Metroid: Other M

[Arrow]

You talking to me or Bleck? Cause I played Shining Force 2 about 30 times in a row back in 1994; it was actually my first RPG. Naturally I bought it on VC the second it was released.

[BardicKnowledge]

homebrew programmers have had a fix for that for two weeks

Again, this is what makes homebrewing Nintendo consoles so popular -- it does what Nintendon't, if you will.

Edit: Realized I already used this quote. I like the joke I just made so I'm keeping this as a repost of last page's ideas anyway.

Have you tried playing the Shining Force games? Those are the best games on the virtual console - You know, excluding the universally accepted classics.

Wait -- suddenly Shining Force isn't one of the "universally accepted classics?" It didn't have to come out for a Nintendo system to be a significant release, you know.

[EC2151]

I never played Shining Force, but my bro had the second one. He laughed at the sometimes blithe way the story is presented (this is pretty much because the facial animations were the same for all emotional content), but hated how the AI would artificially drag out the fights by running away from you.

I thought about getting it/trying it, one of these days.

I mean, really. Sending in your SD card to nintendo? By mail? Does nintendo still think this is the 90s?

[Overflow]

Well, yeah, Nintendo is a little confused. They were able to foresee and invent the future, but once the future arrived, they had no idea what to do

It looks like they're starting to get a grip, though. The 3DS looks like it will have great online capabilities. I mean, you can transfer DSiWare games over to it! That's HUGE for Nintendo! I think their next console will be up to standards.

[EC2151]

Here are videos to convince all those fools who still think that Other M is about SAMUS of all people:

God Bless America.

[Arrow]

Goddamnit, there is now Sprite ALL OVER my monitor thanks to those video links. I appreciate it, man.

[BardicKnowledge]

Hahahaha, that is amazing. Agreed though, Anthony is really the only worthwhile character to emerge from this. More of him in Metroid 5 when Samus goes against the Federation outright please.

[EC2151]

Heck, just give him his own spinoff! That way, Samus won't be marginalized any more than she already was!

You know, when I got to the end of Fusion years ago, I'm like "Hey, that's cool, this Adam guy is back!"

Now that I've played Other M, the ending of Fusion is a bit like "Oh shit, Adam is back"

[TheKrow]

Here are videos to convince all those fools who still think that Other M is about SAMUS of all people:

God Bless America.

His theme song sounds a whole lot like Prison Island from Shadow the Hedgehog. Interesting.

[EC2151]

His theme song sounds a whole lot like Prison Island from Shadow the Hedgehog. Interesting.

The title will make everything clear.

[Thalzon]

Okay, I just made it past the part where you get the gravity suit, and I have to really, REALLY wonder...

Why did people have a problem with the story? It was blown way out of proportion in response to what actually happens.

When Samus fights Ridley: she was stunned to see Ridley, and that can be expected. After all, this time she thought he was dead for certain. Perhaps all the lava and fire and stuff reminded her more vividly of when Ridley destroyed her home. I dunno. Point is, it wasn't half as bad as people moaned about.

And the scene with Adam before his death wasn't that bad, either. I don't get it. Can't Samus show some emotional frustration?

And on the gameplay side of things, the only really questionable (from a story perspective) power-up authorization was the varia suit. If she had found it in a little power-up ball like the Diffusion Beam nobody would be whining.

And the game might be a bit linear until the end, but... Really, now. It would be ridiculous to leave everything open all the time. Especially since the pathways aren't as branched out as in the Prime series. I will give that the more linear setup can mean frustrations if you miss a lot of power-ups, but a good 60% can be found as soon as you come across them anyway.

In short, yeah, there's problems (friggin' pixel hunts... The grubs and green blood in particular) but this is far from a bad game. It shows the usual level of polish and gleam that Nintendo games have.

[EC2151]

I myself don't have much a problem with the game's story...

When it's talking about the Bottle Ship, and Bergman, and the Deleter.

When it's Samus and Adam, well...

Things happen that make me mad at the terrible writing and stilted delivery.

Adam just shooting Samus in the back (and not even apologizing) is a pretty "this is fucking terrible" moment for a lot of people.

Even if you can write most of the game off as NOT being sexist or misogynist (and I do), that scene in particular is hard to justify in ANY context (Samus tries to be independent and willful- Adam shoots her and immobilizes her- Adam does all the work himself- Samus is grateful that Adam has done this- big emotional music plays).

Whatever Sakamoto was trying to get across there was utterly lost on me, and probably a lot of people who sat down thinking "Wait, what?"

It IS far from a bad game, but this probably has the 'worst' plot of any Metroid game thus far. Mainly due to a couple of scenes, coupled with an excessive amount of talking.

[Bleck]

Okay, I just made it past the part where you get the gravity suit, and I have to really, REALLY wonder...

Why did people have a problem with the story?

okay seriously we're not going to go through this every single time somebody finally decides to play the game

go read the rest of the goddamn thread

[JackKieser]

Adam just shooting Samus in the back (and not even apologizing) is a pretty "this is fucking terrible" moment for a lot of people.

Even if you can write most of the game off as NOT being sexist or misogynist (and I do), that scene in particular is hard to justify in ANY context (Samus tries to be independent and willful- Adam shoots her and immobilizes her- Adam does all the work himself- Samus is grateful that Adam has done this- big emotional music plays).

Whatever Sakamoto was trying to get across there was utterly lost on me, and probably a lot of people who sat down thinking "Wait, what?"

I thought it was pretty obvious. It was a rebuke of all of the "Samus should be a badass ALL THE TIME" theories that people had MISTAKENLY applied to the character in the first place. Remember, Samus was just going to charge into the Metroid den cannon first like she always does...

Except those Metroids had no weaknesses. Adam says it himself. They were, stupidly, bread to be the anti-Samus. Anything she would have done would have been futile at best and suicidal at worst. So, Adam does the only thing he CAN do at the time: immobilize the headstrong dumbass Samus had become in her pseudo-testosterone fueled blood-rage, explain that her until-then awesome skills were now useless, and realize that, ultimately, Samus was more of an asset to the galaxy than he was.

After all, who would we RATHER see pull the self-destruct switch: Adam, the ultimately useless army dude, or Samus, who could at least go on and do OTHER SHIT after the Bottle Ship was dealt with?

Not to mention, people really need to stop ragging on Samus' emotional baggage. What, women CAN'T have emotions anymore? If a woman has emotions these days, she's a bad example for all womanhood. It's fucking stupid. Women don't need to grow a penis to be badasses, you know. They can still feel things every now and again. It's not that big of a deal. Fuck, it's like bitching if Marcus Fenix has any semblance of emotion in Gears 3 because if Marcus feels, he must be a faggot. That'd be STUPID. Just as stupid as the argument against Samus' emotions.

[EC2151]

Samus, I don't want you going there. Don't go there.

Yeah right. I'm going there. Any objections, Adam?

-shot in the back-

DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD WOMAN

YOU WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG ADAM THANK YOU

I'm fine with and welcome an emotional Samus, but a creepy abusive dependency on Adam Malkovich is not really the type of emotion I like seeing.

[JackKieser]

Did you even WATCH the scene in question?? That's not what happened at ALL. Again, the only reason Adam shot Samus in teh first place was because she was about to run into a Metroid den with unbeatable Metroids. As soon as she walked in there, she was, essentially, a goner. Let's put this in real world terms. If you were in Texas and were on a walk, happening upon a bridge with a person ABOUT TO COMMIT SUICIDE BY JUMPING, would you allow it, or pull out your gun (because you're in Texas; everyone there is armed) and shoot the guy in the leg to stop him. Assume that you're outside of tackling range.

The answer will explain why you are either for or against Adam.

[EC2151]

Yeah, but why didn't he just say "Hey Samus, stop!"?

She was staring at a Metroid. Which was floating right above her.

I've tried to interpret the scene as Adam blowing a lid and becoming as crazy and fucked up as Samus is in this game, but it still doesn't change the fact that she's been following his orders this whole time... I mean, like I said, he could've yelled out to her BEFORE shooting her.

[Rozovian]

We're hating on the story cuz it's inconsistent with previous games. That's it's rather weak and silly and forcedly emotional and overstated and mostly cinematic (ie interrupts the gameplay, a lot) and seems like any random "explore Samus' character"-type fanfic isn't the _main_ complaint.

As for the powerups, only the power bombs are in any way justified in being prohibited and disabled, everything else being disabled is just stupid. If she wore GFed armor that Adam could control and limit the functionality of, sure. She doesn't. As it stands, he has her running through environments with the appropriate powerups _disabled_ and arbitrarily activated (grapple when needed, varia... not). Inconsistent, and kind'a stupid no matter how you look at it.

[Thalzon]

okay seriously we're not going to go through this every single time somebody finally decides to play the game

yes we are

every single time

ad nauseum

FOREVER

[JackKieser]

Why are you ignoring context? Remember: the Bottle Ship was a FEDERATION MISSION, not one of Samus' missions. She just happened along it. As such, if shit goes down, guess who's liable? The Federation. It's not like Samus has a particularly good track record with how her missions end, collateral-damage-wise. Up until that point, every time she sneezes, she sets off a self-destruct, which the Fed military wouldn't have wanted. Adam was in an interesting position, as her former CO.

Contrary to what you want to believe, the military forms tight bonds; you DO NOT question your CO, under any circumstances. Samus would have lived that way for years, being trained to listen specifically to Adam. They already had background and rapport. On top of that, she would have KNOWN that she wasn't supposed to be there. So, when Adam informs her that the mission is a Federation one, she understands that it's because, at that point, she's a liability. She's a walking demo team. Thus, Adam, in order to reduce the liability the Fed would have to deal with should something goes wrong, informs her that either she leaves, or she does EXACTLY what she's told...

...and as her former CO, she listens to him implicitly, just like she was trained to do. In fact, the only patently obvious breach of sanity was indeed the Varia suit incident... but Samus, again, was only supposed to go where told to go; as far as she knew, she wasn't SUPPOSED to be in a dangerous heat environment, and activating her Varia suit without authorization would:

A ) give her free reign to go places she might not have authorization to go

B ) show that she wasn't acutally under Adam's jurisdiction, which in her eyes (as a former Fed military member) would have been going against all of her training, as well as plenty of reason to get her kicked off the ship indefinitely (which wasn't what she wanted). And, as soon as Adam realizes that she's taking damage (something he might NOT have known if he was watching the other team members at the time), he corrects the problem and gives her authorization.

Seriously, if you say these things out of context, of COURSE they sound retarded. Context helps, people.

[BardicKnowledge]

Why are you ignoring context? Remember: the Bottle Ship was a FEDERATION MISSION, not one of Samus' missions. She just happened along it. As such, if shit goes down, guess who's liable? The Federation. It's not like Samus has a particularly good track record with how her missions end, collateral-damage-wise. Up until that point, every time she sneezes, she sets off a self-destruct, which the Fed military wouldn't have wanted. Adam was in an interesting position, as her former CO.

Contrary to what you want to believe, the military forms tight bonds; you DO NOT question your CO, under any circumstances. Samus would have lived that way for years, being trained to listen specifically to Adam. They already had background and rapport. On top of that, she would have KNOWN that she wasn't supposed to be there. So, when Adam informs her that the mission is a Federation one, she understands that it's because, at that point, she's a liability. She's a walking demo team. Thus, Adam, in order to reduce the liability the Fed would have to deal with should something goes wrong, informs her that either she leaves, or she does EXACTLY what she's told...

...and as her former CO, she listens to him implicitly, just like she was trained to do. In fact, the only patently obvious breach of sanity was indeed the Varia suit incident... but Samus, again, was only supposed to go where told to go; as far as she knew, she wasn't SUPPOSED to be in a dangerous heat environment, and activating her Varia suit without authorization would:

A ) give her free reign to go places she might not have authorization to go

B ) show that she wasn't acutally under Adam's jurisdiction, which in her eyes (as a former Fed military member) would have been going against all of her training, as well as plenty of reason to get her kicked off the ship indefinitely (which wasn't what she wanted). And, as soon as Adam realizes that she's taking damage (something he might NOT have known if he was watching the other team members at the time), he corrects the problem and gives her authorization.

Seriously, if you say these things out of context, of COURSE they sound retarded. Context helps, people.

Agreed with all of this but the varia, which is retarded no matter how you slice it.

In any case, the game was good -- some might even say great. It wasn't revolutionary material that we're going to be talking about 10-15 years down the line...but everyone had that expectation going in because it's a Metroid game, the series with the highest possible expectations for any franchise.

[EC2151]

Such is true- Metroid is one of the few series that has been consistently excellent, and to get something less than that is a disappointment in some respects.

[Devyn]

I wonder what Samus' favorite kind of pasta is. I'm willing to bet it's Penne.

[EC2151]

No, it's whatever Adam's favorite is, because if Adam likes it it's good enough for her.

[Rozovian]

So knowing she's in a Norfairish environment doesn't give her cause to even temporarily activate the Varia suit just to not die an unauthorized death? Yeah, that sounds reasonable. Especially as it's not her first run through an environment like that (and depending on the player, not her first death).

I don't buy the tight military bonds thing. The game itself has her leaving the GFed after Adam got Ian killed. As another appearance of Ridley gives her a PTSD episode (rather arbitrarily), wouldn't she be also carrying quite a disillusionment with the military and with Adam especially? Makes this tight bonds thing look silly, especially as she's shown no sign of getting emotional in any of the other games.

Inconsistent. It is.