Metroid: Other M. The game that broke the fanbase. Coming off the heels of the legendary Metroid Prime Trilogy, Other M wanted to take the series in a bold new direction, with the step-father of the franchise, Yoshio Sakamoto, spearheading the project to breath new characterization and a focus on storytelling into Samus Aran. Given the end result, it didn’t exactly go over well.
Sakamoto has been labelled as very controlling about the project by people that worked on Other M, from handling all the voice direction in English himself despite not speaking the language, to requiring Team Ninja, the dev team brought in for the game, to only use a singular wiimote as the control scheme, despite their attempts to pitch an alternative that would have allowed for better 3d movement. And thats not even getting into the myriad of flaws the story itself possesses.
Yet strangely…I can’t say I hate this game. Its flawed, DEEPLY flawed, but there are good ideas and points to it. The game looks fantastic for a Wii game, the musics good, and the gameplay, when it hits is stride, can actually be a lot of fun. Its just all the other things surrounding these that bog the experience. So join me, three times a week, as we dissect what exactly went wrong with Sakamoto’s vision and explore the Bottleship that is, Metroid Other M.
First thing’s first, its time for a drinking game. Take a shot everytime Samus says ‘Baby’ in the first episode. Good Luck. You’ll need it.