I racked my brain all day today trying to figure out if I should buy the game or spring for my long overdue fling with Super Mario Galaxy 2; though somehow I know I'd end up with the former. I'm a long time fan of the Sci-Fi genre, which ranks Nintendo's flagship Sci-Fi titles, Metroid and Starfox, as two of my favorite game series.
That's not to say it wasn't a hard decision to make, the reviews for Metroid: Other M are all over the board! It's got a bad case of bilocation and generally floats between a solid 8.5 and a measly 6.5. On the other hand, SMG2 has seemingly got perfect scores all across the board, it was definitely the safer choice.
I think that was the deciding factor in my decision though, the fact that I knew what to expect in SMG2, while M:OM remained a shiny new mystery. I'm not without my preconceptions though, seeing as reviews have been out for a solid week now I figure I'd compare what I've been told to what I actually experience. Thusly, welcome to the Pre-Review of Metroid: Other M; where we will look in to exactly what this game is promising me.
My Video Game Reviews are broken down in to 4 parts; The three main points: Concept, Gameplay, and Visual Design. Plus two additional Categories for Story & Character and Audio & Score. I also look into, if any, the advertising for the game.
Concept: A Back-to-Roots Metroid game.
No one can deny how awesome the Metroid Series; since it's debut on the NES it's taken the hearts of gamers with the lust for adventure and exploration. It gave us a Strong Female lead Character in a sea of Burly Men and really captured the alone on alien world feel. It's been lovingly continued and evolved over the years, still making us feel like we're on that planet with Samus Aran; the main character of the game.
Sounds like a new addition to the series would be a godsend, right?
Keep in mind, this is a Back-to-Roots title, meaning it has as much to do with what made the original game great as a salad doused in Salad dressing and sprinkled with bacon bits has to a Healthy lunch.
Back-to-Roots titles usually have one fatal flaw; a misinterpretation in to what made the games great. This is the games biggest strength and it's crippling weakness. Wether it be the wrong fans working on it or trying to copy too much from the source material, something is always missing that tied the whole package together. Metroid: Other M is no different.
The first title of the series, Metroid, and the best title in the series, Super Metroid, had a lot in common. A little bit of prologue, a mission, a mass of alien hostiles, and you. It painted a very lonely world for you and Samus with the only other friendlies barely mentioned once in the opening dialogue. M:OM on the other hand, has a reported 2 hours worth of cutscenes and there's the occasional teamup with a troop of Galactic Federation Solders, including a general that stands in as an old friend of Samus's and a useful excuse for not being able to use all your power-ups from the get-go.
It's been said that the stretches of time between cutscenes and team-ups recapture the lone atmosphere of the previous titles, but wether or not it'll be enough is something I need to play the game to find out.
And wether or not this departure from the conventional Metroid framework will pass as the perfect concept is also up in the air. This Questionable Departure may be M:OM's biggest selling factor if not just for the curiosity of those who grew up with the series; it may also be the biggest deterrent.
Concept: 5/10; It's the games best selling point and biggest deterrent.
Gameplay: Smooth as silk with the occasional kink.
If there's anything that's been talked about more then the story of M:OM, it's Team Ninja's combat system. The game runs primarily in a Sidescrolling/3rd Person Mechanic that departs from the series more recent FPS outings. My thoughts on this are both good and bad; allow me to elaborate.
I"ve played the three FPS games; The game did a fantastic job of putting you into the vast worlds Samus was exploring. At the time this itself was it's own tangent from the classic Metroid titles, all sidescrolling, yet it added to the atmosphere of the game. Seeing the world through Samus's eyes made the lonely traveller's world full of monsters feel vast and empty; more so then the 2D games ever could. It added to both the puzzle and exploration of the game making them the core features of this once action dominant franchise. Now we're back to thirdperson and I'm expecting this focus on discovery and puzzling to be replaced with this linier, action-oriented flow. Team Ninja is famous for both the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive game series, the former which has been toted as one of the hardest action-game series of all time, right behind Ghosts n' Goblins and Battletoads.
This is leading me to believe that my once loved mechanic of exploring alien worlds has been replaced with fancy acrobatics antagonist swarms of substandard, yet insanely difficult enemies and I make my way to a small room where the next path is conveniently highlighted for me to save time.
But it's in this last statement we come to the second, and more controversial gameplay mechanic; the Third Person view. By simply pointing your Wiimote at the screen, waiting a couple of second for the Wii to register your shift on controls while you get swarms by baddies, and them waiving your cursor around the screen awkwardly until you manage to orient yourself, you get to use a First Person viewpoint just in time to blast the hostiles before they finish off your last bit of health. Well ok, in theory you should just be able to point at the screen and instantly your in third person view, which is used to both shoot missiles, target specific points or enemies, or scan for important plot devices. Perhaps this awkward instead of intuitive experience is due mostly to location, yet that doesn't help that according to reviews the First Person controls pale in comparison to the one used in the Metroid Prime series.
Gameplay: 8/10; The smooth combat and third person sidescrolling is a welcome return, but it's not without it's flaws and major affects to what the series has based it's core values on.
Visual Design: Suffering from a early 2000's idea of graphics.
Nowadays, the real-time graphics of a game are so close to the Pre-rendered scenes that it's almost hard to tell the different of there is any. This is not true for the early 2000's style of graphics. The consoles of the 2000s were powerful enough to give us beautifully pre-rendered scenes that only greatly paled to the stuff being pumped out by animation and visual effects studios. Still, the studios making these cutscenes went all out, pushing the limits of what the console could do... the realtime graphics, not so much. The added processor power required for the ever updating worlds that had to respond to player input meant the gameplay graphics paled in comparison to the pre-rendered masterpiece we saw not 2 minutes ago before the game's opening tile screen. It was really misleading, buy we let it slide since they looked so darn good.
According to review, this is what I should expect from M:OM; beautifully rendered cutscenes and a slightly less glorious, yet still impressive, realtime graphics. Textures are said to be low on the resolution front and character models are said to be the standard fair for Team Ninja titles. The men may look like a novice's clay sculpture, but I guess I always have the trademark Team Ninja women to look forward to. Luckily, it seems they gave Samus her shots before sending her over to Team Ninja, she's mostly unaffected; Though it must suck using the visor with that hair in her face.
The game's not trying to be Metroid Prime 3 though, it's goal is to be a faster and more action packed game. The visual design of the game does succeed in this. A simpler color scheme usually signifies a faster scene, the more colors and detail you fit the longer the scene seems to play out. M:OM is a fast game and the design of the characters and color schemes really help to emphasis this; at least that's what I have gathered from movies and screenshots.
I can't say much from creature design at this stage, I've seen a total of 5 creatures, all fairly unamazing, but I'm hoping the game hold more surprises for me.
Visual Design: 8/10; It's touted as one of the best looking Wii games, though wether that's only because of the Pre-Rendered scenes has yet to be seen. Excellent choice in color though.
Story & Character: All of Samus's past packed into a Bottle.
Samus is a loner with a mysterious past never before mentioned in the games aside the occasional cryptic mention of the Chozo, an advanced alien race who raised Samus as a child when her homeworld was destroyed my the Space Pirate, the main antagonists of the game. That's the majority of the backstory of the Metroid games that players knew before Metroid Prime 3 opened up her past with the Galactic federation more. Now that the egg's been cracked, it's time to split it open; that's where M:OM comes in.
No need to worry about spoilers by the way, I don't even know the story yet.
What I do know though is that the Story picks up after the events of Super Metroid. Samus meets up with a trop of Galactic Federation Solders on board an abandoned ship called "The Bottle Ship," after both parties responded to a distress call. While the Bottle Ship evokes all environments familier to Metroid players (Fire, Ice, Swamp, Etc.), it doesn't have quite the same feel as a planet. The troop is lead by Samus's old commander and friend, Adam Malkovich; who also doubles as a convenient excuse to limit Samus's powers in the beginning f the game by ordering you to not use them until he gives you permission to.
The whole story of the game is said to span a whole 2 hours worth of cut scenes, which can later be viewed in one sitting like a movie. This is a surprise to everyone since the Metroid series story has been mostly coated in mystery up until now. Even her voice, which has never been heard in a Metroid title, is heard for the first time narrating portions of the story.
There's a dark cloud to this as those whom have played reported the story being very generic as it follows Samus's sappy side, weakening the hardened warrior we knew her to be. Wether or not these players missed the point of those scenes is yet to be known, we'll find out when I write my actual review.
I can't say much more about the story and supporting characters until I play the game, but needless to say; This is one Metroid fan who simply can't wait to hear this story. I'm always up for a Sci-Fi, even if it's generic and filled with cliches.
Story & Character: 9/10; It's always exciting to learn more about a character, makes them more human. Wether it destroys or strengthens her though I can't say. All I can say is I have high hopes.
Audio & Score: I've heard it's Orchestrated.
Nintendo's really had a thing with orchestrated music lately haven't they? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the quality of work that goes in to the musical scores of these games, and that's all I can really say for the Score at this time.
Audio & Score: 10/10; I haven't heard it yet, but if it's anything like previous orchestrated titles it's going to be epic.
Advertisements: Live Action? Awesome!
Usually the only way to see a live action Samus was to catch one at Comic-Con. Well not anymore, as a Live Action Samus struts across her memories in the official trailer for Metroid: Other M.
Personally, I think this is a nice touch. Though I'm usually more of an animation fan I think this style did wonders to show the dark lonely atmosphere of Samus's character defining moments.
Overall Score:
Concept: 5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Visual Design: 8/10
Story & Character: 4.5/5
Audio & Score: 5/5
Final Score: 7.5/10; Not Perfect, but there's plenty there to make it all worth it.
This game has a lot to live up to; find out if it meets my expectations when I write my final review. See you then.
