Reviews// Metroid: Other M

However, there are a few things in there that just don’t cut it. First of all, even though you can tell that they’ve tried their best with the story, it’s… well, pretty crap.

Samus, this incredible character that has been through countless wars and destroyed enemy upon enemy, who at this point in the legend should be utterly broken, comes across as a petulant teenager. Forget Other M, this could easily be Metroid: Twilight Edition. It's often emo in the extreme - I was half expecting My Chemical Romance to play during some scenes (the score is actually pretty good – it’s very atmospheric but not overbearing). Samus should not be going about all “he’s so dreeeeamy”.

Another issue I had was with the abilities. You actually start the game with a good range of powers. You get to mess around in a practice room near the game’s beginning, dropping bombs, firing off missiles… it’s great! Then you get into the meat of the game, and almost immediately you’re told that you have decided to not to use these great weapons you have at your disposal. Forget the fact that you’re getting whupped at every opportunity by beasties, you’re not going to use your awesome explosive awesomeness because you’ve been told you can’t. Samus is meant to be a hardcore bounty hunter! Taking no crap from no-one! It’s annoying!

Third big annoyance? Generic areas. You’re in this huge Bottle Ship, dark and forboding, potentially filled with atmosphere. What do you get? Well, there’s an ice zone, a tropical zone, a fire zone… you understand where I’m going with this. While some games handle this with a sense of humour, Other M just feels like it’s going through the motions.

However, despite the flaws I actually had a pleasant enough time. Metroid: Other M is in no way an earth-shattering game, but it’s not terrible either. It has enough in it to entertain, but coming away from it I felt a distinct sense of “OK, that’s that done, what now?” – not what you’d expect from a game being so heavily promoted by Nintendo.

Conclusion

It’s not great, but it’s not bad. It probably would have been better if Team Ninja had focused on the game itself instead of throwing so much at the cutscenes. An OK addition to the Metroid series, Other M is the equivalent of a cheese and tomato sandwich: you’ll eat it if there’s nothing else around, but when you’re expecting a steak melt it leaves you wanting just a bit more.

SPOnG Score: 75%