The Game OverThinker - Heavens to Metroid: Revisited

[Apothem]

Bob Chipman, aka "The Game OverThinker", reflects back on his opinions of Other: M a year later, further explaining his position on the matter.

The Game OverThinker - Episode 58 "HEAVENS TO METROID: REVISITED"

The short of it: He still likes the game and overall defends it's poor narrative as a result of Nintendo's archaic story structure improperly meshing with modern storytelling techniques.

Note for those who don't regularly follow TGO: He's taken to playing out little "story arcs" in recent videos, so you'll have to sit through a bit of... acting, I suppose you'd call it, before he gets to his rant on Other: M.

[Daya]

I'm seriously getting tired of story arcs in a review show. What's the point? All I want to see in a review is a review, not a story.

If you want to make a story with you acting, fine. But do it outside the review, not in! It forces you to sit through them, and for the most part, these story sucks, with horrible acting ,poor writing, and they are not funny at all.

[Emperor Ing]

I'm seriously getting tired of story arcs in a review show. What's the point? All I want to see in a review is a review, not a story.

If you want to make a story with you acting, fine. But do it outside the review, not in! It forces you to sit through them, and for the most part, these story sucks, with horrible acting ,poor writing, and they are not funny at all.

Considering how TGO's original shtick was that he DIDN'T do story arc bullshit (it was just his voice and opinion) really brings home just how much of a prick hypocrite this douchebag is. And that's the COLD HARD TRUTH.

It's easy to appear smart and intelligent when all your opponents are strawmen (or his bullshit AntiThinker or whatever his moronic alter-ego is).

[Trishbot]

It's interesting that when he revisits Other M, he pretty much concedes that the narrative failed, but the ideas were good. And I agree. The only difference is apparently he not bothered by the bad narrative, characterization, or misleading interpretations these scenes present (at least to a large degree), while I and many others are.

I don't agree with his claims that many were saying "Japan hates women" due to her portrayal, however. You know, Japan IS weird. So is America. My Japanese boyfriend would be the first to tell you how weird we are and acknowledge how weird his homeland can be. We're all weird. But the problem with the game wasn't that "Japan hates women" but rather the very real and cultural barrier that, in Japan, they highly emphasize respect and obedience to your elders, far more than western "independent, free, rebels-without-a-cause" audiences and society tend to (there's a reason we love ourselves Han Solo, Wolverine, Batman, and others that don't answer to ANYONE.)

I also continue to disagree that Samus had no personality in prior games. I will continue to debate that to my dying breath, and, yes, she was not as fleshed out as she could have been, but that does not mean she was devoid of emotions, personality, background, story-driven behavior, and basic human empathy. Like the first "Heavens to Metroid", and in this one, his main argument boils down to "she didn't have a personality before, thus you can't complain about how the new personality is because you interpreted her wrong all those other times before."

Even if that was true (and I don't believe it is), I side with the Extra Credits guys that said that "any personality is not necessary better than none" and that fleshing out a character may not always be best for a story.

Games like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Silent Hill, and many others, thrive on how little they tell us. Take "Wander" from Shadow of the Colossus. Where did he come from? How old is he? Does he have family? What's his background like? How did he get his horse? What is his relationship to the dead/sleeping girl? The game tells us practically nothing, just that he's determined, brave, and he loves this girl to the point of his own death. That's all we NEED to know. Nothing else matters. With so little, he becomes a fascination character for the player to bond with.

Samus was like that, and here's where I think OverThinker is mostly wrong, both in his previous video and this one. Samus did so much with so little, but the fact is she DID have "something" little to work with, just enough to make the games necessary and the character endearing. Like a little girl putting on her mother's make-up trying to look pretty, however, they kept adding and kept adding and kept adding and Samus in this game looks a bit silly and embarrassing instead of restrained and classy. Less is more, something a guy who goes by the alias "MovieBob" should be aware of, though this revisit of the game, and his initial rant, does concede several issues where the intent was lost in the execution.

[Doc Scratch]

I have not watched the show since Heavens to Metroid, but why are there fire-shooting ninjas and a poorly edited-in Navi?

I also think that we have pretty much reached the point where anything that can be said about Other M has been said.

[Apothem]

That's his shtick, he's taken to acting out story arcs in conjunction to his usual rantings. It was humorous at first, mostly for how bad it was, now it's just growing old. At least he keeps it to TGO and doesn't muck up The Big Picture and Escape to the Movies with it. I also agree the argument's gotten old and stale, hopefully this will be one of the last videos we see on the subject for a while.

[Infinity's End]

As I clicked the link, begrudgingly, while rolling my eyes, I ended up watching the whole thing.
Past the outrageously, -ingly bad fluff and absurdly low-budget "storyline" between breaths, I pretty much agree with him, almost to the letter.

I never pay attention to this guy, but his defense of the Ridley scene, the storyline-then compared to storyline-now, and responding to mental's and Sylux's overrated sucking-life-out-of-Metroid-fest without directly saying so was pretty spot-on. I applaud the guy for doing it. But let's hope the argument rests, because I, along with seemingly all of you, tire of it.

[KingBroly]

Wasn't this debated here last year about the time when the game came out?

[rondus18]

That video was fucking terrible. 2 Mbit/s for 360p? What, were they trying to preserve the detail in the low quality effects? Honestly, YouTube encodes 360p videos at 0.5 Mbit/s and they look fine. You can hardly tell the difference between 2 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s at 360p and both are overkill. Were they going for overkill or do they just not want people with slow connections to watch their videos? Or, after all the videos that guy has made no one has ever explained to him what a bitrate is?

[Daya]

That video was fucking terrible. 2 Mbit/s for 360p? What, were they trying to preserve the detail in the low quality effects? Honestly, YouTube encodes 360p videos at 0.5 Mbit/s and they look fine. You can hardly tell the difference between 2 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s at 360p and both are overkill. Were they going for overkill or do they just not want people with slow connections to watch their videos? Or, after all the videos that guy has made no one has ever explained to him what a bitrate is?

aaaaaand what about the content of the video?

[FacelessGriffin]

I'm seriously getting tired of story arcs in a review show. What's the point? All I want to see in a review is a review, not a story.

If you want to make a story with you acting, fine. But do it outside the review, not in! It forces you to sit through them, and for the most part, these story sucks, with horrible acting ,poor writing, and they are not funny at all.

Considering how TGO's original shtick was that he DIDN'T do story arc bullshit (it was just his voice and opinion) really brings home just how much of a prick hypocrite this douchebag is. And that's the COLD HARD TRUTH.

It's easy to appear smart and intelligent when all your opponents are strawmen (or his bullshit AntiThinker or whatever his moronic alter-ego is).

I'd like to see you reasoning why he is this "prick hypocrite" you call and that those actually are strawmen instead of being tongue-in-cheek charicatures, because to this day I still cannot understand the deal with these extreme Moviebob/TGO haters with their seeming obsession of having him nailed to a crucifix.

That video was fucking terrible. 2 Mbit/s for 360p? What, were they trying to preserve the detail in the low quality effects? Honestly, YouTube encodes 360p videos at 0.5 Mbit/s and they look fine. You can hardly tell the difference between 2 Mbit/s and 1 Mbit/s at 360p and both are overkill. Were they going for overkill or do they just not want people with slow connections to watch their videos? Or, after all the videos that guy has made no one has ever explained to him what a bitrate is?

aaaaaand what about the content of the video?

He's joking.

[Emperor Ing]

Because, facelessgriffin, TGO is FAMOUS for using strawmen to make his own arguments seem better.

Like in his original Metroid Other M video, where he more or less said that people who didn't like Other M don't want Nintendo to make good Metroid games. Or that by calling the story misogynist (regardless of if I think it is or not... I think it isn't), you are in fact admitting to your OWN misogyny. Which is fucking bullshit.

The GameOverthinker is a big blow-hard, and it's hard NOT to get a sense of that especially now his reviews have shifted away from their original focus of analysis and insight in the game industry (albeit a highly biased and flawed one... NINTENDO CAN DO NO WRONG HARD TRUTH FPSES ARE WHAT ARE KILLING GAMES*), into these retarded lapses of poorly-acted "storylines" and "alter egos" that pound in that he's like any other loser with a web-mic, wanting attention.

*Spoilers:
[spoiler]they're not[/spoiler]

[FacelessGriffin]

Because, facelessgriffin, TGO is FAMOUS for using strawmen to make his own arguments seem better.

Either my memory is acting up, but I don't remember any notable strawmen used. And even then, I have unfortunately actually met those kind of people, making the "strawmen" somewhat based on reality. Like those japanophobes mentiond in the video? Yes, I have seen them. Yes, they are just as embarrasing to witness as they were described.

Like in his original Metroid Other M video, where he more or less said that people who didn't like Other M don't want Nintendo to make good Metroid games

And by "more or less", you mean "I think he said that because that's what want him to mean in order to insult him and de-emphasize his point"? Because I certainly have not in any way seen any indication of that.

Or that by calling the story misogynist, you are in fact admitting to your OWN misogyny. Which is fucking bullshit.

Now that is a strawman arguement right there. The original arguement was that by complaining how adding characterization, not to mention fears and insecurities to Samus (therefore, making her an actual character) makes her weak and submissive in itself comes off as misogynistic by those who accused it, basically making them look like humongous hypocrites. And keep in mind, this isn't arguing about how well the character was written, but how adding it in general.

(regardless of if I think it is or not... I think it isn't)

Why is this important again? Because I'm pretty sure you weren't the subject of this video nor was there a moment where your name was specifically called out.

it's hard NOT to get a sense of that especially now his reviews have shifted away from their original focus of analysis and insight in the game industry, into these retarded lapses of poorly-acted "storylines" and "alter egos"

Man, still complaining about the storylines in reviews? I would agree with you if the original focus was entirely removed, but because it isn't and is still the real meat of the videos, I see no point why the storylines should be exaggerate as this sin upon humanity either.
Distracting yes, would be better off without them yes, but I don't see exactly why they should be made in to much bigger deal than they should.

FPSES ARE WHAT ARE KILLING GAMES (they're not)

Now that is debatable. While true that they aren't exactly killing the gaming industry, it is still an overblown, overcelebrated and even overinfluential genre far too popular even for it's own good and it is true that there are far more gamers nowadays that haven't even touched any other game that doesn't involve firearms and modern military than in for example the 16-bit era.

that pound in that he's like any other loser with a web-mic, wanting attention.

And that made you sound like a real complete douchebag. I apologize for saying this, but when you go personal like that, I really can't take you or or your arguements seriously anymore.