Full Review for Metroid: Other M by Glitchmaster117

Introduction

Metroid: Other M is Nintendo's recent release directed by Yoshio Sakamoto and Yosuke Hayashi. It takes place directly between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, making it the eighth chapter in the Metroid series. It explains several things about the whole series, mostly things in Fusion, that would have probably remained unanswered otherwise. It has brought in fans that have never played a Metroid game before, and had more people pre-order it than the rest of the series put together. It's probably the best Metroid game so far.

Graphics

The graphics are amazing for a Nintendo game. It's almost as if it's real life. However, it's easy to tell the difference between cutscene and gameplay graphics. It's not as obvious as Metroid Prime Hunters' difference, but still worth mention. Seeing Samus in third-person in a 3D Metroid game was a huge shock for most fans of the series, and many thought it'd be impossible. This thought arose because in all previous appearences, Samus has her Arm Cannon ready to shoot. With it down, it would be impossible to keep to this "Shoot exactly when the button is pressed" feeling if she puts it down. This is why, if you look closely, you can see that the shot comes out before the Arm Cannon is pulled all the way up. Some of the good things about the graphics, though, are that you can see ripples when Samus falls into a liquid. It's also got some classic enemies, such as Zoomers and Dessgeegas, rendered perfectly in 3D. It's almost as if they'd been like that since they were first thought up. Also, if you were to look through a pane of glass, you could clearly see some kind of grime building up on it, much like what really happens on glass. You can even see a slight reflection, growing stronger as you get closer. Things like this give it a more realistic feeling, rather than proving that it's a game by just slapping stuff together.

Sound

This game is the first in the series to include Samus talking, not just grunts or text boxes. She speaks in three ways: Narrating the scene, from within her Power Suit, and directly. When narrating, she's kind of monotone. It would be much better if she were to show some kind of emotion at scenes such as talking about the Baby Metroid's death. When she's talking from within her suit, it's slightly muffled. This shows attention to detail, as one cannot be heard clearly while wearing a full body suit. She does show some emotion here, but is still generally monotone. There's only one scene where she speaks directly. She shows quite a bit of emotion when speaking here, but there are too many intervals between her words. As for sound effects, these are pretty good. You can hear a splash when falling into water, and all sounds echo more or less depending on the vacancy of the room and whether it's actually got terrain or is just a lab. As for music, there's not as much feeling as there is with other Metroid game music. Just listen to the music for Phendrana Drifts from Metroid Prime. Then, listen to the Cryosphere's music. One main difference is Phendrana's music is distant and cold, showing that it's just a desolate tundra. The Cryosphere, however, is very ambient and doesn't even show a hint that it's for a frozen area. Almost every song in the soundtrack is very ambient, though boss themes such as Ridley's or Nightmare's are intense and orchestrated, giving the player a much more urgent feeling.

Gameplay

This game has an amazing storyline. Several things, however, were to be expected from other Metroid games, such as Adam dying. It was obvious he would die in Other M because he was already dead in Fusion. It's just just like Star Wars. It was obvious Anakin would become Darth Vader because Darth Vader said he was Luke's Father in a previously released episode. It's an unavoidable spoiler, which many people didn't like. Some things, such as the Deleter, were well thought out. It never said who the Deleter actually was, but was left open for the player to guess. It even gave the player the feeling of being stalked, thinking that if they stayed in one area for too long, he would get to them. It's that feeling of mystery and suspense that drives an excellent addition to the Metroid franchise. A downside, though, is that it's short. It's possible to beat it in less than 5 hours if you know what you're doing. Most of the Metroid games by Yoshio Sakamoto take advantage of beating it quickly, but not in Other M. It's also posible to get irreversably stuck. If you don't collect at least 5 Energy tanks and 3 Accel. Charges by the time you get to the Final Boss, you'd have to have you're energy tanks fully filled or else you will die. There are also several scenes that you can die if you don't react quickly, such as with the aforementioned Final Boss scene (You constantly take damage at this point, so hesitation will result in failure), when you first get to the Pyrosphere, and even as soon as you learn how to climb up shafts. Most of these things can be avoided by doing something simple, but have absolutely no forewarning. This game is simply one that degrades hesitation to the level of failure.

Lastability

Before this game was released, I'd heard that there was over an hour of cutscenes and that you could go hours without seeing one. This gave me the idea that it was fairly long. I was apparently wrong. As I've said before, this game can be completed in less than 5 hours. However, after defeating what was thought to be the final boss and the credits roll, there's some more to the story. You go back to the Bottle Ship to "get something that can't be replaced." In doing so, you find another boss. It's one many people will know if they've played Super Metroid, so it's not right to say it's new. And, after defeating the game to the credits, you unlock a Theater Mode, which allows you to watch every cutscene strung together with some prerendered gameplay so it's not as choppy. After completing the addendum, you get more to the Theater Mode. Additionally, there's exactly 100 powerups in the game. Finding them all can take some time. Also, for completing certain tasks (beating the game, beating the addendum, collecting a set amount of powerups, etc.), you get more Concept art in the Gallery. You also get a Hard Mode for completing a 100% powerup run. Completing a 100% Hard run in less than 10 hours is a common challenge among players who don't get overly frustrated by it, much like completing a 100% Hard Mode run in less than 3 hours in Metroid Zero Mission (although the latter has a reasonable reward). Another common challenge is one that's basically a Metroid standard: Speedrunning. Speedrunning is the act of completing a game as quickly as possible. Players will try to best each other's records without hacking until hacking's necessary to get any faster. This makes for more replay value. After every image has been unlocked, and the record has been permanently set, replaying it is a thing of the past.

Overall

Though some things are lacking, such as the missing musical elements or steady graphics, it's still generally amazing. While it's still a Metroid game, it incorporates a little bit of Ninja Gaiden into it, most likely because it was co-created by the creators of Ninja Gaiden. A lot of things are brought back from previous games, such as a lot of the powerups and some of the bosses and enemies. Many techniques that are new to the series are also present, such as the Overblast, or Lethal Strike techniques. Even the new bosses seem like they've been with Metroid forever. Things like this make for a great game. Because of this, the positive things far outweigh the negative parts. The overall score of 8 is simply the average of the other four scores (9, 8, 9, and 7. You do the math). All of these are still good scores, especially for a Nintendo game.

Final Score: 82%