Charge your plasma beams and boot up those Varia Suits: Samus returns on Wii U Virtual consoles tomorrow!
Originally released on the Wii back in 2010, Other M is, universally, the most hated game in the Metroid franchise. Most of the game’s criticism focused on its overdrawn, melodramatic story and poor depiction of Samus’ character and personality. The overabundance of story coupled with its lengthy, unskippable cutscenes (while gorgeously rendered) significantly hindered the excellent pacing the series is known for. The plot itself wasn’t particularly compelling either, coming off as bland, boring and completely cliche at times.
All things considered, there’s a fairly decent game hidden beneath its admittedly nonsensical narrative. Albeit much more linear than Metroid Fusion, Other M keeps enough of the series’ sense of exploration intact while placing a much greater emphasis on combat. Designed with controls that mimic the simplicity of an NES game, players control Samus on a 2D plane, though they can switch to a first-person perspective on the fly by pointing the Wii Remote at their television screens. Shifting seamlessly between two-dimensional platforming and precision shooting in a three-dimensional space created unique opportunities for intriguing puzzle solving and some truly epic and memorable boss battles that its predecessors could only dream of. Despite its shortcomings, I personally found it to be a tad over-abused by fans, and would still urge fans of the series to give it a second playthrough under a more forgiving lens.
Fun fact: Players can now experience all of Samus’ intergalactic adventures since the dawn of the NES on one console – the Wii U! Well, all but Metroid Prime Pinball and Federation Force, but maybe that’s for the best.
Metroid: Other M will be priced at $19.99.
Leave a Comment
Written by Matthew Weidner
When it comes to playing and writing about video games, Matthew aspires to be the very best, like no one ever was. Writing for Nintendo Wire and the thought of one day finally achieving a perfect, no death Super Meat Boy run fills him with determination.
