Rumor: Metroid: Other M and Sin & Punishment: Star Successor delayed

Nintendo has apparently delayed both Metroid: Other M and Sin & Punishment: Star Successor.

[EvilTwin]

I'm not terribly surprised by a Metroid delay (the S&P2 delay is only a matter of weeks). As long as it is still released this year, no complaints from me (it does space out N's major releases better, too).

That said...if Other M is bumped to be the big holiday title, thereby pushing Zelda 'til 2011...that would truly suck.

[SpoonyRedMage]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I hope it doesn't affect Europe, we were already get S&P earlier and we didn't have a solid date for Metroid.

[AEtherbane]

I REALLY want Metroid! Not sold yet on the new SnP, never played the original, but i've heard good things.

[fatstarr]

dont fret man...
Sin and punishment and metroid needs to be spread out through the year.
mario is gonna take over and no other games will get any love for a bit.

[eagle21]

Hopefully it's just a small delay for Metroid:Other M, like in July. Sin and Punishment 2 moved to the 27th of June. Maybe Metroid is getting a worldwide release date. :)

[Blaster_Master]

Metroid is gonna be dope. Delays are nothing but a good thing, it means they are fixing and working on the game even harder.

[Mahr]

I don't mind Metroid so much, but Sin and Punishment... Good grief. Any gains from being distanced from Mario (which are going to be miniscule anyway) are going to be far outweighed by the harm to the interest in the title incurred from completely dіcking around with the release date.

[Nugan]

My suspicion is that Nintendo has realized that such a cluttered two month period has few benefits and many potential drawbacks, particularly for poor S&P2.

I think adding some time between releases is probably a good thing. It may even mean that they plan to throw a bit of advertising weight behind Sin & Punishment and not just push it out to die quietly like Excitebots (which is what I feared they were doing when they crammed it between Galaxy 2 and Other M).

I think they'll probably move Other M to August. The last two Metroid titles have dropped in August, and this more closely fits Nintendo's traditional method of staggering releases with one in late spring/early summer and one in late summer.

I don't think will have any impact on their unannounced holiday schedule. At least I hope it won't.

[Gen0ne]

I'm buying that game regardless, but dammit no analog control sucks. Seriously, they should at least leave the option to change control styles. One way for the casuals out there: a la wii mote only. And the other for gamers: a la wii mote and nunchuck. Metroid has never been about the casual, so it should be marketed to them 2nd and to us 1st. Alright, I'm being a bit of a snob about it, but hearing that the wii mote by it's self is the only way to play, made me pout like a little kid. Prime spoiled me in terms of control, and this mandatory play style seems like a serious step backwards. Sorry for the mini rant here, but they should always give the player the option. Always.

[asdr3wsfas]

"I'm buying that game regardless, but dammit no analog control sucks. Seriously, they should at least leave the option to change control styles. One way for the casuals out there: a la wii mote only"

...did you just call the dpad casual? On a setup that mirrors the NES controller?

The difficulty of navigating, orienting yourself and attacking in 3d required making games more forgiving and easier. Compared to the old NES/SNES games they require no precision. No one dies in GOW/Heavenly Sword/AC 1 and 2/Bayonetta like they do in Mario or Contra: Rebirth.

The analog stick is essential for these easier games. But that control scheme suffers when used in 2d titles that require exact gameplay. In lots of 3d games you can walk your guy halfway off the cliff without falling. It has to be forgiving because the image on the screen is 2d and doesn't accurately represent the 3d world. In Mario and Contra walking at all off the cliff means you die. Most games that require an analog stick are easy because they're 3d navigation titles projected onto a 2d screen and the loss of accuracy required making 3d titles extremely forgiving.

They're easy and you can almost always beat them in 10-20 hours. Good luck doing that with Contra. The analog stick sucks for those 2d titles that required actual skill. They're n00bsticks that symbolize the problem with modern gaming - 3d titles are so easy that people expect to beat them and yet 2d titles suck on controllers made for those games. It elevated easy button mash gameplay while crippling difficult 2d games. We constantly say that "I still gotta beat this game before I buy another." That used to be an accomplishment. Hardly anyone beat every or even the majority of NES or SNES games they owned. Now we regularly expect to beat a game in a rental.

Half these titles are complete button mashes with easy puzzles because the analog stick and 3d game play prevents making them actually difficult. Just condition some rapid sequences of mashing and you win. 2d Mario and Contra are reaction and timing based games that require exact controls because the image presented is a faithful representation of the world in the game. You don't have your foot floating off the edge of the cliff like in 3d titles. You just fall.

Metroid prime was so hard to die in that they made the *environment* hurt you in the sequel. The game focused on pathfinding, not precise movement, timing, and physics. Other M is a return to the 2d style of metroid (the scan visor wiimote pointing control mimics the switch between NES controls and scanning for secrets in super paper mario, not Prime). The controls match the gameplay - 2d with dpad. If you want to use the analog stick go buy another game. This one was made for people like me.

[ChickeyCantor]

you use the IR to go into FP mode...Your request would just wreck this idea.
Not sure how its a step back, it seems to work very well for this game.
Its actually a unique way of playing a 2D game(in combination with the IR).

[pcz]

I disagree with your argument that analogue = easy, thats a load of rubbish.

In 2d mario with digital control (d-pad,) your movements are precise, yes, but unforgiving. ie- you approach the edge of the platform, shuffle forward to get closer and mario drops off the edge. How is that a good experience? Now take the same situation but in an analogue context, you could slowly move your character to the edge of the cliff confidently, without he/she falling off. That doesn't mean the game is easier, it just means you have a greater level of control!

I don't know where you got the idea that 3d sticks are for noobs, are you one of these people that insists floppy discs are still the best medium for storing information? Anologue sticks were designed to move 3d objects around a 3d space (ie mario 64,) imagine playing mario 64 with a d-pad. It would be impossible and inadequate for the job (remember how awful it was in ds mario 64). But a 3d stick isn't useless at controlling games on a 2d plane. An analogue stick is more diverse than a d-pad.

Name one thing you can do with a d-pad that you can't do with an analogue stick? But there are many things a 3d stick can do that can't be done with a d-pad.

In 2d mario when you encounter an enemy, you were presented with only a few options. Either kill it, or jump over it. In 3d mario when you encounter an enemy you are able to react with a wider range of responses. You could kill it, jump over it, walk around it to the left, to the right, back flip over it, crawl around it, tip toe around it etc. How is that easier? Its more complex because you are being asked a lot more in the way you interact.

I bet you are one of those people who thinks the early control in resident evil (ie the character rotating on their axis whilst standing motionless) was a gameplay mechanic, and added to the game experience. No, it was lame and a result of poor d-pad control implementation. It was the same for tomb raider, using a d-pad when it just wasn't designed for that purpose, its not a gameplay feature, its a technical limitation!

I fear this metroid will fall into this same category if the developers don't get it right, i suspect they are trying to make the game reminiscent of the 2d metroid games, but they shouldn't forget the benefits of analogue control. Because what would really suck, would be a fantastic game being completely ruined or hampered by nostalgic (ie totally sh1t) controls.

[EvilTwin]

I'm with bob on this one. There is NOTHING casual about the controls for Other M. Watch the gameplay trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com...

Notice how fast Samus is? Now, remember how SLOW she was in MPT (and I say that as a huge Retro fanboy)? Look at the platforming at the one minute mark. See how Samus turns on a DIME? That's because of digital controls instead of analog.

People got used to having an analog stick and a manual camera (either controlled by a second analog stick, or controlled with the first analog stick by being stuck to a character's backside and movement) for 3D gameplay. This game is NOT designed that way. It has an auto camera system that frames the action combined with digital controls; think Super Metroid, if you were allowed to move all around the rooms in 3D.

That said, I don't expect everyone to be a fan of this control system. But the Prime games were an entirely different beast than Sakamoto-san's Metroids, which were as much about speed and action as exploration. This is the game I've been waiting for since 1994.

@Sidar -- "Its actually a unique way of playing a 2D game (in combination with the IR)."

Except this isn't a 2D game. It's a 3D game with levels constructed via polygons. You are never restricted to a 2D plane; Samus can always move in all directions. In rooms like this...
http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii...
...you'll be able to move all over that room (and, by the looks of it, use the morph ball to go up that shaft on the left). The camera angles suggest old school 2D in some places, but the game itself is 3D.

[ChickeyCantor]

Is it me or will every damn article writer write this about anticipated game?

[pcz]

I have too many great games to catch up on, so it will be good if they hold them back for a while, otherwise i will be buried in brilliant games.