Nintendo and Team Ninja’s collaborative efforts on Metroid: Other M are coming to fruition at the end of August, and the game is going to be a bit different than what fans of the series are used to. Typically, Metroid games play up the feeling of loneliness and desolation on hostile alien worlds, but this time around Samus is going to be a lot more vocal and she’ll have a few characters backing her up. Because the game is focusing more on character interactions, Other M will feature almost two hours of cut scenes. Since you’ll probably spend most of your time looking for hidden items and blasting creepy bad guys, Team Ninja is doing you a service by giving you the option to watch Other M’s video segments strung together in a sort of “theater mode” once you’ve finished your playthrough.
A very nice gesture on the developer’s part, but I can’t help but feel that they’ve missed what makes Metroid the unique series that it is, outside of the whole being-hit-so-hard-your-items-fall-off gameplay mechanic. Metroid isn’t about long winded cut-scenes or being told hold Samus feels. Part of her mystery is that you don’t know anything about her, her motivations or what goes on inside her head. She’s a bounty hunter and a warrior. Do people want to know more about Samus? I might be alone in this, but I like Metroid when it’s dark and enigmatic, not when it’s beating you over the head with narrative. What about you guys? Are you down for some cinematic action, or are you a bit wary?
Source: Kotaku
I feel like this could be okay, but as long as the gameplay is good, I can deal with it.
I feel the isolation and mystery behind Samus is a big part of the game experience. Even if the gameplay is good, it won’t feel like a Metroid game if Samus becomes a socialite and has all this backstory, at least in my opinion. I’m fine with knowing that the Chozo raised her, her parents were killed by Space Pirates, and now she’s a bounty hunter. I don’t need to know any more about Samus.
I dunno. I’m skeptical about this, but I have a Wii and nothing else is out, so I guess I’ll be buying it.
I’m a huge Metroid fan, and I can say, this is not the first time that we’ve delved into Samus’s mind, backstory, and character interactions. There was one other game that went as far as to have Samus monologue-ing in the elevator scenes about her past. That game was Metroid: Fusion, and in my opinion, that game was TERRIBLE. In attempting to make story in Metroid more prevalent they made it more linear and gave the player less freedom to backtrack all around the map and proceed at their own pace. It essentially took everything that I loved about Metroid and threw it out the door. From the accounts that I have heard (and they probably aren’t the most trust worthy) Team Ninja has said that they are trying to do something similar to Metroid Fusion, and if I hear a single review saying that that’s true when the game comes out, I’m not even renting it. I’m all for Nintendo trying to do new things with their franchises (though doing the same thing over and over again seems to be making them more money ((BOOM!))) but this isn’t really doing something new, it’s bringing back something that failed really, really hard. This is really only my opinion of course, but yeah, if this turns out to be another Metroid Fusion then I’m just going to ignore the Metroid franchise until they make up for it.
Metroid Fusion wasn’t that bad. It was a departure for the series, but still pretty fun.
I’m with Anthony on this one. I think that turning an established franchise over to another developer to bring a fresh perspective is a good thing. I’d actually rather have this and take the chance that it will suck than have Metroid Prime 4 (not that I don’t love that series, but it’s been played out at this point).
To be honest, I still kind of like cutscenes. They’ve gotten a bad rap over the last few years (MGS and the Xenosaga series have a lot to do with this), but I still like watching a cool cutscene every so often. I think as long as I don’t have to watch a cutscene that’s more than a few minutes long it won’t be a problem. If they’re getting long enough that you have savepoints in the cutscenes, though, then we may have a problem.
As far as the isolation goes, I always felt that was more of a factor in the Prime games than the original Metroid and Super Metroid. Yeah, you were all by yourself, but that wasn’t too different from any other game in the 8 or 16 bit era. And since it was an action platformer with respawning enemies, it always seemed like something was happening on the screen.
Having said that, I do think Mitch has a point about being in the dark as far as the narrative goes. The mystery of what’s going on has always been a cool part of Metroid, although the Prime games had increasingly dynamic narratives as the series went along.
I’ll be fine with a stronger narrative provided it’s well written. Can anyone here comment on Team Ninja’s storytelling abilities? I didn’t play any of their Ninja Gaiden games so I don’t have a basis for judgment.
I didn’t even know Metroid ever had a narrative.
I have no interest in any of the whole new direction they’re taking. As long as Retro are taking this extra time to make a newer Metroid Prime-esque game I’ll be happy.
I’m with Zavyen here. I still love gaming cutscenes. I think letting a new dev tackle the franchise should give it a little shot in the arm. At the very worst, it ends up terrible but helps highlight to Nintendo what it is that makes Metroid shine.
That being said, I do think the feature of cutting the game together like a movie is a great one. I’d love more features like that included with games, honestly. While FFVII Advent Children wasn’t such a hot movie, it had a feature that told the story off FFVII through gameplay clips and cut scenes. It was great for my wife and I, who watched me play about half the game but wanted to know how it ended.
I find that lots of times, my wife is interested in gaming stories but doesn’t have the patience or time to watch me do the tedious stuff that moves the story along. More please.
Oh, yeah, I remember the FFVII recap on Advent Children! It made me realize just how little I remembered the story from FFVII.
@SkubaPatr0l: You might be disappointed to hear that probably won’t be happening due to the fact that Retro is taking this time to make a new Donkey Kong Country platformer.