Is Metroid: Other M THAT bad?

[Clownman]

While I haven't played it myself I will say the story is a glorious trainwreck of all kinds of stupid, But I've heard conflicting opinions about the gameplay being okay or decent... What are your experiences though? I ask this because I ran a poll elsewhere and surprisingly there are people who think it's worse than Sonic 06.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

it's definitely NOT worse than Sonic 06 from a mechanical standpoint. visually, the game looks alright (but generic and lacking personality), and the controls aren't that slippery and annoying from what i can see. it looks fairly glitch-free too.

what IS the problem of the game is that it's an really average-looking experience with terrible design-flaws and a terrible story. Samus turns into a whining, defeatist mess, who is upset that the Super Metroid was killed off, lets herself be completely controlled by Adam Malkovich, which is a very uninteresting and kind of dick-ish character, and experiences PTSD from fighting Ridley.

the gameplay is watered down, and there's little incentive to explore for new power-ups, mostly because you already HAVE all the power-ups in the game, but you're "unauthorized" to use any of them because of stupid plot reasons (Adam's chain yanking Samus around the neck.) and on top of that, the level-design is super-linear and does not feel like a Metroid game, but some more action-oriented on-rails thing.
but it doesn't really work because the combat exists of "hammer the attack button until things die." regular enemies feel pointless to kill, as they don't drop any health or ammo-pickups anymore, and you kill them by basically just shooting them until they die, because you automatically lock onto them. this makes combat incredibly boring, repetitive, and lacks skill.
the finishing moves are pretty glamorous, but they're scripted and like Brutal Doom fatalities, bogs down the pacing of the game.
the bosses are clunky to fight because of mediocre controls, like you can aim with your arm-cannon in FPS view by pointing the Wiimote at the screen, but you're totally vulnerable when doing this, IIRC, and again, bogs down the pacing of the combat.

the game also makes mandatory segments where you either are locked into FPS mode, forcing you to look at some indecipherable thing, or something BEHIND YOUR BACK WITH NO INDICATION OF LOOKING THERE, and are just dumb, pointless story fluff. same with the segments where you are locked into Resident Evil 4 tank segments. with no combat at all. and you literally just walk into the next room. what was even the point of that???

basically, the game is incredibly flawed and average, and just shits all over Samus' stoic and brave personality. it degenerates her into a sort-of damsel in distress, and makes her feel incredibly weak, because she's a woman or some shit. the gameplay itself is boring and repetitive, giving you no incentive to explore for power-ups because of the linear level-design. oh, and the music is totally forgettable. on top of pretty-looking visuals, but no real style or memorability to it.

the best way to sum it up? it's not a Metroid game. i pretend it doesn't exist, because the game does everything wrong and is probably the reason there hasn't been a new Metroid game in about 8 years. and then they come out with fucking Federation Force, which was a completely godawful business-decision. i hope i've made it a little clearer why this game is so disliked.

it's DEFINITELY not as bad Sonic 06 was though, which was a general godawful game all around. but Other M is probably more disappointing in the ways it does things wrong.

[Ethril]

Computer!Adam is better at acting like a human being than actual Human!Adam. Go figure.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

yeah, i was genuinely curious about this Adam character after hearing about him in Fusion. turns out he was a dick. oops? i'm kind of glad he died now, even if it was in the dumbest plot-related way ever.

[SamVision]

The gameplay is definitely not decent. If anything, it is barely passable.

[Shadelight]

Not a single one of the side characters were in any way memorable either. The game sure tried its hardest to make you forget about them after trying to make you care about them.

[Ghastly]

My advice, watch a gameplay video or two. See if it's something you'd enjoy playing.

[MetroidJunkie]

yeah, i was genuinely curious about this Adam character after hearing about him in Fusion. turns out he was a dick. oops? i'm kind of glad he died now, even if it was in the dumbest plot-related way ever.

That depends on your perspective. Samus technically trespassed on Galactic Federation property because of a distress signal that wasn't for her. Adam told her to leave and she refused. As it's GF property, she technically defied the GF in that case but then he relents and lets her stay with the condition that she follow his every command because it's his head on the chopping block if something goes wrong. That along with her just up and abandoning the Federation when she was younger, I can understand why he'd be a little less than friendly.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

most of the story has been blacked out of my memory, so i'm just going by what i felt about the game as a whole. i guess that does make sense, then, but it's still weird and disconcerting seeing Samus Aran's chain being yanked around like that. it just doesn't feel like it fits with someone who's been sent out on dangerous missions, what, 5 times in the past now?

[Marisa the Magician]

Just remember that the gameplay could have been MUCH WORSE if Team Ninja hadn't decided to not play along with some of Sakamoto's decisions.

It really baffles me that this is the same director that created this series and is responsible for gems like Super Metroid. He also considers the Prime series to be non-canon and going against his creative vision.

Some would jokingly say that he once met Kojima in a bar and this is the end result.

[amv2k9]

Yes. In his zeal to excise the Prime series from Metroid canon, Sakamoto managed to retcon every other game as well. If OM is canon, Prime series, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion (which is, hilariously, canonically a sequel to OM) can't exist.

OM states that Space Pirates need Mother Brain (or a similar entity) psychically controlling them for them to do anything. So, in Metroid 1, Samus blows up Mother Brain. Boom. The Space Pirates are done. They can't screw around with Phazon, they can't rebuild Mother Brain, none of it. It can't have happened.

Also there's the fact that the GF managed to take Mother Brain and shrink her down to a human brain's size in a couple months, when it took the Chozo, a spacefaring race of magic birds, years just to make a bigass Brain.
...And the fact that OM states Samus' suit is powered by her mind, when the other games have always stated it is physical armor. In Metroid Fusion, again the canonical sequel to OM, they couldn't remove her suit because of the cybernetic components being too integrated in her body.
...And the fact that Adam's sacrifice at the end makes no sense, because there are plenty more Metroids elsewhere, and he knows it.
...And the fact that OM introduces the fact that one of the Space Marines is an assassin, and then forgets about it.
...And the fact that that assassin starts killing Marines during the mission, when it would make more sense to do it afterwards, so that they can actually do what they supposedly came there to do.
...And the face that the GF "breeds out" cold vulnerability in Metroids, when in Metroid II they lose it naturally in metamorphosis.
...And the wealth of other "WTF" moments OM's story introduces.

I ask this because I ran a poll elsewhere and surprisingly there are people who think it's worse than Sonic 06.

Probably because after Sonic 06, alright-to-good Sonic games continued to be released.

After the lousy Hotel Mario game on the CD-I, SMW2: Yoshi's Island was released the very same year, and Super Mario RPG and Super Mario 64 followed two years later. After the equally bad and 'memorable for all the wrong reasons' Zelda games on the CD-I, there was a somewhat longer drought between games, but that drought was ended by Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

Metroid's been on ice for the better part of six years since OM, and Federation Force is a co-op shooter/soccer mashup stylistically unrecognizable as a Metroid game, in which Samus only seems to rate a cameo.

I'd say that Other M was quite possibly the poorest in-house treatment of a Nintendo IP in maybe... ever.

[Big C]

I'd say that Other M was quite possibly the poorest in-house treatment of a Nintendo IP in maybe... ever.

Star Fox fan here, I'd vote that series has ALMOST had it as bad, between Adventures, Command, and now SF0.

Those games are serviceable but also good at trampling over what made the prior games great.

[Ghastly]

The Space Pirates are done. They can't screw around with Phazon

Prime series takes place before even Metroid 1.

In Metroid Fusion, again the canonical sequel to OM, they couldn't remove her suit because of the cybernetic components being too integrated in her body.

Couldn't easily remove it with her unconscious. She can take the suit off, herself, but otherwise it had to be surgically removed.

...And the fact that Adam's sacrifice at the end makes no sense, because there are plenty more Metroids elsewhere, and he knows it.

Keeping in mind that the Prime series is before Metroid 1, where are they and how does he know about it?

[Big C]

I could have sworn the Prime games take place after Metroid 1 because the pirate computer logs in the intro of Prime 1 mention "the fall of Zebes".

[Scripten]

Just for reference, the order of the series goes:

Metroid 1 > Prime Series > Metroid II > Super Metroid > M:OM > Metroid Fusion