Metroid: Other M (video)

Announced at the end of Nintendo’s E3 2009 press conference, Metroid: Other M was received as a great surprise, after all, it’s not always that you get to see two companies so different working on the same project, and with such an astounding trailer, it was hard not to hype the game. As information started arriving though, the group originally hyping the game was divided: half of them were still eager to play the game, the other half started concerning about the unusual control choice and the fact that the game would be a fully voice-acted, story heavy game. And now that the game’s finally out, it’s time to see which side was right.

 

 

 

 

Metroid: Other M took a path most games wouldn’t: force yourself to simplify. Head of the project Yoshio Sakamoto once said he wanted it to be a “NES game with the latest tech”, and that’s what they’ve done: you play in a full 3D world, but you control with the Wii Remote only, held sideways like a NES controller. The controls work surprisingly well, as most of the time you are in pseudo two dimensional areas or 3D areas in which the camera rotates, following Samus’ movements. Using the D-pad is definitely not an issue to control in open spaces either, as the game never requires a level of accuracy bigger than moving in the 8 basic directions. The only moment this becomes a nuisance are the weird and completely out of place over the shoulder moments, where the game takes a Resident Evil 4-esque camera for no reason at all, breaking the pace and not doing anything for the setting of the scene.

 

 

Switching the Wiimote to the standard position and aiming at the screen takes you to first person mode. In this mode you cannot move, but you can look around and even lock-onto objects and enemies to shoot. First person mode (or search mode, as the game calls it) is also the only way to fire any kind of missiles or use the grapple beam. It works fine most of the time and with a couple minutes of game, you’ll be used and doing it naturally without a problem. The problem here lies in some specific moments where the game forces you to search and scan something in the middle of a cutscene. Those moments almost always makes you spend a lot of time just moving the pointer around, hoping to cross paths with the objective, only then to continue the scene.

 

 

The finishing moves are always great to watch and perform, and each large enemy has a different finisher.

 

 

Combat has changed a lot too and resembles some sort of Ninja Gaiden in space. It’s not a bad thing though. The aim is assisted, so merely looking in the direction of the enemy is enough. But the enemies are fast and deal a huge amount of damage. Tapping any direction on the D-pad at the moment before the attack will allow Samus to dodge the move. If you were charging your beam, it becomes fully charged, which means dodging is one of the most important aspects in combat. Some enemies will require you to shoot missiles and, like mentioned before, you can only do that in first person. Switching to first person in combat is a little trickier, as you don’t want to waste too much time aiming, so you should be facing the target before moving the remote. Once in first person, the game enters a slow motion moment for about a second before running in normal speed again, allowing you to properly aim without being injured by oncoming fire. Quickly moving the pointer out of screen allows you to dodge in first person, so you’re not completely defenseless.

 

 

New to the series is Concentration: When you’re low on health or you’re out of missiles, holding the Wiimote vertically and holding A allows you to recharge ammunition and recover some energy. It doesn’t make it any easier though. Enemies no longer drop recovery items when defeated and concentration requires your health to be really low and takes about 5 seconds to be performed, and all this time you remain defenseless, so finding a moment in combat to do it is tricky.