Not quite the 3-D Metroid experience one may hope for, but it is a worhty addition to the series nonetheless.
Metroid: Other M is, without a doubt, the most story driven game in the series, complete with cutscenes-a-plenty and voice acting. The game's story takes place following the events of Super Metroid. Samus had just defeated Mother Brain and is now on her next mission to answer a distress signal from a dormant Bottle Ship. There she meets with some old colleagues from the Galactic Federation, including her former commanding officer Adam Malkovich. Despite viewing her as an outsider Adam agrees to her tagging along, but only if she follows his rules. So it's up to Samus and Co. to defeat the creatures on board the Bottle Ship and stop whatever plan is being made.
The story for the most part is good, but it's a sci-fi story that many of us have seen before. The game's cutscenes are unfortunately rather long and unskipable.
The game is presented as a 3rd person action/adventure game, a first for the Metroid franchise. You will be going through several different themed worlds, destroying enemies and the occasional boss, activating various objects, and collecting items to help you on your journey. The combat in this game remains fun and exciting throughout and the boss fights are pretty cool as well. One of the game's biggest changes is the controls. The game is set up with only the Wiimote in mind, set in the position of the classic NES style. It feels unnatural at first, but after a while it starts to kick in and the controls begin to feel rather fluid. Because of this simplified control scheme you have an auto-target feature to help you fight enemies. You are also given a very useful dodge maneuver which can help you avoid enemy fire and charge up your beams quicker. When certain enemies have been knocked about a few times you can deliver a cool finishing move. Returning from the Prime series is the first person perspective whenever you point the Wiimote straight forward. You would use this to fire at specific targets and scan environmental objects. You can only use your missiles in this mode and you can't move, which is why I don't recommend using this in combat unless it's absolutely essential. In place of ammo and health pick ups Samus now has her new concentration ability, allowing her to refill missiles and give her some health whenever it gets too low.
There a few glaring issues to be found in this game, especially if you are familiar with the series. For one, there is very little exploration, which is the biggest issue in this game. Exploration has always been a key element in the series, and taking it away just doesn't really make it feel like Metroid. You also can't shoot open doors (but that's more of an observation and not an actual issue). There is also the issue of the game's lack of music. The Metroid series has delivered really great atmospheric soundtracks, so having hardly any music is rather disappointing. What little musical tracks there are, though, are pretty good.
Now comes the issue of obtaining items. In the past you needed to explore worlds in order to obtain your lost items. In this game you have every weapon, but you cannot use certain items without Adam's authorization. This isn't that bad until he gives you certain items at the last minute (Sector 3 anybody?).
Metroid: Other M sports some of the best graphics found on the Wii. The environments are wonderfully detailed and retain that Metroid feel and the character models look spot-on as well. The character models, especially Samus, sport some top-notch animations as well. The CG cutscenes are absolutely stunning, especially for the Wii's hardware. Unfortunately, the game's sound design isn't as good. Samus, for the first time ever, is finally given a voice, and her voice was intended to have a bit of a dull attitude for monologueing, but it tends to sound boring very quickly since she does a lot of inner monologueing.The rest of the voice acting is pretty decent, though. As mentioned earlier the lack of music is disappointing.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Some of the best graphics seen on the Wii
-Fun combat
-Good controls
-Decent voice acting overall
-Pretty good story for the most part
CONS:
-Little exploration
-Samus' dull-sounding voice actress
-Lack of music
The game has a few problems, but in the end it's worthy of being a Metroid title. I certainly recommend this to Metroid fans and Wii owners around.