The much emphasized story is nothing spectacular, but smooth, entertaining gameplay and design make it a worthwhile ride
Pros:
+Great blend of platforming, shooting and puzzling
+Easy-to-grasp but complex controls
+Superb production values
+Lots of extra items to collect
+Fantastic boss battles
Cons:
-Relatively simplistic and conventional story
-Occasional frustrations regarding controls
Review:
Throughout her career, the bounty hunter Samus Aran has been met with incredible challenges. Saving entire planets, rescuing friends (unexpected or no), defeating even evil clones of herself, she has remained one of the most prominent defenders of our fair galaxy. However, she's never had a voice. Technically, she "spoke" in Metroid Fusion, but never has there been as much focus on her personality as in Other M. That's not the only change, since Team Ninja, of Ninja Gaiden fame, have been brought in to develop the game. Though Other M doesn't truly reach the narrative heights that it promises, everything else counterbalances it and makes it a thoroughly entertaining and action-packed game.
The story kicks off right after the events of Super Metroid, after having killed the terrible Mother Brain. Shortly after, she gets a distress call from the "Bottle Ship", though nothing else is revealed. She is quick to answer the call and meets there a platoon from the Galactic Federation. From then on, the two disparate sides must work together to save the inhabitants of the ship, and maybe reveal something even darker.
Samus is the focal point of the narrative. She is in the spotlight almost always and her personality, for the first time, is revealed fully. The writers have done a pretty good job at constructing believable personalities and often exciting circumstances. Therefore, it's a shame that it's practically spent on a plot that has barely any solid structure. The former Metroid games emphasized personal experience and exploration of the core elements of the story. It wasn't overblown, it was subtle and smart. The odd thing is that Other M has a similar story structure, but more exposition on the characters and actual plot elements. So while there are plenty of spectacles and retrospectives, there's not much substance. It's mostly lost potential, in that sense.
This ties in with Team Ninja's former efforts, where more goes into gameplay than story, and this difference in emphasis shines in the game. In most ways, Other M plays similarly to its second-dimension predecessors: a blend of platforming and shooting, with some environmental puzzles along the way. However, some things have radically changed (outside of the obvious shift to the third-dimension). You hold the Wii remote sideways, control Samus with the D-pad and shoot, jump, dodge and everything else with the 1 and 2 buttons. As expected, moving in 3D space with the D-pad isn't simple, but it becomes a habit before long and doesn't prove to be much of a problem.
There's a certain twist to the gameplay, however, in the form of perspective changes. Usually, the game is played in the third person perspective, with fixed camera angels. However, you can point the Wii remote at the screen and you will shift over to a first person perspective, not much unlike in the Metroid Prime series. When in first person, you can look around your surroundings and shoot powerful missiles (in contrast to the regular power beam in third person). The drawback is that in this perspective, you cannot budge an inch. The game creates various situations where you'll have to change the perspectives quickly and efficiently, making for some tense situations.
This happens most in the fast and furious combat. As mentioned earlier, your offensive capabilities are split in two. When in third person, you shoot at your enemies with a common power beam, whittling away at their hit points while dodging with the handy dodge function. When some enemies are close to death, you can then use certain final attacks to styIishly kill your enemies. To help with the complexity of aiming from a third person perspective, you get a simple auto-lock system. It doesn't feel like a limitation, however, since it's interwoven cleverly with your first perspective powers. Many enemies cannot be defeated via traditional attacks and have to instead be bombarded with missiles. So even though it's not difficult to hit your targets, defeating them is a different thing altogether thanks to the need of changing between the first and third perspective.
What the first person perspective does most, however, is put emphasis on the design of the worlds you trek through. Other M once again changes the formula of previous installments in the series by being more linear in design, so exploration is less of a feature here than before. This is best exemplified by how you gain new abilities. In older games, you found new abilities hidden away or guarded by bosses. Here, they are enabled automatically as the story progresses. On one hand, this means that you don't find much meaning in the new powers other than overcoming one certain obstacle. On the other, you don't have to roam around for a long time to find the area you can now explore. Therefore, the linearity doesn't quite always suit the game's structure. However, it benefits the gameplay style rather well, mostly in the action orientation of the battles. What stands out the most is the wonderful construction of the environments, ranging from ice-cold tundras to cavernous forests. It's rendered incredibly well, and as mentioned, it really comes to life when you can explore the nooks and crannies of every level via first person perspective.
When doing that, you might stumble upon many of the hidden trinkets found on the Bottle Ship. These are for instance extra energy tanks (to boost your HP) or upgrades for other abilities you pick up along the way. You'll have to do some nifty tricks to reach them. You'll likewise have to solve various environmental puzzles to get from point A to point B. These are often very smartly designed and will test your wits and skill. The boss fights are superb as well in their blend of scripted and controlled events, along with their generally big scale.
The puzzles and boss fights benefit greatly, though, from the superb presentation. Metroid: Other M looks absolutely brilliant, with crisp, colorful visuals and an incredibly smooth framerate. The swaying branches and glistening of the ice, the large explosions and the cold space outside of the ship's windows, it all looks stunning. The cutscenes in the game go above and beyond in that department, looking pretty much just like CGI films you'd see in movie theaters. The music is similarly Hollywood-esque, though it definitely lacks the oomph of the Metroid games of yore. It does, though, add some old tunes in the Metroid universe at the right moments, and the overall aural experience is pleasing enough to amplify the entertainment value of the adventure.
The game will last you a good 15-20 hours, depending on how thoroughly you play it and how long you take to find all items. However, once it's all over, outside of a simple epilogue, there's not much to do except take on a higher difficulty. Roaming around, due to the linearity, isn't that much fun without a certain goal. You can however look for any expansions you've yet to find, which offers some replayability.
Overall, though it makes some silly mistakes, Other M does a lot of things right. It's fun, fast, action-packed and smartly designed. It's more the combat that will impress than the intended "epic" of a story, but that's not as much a problem as it could easily have been. Tie that with a beautiful presentation and you've got a sweet package all in all, and a sure purchase for any action-loving Wii owner.
Story: 7.0/10.0
Gameplay: 8.5/10.0
Graphics: 9.3/10.0
Sound: 8.1/10.0
Replayability: 7.9/10.0
Final score: 8.5/10.0