Reviewed: Metroid Other M

Bounty Hunter Samus Aran answers a distress call from a spaceship which appears to be deserted on arrival. A platoon of marines from The Galactic Federation who have also answered the call greet her in a less than friendly manner led by her former colleague Adam. After an attack by a hostile and mysterious alien force Adam reluctantly asks for Samus's help on the condition she follows his orders. What has happened to the crew, who are these strange aliens and where have they come from?

Metroid:Other M is finally a worthy successor and continuation of the Metroid series. Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo is arguably my favourite game of all time and as such I have been hyper critical of the various, often flawed Metroid releases since. Fortunately, Other M is finally a game that I can play without scowling at massive flaws in gameplay, plot or character.

Super Metroid combined a fascinating plot with a sprawling landscape and a perfect combination of two dimensional shooting and platform action. Other M does all this but drags the franchise into the 21st Century with a use of 3D and excellent graphics. That isn't a typo by the way, this a Wii game with superb graphics which would not look out of place on higher end systems like the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. Graphically the game really is beautiful using shadowing and an anime style to provide an atmospheric and engrossing backdrop to your acrobatic exploits.

In fact the atmospherics of the game are perfect throughout with the spaceship suitably dark and vacuous while sometimes claustrophobic enough to make you feel like a character in an Alien movie. This is helped along by a very eerie musical score that cranks up the tension throughout the gameplay and the fact that you play a large portion of the game in third person. The third person viewpoint is perfect for the platform and shooting elements of the game and the camera angles rarely let you down allowing for some intuitive and often fast paced jump, roll and shoot gameplay. Samus as a character is hard as nails but this is the first Metroid title that makes more use of the fact that she is a woman. The strong narrative throughout explores her thoughts and fears without ever making her appear weak. Indeed the respect she garners from the platoon of marines she encounters shows how tough she really is and it is nice to see a gun toting female being treated seriously in a game.

The emphasis in Metroid titles has always been on exploration, weaponry and big boss battles and Other M continues in this vein. You are given clear checkpoints to aim for and gameplay is largely linear with you needing to complete a puzzle, kill certain foes or acquire a new weapon to progress. However, the linearity never becomes an issue thanks to the vastness of the explorable areas and the feeling of achievement you get when you do make it into a new area. The greatest strength and weakness of the Metroid series has always been figuring out how to move to the next bit and that remains so in Other M as often puzzles are so obscure or hidden from view that you can be scratching your head for hours. This does however, make it all the more rewarding when you do figure out and you will often find yourself feeling very silly when you realise that vent you past earlier was your escape route.

Samus remains a wonderfully diverse character control. The ability to run, jump, bounce off walls and morph into a ball at will opens up a whole range of platforming opportunities. This all before you even fire your gun which as an extension of Samus's arm feels instinctive. In fact, the control system on a whole feels very intuitive and simply using the Wiimote sideways rather than plugging in the nunchuk gives a real retro feel while allowing for some precision platform jumping and shooting. The game switches from 3D to 2D on occasion which is a great homage to the original games while also aiding the gameplay but perhaps my only gripe is the use of first person to fire missiles. You have to turn your Wiimote upright to go into first person and fire a missile at a door or alien as while as explore your environment more closely. This isn't as responsive as it should be and also often leaves you vulnerable to attack. Not so much a problem when you are blowing up a door but when you are expected to hit a sweet spot on a bad guy while dodging shots, it can be very frustrating.

However, this is a minor quibble and the actual interaction with the aliens is explosive and entertaining. Battles are a nice mix of intuitive blast and hope and combo moves with lethal strikes. The combat is a little automated as you don't need to aim particularly well to hit your target, but the last minute sidesteps and lethal headshots make for some scintillating gameplay with the now obligatory bullet time used to great effect. Of course, what every Metroid fan wants to see the most is ridiculously improbable, screen filling boss fights and Other M doesn't dissapoint. Some of the bosses are huge but refreshingly, they all provide a different challenge while still having that obvious weak spot to aim for.

You always feel like you are making progress in Other M and this is largely thanks to the intelligent use of cutscenes which drive the story along. It is also nice to see the human side of Samus being developed throughout and the cutscenes also often provide reward with Adam giving Samus permission to unlock another lethal weapon in her arsenal. Remember that doorway you couldn't get through before? You can now you have permission to blast it open with your super missile!

The learning curve on Other M is very steep and you might find yourself dying quite a lot initially. Fortunately, the save points are relatively frequent, although it is frustrating if you reset to have to wade through areas you have already traversed to get to that boss you just can't beat. However, all in all Metroid:Other M is an epic platformer that has a real old school, "one more go" feel to it. It can be frustrating, it is definitely hardcore but it is gaming as it should be with a kickass heroine to boot!