Everyone's got their opinion now. It's been about a month and a half since Metroid: Other M came to store shelves in the States, and within that span of weeks most of the long-running franchise's fans have picked up the game, played it to completion and formed an opinion. Some have been good. Some have been bad. And some have even claimed that the Samus they once loved is dead.
In the wake of mixed reactions to Other M, IGN explores possible directions for the series' next sequel.
With Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty coming soon, it's time to look back at the developer's greatest triumphs...and one oddball favorite.
There is a decent fan base for the Nioh games, but still think they are criminally overlooked and under appreciated.
I just bought the PS5 collection to replay them again with all their DLC, a sweet collection for my games shelf for sure.
Yea, those gardens haven't been plowed in over 10 years now though. Imagine if they cultivated it, let it grow again.
originally it wasn't going to be included because of their take on Samus' character. But the gameplay's actually not bad.
Honestly, I don't know if we can even blame them for that take. Nintendo's Sakamoto was credited as the writer and from what we learned later with the Retro Studios interviews for the Prime series, Nintendo apparently never saw Samus as this stoic badass that most of the west imagined her as. Going as far as describing her as "motherly".
Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime reflects on Metroid: Other M and his initial high hopes for the game.
Yeah we all loved how you took a stoic badass and turned her into a whiny shrew. All those writers should be sacked.
VGChartz's Paul Broussard: "The early-mid 2000s saw something of a golden age for Metroid games. After an eight year hiatus, Metroid burst back onto the scene in dramatic fashion. Largely buoyed by the critical and financial success of Metroid Prime (at least, relative to other Metroid releases), Metroid saw a whopping six new titles between 2002 and 2007, as well as one rather bizarre pinball spin-off that wound up being much better than it had any right to be. Metroid had never been this popular before."
Never though the day would come where I say this but I’d be fine with having every 2D Metroid remade the way Dread plays.
It doesn't, kill it already
It's kinda funny how they segmented the games; Fusion and Zero Mission were more linear than Super, but Echoes and Corruption were nowhere near as "open" (or gave the illusion of being "open ended") as Super or the original Prime.
But big ups to IGN for noting the natural progression of the series. People acted like Other M was completely foreign. It wasn't. It was the direction the series had been moving. It's not 1994 anymore.
Anywho...where does Metroid go next? Dread makes sense; it's been rumored to have existed for years, and it's too good a name to waste. And I don't think Sakamoto will want to waste the shifting perspectives style; he'll want to perfect it, just like he did with the evolution between the original Metroid and Super. But will he be allowed to do so in another home console title? Not yet, I'd wager. Other M probably cost a LOT to make. A 3DS game is a safe bet. And then another "Other M" ('Nother M?) on the Wii's successor, with its style of gameplay. It's too promising a template to abandon.
[Mistake at the end of this op/ed, though. "Take away her voice"? The best game in the series doesn't have her talking? Umm...Super. She talks in Super. It's the best in the series, apart from the original Prime. Samus doesn't need to be silent. She just doesn't need any more flashbacks to her as a whiney teenager...the George Lucas-syndrome thing. We've seen that now, and the past is pretty well buried after Other M's events.]
"Other M, additionally, paid no attention whatsoever to the events of or characters introduced in the Prime games."
That might be true, but we should remember that the thought process that went into formulating Other M's plot was largely indefensible.
"So safe to say that whole side-series is going to be left in the past and not referenced any more."
:-/