Metroid: Other M

Metroid: Other M is a new Metroid game announced by Nintendo at E3 2009 and developed by Team Ninja and Nintendo. Taking place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, Other M is said to feature a similar storytelling style to Fusion while retaining the "traditional Metroid feel". The designers are putting an emphasis on adventure, and aim to have a "seamless and natural" interaction between gameplay and cinematics. The game will be played with a sideways Wii Remote similar to the NES Controller, while aiming it at the screen switches the view to a first-person perspective similar to the Prime series.

A demo for the game was released at the Nintendo Media Summit in San Francisco along with E3 2010.

Plot


The game begins shortly after the end of Super Metroid. Samus Aran, in a hospital, is having a dream about the death of the Baby. Awakening, she finds herself in her Zero Suit. A man that resembles Dan Owsen then directs Samus to enter a training sequence. After this, she reports the status on her mission and takes off in her gunship. While flying around and reflecting more on the Baby, she picks up a distress signal from a derelict Bottle Ship.

Upon landing, Samus encounters a group of Galactic Federation soldiers, led by Anthony Higgs, who fought alongside her before she defected from the Federation. She also finds Commander Adam Malkovich, who used to be her commanding officer when she was in the Federation Army. Due to an incident that caused Samus to leave the army, Malkovich acts standoffish and guarded, calling Samus an "outsider" and ordering his team not to reveal any details of their mission to her.

After an encounter with an unknown, large purple-tentacled creature, Samus is welcomed onto the team and briefed about the mission. Adam explains that the comm systems of the soldiers are useless, so the Navigation Booths in the facility will be their only method of command when not together. Adam also orders them to search for any survivors and bring them to safety. The group then splits up to search different sectors in the hopes of finding the threat that they are up against.

Development
According to Yoshio Sakamoto and Yusuke Hayashi, the game takes place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. The blond-haired woman at the end of the trailer is not "a second Samus" of any kind, but another "very, very important character", and may be one of the survivors (or even last) of the Bottle Ship. The Living body arms development lab and the Bottle Ship as well as the Main Sector, Sector 1 / Biosphere, Pyrosphere and Cryosphere areas on the Bottle Ship are the only new named locations, thus far. Cutscene segments show a Galactic Federation base as well as Tourian. A rainy landscape area and a forest area were also seen in the second trailer, suggesting that all areas have yet to be seen. It is possible that the forest and rainforest are not part of Biosphere, the jungle area.

The only two new items thus far are the Diffusion Beam which appears to be similar to the Spazer Beam in past games, and the Accel Charge upgrade, which increases how quickly Samus can charge her weapons.

Samus will not collect her powerups in this game as in previous games. Rather, Adam Malkovich will authorize her to use certain powerups, as she has apparently retained all her items from Super Metroid rather than losing them prior to or at the beginning. Instead of losing them, she has to wait until she is authorized to use them. Some "new" powerups, such as the Accel Charge, will be collected in a more traditional manner. 

E3 Trailer
The trailer demonstrates combat and movement mechanics in third-person, with first person segments for ranged attacks. It featured Ridley, Mother Brain, and Adam Malkovich as well as Samus Aran. Recurring creatures include a swarm of Reos, Ki-Hunters, and a type of Space Pirate that has only been seen in Metroid Fusion and the 2002 Metroid manga. Samus is seen wearing both the Power Suit and Varia Suit during the trailer, most resembling their appearances in Super Metroid. Suit upgrades seen include the Power Beam, Charge Beam, Missiles and Speed Booster. The trailer appeared on the Nintendo Channel, along with several other previews and trailers for other games.

Teaser Movie
A second movie titled "Teaser Movie" was shown at the Nintendo Media Summit, and features Samus staring out the window, speaking. Adam Malkovich is also seen in a flashback that may depict events from the 2002 manga; this scene also depicts a younger Samus wearing her Zero Suit. This is one of only two trailers to not feature gameplay at all. It was later released on Metroid.com.

Around the same time as the summit, the intro, filmed with an iPhone camera, was posted on YouTube against the terms given by Nintendo to the media to not film gameplay. It was later removed, though several users had already copied it and posted it to their accounts. The intro only goes up to the beginning of the training sequence.

Gameplay Movie
A gameplay trailer was released on March 30, 2010 which showed more gameplay than the previous videos. Samus wears the Power Suit in most of the trailer and can also be seen wearing the Varia Suit in some scenes. The Ice Beam, Morph Ball, Screw Attack, Wall Jump, and Super Missile are also seen being used. A large number of the game's enemies, bosses and environments were also seen in the second trailer. Recurring creatures include Dessgeega and Geemers. It showed how the game would be played with the Wii Remote sideways for 3rd person view, and when the Wii Remote is pointed at the screen, the first-person view is shown. Also given away are some new environments, one of them being a luscious rainforest-like landscape much like Crateria and the Tallon Overworld, two other places shown were an ice area and a ship-like area. It also shows off several impressive looking finishing blows. At the end of the trailer, it shows in HD the cutscene from the beginning of the game - the climax of Super Metroid.

Nintendo Channel Retrospective
On May 20, 2010, new footage was posted to YouTube and features the Other M intro scene depicting Super Metroid ' s ending, with scenes from the original version placed in for comparison. After this, Samus is seen in her gunship; this is the scene where she picks up the distress signal from the Bottle Ship. Samus speaks in Japanese throughout the video. It was later revealed to be a retrospective on the Japanese Nintendo Channel covering Metroid, Metroid II: Return of Samus and Super Metroid, up to Other M. It completely disregards the Prime Series and Metroid Fusion (the latter due to Other M taking place before that). Worthy of note is that during the scene where the Baby is born, a never-before-heard song plays.

Fifth Trailer and various clips of gameplay
A fifth trailer was shown during E3 2010, depicting new cinematics and areas and one new boss. New screenshots and artwork were released as well, and some websites filmed the rest of the gameplay in the demo, including the boss fight with the purple tentacled creature.

Developer Interview
On July 7, 2010, a new video was posted to Metroid.jp, showing clips of the previous trailers as well as footage of the development of the game. It also showed some new cutscenes and footage, and a new creature that appears to be the Super Metroid depiction of a Space Pirate. It also revealed the name of Samus' Japanese actress (Ai Kobayashi) and mistakenly gave away the name of the lava area in the game: Volcano Island. on July 17, 2010, the Metroid Database uploaded the video to their YouTube channel with annotations containing English subtitles.

Story Trailer
A seventh trailer was released on July 27, 2010. It reveals the names of all of Adam's soldiers (Lyle Smithsonian, Maurice Favreau, James Pierce and K.G. Misawa), once again shows the battle with ULF 27, and other, additional footage. The Wave Beam is shown in the trailer, when Samus is firing it at several Skrees. It strongly resembles the Metroid Prime version. The Grappling Beam is also shown for the first time (though Samus has been seen using it in screenshots). The game's Samus Screen is shown clearly for the first time. Samus can also be seen performing the Shinespark. A new, multiple-armed black creature is shown fighting Samus, and appears to have been the killer of Adam. The last shown scene features the Bottle Ship exploding. An orchestrated remix of Vs. Ridley plays throughout the trailer.

GameTrailers World Exclusive Trailer
An eighth trailer was released on August 13, 2010. This was more or less footage of the game taking place outside of a facility. One new boss was shown (though a part of it could be seen in the previous trailer), as well as new footage of ULF 46 and a new type of Space Pirate. Numerous Grappling Beam segments taking place in Pyrosphere are also shown, with one of them involving ULF 28. Then in Cryosphere, Samus could be seen with three Zoomers. This scene revealed that the Five-Bomb Drop from 'Super Metroid would be returning. The Samus Screen also suggests that the Shinespark is now an upgrade and not a technique with the Speed Booster. The trailer placed Zoro and Ki-Hunters in the same location, hinting on a possible connection between them that was first implied in Metroid Fusion. The last scene shows Samus running out of the facility and being ambushed by ULF 50. 

Demo
A demo of Other M appeared at the Nintendo Media Summit in San Francisco and at E3 2010. It delivered more details of the game's plot and showcased the gameplay and controls of the game. Abilities seen are the Bombs, Power Bombs, Five-Bomb Drop, Morph Ball, Power Suit, Missiles, Scan Visor, Power Beam and Charge Beam. Samus also can use several melee moves during the demo, like Sense Move, Lethal Strike and Overblast. It is also revealed that Save Stations in Other M are called Navigation Booths. Samus fights the purple tentacled creature in the demo, and continues exploring the station up until reaching the top of a long shaft.

Teaser site
Metroid.jp revealed a small teaser site for the game on January 29 2010, that consisted of an image from the trailer, a new song, and Samus speaking in Japanese, "A dream. It's as if I was watching a playback of a tragedy that really happened." Metroid.com has also since been updated with the english -speaking line, "A dream. I had been reliving the tragic moments of my recent past." A short video entitled Teaser Movie, with no actual gameplay, was added to the site on March 2, 2010. A gameplay movie was also added to the site in late March 2010, showing off several features. On June 3, 2010, the entire Japanese site got revamped.

Title
The title of Metroid: Other M is abbreviated to "MOM", and the subtitle is an anagram for "Mother", strengthening this game's connection to maternal themes from the series history, such as Mother Brain (who appears in the trailer) or perhaps Virginia Aran, the mother of Samus. It may also refer to the Baby and how Samus was its "mother".

It may also refer to an infamous line from the end of Metroid: "THE GALAXY MAY BE INVADED BY THE OTHER METROID. PRAY FOR A TRUE PEACE IN SPACE."

Yoshio Sakamoto, the co-creator of Metroid, confirmed that the name will have significance in several instances.

Trivia

 * Metroid: Other M is the first canon Metroid game where Samus speaks, as she did not have a voice in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. She had previously spoken through text during the intro of Super Metroid, at various intervals during Metroid Fusion, and at the start of Metroid: Zero Mission, as well as before her invasion of the Space Pirate Mother Ship. Jennifer Hale provided a voice in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, albeit only grunts when Samus is injured. Alesia Glidewell also provided a voice for Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where she spoke in all of her taunts.
 * Yoshio Sakamoto claimed in a Super Metroid interview that he was the only person to know "where Samus's beauty mark is," which was not visible until the Metroid: Other M trailer, where it could be seen under the left side of her lip. A mole was also marked on concept art for Samus' face in Metroid Prime, but was not added to the model.
 * During one of the ending scenes of the first Metroid: Other M trailer, two sets of numbers briefly appear in the upper-left hand corner of the 2010 screenshot. The numbers show 3 and 25 in what looks like a Missile count. At the time, many fans believed it was the release date (3/25/2010). However, this was later proven false.
 * Metroid: Other M will be the first Metroid game to recieve a 16+ PEGI rating.

Videos

 * GameTrailers (420p, poor sound)
 * GameVideos
 * IGN (Poor sound)
 * Trailer 2, Nintendo Everything
 * Trailer 2 (Japanese version), GameTrailers
 * Trailer 3
 * [Metroid: Other M NEWEST action trailer(720p HD)]

Gallery
For concept art, see Metroid: Other M's Gallery.