highly under-powered.
Under-powered because Samus chooses to, not because she’s forced to, because the story is crap. And yes, the QTE nature extends to a lot more, creating a bunch of terrible sequences where the game insta-kills you if you don’t do something very specific at a very specific moment. Like, for example, the game explains how to use a weapon that is required to kill the final boss (something you have to do on tight time limit too) after you kill the final boss, watch the cutscene, credits and start the post-game. Thanks, very timely. Also there are lots of “guess where to point the Wiimote” moments which won’t stop until you find that tiny spot you’re supposed to aim at. Oh, and the controls are indeed terrible – playing with the Wiimote sideways hurts and aiming it at the screen to shoot rockets is inconvenient. It’s less horrible than I’ve expected, though, but still terrible.
If you love Metroid games, I can understand if you’d want to play all of them, including this one. But don’t. It’s not just a terrible Metroid game, it’s a pretty bad game and one of the worst examples of the plot, especially for a high budget production, I’ve ever seen. Just avoid this one, better see you in the next mission.