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[CGiRanger]

When you look at the Release List, while the beginning of the series of course had a lack of releases in a long period of time, each was a proper standout on the respective hardware (Metroid on NES, Metroid 2 on GB and Super Metroid on SNES). The 2000's decade however really spoiled Metroid fans though, with the releases of the highly rated Fusion, Zero Mission, and of course the Prime Trilogy.

But after 2010, well, things seemed to just get derailed. Out of the three games released for the entire decade, two of them ended up being very disappointing overall, with one being received as either a like it or hate it entry (Other M) and the other just being panned entirely (Federation Force). And with both having been overseen by the two heads of the franchise (Sakamoto with Other M, and Kensuke Tanabe with FedForce), one had to wonder if anyone knew what to do with the series. Other M was derided for making a joke out of Samus' character and having a very terrible narrative. Federation Force seemed like it just didn't even belong with a completely multiplayer-focused game and a strange visual aesthetic.

Of course in 2017 the franchise got a bit of life breathed into it at E3 with the announcement of Samus Returns and Metroid Prime 4. But even that sorta ended up fizzling a bit for the next couple of years. While Samus Returns was deemed a fairly adequate entry, it left many uncertain as to whether MercurySteam could handle the formula (or were they constrained by adhering to the Metroid 2 foundation?), and it didn't perform as well for a variety of reasons (released on the 3DS at end of its life).

And then there's Metroid Prime 4, after 2 years from its initial announcement, it was revealed that the game's development at the previous Japanese development studio (Koei Tecmo? Or Bandai Namco?) would be stopped and scrapped entirely. While it was stated that Retro Studios would be taking over the project from scratch, many are still skeptical since Retro themselves have not released a new game going on 7 years now (with Tropical Freeze being the last in 2014).

Metroid Dread though has thankfully given a massive revival shot in the arm for the series at the start of the new decade. MercurySteam found their footing and released a game (that had been cancelled twice in its development history at Nintendo) to very high acclaim and potential commercial success. Will this mark the start of a revival for the series? I guess it's now in Retro Studio's court on their half of the franchise.

 

[Marty-McFly]

Amazing return to form.

I have a feeling Prime 4 is going melt heads as well and bare a similar artstyle to Dread.

After rising from the dead, they could possibly wind up some of the best 2D and 3D games ever made.

 

[Fess]

Amazing return to form.

I have a feeling Prime 4 is going melt heads as well and bare a similar artstyle to Dread.

After rising from the dead, they could possibly wind up some of the best 2D and 3D games ever made.

I have a huge crush on Metroid Dread, it’s quite possibly the best metroidvania since Super Metroid, but I’m highly sceptical that a first person Metroid on the Switch strand of consoles can impress visually. Art direction can take things a long way but they need to hit 60fps for the gameplay and I just don’t see how they can achieve that on a portable without having a low detail look for the genre. Nintendo need a stationary console or a dock that gives it more power or something.

 

[carlosrox]

Meh, both good games.

The so called fanbase were just being toxic fucks about it.

 

[Aldric]

Meh, both good games.

The so called fanbase were just being toxic fucks about it.

Other M and Federation Force are terrible games. Other M is just a complete clusterfuck on every level (story is really the least of its problems) and Federation Force should have been a 3DS eshop only new IP sold for 10 bucks and immediately forgotten, something like Tank Troopers.

 

[carlosrox]

Other M and Federation Force are terrible games. Other M is just a complete clusterfuck on every level (story is really the least of its problems) and Federation Force should have been a 3DS eshop only new IP sold for 10 bucks and immediately forgotten, something like Tank Troopers.

Disagree.

 

[kanjobazooie]

I liked Other M.

 

[Tangerine]

Metroid Dread is my first metroid game, ever. Absolutely loving it. It's very challenging but I can see why metroidvanias get the love they do.

To be fair I also completed Hollow Knight and loved that.

I had Castlevania Simons Quest on the NES but was far too young to get very far.

Looking forward to prime trilogy so I can play that before prime 4.

 

[CGiRanger]

I didn't mind Other M that much. I felt it had some good 3D third-person action gameplay, and the Maps had some decent design behind them.

But the narrative man, and voice acting was just not good. I again hear that people say Nintendo of America's localization really messed it up and that the presentation of things in the original Japanese wasn't as bad. But yeah ("The Baby!" "The Baby!"....."The Deleter!"), the writing seemed off.

 

[Aldric]

I felt it had some good 3D third-person action gameplay

I'll legitimately never understand this opinion. Other M completely botches basic elements of action games, stuff like the risk and reward balance, timing, accuracy, combat depth etc. It's a 3D game released in 2010 that's played with a Dpad as if it was a first generation Playstation game. The control scheme is so weak you have to point the Wii remote at the screen to shoot missiles, rendering you pretty much immobile during the process. It's a giant mess and at this point I think defending the story is more understandable than praising the gameplay.

 

[Synless]

Other M was a good game. Federation Force was shit though.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Other M was absolute trash of the highest order.
I’m actually shocked to see people here saying other wise… did we play the same game?

 

[carlosrox]

Other M was absolute trash of the highest order.

Nice hyperbole there.

This is why I don't take opinions shitting on that game seriously.


It's okay people, Other M is over now. You can safely jump off the Other M hateboner bandwagon and onto the Metroid Dread one!

Other M can't hurt you anymore.

 

[Marty-McFly]

I have a huge crush on Metroid Dread, it’s quite possibly the best metroidvania since Super Metroid, but I’m highly sceptical that a first person Metroid on the Switch strand of consoles can impress visually. Art direction can take things a long way but they need to hit 60fps for the gameplay and I just don’t see how they can achieve that on a portable without having a low detail look for the genre. Nintendo need a stationary console or a dock that gives it more power or something.

I would accept a locked 30 fps, but I fully expect Prime to be visually impressive even at 60.

Nintendo are absolute sorcerer's of game development. They'll make the highest quality games on the lowest spec hardware and make it look easy, turn it in with no bugs and compress the it to a tiny file size. Think about how impressive BOTW was at launch and the size and scale of that game. That was a Wii U game in 2017. Prime will be a full on Switch game and is a lot more closed in. I expect it to look similar to the cut scenes in Dread. Infact, games like Prime 1 and Windwaker look good to this day.

 

[Synless]

Other M was absolute trash of the highest order.
I’m actually shocked to see people here saying other wise… did we play the same game?

I get the feeling you didn’t play it at all. It wasn’t the best Metroid but it certainly was still a solid 7.5 game.

 

[STARSBarry]

Nice hyperbole there.

This is why I don't take opinions shitting on that game seriously.


It's okay people, Other M is over now. You can safely jump off the Other M hateboner bandwagon and onto the Metroid Dread one!

Other M can't hurt you anymore.

I honestly think people where too Kind to Other M, I remember it reviewing extremely well and picking it up a couple of months later due to that, I'd enjoyed Fusion and Super alot but just wasent feeling it at the time.

I thought it was total shit, like don't get me wrong I consider myself a "Prime" fan over the classic metriods, but it was just.... well it was just "off" like the perfect example of a game that loses all its charm by trying to be "modern" certainly not worth the praise it got. A cheap imitation was what it felt like.

It's one of the main reasons I haven't bought Dread, because quite frankly I don't trust them after the last time.

 

[BacklashWave534]

If you think Metroid had a slump look at Starfox. Such a basic concept and still not a single good game since the N64.

 

[BacklashWave534]

I get the feeling you didn’t play it at all. It wasn’t the best Metroid but it certainly was still a solid 7.5 game.

I get the feeling that most of the people bashing it have never played it at all. It just helps them feel good about themselves to find something new to hate every day.

 

[Punished Miku]

Other M and Federation Force are terrible games. Other M is just a complete clusterfuck on every level (story is really the least of its problems) and Federation Force should have been a 3DS eshop only new IP sold for 10 bucks and immediately forgotten, something like Tank Troopers.

How is Federation Force a bad game? Explain it to me with your own words, talking about the actual game and not some cheap insults. Do you play any FPS games on handheld systems at the time? How does it compare to those?

How is Other M a clusterfuck on every level? It's the best looking game on the system graphically. It has an innovative hybrid game design that fuses traditional Metroid with Prime first person. Everything in the game works pretty well. The story is not great, but that's about it. You left out all the other reasons you think it's bad, because they're all massively exaggerated.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I enjoyed Other M.

 

[Aldric]

How is Federation Force a bad game? Explain it to me with your own words, talking about the actual game and not some cheap insults. Do you play any FPS games on handheld systems at the time? How does it compare to those?

It takes the weakest part of the Metroid Prime games (the combat/gunplay) and builds an entire game around it. Movement is obnoxiously slow and stiff, feedback is terrible with the pea shooter main gun evoking the regular blaster from the first Megaman games on NES, bosses are insufferable bullet sponges in solo play, the level design is pedestrian and instantly forgettable, the OST sounds like bargain bin Star Wars and the art direction is a joke, a bizarre mix between Lego Bionicles and The Wonderful 101. It basically fundamentally misunderstands what makes Prime games great (level design, atmosphere, exploration, the transitions between 1st and 3rd person with Samus core abilities, environmental storytelling) and isn't even saved by its core mechanics that are at best painfully mediocre. It's a bad game.

How is Other M a clusterfuck on every level? It's the best looking game on the system graphically. It has an innovative hybrid game design that fuses traditional Metroid with Prime first person. Everything in the game works pretty well. The story is not great, but that's about it. You left out all the other reasons you think it's bad, because they're all massively exaggerated.

-It's a full 3D game played with a Dpad. This alone would be enough to discredit the idea it's a good game but it doesn't stop here.
-It has the stupidest control scheme I've ever seen in a big budget title from a major publisher and it's entirely self inflicted.
-Because there's not enough buttons to properly manage all of Samus abilities Team Ninja had to make gameplay essentially automated.
-Which means Other M is a TPS with auto aim. Not even aim assist, auto aim.
-The central combat mechanic, sense move, is completely busted. Because it's tied to the Dpad it's activated by mashing a direction which exacerbates the already awkward movement by having Samus constantly stutter step in between attacks like some kind of spastic.
-It of course requires no timing whatsoever, has no cooldown and grants the player a full charge shot everytime it's successfully pulled off (which means everytime it's used). It's one of the clearest examples of a poorly thought out, ridiculously unbalanced mechanic I can think of.
-Missiles activation might be the most inelegant input method ever designed. You have to point the Wii remote to the screen from a sideways position everytime you want to fire a missile and it turns you into a sitting duck who can only use the aforementioned mashing Iframe dodge as a last resort.
-Combat has ZERO depth. The way you play the game 10 minutes in is the way you'll play the game 10 hours in. It remains the same mindless loop of mashing a direction on the Dpad to abuse Iframes, staying in the general direction of your opponent and unleashing a homing charge shot in his face. The only ability that breaks the monotony a bit is the screw attack and it utterly trivializes encounters.
-The game is linear to a comical degree. Doors close behind you, level design is 80% corridors, there's no possibility of sequence breaking or creative use of traversal whatsoever. It's so bad it even has invisible walls shielding certain items so you can't get them any other way than the developers intended.
-The first person where's Waldo sections are hilariously out of place in a supposedly fast paced action game like that, mechanically worthless and some of them were probably designed by the studio's accountant (the one where you have to find a splotch of green goo on a large patch of low rez grass texture is particularly atrocious).
-The game has forced walking sections because of course it does. They're particularly pointless too because they're not even used for exposition dumps or to showcase environmental design. This game doesn't even understand the reasoning behind the shit design elements it apes from other titles.
-It isn't even close from being the best looking game on the system. It's technically competent with a stable 60fps but the art direction is sterile, plasticky and uninspired, with environmental design being particularly weak (by the book forest, lava and ice areas with no memorable room to be found).
-The OST is the weakest in the series by a significant margin. No iconic new themes and they even got rid of the signature item acquisition fanfare and other staple sound effects.

I could keep going but I've rambled enough. Other M is one of the worst Nintendo games ever made especially for one of their historical franchises. It takes all the poisonous aspects of the modern Naughty Dog moviegame template and does it even worse, with none of the polish and coherence of these big Sony first party titles. It fails as a narrative game, it fails as an action game, and more importantly it fails as a Metroid game.

 

[Astral Dog]

The rest was unfortunate but necessary, Nintendo needed some years to figure and plan what to do with the series, people do get bored after awhile, and Other M had very good playability/controls, it was an awkward attempt at wooing casual gamers on Wii, but at least had that going for it,i think the fact that an 80MC is the worst recieved main game shows how high quality the series is.
Most problems with the dialogue and script came from the butchered english localization, it had big big changes for some reason
I wish gamers would get over Other M it has been 10 years

Two mistakes Nintendo made with Metroid recently, Federation Force was lame, unfit and should never been released, and going to Namco and forming a new team for Prime 4 instead of asking Retro while ambitious was a mistake and delayed the launch of the game for who knows how many years.

Samus Returns did pretty well for a late low budget 3DS release, it was considered a success by Nintendo review and sales wise and thats why MercurySteam moved instantly to making Dread.

The series only skipped Wii U recently for understandable reasons, but Nintendo cares big about Metroid and has been working hard since before 2015 to bring it back, very few series have a perfect track record, classics like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry etc had their struggles from time to time but always bounce back. Others like Silent Hill or Sonic aren't so lucky, Metroid is in good hands and has a bright future

 

[Punished Miku]

It takes the weakest part of the Metroid Prime games (the combat/gunplay) and builds an entire game around it. Movement is obnoxiously slow and stiff, feedback is terrible with the pea shooter main gun evoking the regular blaster from the first Megaman games on NES, bosses are insufferable bullet sponges in solo play, the level design is pedestrian and instantly forgettable, the OST sounds like bargain bin Star Wars and the art direction is a joke, a bizarre mix between Lego Bionicles and The Wonderful 101. It basically fundamentally misunderstands what makes Prime games great (level design, atmosphere, exploration, the transitions between 1st and 3rd person with Samus core abilities, environmental storytelling) and isn't even saved by its core mechanics that are at best painfully mediocre. It's a bad game.


-It's a full 3D game played with a Dpad. This alone would be enough to discredit the idea it's a good game but it doesn't stop here.
-It has the stupidest control scheme I've ever seen in a big budget title from a major publisher and it's entirely self inflicted.
-Because there's not enough buttons to properly manage all of Samus abilities Team Ninja had to make gameplay essentially automated.
-Which means Other M is a TPS with auto aim. Not even aim assist, auto aim.
-The central combat mechanic, sense move, is completely busted. Because it's tied to the Dpad it's activated by mashing a direction which exacerbates the already awkward movement by having Samus constantly stutter step in between attacks like some kind of spastic.
-It of course requires no timing whatsoever, has no cooldown and grants the player a full charge shot everytime it's successfully pulled off (which means everytime it's used). It's one of the clearest examples of a poorly thought out, ridiculously unbalanced mechanic I can think of.
-Missiles activation might be the most inelegant input method ever designed. You have to point the Wii remote to the screen from a sideways position everytime you want to fire a missile and it turns you into a sitting duck who can only use the aforementioned mashing Iframe dodge as a last resort.
-Combat has ZERO depth. The way you play the game 10 minutes in is the way you'll play the game 10 hours in. It remains the same mindless loop of mashing a direction on the Dpad to abuse Iframes, staying in the general direction of your opponent and unleashing a homing charge shot in his face. The only ability that breaks the monotony a bit is the screw attack and it utterly trivializes encounters.
-The game is linear to a comical degree. Doors close behind you, level design is 80% corridors, there's no possibility of sequence breaking or creative use of traversal whatsoever. It's so bad it even has invisible walls shielding certain items so you can't get them any other way than the developers intended.
-The first person where's Waldo sections are hilariously out of place in a supposedly fast paced action game like that, mechanically worthless and some of them were probably designed by the studio's accountant (the one where you have to find a splotch of green goo on a large patch of low rez grass texture is particularly atrocious).
-The game has forced walking sections because of course it does. They're particularly pointless too because they're not even used for exposition dumps or to showcase environmental design. This game doesn't even understand the reasoning behind the shit design elements it apes from other titles.
-It isn't even close from being the best looking game on the system. It's technically competent with a stable 60fps but the art direction is sterile, plasticky and uninspired, with environmental design being particularly weak (by the book forest, lava and ice areas with no memorable room to be found).
-The OST is the weakest in the series by a significant margin. No iconic new themes and they even got rid of the signature item acquisition fanfare and other staple sound effects.

I could keep going but I've rambled enough. Other M is one of the worst Nintendo games ever made especially for one of their historical franchises. It takes all the poisonous aspects of the modern Naughty Dog moviegame template and does it even worse, with none of the polish and coherence of these big Sony first party titles. It fails as a narrative game, it fails as an action game, and more importantly it fails as a Metroid game.

That's a long post!

I think the main thing I got from Other M, personally, is that during the Wii era Nintendo was trying to come up with various new control methods, and ways to simulate experiences physically. I think when looked at in the context of the Wii era, Other M is an ambitious and creative concept. You move like the old NES games and then have to move your hands to switch position and then point the controller in a very similar manner to how Samus would literally point her own arm herself. I thought that was a neat bit of unique game design. It was also the first 2D Metroid with a big budget in some time, and literally has the most impressive graphics of any game on the entire system. It introduced the dodge, which I loved personally, and has basically remained every since as an element of Metroid with the counter move in Samus Returns and Dread.

I don't think it fails as an action game at all, and is one of the best on the Wii. I don't think it fails as a Metroid game either, but it is definitely a more casual version of it, which doesn't surprise me that much given the design goals and the style of development at Nintendo during that era.

I just don't think it's nearly as bad as you claim. I mean, you say it's "not even close to the best looking game" on the system. But I just don't understand how that could ever be claimed if you just watch video of it. Things you see as an unforgivable sin, I see as either strengths or extremely minor issues.

I think the main thing I did with that game is acknowledge that they were trying to come up with a new and creative control scheme to showcase the capabilities of the Wii. I respect that, because it is original. It's like a Metroid arcade game honestly; the kind of thing you'd find in Japan with a unique physical controller. I never had any preconceived demands of what the game had to be to be considered a "real" Metroid. It was very obviously experimenting.

 

[Closer]

I liked Other M.

Same.

I enjoyed Other M.

Same.

 

[Icymanipulator]

I get the feeling you didn’t play it at all. It wasn’t the best Metroid but it certainly was still a solid 7.5 game.

No exploration, powers locked by story/Adam, horrible stupid nonsense story. I did play it. I wish I didn’t. Also -10 cool points for the braindead meme response, lmfao, don’t worry buddy, you can fit in too!

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Other M was pretty fun gameplaywise, but man the writing was awful. I can think of the pros and cons of it:

Pros:
-Dodging and the mounting/finisher moves were fun
-The game looked really nice for a Wii game. Prime 3 still looks better aesthetically, but on a technical level Other M pushed the white brick more.
- The overall plot is interesting with the secret facility, MB AI, and Deleter subplot, but wasted with bad writing.

Cons:
-It could’ve used a nunchuck control scheme with a dedicated dodge button. Other M is too easy to just dodge everything by mashing and it makes it feel like the player has less control. Shifting to first person would’ve been much more seamless as well.

-The plot makes no sense as an in between to Super and Fusion. Fusion seemed to imply Adam died a significant time ago and Samus wouldn’t be surprised about the Feds cloning Metroids in Fusion because she would’ve known about it already from OM. Also Nightmare. It just doesn’t fit in the canon.

-The game goes with a “Samus has PTSD”theme that doesn’t work at this point in the timeline. Honestly the whole story would’ve worked better as a prequel with a rookie Samus still following Adam and dropping the Metroid clone bit. There’s even a cutscene with rookie Samus; the game should’ve been about that.

-Has too much rail roading and doesn’t let the player explore much, which makes routing pickups for relplays boring.

 

[Kabelly]

People calling Other M a good video game now too lol? Even the gameplay was shit. Flashy isn't good. There was no need to NOT use the nunchuck but they decided to make us use a sideways wii mode for a relatively 3D third person game like... And those pixel hunts dropped my enjoyment of the game immensely.

Don't need to get into the story as that will always be shit, objectively (;.

 

[Punished Miku]

People calling Other M a good video game now too lol? Even the gameplay was shit. Flashy isn't good. There was no need to NOT use the nunchuck but they decided to make us use a sideways wii mode for a relatively 3D third person game like... And those pixel hunts dropped my enjoyment of the game immensely.

Don't need to get into the story as that will always be shit, objectively (;.

It's pretty accurately reviewed and scored. Probably about an 8. A well made experiment for Wii. One of the better games on Wii.

 

[nkarafo]

Nice hyperbole there.

This is why I don't take opinions shitting on that game seriously.


It's okay people, Other M is over now. You can safely jump off the Other M hateboner bandwagon and onto the Metroid Dread one!

Other M can't hurt you anymore.

It nearly killed the franchise.

Its OK if you like it but its trash. Maybe not a bad game on its own but a horrible Metroid game.

 

[Punished Miku]

Maybe not a bad game on its own but a horrible Metroid game.

So a temper tantrum then, like I said. If it's not a bad game, then it's not a bad game.

The rest of your sentence (a horrible Metroid game) is your expectations distorting your opinion, instead of just playing the game for what it is.

 

[AJUMP23]

I never played Other M. I just heard it was overly talkie and not like other metroids. I think Dread though is a lot of fun.

 

[nkarafo]

I get the feeling that most of the people bashing it have never played it at all. It just helps them feel good about themselves to find something new to hate every day.

I have a feeling that most people praising it have never played any of the previous Metroid games at all.

 

[Punished Miku]

I have a feeling that most people praising it have never played any of the previous Metroid games at all.

I mean, the creator of Metroid was intimately involved in making it.

 

[nkarafo]

So a temper tantrum then, like I said. If it's not a bad game, then it's not a bad game.

The rest of your sentence (a horrible Metroid game) is your expectations distorting your opinion, instead of just playing the game for what it is.

Well, it says Metroid in the title and its not a spinoff. I was expecting to play a Metroid game. I don't like linear, cimematic games.

By calling it Metroid, it means they should have catteted to my tastes, not to the tastes of someone liking Uncharted or something. Certain titles and franchises come with expectations and you have to be completely apathetic to not understand that.

 

[nkarafo]

I mean, the creator of Metroid was intimately involved in making it.

Sure did.

The game though still doesn't play like a Metroid game. You don't even have to explore for the main power ups, let alone the overall linear design and the horrible story.

Sakamoto didn't have Gunpei Yokoi to slap him around every time he made a bad desision.

 

[Neff]

I love Other M. I think it's a legitimately good game with a poor script and terrible characterisation.

It looks, sounds and feels great to play though.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Find the pixel minigame in Other M and Samus having a Lady Boner for Adam dictating everything she is allowed to do, and Samus becoming a PTSD scared baby in front of Ridley Clone are the main draws of why Other M was poorly received.

If you look at it in retrospect it was very Similar to Metroid Fusion but worse. Plus the focus on NES style controls were awful and were only done so you would have to use the Wiimote. Which is a bad controller for a Metroid game to begin with.

Wiimote works great for Prime trilogy but not for a sidescroller.

Federation Force can be good if it's teambased but I don't like the dramatic change in artstyle and I genuinely did not like the gameplay in it.

The only good part of FedForce was the lore it brought to the Galactic Federation and some more buildup around Sylux.

 

[fart town usa]

It's funny that there was a slump to begin with. Nintendo knows what they need to do in order to make quality Mario, Zelda, and Metroid titles. The main issue is that Nintendo rarely puts forth the effort to showcase the talent they have.

Hopefully Dread is a massive success and forces Nintendo to provide games that cater to the Switch audience who want HARDCORE vidyagames.

 

[tassletine]

I have a huge crush on Metroid Dread, it’s quite possibly the best metroidvania since Super Metroid, but I’m highly sceptical that a first person Metroid on the Switch strand of consoles can impress visually. Art direction can take things a long way but they need to hit 60fps for the gameplay and I just don’t see how they can achieve that on a portable without having a low detail look for the genre. Nintendo need a stationary console or a dock that gives it more power or something.

The Metroid art style takes advantage of low hardware as it's designed with a quasi cartoon look. Lots of hard edges, tech and metal. The first Prime game is still fairly impressive today and not far off from the style of Dread.

 

[Sgt.Asher]

There is a reason I could find stacks of Other M at retailers for years, and it was the first shipment too. Other M failed at everything it set out to do.
The story, shit.
The gameplay, shit.
The exploration, shit.
It's best to let it be forgotten, as Metroid is back.

 

[BlakeofT]

It still amazes me that Prime and Fusion came out the same day. Two of my favorite games of all time, and I had tons of time after school to sink into them. I'd love for the Prime Trilogy to be re released, but I think I'm just going to plug in my Wii U and play them that way.

 

[Fess]

The Metroid art style takes advantage of low hardware as it's designed with a quasi cartoon look. Lots of hard edges, tech and metal. The first Prime game is still fairly impressive today and not far off from the style of Dread.

It’s no different than Halo Infinite on that regard, lots of hard edges, tech and metal there too. But MP4 runs on a lot weaker hardware, I just don’t see how they can impress visually. Metroid Dread comes off looking great because things are so far away. But in a first person shooter you’ll look at all the surfaces up close, look at the talk on the visuals from the Halo Infinite beta to see what people are expecting.
Next year we’ll start seeing Unreal Engine 5 games on PC/PS5/XSX, then things will evolve even more.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Yeah but Samus was actually cute in Other M and beautifully rejected all the "empowering space goddess" nonsense fans built around the character, so I give it a pass.

 

[OldBoyGamer]

I'll legitimately never understand this opinion. Other M completely botches basic elements of action games, stuff like the risk and reward balance, timing, accuracy, combat depth etc. It's a 3D game released in 2010 that's played with a Dpad as if it was a first generation Playstation game. The control scheme is so weak you have to point the Wii remote at the screen to shoot missiles, rendering you pretty much immobile during the process. It's a giant mess and at this point I think defending the story is more understandable than praising the gameplay.

Have to admit that was my experience too. Although I wouldn’t mind giving it another go all these years later. Just to see if my opinion changes.

 

[Ceadeus]

Amazing return to form.

I have a feeling Prime 4 is going melt heads as well and bare a similar artstyle to Dread.

After rising from the dead, they could possibly wind up some of the best 2D and 3D games ever made.

I really hope so too.

I still remember when Federation were announced, I think that even God cried a little. Even my cat was depressed

 

[carlosrox]

It nearly killed the franchise.

That's cute but no.

That's a long post!

I think the main thing I got from Other M, personally, is that during the Wii era Nintendo was trying to come up with various new control methods, and ways to simulate experiences physically. I think when looked at in the context of the Wii era, Other M is an ambitious and creative concept. You move like the old NES games and then have to move your hands to switch position and then point the controller in a very similar manner to how Samus would literally point her own arm herself. I thought that was a neat bit of unique game design. It was also the first 2D Metroid with a big budget in some time, and literally has the most impressive graphics of any game on the entire system. It introduced the dodge, which I loved personally, and has basically remained every since as an element of Metroid with the counter move in Samus Returns and Dread.

I don't think it fails as an action game at all, and is one of the best on the Wii. I don't think it fails as a Metroid game either, but it is definitely a more casual version of it, which doesn't surprise me that much given the design goals and the style of development at Nintendo during that era.

I just don't think it's nearly as bad as you claim. I mean, you say it's "not even close to the best looking game" on the system. But I just don't understand how that could ever be claimed if you just watch video of it. Things you see as an unforgivable sin, I see as either strengths or extremely minor issues.

I think the main thing I did with that game is acknowledge that they were trying to come up with a new and creative control scheme to showcase the capabilities of the Wii. I respect that, because it is original. It's like a Metroid arcade game honestly; the kind of thing you'd find in Japan with a unique physical controller. I never had any preconceived demands of what the game had to be to be considered a "real" Metroid. It was very obviously experimenting.

This guy gets it.

If people could stop frothing at the mouth for 5 seconds about Other M they'd probably have a much more reasonable reaction.

And let's not kid ourselves, the series didn't "almost die" because of Other M and Fed Force, it went on hiatus since the fanbase shat their pants over these games and Nintendo was probably caught off guard by all the hyperbolic hate. Any time a fanbase has a bullshit reaction like this it scares publishers. See Dead Space. Dead Space 3 was so easily a quality game but fans acted like it murdered their fucking families so EA put it on hold. I literally don't blame EA, I blame the toxic reactions claiming 3 ruined the series.

Complete fucking bullshit.

 

[Aldric]

That's a long post!

I think the main thing I got from Other M, personally, is that during the Wii era Nintendo was trying to come up with various new control methods, and ways to simulate experiences physically. I think when looked at in the context of the Wii era, Other M is an ambitious and creative concept. You move like the old NES games and then have to move your hands to switch position and then point the controller in a very similar manner to how Samus would literally point her own arm herself. I thought that was a neat bit of unique game design. It was also the first 2D Metroid with a big budget in some time, and literally has the most impressive graphics of any game on the entire system. It introduced the dodge, which I loved personally, and has basically remained every since as an element of Metroid with the counter move in Samus Returns and Dread.

That's not answering any of my points. You're basically just stating Nintendo tried a new control scheme and it was good because it made you feel like Batman I mean Samus. Sorry but a NES control scheme for a fast paced 3D action game in a franchise well known for its complex and deep mechanics is a completely idiotic design choice. It requires a huge simplification of what can be achieved by the player and streamlines the experience to the point it feels like the game plays itself. Also sense move is functionally completely different from the counter in Mercury Steam's game. For starter the counter requires proper timing and can only be used against certain attacks unlike the universal defensive option of the sense move

I don't think it fails as an action game at all, and is one of the best on the Wii. I don't think it fails as a Metroid game either, but it is definitely a more casual version of it, which doesn't surprise me that much given the design goals and the style of development at Nintendo during that era.

Again that's not saying anything you're just going "nuh uh". Why doesn't it fail as an action game? Have you played other action games? Why is it fine for a third person shooter to aim for you? It lacks everything that gives Metroid its identity. It has non existent exploration and no room for player agency.

I just don't think it's nearly as bad as you claim. I mean, you say it's "not even close to the best looking game" on the system. But I just don't understand how that could ever be claimed if you just watch video of it. Things you see as an unforgivable sin, I see as either strengths or extremely minor issues.

They're not "extremely minor issues" they're fundamental flaws with the core design of the game, starting from the control scheme, which is simply regressive especially coming from a company that popularized the use of analog controls for 3D games. Good for you if you like the game despite them, but they exist and there's no way they can be rationalized as "strengths".

I think the main thing I did with that game is acknowledge that they were trying to come up with a new and creative control scheme to showcase the capabilities of the Wii. I respect that, because it is original. It's like a Metroid arcade game honestly; the kind of thing you'd find in Japan with a unique physical controller. I never had any preconceived demands of what the game had to be to be considered a "real" Metroid. It was very obviously experimenting.

Experiments often end in failure and that's what happened with Other M. I'm glad the extremely negative word of mouth killed the chance for another game like that to see the light of day and gave Nintendo the well needed kick in the arse to course correct and give us something great like Metroid Dread.

 

[BlackTron]

If you think Metroid had a slump look at Starfox. Such a basic concept and still not a single good game since the N64.

I came in here to say this. Starfox64 was such a strong game even my dad who hates games liked it and played it in 1997. In my opinion SF is their #1 most mishandled IP.

I remember Miyamoto expressing surprise at poor sales in the series. It's astonishing how disconnected some can be from reality, no matter how talented. Despite 64 being one of my fav games of all time, I've never had the slightest interest in buying anything since.

I remember renting Assault back on GC and I actually returned it early. I was really taken aback by how lame it was. Reminds me of the equally lame Rogue Squadron 3 full of on-foot sequences. Great examples of games losing focus on what made them work.

Metroid has had some of the most consistent quality in the Nintendo lineup when you consider their track record. Zelda did worse when they spammed so many games milking and diluting the franchise.

I never played Federation Force but I took it like Prime Hunters, an obvious offshoot. I'm not gonna dock points from Mario for any of his millions of sports titles, or from Zelda for Four Swords or Links Crossbow Training.

 

[BacklashWave534]

I have a feeling that most people praising it have never played any of the previous Metroid games at all.

39 years old and I played Metroid 1 when it released. I wasn't praising it but i don't think it was the worst game ever either.

 

[Shakka43]

I'm replaying Other M now and while the gameplay is still fun, the awful and cringe fest of a storytelling in the game is making me take long breaks away from it. Not adding a skip option was as huge dick move by Team Ninja.
Overall I still think it is a game worth playing though.