Oh my God Nintendo, What have you done to Samus?!
Metroid Other M takes place after the events of Super Metroid and and before Metroid Fusion. Samus is having a flashback to the events of Super Metroid when the "baby" protected Samus from the Mother Brain, leader of the Space Pirate army. Samus' receives a mission to go to the Bottle Ship after she received a "Baby's Cry" type distress signal. As she investigates the Bottle Ship, she runs into members of the Galactic Federation called the "07th Platoon", which consist of Anthony Higgs one of Samus' colleagues, Lyle Smithsonian, a special force trooper in charge of demolition assignments, K.G. Misawa, a recon scout, Maurice Favreau, the engineer, James Pierce, a communications expert, and last but not least, Adam Malchovich, the commanding officer to Samus back when she was in the Federation before she resigned to become a solo bounty hunter. Before they moved on, Adam told Samus that she's not allowed to use most of her latent abilities until he authorises it. He then tells the member of the platoon to not feed Samus any details on their mission because he considers her an "outsider" due to her departing from the army, then tells the platoon troops to go on solo searches.
GAMEPLAY (5.5/10):
The gameplay isn't really to die for, it's more of a third-person shooter rather than first-person like the Metroid Prime trilogy. First, I'll explain the pros of the gameplay. The first thing that I like is the Sense-moving, when locked onto an enemy simply tapping the D-Pad will make Samus dodge enemy attacks. Sadly, this is the only good thing I can explain about the game. Now for the cons. The first problem I have with this game is the way you switch from third-person to first-person. You can do this by holding the Wii-mote normally how you would. Sometimes the game puts you in first person perspective in order to find things, which sometimes you can't find what you're looking for, then you'd be like "What am I supposed to be looking for?". Also, being in the First-person perspective is the only way you can shoot Missiles or Super Missiles. Problem #2: There are no energy units like in a normal Metroid game, instead the game introduces us to the technique called "Concentration". When low on energy, hold the Wii-mote straight in a 90 degree angle then press and hold the A and B buttons simultaneously to gain 1 Energy Tank back. The problem with this is that none of the enemies or bosses are gonna sit there and be like "Oh you're gonna do the Concentration move? Ok, I'll wait until you're done.". Doing the Concentration technique during a serious boss fight is the same as saying "Here, kill me.". Another way to get your health back is to save your progress in a Save Station which is something you will be doing a lot! The last problem this game has is that it's way too generous with item finding because all you have to do is look on the map and the flashing blue dots indicate where certain items are located. It's not like the Metroid Prime series where they don't tell you where the items are, you'll know where they are by hearing a humming sound, but that was rewarding. This issue alone takes the fun out of finding the items on your own. I mean, I wanted it to feel rewarding busting my ass off looking for some of these items like in the Metroid Prime trilogy. On top of that, it doesn't play the tone when you collect the item expansions. One more thing about the items is that the Energy Parts totally rip-off Legend of Zelda's Heart Pieces. 4 Energy Parts equals 1 Energy Tank!
GRAPHICS AND MUSIC (9/10):
Ok the graphics are actually very good for a Wii game. The music's pretty cool, it has that dark-esque feel to it, but it isn't as dark of a Metroid game as Fusion's music.
REPLAY VALUE (1/10):
Ok, if you're gonna make a game where you can find items with no problem, then there's no way you should play this game again. Of course... there is a Hard Mode for this game, but forget about it, it's impossible. You just play through the game again with NO energy tanks, NO Accel Chargers,10 Missles, and the items you have. What kinda Hard mode is this supposed to be?!
OVERALL: This is the first Metroid game I did not enjoy. There was just so much wrong with this game like the gameplay is flawed, the story's... meh, the Hard Mode in this game is pretty much unplayable unless you're a hardcore player who loves a challenge, the Energy Parts are a rip off Legend of Zelda's Heart Pieces, and the list goes on. But look on the bright side of this game, at least it did answer some of the questions we've had since we played Metroid Fusion like, "Who is Adam Malkovich? What was his purpose? How did he die?". If you want to try this game, I'd suggest a rental because there's not much this game has to offer. Metroid: Other M for the Nintendo Wii turned Samus Aran from a badass, independent and fearless bounty hunter feared by Space Pirates into a whiny, depressed, wimpy laughing stock! Except... nobody's laughing!
FINAL SCORE: I give Metroid: Other M a 4.5/10
Nintendo, DO NOT let D-Rockets make the next Metroid game!!! Leave that to Retro Studios, I mean, why do you think that the Metroid Prime series was so great?!