Metroid: Other M - Worst Metroid Ever?

[jfe2]

Hhhmmm. Haven't we seen Samus express emotion before? I mean, she saved the Metroid baby in Metroid II and there was definitely a motherly thing implied? I have never seen so many people angry because a female hero was presented as TOO female. Not saying that to upset the female users out there, maybe I should say it sounds like people are upset because they made Samus too human. Again, I have seen this in the previous games - Metroid II and Super Metroid with the baby Metroid, Fusion with Adam, Prime with the Chozo. Plus we see a good deal of her without her suit in Zero Mission. I know these examples include some newer games, but if this is just another "old games vs. new games" argument, I still stick with the saving of the baby Metroid and also the little critters that teach her abilities (assuming you went back and did that before beating the game you bastards ).

I found them on my way off of Zebes and saved them. I'm assuming that little shiny thing that flies off the planet at the end was them... or Ridley.

[flamepanther]

I'm assuming that little shiny thing that flies off the planet at the end was them... or Ridley.

Well, considering you only see the little shiny blip if you find the Dachora and Etecoons... and that Ridley was in little chunks when you left him in Norfair...

Oh, one other thing in support of the idea that Samus should have expected Ridley to stay dead after Super Metroid--She'd be right, because he did stay dead. The only two games that take place after Super Metroid clearly feature clones or imitations of Ridley, not the original one stuck back together as in the previous sequels.

[Flake]

I found them on my way off of Zebes and saved them. I'm assuming that little shiny thing that flies off the planet at the end was them... or Ridley.

It was the Ninten-animals, not Ridley. I left them to die almost every time I played that game.

[irixith]

Hhhmmm. Haven't we seen Samus express emotion before?

As a regular non-feminist woman, I've always been pretty happy with Samus as a character. Not oversexed with a body of strange and unreal proportions, strong, independent, able to kick ass and chew bubblegum while still retaining a very feminine essence. That's a pretty complicated character to pull off, especially considering what passes for a female character in the vast majority of games.

Other M portrays her as weak, smitten with her commander Adam to the point of absurdity. She's weepy and whiny. It's bizarre. Perhaps as a prequel to all that we have known and played, it would be understandable. After all, she had to -become- the character that we know .. but Other M is right smack in between games that portray her quite differently. It's jarring and hard to process.

There's nothing wrong with an emotional female character. It's realistic, and when handled properly, it can be quite engaging. (See: The Longest Journey, Beyond Good & Evil) Samus in Other M is like a woman consistently on her period. Hopefully if the series gets continued, they treat Samus better than they treated her here.

[flamepanther]

*sigh*

Samus is treated just fine. Scripted poorly, perhaps, but treated fine. The Other M scenario was deliberately made to play on Samus' memories of her past, so that there would be an excuse to dig into her backstory. Unfortunately for Samus, pretty much all of her past is sad and/or horrifying--something already established in the Nintendo Power comics (semi-canon), Metroid Prime, and Metroid Fusion. Directly dredging up those memories triggers Samus' PTSD condition. That condition was established years ago in the official manga. In fact, we should expect that of someone who was the only survivor of a genocide--especially at three years of age. If that no longer affected her, it would come off as callous.

This is like when Batman is confronted by memories of his parents' murder, or when someone messes up Jason Todd's shrine. He freaks out about it, and agonizes and introspects, but that doesn't make him a weak and mopey character. As a result of his past, he's unusually close to Alfred as a father figure, and reveres him far more than an aristocrat should think of a servant. But it doesn't mean he's got daddy issues, or whatever. His tragic past makes him value what "family" he has even more. His pain is the source of his usual strength and stoic character. He has those moments, shakes it off, and goes back to being tough and fighting his fight.

Samus is very similar. You can even think of Adam as her "Alfred," the closest thing she has to family--so much more valuable after losing her own. At each moment in Other M that shoves her painful past in her face, she falters momentarily, introspects, then shakes it off and goes back to fighting with even more determination than she had before. That's not weakness, that's strength.

[MrPopo]

Hhhmmm. Haven't we seen Samus express emotion before?

As a regular non-feminist woman, I've always been pretty happy with Samus as a character. Not oversexed with a body of strange and unreal proportions, strong, independent, able to kick ass and chew bubblegum while still retaining a very feminine essence. That's a pretty complicated character to pull off, especially considering what passes for a female character in the vast majority of games.

I'm amazed you managed to get all of that from the fact that she wears a suit of body armor that isn't molded to conform to the female chest and has a small bit of bland narration in the beginning of Super and throughout Fusion. Up until Other M the only characterization Samus has had in the games is that she didn't blow the hell out of the baby Metroid. Sure, she's stronger than Princess Peach, but when it comes to Samus as a person she could very well be a robot.

Other M portrays her as weak, smitten with her commander Adam to the point of absurdity. She's weepy and whiny. It's bizarre.

Did we play the same game? I don't recall any of that. As I recall Adam filled the role of a father figure (understandable considering she lost her parents at 3) and they had an acrymonious split, which was justified when you see a particular flashback. I'd be shocked if she DIDN'T think about it.

[Phyeir]

I was SO EXCITED for Metroid: Other M to come out, hell any time Metroid is on the way, it's hard not to be. But after playing into about 3 hours of this game, I'm decided that this game needs to be deemed non-canon and just forgotten when developing all further Metroid games, because if this version of Samus sticks, the universe is doomed. Alright, maybe it's a bit harsh to say that.

I don't like how overly out there the gameplay is, in that it's got about 4 play styles all going on, none of them executed properly. The most annoying thing is that whole listening in FPS with decent clue where to look. That was such a poor decision, on top of others.

[flamepanther]

I was SO EXCITED for Metroid: Other M to come out, hell any time Metroid is on the way, it's hard not to be. But after playing into about 3 hours of this game, I'm decided that this game needs to be deemed non-canon and just forgotten when developing all further Metroid games, because if this version of Samus sticks, the universe is doomed. Alright, maybe it's a bit harsh to say that.

"That version" of Samus has already stuck since long before Other M (since at least 2004), and the universe has still been here all that time.

[KillemallCFH]

(NOTE: I haven't actually played Other M (I don't have a Wii right now; otherwise I probably would've bought it). All opinions expressed in this post are based off the various things I've read/heard about the game. Also, I just saw this thread and didn't feel like reading through 8 pages, so I'm sure someone already said pretty much what I'm about to say.)

With that out of the way, I'm totally against what they've done with Samus. Not because I disapprove of the character they ascribed to Samus (again, I haven't played the game so I can't judge, although some people's interpretations do make Samus out to be a pretty terrible character), but I just hate the fact that they tried to give Samus a character at all. As soon as I saw the trailers for Other M and saw the emphasis on story and characterization, my reaction was an immediate "Oh god...". Samus is suppose to be mysterious. MrPopo's pretty much right in that she might as well have been a robot, but that's the point. Because her life is (or was) shrouded in mystery, she acts as a blank slate, onto which the player can project his/her own feelings. Metroid games aren't suppose to be about observing how Samus reacts to situations, they're about making the player feel like they're in those situations, exploring vast and unknown planets. Metroid games have always emphasized environment, not characterization, and turning them into interactive movies definitely seems like a turn for the worse.

[flamepanther]

MrPopo's pretty much right in that she might as well have been a robot, but that's the point. Because her life is (or was) shrouded in mystery, she acts as a blank slate, onto which the player can project his/her own feelings.

We've ascribed that to her, because a lot of us liked it that way. However, it assumes a lot to say that was the point. After all, when Metroid was created, "blank slate" was the default mode of being for every video game character. We had about the same quantity of information about Samus as we had about Mario, Link, Pitfall Harry, MegaMan, or Bill Rizer.

I think the only difference is that Samus was in games that oozed mystery, and that made her seem mysterious as well. I think we've been around Samus enough that we can get to know her a little. It may even be needed--other classic game characters that haven't been fleshed out at least a little have largely been left behind. As long as the games themselves remain mysterious as they always have (and Other M certainly does its best to keep that up) I think that will be enough.