What M:OM did RIGHT **SPOILERS**

[MaiAriSquee]

There's a ton of topics disparaging Other M. I think all the hate the game is getting it totally exaggerate, although some of it isn't entirely undeserved. In this topic, instead of talking about what the game did wrong, let's highlight what it did right- maybe some things we'd even like to see carried over to future installments.

Basically, what did you like about the game? (If you post and say "nothing" I will consider it spam. )

One thing I appreciated, despite its departure from the norm, was the music. I found it to be suitably creepy, lonely, well composed, and atmospheric. Wandering around the Main Sector post game makes me feel threatened, and it sounds almost exactly like the themes from the beginning of Aliens. (Or is it the part where everyone on the Sulaco is about to wake up? Close enough!)

The boss and creature designs were top notch, colorful and well put together. I think a lot of disk space went into their modeling, behavior, and animation. They have unique, challenging behaviors and glorious ways to be killed. I thought the emphasis on (pre?)-Cambrian derived designs was really cool. That trilobite eater gave me more trouble than I'm willing to admit.

Samus - beautifully animated to showcase her agility, power, and general bad-assery. The suit was shiny and detailed, and I appreciated the elevator segments where I was given time to admire it. Despite everyone's displeasure at Samus needing to be "saved," I'd like to point out that she saves everyone's hides several times, and spends most of the game running around dealing some serious, elegant pain that was a joy to deliver.

Despite the logic errors, I also enjoyed the challenge of the "Hell Run." In an era of casual gaming, difficulty is my friend.

Also: Phantoon. Gorgeous, unexpected, and terrifying. Iwamoto does care!

Slight tangent, did anyone else realize that those serpent things you fight in sector one are supposed to be the wall spitters from Super and Fusion? It didn't hit me till I saw them in the concept art, and then I was like "DOI."

Ah... that's enough from me for now.

[Vent Kazemaru]

The control scheme is smooth and simplified, it makes it possible do make challenging areas because you don't need to do pointless button presses, and most of nintendo's games are going for this right now.

I don't care much about story, but no matter how bad the plot may be, they make good use of FMVs.

And I love how the game puts side scrolling and 3d movement into one.

[Rustedsoda]

The whole thing with Ridley and Little Birdie. While it did feel a little bit... "inspired" by Pokemon, I still thought it was a neat touch to how Ridley returns.

Also, I greatly adored the cutscenes as well. Samus's helmet looked like I could reach out and touch it, and I'd know exactly how it felt (especially later cutscenes.)

[lexmetroid]

The perspective switch between third and first-person by pointing the Wii Remote at the screen is absolutely brilliant. The satisfaction of being able to quickly land a powerful missile blast in the midst of a heated encounter is simply unparalleled. Not to mention just how jaw dropping the sense of scale becomes when the overhead view switches to inside Samus' visor - a seemingly innocuous corridor suddenly transforms into an expansive structure full of broken machinery and architecture several times as large as the player.

I understand that there are those who would have liked to use the Nunchuck for this game, but a button press would just not have the same effect when switching perspectives.

[Caleb89sw]

Gasp! A positive Other M board! LOL.

#1: The graphics. Some of the best I've ever seen on the Wii. The opening cinematic comes to mind (Mother Brain, Samus, Infant metroid, etc.)

#2: The voice acting. Even though the voice of Samus isn't 100% what I had in mind, it's still fine fit for her, and a huge step in the right direction after Smash Bros. Brawl. Anthony, Adam, Melissa, and Madeline were also great performances as well.

#3: Returning bosses. Ridley is to be expected. But bringing back Nightmare, Queen Metroid AND Phantoon?!

#4: Gameplay. Intermixing 3rd person and 1st person was risky, but for the most part, they succeeded. The diffusion beam was also very slick and well excuted. Adding melee moves was nice as well.

[KingBroly]

I stand by my statements in that it kinda plays like Contra just without the instant deaths.

[CapCom]

Gasp! A positive Other M board! LOL.

Why didn't we think of this sooner?

Controls: Everything is simple. Philosophy of simple input = complex result to play just like the NES. Plus, the actions are fun to pull off - a REAL sense of freedom. Sense Move + Instant Charge is a little cheap, but on hard mode, you NEED it.

2.5D: Other M mixes 2D and 3D gaming perfectly. Movement within the space feels natural, and Samus automatically runs along curved space, so you don't have to constantly adjust.

Room design: Bottle Ship feels like a real place. There's always interesting things going on in each room, and only rarely is there ever a space that is just a giant empty arena. I've played plenty of games that are empty boxes, but the art design here is spot-on. The only other game that's impressed me more in this regard is Lords of Shadow. Add that with the new camera angles they put in the rooms each time you enter them.

Bosses: Bosses are awesome. Big baddies with complex moves. Plus, none of them really came off as cheap, except for when you play hard mode.

Fan service: Ridley, Metroid Queen AND Phantoon. Plus Zero Suit and escape sequence. Classic bosses are fun to fight, and the boss battles were for the most part well-executed (I hated the fight with the security drones though, and still do!)

Sense Move and Overblast: Let me illustrate this again in comparison with other games. It's basically the future of QTE's. You look at Resident Evil 4 or God of War, and you have QTE's (quick time events) which is basically a return (a BAD one, if you ask me...) to Dragon's Lair. You have to press the right button at the right time to execute a complex move your character couldn't do normally. With God of War and Castlevania, it's button-mashing sequences, too. They often put a lot of graphics on the screen as well, like a giant X button to let you know you have to mash it (though I have to admit that's kind of fun, except for the giant X). With Other M, you just press whatever button you want when it feels like it's time to move and the action executes. Simple and can be used anywhere rather than in context. I mean, I don't want to have to fight a boss a second time just because I screwed up in the QTE. Overblast just gives you a move efficient way of doing that.

Samus animations: I said in my review, but Samus is definitely one of the best-looking and best-animated characters in any game. If there's any downside, I'd say it is the death animations, which are the exact same, even when the context makes no sense (i.e. being killed by Ridley while being scraped along the wall)

Gorgeous FMV: D-Rockets knows what's up. This is some of the best FMV out there in places, particularly the opening and ending cutscenes. Some of the best renditions of Samus ever in those.

Music: A lot of people hate that there's no melody, but if you ask me, this is fantastic atmospheric stuff, plus there's some great new melodic pieces too. I pointed to most of these on the Other M music page. I don't see why people weren't impressed by the Main Sector and Pyrosphere Industrial themes. Plus, this is the first orchestral soundtrack to Metroid. Let's have a lot more where this came from!

Screw Attack: They got this perfect. THAT is the way 3D Screw Attack should work! It feels completely natural!

[Varia]

I thought the sound-effects were impressive. The small attention to details like the faint echo behind you after Samus wall jumped. It made the game more of an enriching experience.

[Archaic]

Movement
unlike the prime games, you move fast. you flat out run everywhere. this is how metroid should play. speedbooster works well in 3D, as does the shinespark.

the space jump takes the 2d and prime renditions and meld them beautifully, you executed a double jump for extra height and then continue jumping at that height indefinitely.

Bosses
loved 'em, except for nightmare. they were a perfect blend of big and hard, but not so hard you spent hours learning their moves. i found none of them frustrating, only challenging.

the ridley fight is more than we could have hoped for; a near perfect transition from 2d to 3d, yet unique in it's own right.

Enemies
the enemies in other M are well transitioned from their 2D sprites, retaining colours and proportions we are all familiar with. the bright colours tend to contrast well with enemies' locales.

Overall
other than the pixel hunts and corny story, i rather liked the game.

[Dryn]

Graphics
The CG rendering was and still is beautifully designed. I was really impressed with the opening of Metroid: Other M. I love that this game started off with the ending of Super Metroid. I had always wanted to see Mother Brain and Tourian in a third-dimensional plane. Even in-game design was pretty nice, although I noticed a few cookie cutter designs in the Biosphere. I still can't believe how shiny Samus' Power Suit is, as well as that transparent visor of hers.

Environment
For a space vessel bent on bioweapons, each sector felt as though I was no longer on the Bottle Ship. In fact, I felt I was on a planet. Maybe I am the only one, but when I got to the Bioweapon Research Center, I thought, "Wait a minute. I'm on a ship, right? Why is there a building within the ship?" The environment was really good with the illusion of being on a planet, and I had to remind myself I was on a ship.

Music and Sound
I will have to agree that the music gave that Alien feel to it. This is something I would love to hear in future Metroid games. I didn't mind the voice acting, and honestly had no issue with it the first time I heard it. In fact, that was one of my biggest worries. I think Jessica Martin did a fine job. As far as sound goes, when I hear the sound of a Super Missile blowing hatches down, I can't help but realize how powerful those things are.

Control Scheme
I actually would like to commend Yoshio Sakamoto for going with a simplistic control. Everything was mapped out nicely, and I never thought it would be possible to use the Wii remote alone to even take control of a character like Samus. Yet, Mr. Sakamoto managed to make it work.

[Smoking Spoon]

SUPER 2D to 3D adaptation!
Speedbooster, at last!
Chargebeam + bomb!
Metroid Queen, oh my gosh ... metroid queen!
Ridley tail drilling!
Shinespark feels real goooood.
Phantoon!
Interesting new enemy.
The game adapt the room/wall to be viewed from 3rd to 1th person, wow!
Item room music is there, subtle , but there!
Samus runs fast.
Samus is agile.
Press jump a second time in mid-aird and she fall diagonally .
Another metroid game reminiscent of Alien. ( Action music sounds alike. )
Best looking wii game.

[Troid]

I suggest a merge with the lovely "Things you liked" thread.

I think Other M did Melissa's design, personality, and overall (i.e. implied/offscreen) actions right; perfectly, in fact, but mutilated her actual presence the game so badly that's it hard to look at them that way.

Also the third-person control scheme (which was mutilated by the first-person control scheme).

[Chipou]

choogle (not el polo) and tokenAnthony

[Lucid Flower]

The colors

[MaiAriSquee]

I thought the sound-effects were impressive.

Dayum straight. They did well with varying the sounds of your footfalls on different surfaces, and the room where the water rises up and down sounds so cold and very, very wet. (It doesn't help that our basement is FREEZING.) I good example of the footfalls is the room where Pollo Loco evolved into Ridley. I think there are three sets of sounds, there (I might be trippin'): metal, glass, and Ridley ick. That's an appreciable attention to detail. Your feet also crunch on glass, and some rooms echo a bit.

Aside: I loved the chirping, whistling sounds of the purple kihunters. They made me happeh, even as I froze their wings off. (Too bad you can't overblast them after you get the screw attack.)

Our Wii is hooked up to a nice surround system, so these things were probably easier to appreciate than on a normal TV.

Troid, I didn't find the thread you were talking about. :I But also I am laaaaazy. Shhhh!