After a trip into the first person perspective in the Prime series, the Metroid series is returning to its side-scrolling roots… sort of. Metroid: Other M takes place immediately after the the fall of Mother Brain at the end of Super Metroid. Other M promises to flush out Samus as a character and help explain how she ended up the bounty hunter that she became. This is the first Metroid game from Team Ninja, the studio behind the flashy Ninja Gaiden series.
While the game is returning to its side-scrolling roots, it isn’t strictly two dimensional. You control Samus by holding the Wii Remote sideways and moving with the D-Pad. Environments are 3D, but are fairly linear and have the feel of a side-scroller. Additionally if you point the Wii Remote at the screen then you change into a first person perspective and can fire missiles at your foe.
For the first time in the series, Samus has been given a voice. This means a lot of interior monologues in a soft, sweet voice that doesn’t seem to fit the hardened bounty hunter its coming from. The story of Other M follows Samus as she investigates a distress signal and meets up with her old chums. Instead of finding and upgrading her suit, Samus will get “authorization” to use equipment as she needs it.
Since a huge focus of the game is story, Other M looks to be a very cut scene heavy game. Early reports say these cut scenes are unskippable and can break the flow of the game. I’ve never understood gamers who care so little about the story that they skip every video, but if that’s you then you may not enjoy Other M. Other then that, Metroid: Other M looks to be one of the best games the Wii has to offer.
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