Nintendo: Metroid Other M Sales Disappointing

I really don't know if I want to comment on this, but I guess I'll go ahead and say something anyway. This situation pisses me off. I LOVE Metroid: Other M and I feel it's a travesty the game has been unfairly branded with a false stigma. Of course the game is not perfect, no game truly is, but it's still one hell of an INCREDIBLE ride. The biggest fault was some of the voice acting. Which I found the complaints to have been exaggerated on by critics.

Western gamers built Samus up in their head as something that was never solidified in the Western markets while Japanese gamers have been more aware of her personality since the early to mid '90s. That situation is partly Nintendo's fault since they didn't release a lot of the "behind the scenes" type of media in the West.

With Other M, word spread like wild fire, and ignorant gamers too lazy to check it out for themselves have let this amazing title slip into obscurity. An absolute crime. There... I'll leave it at that before I kill someone.

meeto_0 said:

vivaapprentice just ignore the above post. THe man has no manners. Manners tend to be lacking

Must've missed the post where I apologized for being a dick, I guess.

I actually loved this game. Wasn't perfect, but I never played a game where I can not find a flaw or two.

I think it was the difference that people complain about. They wanted something but didn't get exactly that. And that was a turn-off. But if you just play the game you might like it. The controls are amazingly good for how primitive they are..Actually they turn a bit complex by time. So they are rather creative.

But then again, It's my opinion. But people should play the game before they whine about it. Of that I am sure.

I actually loved this game. Wasn't perfect, but I never played a game where I can not find a flaw or two.

I think it was the difference that people complain about. They wanted something but didn't get exactly that. And that was a turn-off. But if you just play the game you might like it. The controls are amazingly good for how primitive they are..Actually they turn a bit complex by time. So they are rather creative.

But then again, It's my opinion. But people should play the game before they whine about it. Of that I am sure.

I watched some clips of the game play and its not really a true side scroller. You have to walk around a 3d plane using the D Pad. Thats archaic. We are talking PS one generation when sony forgot to focus on analogue movement for 3D games.
It really is baffling. I have experienced first hand what happens when you point at the screen and then away from the screen without motion plus. Its not fun.

People will not agree but im going to say it. These silly design decisions were done to simplify the input setup. Why you would do that with a core franchise is baffling.

meeto_0 said:
I watched some clips of the game play and its not really a true side scroller. You have to walk around a 3d plane using the D Pad. Thats archaic. We are talking PS one generation when sony forgot to focus on analogue movement for 3D games.
It really is baffling. I have experienced first hand what happens when you point at the screen and then away from the screen without motion plus. Its not fun.

People will not agree but im going to say it. These silly design decisions were done to simplify the input setup. Why you would do that with a core franchise is baffling.

Actually, I think a lot of us agree with this exactly. The control scheme is a major factor in why this game isn't selling.

I wouldn't say it's baffling per se; when you think about it, the majority of the games in the series have 2D control. Retro wanted to try something new with the controls, so they went with first person, and it worked very well. Ninja also wanted to try something new, and it looks like it just isn't working quite as well.

justonesp00lturn said:

meeto_0 said:
I watched some clips of the game play and its not really a true side scroller. You have to walk around a 3d plane using the D Pad. Thats archaic. We are talking PS one generation when sony forgot to focus on analogue movement for 3D games.
It really is baffling. I have experienced first hand what happens when you point at the screen and then away from the screen without motion plus. Its not fun.

People will not agree but im going to say it. These silly design decisions were done to simplify the input setup. Why you would do that with a core franchise is baffling.

Actually, I think a lot of us agree with this exactly. The control scheme is a major factor in why this game isn't selling.

I wouldn't say it's baffling per se; when you think about it, the majority of the games in the series have 2D control. Retro wanted to try something new with the controls, so they went with first person, and it worked very well. Ninja also wanted to try something new, and it looks like it just isn't working quite as well.

I can understand trying something new. I just think what they were trying has had many test cases to reference. They should have known the awkward issues that would arise and not have ignored them.

Anyone playing early PS1 games would attest to how awkward it feels moving around a 3d world using a dpad. All of the shooters on wii to some degree suffer from the cursor freezing when taken of screen and back. So to have a design where you have to go back and fourth into FPS mode was silly.

I think a classic third person game ( possible over the shoulder) would have been good. Or a true 2d scroller.

What retro did was experiment with the perspective and respond to the game mechanics. But they didnt massively change up how and FPS game is played on the cube. Then on the wii they thoughtfully mapped these controls to the wii controller. What team ninja have done is gone back to basic (to a degree) but forced a crazy control scheme that never fitted. They had a far easier job control wise (no bounding box to consider) and made it ten times more difficult.

( Edited 21.11.2010 23:34 by meeto_0 )

meeto_0 said:
I can understand trying something new. I just think what they were trying has had many test cases to reference. They should have known the awkward issues that would arise and not have ignored them.

Anyone playing early PS1 games would attest to how awkward it feels moving around a 3d world using a dpad. All of the shooters on wii to some degree suffer from the cursor freezing when taken of screen and back. So to have a design where you have to go back and fourth into FPS mode was silly.

I think a classic third person game ( possible over the shoulder) would have been good. Or a true 2d scroller.

What retro did was experiment with the perspective and respond to the game mechanics. But they didnt massively change up how and FPS game is played on the cube. Then on the wii they thoughtfully mapped these controls to the wii controller. What team ninja have done is gone back to basic (to a degree) but forced a crazy control scheme that never fitted. They had a far easier job control wise (no bounding box to consider) and made it ten times more difficult.

Well, I think they were sort of on thin ice. There are obviously a lot of 3D games on the Wii which use the D-Pad just fine (like New! Super Marios Bros., for example,) but for the most part, those games also feature fully 2D controls, whereas Other M is actually somewhere between 2D and 3D. The Wii remote D-pad is pretty responsive, but like you said, doing 3D controls on a D-pad is almost always a recipe for failure.

They could've done a fully side-scrolling game; but I think they wanted to stand out a bit more. A lot of the latest games for the Wii have taken that route. The new Donkey Kong is a perfect example. While it usually works, it's actually sort of off-putting for a lot of people. New Super Mario Bros. is fun, and I'm sure the new Donkey Kong is fun, but really, they're just higher-res versions of games made over and over already. They offer almost nothing new. I think Team Ninja wanted to distance themselves from both the side-scrolling Metroid games as well as the Prime series. And I think their format is fine; it just doesn't appear to be implemented well. The switching into FPS mode sounds all right for exploring, but it just sounds completely idiotic for combat. I never liked it. Why the hell would Samus just stand there and shoot without moving? It makes no sense, and the controls of it look clumsy as well.

I think doing a 2D-3D hybrid world was a good idea, but not including nunchuk support (or at least classic controller support) was probably a mistake.

Anyway, I'll probably have a clearer opinion on it once I play the game myself. I'm not sure I'll buy it (I still haven't finished Prime 2 or even played Prime 3, let alone bought it) but I'll keep an open mind while renting it, one of these days.

Where do you rent your wii games from? Blockbuster only seem to sell wii titles not rent them. Do you use an online service. I noticed GAME offer a demo service. Have you or anyone else tried it?

meeto_0 said:
Where do you rent your wii games from? Blockbuster only seem to sell wii titles not rent them. Do you use an online service. I noticed GAME offer a demo service. Have you or anyone else tried it?

There's a video rental place right down my street called Family Video. They aren't the best (though technically, they're the third-biggest chain in the US, right behind Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.) Sometimes their stuff is scratched or doesn't work, but they're usually pretty nice about it, they offer good deals and such. It's actually the only place left in my area. We had two Blockbusters and a HollyWood Video, but all three of them closed down. Basically, Netflix and RedBox are murdering the video rental chain business, but there really isn't a good solution when it comes to videogames.

There's GameFly, which is like Netflix but with games, but I've never used it, so I can't really say how good it is.

I haven't heard of the GAME thing, so I can't say much on that, either.

I actually don't rent games very often, to be honest. Normally, I can judge whether I want a game or not without having to play it much. Other M is one of the few exceptions. Other than that, I only rent if it's a game I think I can beat and get everything out of in a matter of one playthrough.

Are you in the U.S. or the U.K.? If you're in the U.K., then everything I just said probably doesn't even matter, lol.

It's not a great game, so they shouldn't expect great sales. I won't be buying another Metroid game while Team Ninja have control. Nintendo need to bring Retro Studios in again, to do things right. I never wanted a Metroid game where I hated both Samus and the story, nor did I want a game with dumb controls.

Well, I loved this game. I had no problems with the controls, the story or anything really. I like how it expands on Samus' character a lot more and her relationship with Adam. I found the story to be quite interesting. But yeah, that's probably just me.

The game wouldve been better if it weren't Metroid