A FEW THINGS THAT METROID : OTHER M GOT RIGHT

Nintendo and Team Ninja’s recent effort with the Metroid series, Metroid : Other M (Nintendo, 2010), gave gamers, it would seem, a lot to complain about. The silent and hard-as-nails bounty hunter Samus Aran was given a little more backstory than usual (which was already strongly hinted at in Metroid Fusion (Nintendo, 2002), for all you nit-pickers) , and that was enough to put the whole gaming community ablaze. The game did, in my opinion, include its story tastefully, in concentrated bursts so as not to distract from the gameplay and general solitary ambience, trademark of the series. What would be good cannon fodder for all haters is the whole mother-and-maternity related symbolism, grossly tacked on the game, that would have benefited of a more subtle integration than a litteral ‘mother-daughter relationship gone awry in a baby-bottle-shaped spaceship’ thing actually going on. Or how Samus comes in fully-equipped but is waiting for orders given by her father figure, another prism to the redundant theme, to use all of her firepower (a far better excuse would have been that since the Space Federation tinkered with her suit to get samples of the baby Metroid, they could have as well cloned the Chozian technology of her suit aboard the Bottle Ship, but then again, that’s just me).

Let us focus on the positive aspects of the game, now. There’s a lot it did right.

First off, and that is feat in itself, Other M is the first game ever (that I’ve played) that integrates Quick Time Events seamlessly. Samus has a context-sensitive dodge move where, instead of making the character run around, the directional pad allows her to cartwheel her way out of laser blasts and melee attacks if they are too close to her. It quickly becomes second nature to the gamer to use such a move since its timing is perfect (and I guess we have Team Ninja to thank for such a tight mechanic, as per usual) and the game offers a few surprise moments where dodging is essential. These moments appear as some sort of instant-cinematics that doesnt even prompts the player to respond. If the player has already integrated the dodge into his arsenal of moves, these QTEs are simply relying on his instincts to dodge at the right second. And it works. You’ll be surprised how it adds to the tension of a boss fight when it begins with this sort of QTE, and even more by how it doesn’t detract from the gameplay.

Speaking of boss fights, here is another area where the game shines. The camera auto-locks on bosses (and don’t worry, boss rooms are designed so as not to interefere in a bad way with the lock-on). This is brilliant. Why on earth would you want to look anywhere else than in the boss’ direction in an all-action boss fight ? The game makes it obligatory in almost all boss fights and the environment where they take place are wide-opened, circular spaces without obstruction. Because nobody wants to have to hold an aiming button for fifteen minutes in order to win a boss fight, this idea is a great novelty.
Another simple touch is that you can’t fall off ledges. Yep. In every game where pitfalls are common death traps, there usually comes a moment early on in a gaming session where the player inches away to the ledge just to see if the game is gonna hold you back or let you fall. Games that let players fall off ledges are always weird to me, since I would never consciously throw myself off a cliff, and game controls, ever since we entered the 3D realms, should take that into account. Instead, the game waits for player input, most likely a press of the jump button, to allow Samus off a ledge. This gives players the opportunity to concentrate on the action and acrobatics going on in the game, freeing the mind up of the pointless worry of falling off without warning.

Also, this game makes you feel like a bad-ass. You end up fighting some pretty mean-looking monsters, but the game gives you a few awesome moves to wipe them out. When Other M starts to explain and show its special moves (the Overblast and Lethal Strike), it looks like we’re being served Metroid à la sauce Ninja Gaiden. But the game only adds these two simple moves (which are easy to use) to spice up combat and it works admirably. You will look and feel like a bad-ass during combat without much of a hassle (and that.s a good thing since combat isn’t the focus of the game and, dare I say, of any Metroid title). The grapple beam and wall jump have also been streamlined for efficiency. The grapple beam especially was in desperate need of it, after the horror that was its controls in the Metroid Prime trilogy. Now, grappling from hook to hook only needs one button press, and the wall jump only demands that you hold the directional pad in the direction of the first wall you jump from. Unfortunately, while this simplification works well and opens the door to more complicated acrobatics puzzles, the game fails to seize this opportunity and offers very little in terms of tricky moves.

All in all, Metroid : Other M is a bold game, a game that tries to do things differently, and does so in a mainstream title in a well-known series. It has balls, and I believe it is a must-play for people who wish to keep abreast of new ideas in game design.