Metroid: Other M

Metroid: Other M is the twelfth 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 is 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, with Samus Aran dreaming about the climactic battle against Mother Brain and the death of the Baby. She awakens in a Galactic Federation hospital in her Zero Suit, wondering how the Baby had given her the Hyper Beam that laid Mother Brain to waste, in a battle that resulted in the destruction of the Planet Zebes. She is directed into another room by the Head Quarantine Officer to enter a training sequence. Satisfied with the results, Samus reports that the planet Zebes and Metroids have been annihilated. Weeks pass, and while reflecting more on the Baby, she picks up a distress signal, dubbed Baby's Cry, from a derelict Bottle Ship.

Not too long after landing in the ship, Samus encounters the Galactic Federation 07th Platoon, and is recognized and greeted by Anthony Higgs, an old friend from her days in the Federation Army. Leading them was Commander Adam Malkovich, her former commanding officer when she served under the Federation Army. Unlike Anthony, who warmly greeted her, Adam coldly asks why she is here. After explaining the circumstances that brought her there and asking the same from Adam, he responds that such information was not for an "outsider". The others continue on without her, and although Adam had not authorized it, Samus decides to stay on the Bottle Ship for the sake of the members of the platoon, and on that note, decides not to use any of her weapons or suit features unless Adam authorizes it.

The team discover a dead body of a research worker, and are soon attacked by a Brug Mass, a battle in which Samus and the platoon work together in taking it down. After destroying it, Adam requests Samus' cooperation in their mission, under the condition that she obey his orders and is not to go anywhere unless he says so, or use certain weapons and equipment until he authorizes their use. However, he is especially negative over authorizing the use of Power Bombs, claiming they are a potential threat to the platoon due to the wave of heat they send out, and says he has no plans of allowing their use. Samus is then invited on the team, and is briefed on the details of the mission. Seeing how the situation of the Bottle Ship is extremely critical, Adam orders everyone to gather information of the ship, but priority one is to search for any survivors and bring them to safety. However, the wireless function of the ship is all-pervasive, and therefore, rendering the comm systems of the soldiers have been rendered useless, so the Navigation Booths in the facility will be their only method of communication when not together. Samus is the lone exception, which Adam uses to see everything that she can, as well as communicate with her. He sends Lyle to Sector 1, Maurice to Sector 2, Anthony to Sector 3, James to the Control Bridge, and K.G. to Residential Quarters.

Samus is first ordered to reactivate the Bottle Ship's electrical system, then is ordered to find a facility of interest in Sector 1, known as the Biosphere. She runs through the tropical territory, encountering a small, furry creature. A cutscene ensues a bit later in which Samus and the creature stare ominously at each other. After fending off a swarm of Kihunters, Samus finds the same creature violently devouring the remains of their hive, regarding it as a "disgusting beast" that used her strengths to hunt its food. She later finds the facility of interest, the Biosphere Test Area, and meets up with the platoon there. Investigating, Samus discovers the cybernetic body of a Zebesian with the insignia of the Galactic Federation on its chest. The platoon discovers that the purpose of the Bottle Ship was to conduct research on bioweapons, a practice that is strictly prohibited by the Federation. Knowing Adam's opposition to bioweapons, Samus knows he would have opposed her delivering the Baby to Galactic Federation scientists to study it. They learn the person in charge of the project is a woman called "Dr. Madeline Bergman". When investigating if she was still anywhere in the building, Samus is ambushed by more cybernetically enhanced Zebesians and is separated from the others. After fending them off, she finds the platoon being attacked by a large Mystery Creature, who viciously attacks Samus upon her arrival, with the others fending off other creatures. After being struck by Anthony Higgs' Plasma Gun, the creature flees. The group discovers the body of Lyle Smithsonian, one of their members who failed to rendezvous with them. Samus also discovers a trail of green blood, which leads her to the molted shell of Little Birdie. She is ordered to follow the lizard creature.

Descending down a shaft into Sector 3, the Pyrosphere, she tracks the creature, being attacked by Vorash, a large lava creature attempting to eat her. Soon, Adam orders her to go to Sector 2, the Cryosphere. While there, she discovers the body of Maurice Favreau, and sees a young woman staring at her. The woman flees, but Samus pursues. As Samus tries to convince the woman that she means no harm and only wants to protect her, the woman refuses to cooperate, believing that the Galactic Federation is there to silence the scientists on board the ship, and that Samus works for the Federation. She also reveals that the soldier discovered outside was actually killed by one of his comrades. The two of them are then attacked by a soldier wearing a Galactic Federation Power Suit driving an industrial construction vehicle, and the woman is separated from Samus. After the vehicle is destroyed, Samus finds its driver missing. Adam notices that the wavelength frequencies of the lizard-like creature battled earlier is causing some creatures aboard the ship to become more aggressive, and is stationed at the Pryosphere. Along the way, Samus believes there is a traitor within the 07th Platoon, and nicknames him "the Deleter".

Samus returns to Pyrosphere to investigate the Geothermal Power Plant, and along the way discovers Anthony being attacked by a Rhedogian, threatening to drop him over a pool of lava. Samus manages to reach him in time with her Grapple Beam, and the two fight the creature off. Anthony brings up Adam, in which Samus reminisces about the time Adam's brother Ian was killed in an incident. When she had pleaded that she be allowed to attempt to save him, Adam denied her request, due to the fact that attempting to save Ian would have almost certainly meant Samus' death, along with hundreds of others. Parting from Anthony, Samus continues her investigation when she encounters the empty husk of the lizard creature. Searching for it, she suddenly notices Anthony aiming his gun at her, and in retaliation she aims her Arm Cannon back at him, before he yells for her to get out of the way. He fires at the creature behind Samus, the same one that they had been hunting earlier, which has now evolved wings and able to breathe fire. Samus decides to confront it alone, and to her shock the creature appears to be none other than her arch-nemesis Ridley, who she thought was annihilated with the destruction of Zebes. Overcome with shock and unable to respond, Adam tries to get through to her when he is suddenly attacked. Noticing Anthony's presence, Ridley then grabs Samus and flies into the air with her, with her state of shock causing her Power Suit to dissipate. Ridley then dodges a blast from Anthony's Plasma Cannon, dropping Samus, who is able to activate her Power Suit before falling onto the platform below her. Anthony draws Ridley's attention away from Samus and challenges him, but is quickly struck by the creature's tail and knocked off the ledge into the lava below. Samus attempts to rescue him, but Ridley quickly blocks her path, intentionally preventing her from saving him. After the two fight off, Ridley flees, while Samus mourns Anthony and regrets not being able to save him, regrets thinking that her close friend would possibly betray her, and the thought of him not coming to her aid at the risk of his own safety.

Leaving Pyrosphere, Samus realizes Adam has not been in contact, and fears that the Deleter may be targeting him. She arrives at the conclusion that Adam may have known everything that was going on from the very beginning, and may now have been aware of the Deleter, making him the biggest threat in the assassin's eyes. She then spots one of her comrades walking away, perhaps the Deleter, and pursues him to Biosphere. Realizing he is being followed, he hinders Samus' pursuit by disabling a bridge and destroying its controls. Believing Adam's life to be in danger, Samus asks "Any objections, Adam?", and activates her Space Jump and Screw Attack without his authorization to continue her pursuit, leading her to the Bioweapon Research Center.

Once there, she instead finds the mysterious woman again, who identifies herself as "Madeline Bergman". She informs Samus about the secret operations there: the Federation was secretly gathering Zebesians and other deadly organisms to serve as bioweapons. The Zebesians were also enhanced to serve as a Special Forces Unit for the Galactic Federation, modeled after the Space Pirates on Zebes. The project became disastrous when a certain presence caused the life forms to suddenly become aggressive beyond their control, which Samus believes to be Ridley. Madeline grew fearful that the situation could result in the resurrection of the Space Pirates, thus sending the distress signal. Samus finds holes in this argument, as only a malicious force would lead the Zebesians down that path, otherwise they would just follow their instincts and be nothing more than feral creatures; Ridley's influence was not enough to result in the revival of the Space Pirates. The Federation could have easily destroyed the Bottle Ship in order to erase their mistake, and yet they sent an assassin to silence everyone instead to protect something on the ship. Madeline then reveals that there was more; the scientists were propagating Metroids as well, which were cloned from remains found on Samus' armor after the events of Super Metroid. Madeline also explains that the scientists did not recognize a small creatureas Ridley and believed his form was harmless, giving him the nickname "Little Birdie" and raising him as a pet, until one day the creature feigned death to lure a scientist into his cell, in which he brutally killed him and escaped. As Metroids could not be controlled without Mother Brain's telepathy, an A.I. modeled after Mother Brain, "MB", had been created for such a purpose. MB and the Metroids were stored in Sector Zero, a recreation of Tourian, and the recent occurrences could have been a plot by MB to attack the Galactic Federation. Realizing how far the Federation was willing to go to protect the Metroids and silence everyone who knew or learned about the plan, and that her and Adam's presence may have disrupted their plans, Samus decides to go to Sector Zero to destroy MB and the Metroids. She leaves Madeline in the laboratory, who then reveals that Adam was the one who authorized the bioweapon project. With Samus gone, Madeline is then approached by a mysterious person before a gun is fired.

Arriving at the entrance of Sector Zero, Samus encounters an Infant Metroid that reminds her of the Baby and the time when it hatched before her. Unlike before, she decides she must kill it, but before she can she is suddenly struck from behind from a powerful weapon that disables her Power Suit. The Metroid decides to take advantage of the situation but is struck by a freeze gun. After regaining consciousness, Samus recognizes her attacker as Adam, who claims he only did it to prevent her from going into Sector Zero, which contains Metroids that cannot be frozen, unlike the larva he just froze. When asked about his knowledge of the bioweapon project and why his name was on it, Adam tells Samus that he was asked to write the report, in which he wrote against the idea and outlined the potential dangers. Although HQ listened, a small group within the Federation co-opted the report for their own purposes, allowing the project to proceed as planned. With Samus weakened, Adam explains that he intends to go into Sector Zero and activate its self-destruct mechanism, which would detach from the rest of the ship before blowing up. Unfortunately, while this would destroy the Metroids along with everything else in Sector Zero, he would be killed along with it. He mentions that he had located a survivor in the Bioweapon Laboratory which he orders Samus to protect, as well as stopping an intercept course with the Galactic Federation, and defeat Ridley, something he is incapable of doing. He also warns her that "Madeline Bergman" is no ally. She pleads with him not to, similar to the time when Adam had to sacrifice his own brother, but he tells her he is not the galactic savior that she is. Despite her protests, he locks the doors and leaves a heartbroken Samus behind. His last words to her are, "No objections, right Lady?" which Samus responds through the glass with a thumbs down. As planned, Sector Zero soon detaches from the rest of the ship before it self-destructs with Adam inside.

Swearing to finish the mission, Samus returns to the facility where she re-encountered Madeline Bergman, and finds the body of James Pierce, as well as the drained remains of Ridley. She later discovers the survivor Adam mentioned in Room MW, who fears Samus was sent to kill her and refuses to cooperate, opening a large dark room nearby. Samus discovers that the room is filled with Metroid eggs, and finds that it is occupied by a Queen Metroid. Samus faces the Queen in a long, difficult battle when the ship's emergency brakes suddenly become active. In a sudden move, Samus uses her Grapple Beam on the Queen's mouth and rolls into its stomach, using a Power Bomb to destroy it. Amidst the smoke and destruction, the survivor from earlier runs away from Samus similar to Madeline. Samus manages to catch up and calm the woman down, who also identifies herself as Madeline Bergman. Showing her identification, the real Madeline explains that the young woman Samus met earlier was actually MB, an android containing the A.I. modeled after Mother Brain, used to control special forces modeled after the Space Pirates, as well as communicate with Metroids through telepathy. At first the android displayed amazing skill and learning capability, and developed a consciousness of sorts with the Metroids, but soon began to develop emotions with an nascent sense of herself, eventually developing the same personality as Mother Brain. Becoming self-aware, she began to disagree with the scientists and argue against them, to the point where they thought it was necessary to alter her programming. Feeling betrayed by the scientists and calling out to Madeline to help her, who could only stand by and watch, the android fought back and unleashed all of the experiments to run rampant throughout the station, killing all scientists but Madeline and setting the events for the game. Madeline also expresses guilt for MB, whom she nicknamed "Melissa" and gave her a unique hair clip to make her feel more human, and confesses the android was like a daughter to her.

Samus and Madeline are then confronted by MB herself, pointing a Freeze Gun at them. Despite Samus' protests, Madeline attempts to negotiate with Melissa, who insists that she was not wrong and everyone; the scientists, Galactic Federation, and humans, forced her to bring judgment on them. Removing her hair clip, she quickly knocks Madeline back, and is subsequently frozen by a group of Federation Marines who quickly storm in and raid the area, who turn their attention to Samus and Madeline. MB quickly thaws off and becomes enraged, throwing the Freeze Gun aside and summoning the most dangerous creatures on the ship into the room, most notably Desbrachians, attacking the soldiers present as well as Samus. Pleading for the rampage to stop, Madeline grabs the Freeze Gun that was thrown aside and fires it at MB. The soldiers then fire on the orders of a Colonel, quickly taking advantage of the situation and shooting the frozen MB to death. Madeline, devastated and heartbroken at the sight of Melissa's fate, is restrained immediately afterward. The Colonel approaches Samus and compliments her efforts, but states that since the rest of the platoon members are dead, she is an outsider and is not allowed contact with Madeline. He also accuses Samus of transporting illegal cargo before ordering one of the soldiers to escort her back to her Gunship, as the Galactic Federation will handle the rest. One of the soldiers complies and approaches Samus, referring to her as "Princess". Much to Samus' and the Colonel's surprise, the soldier reveals himself as Anthony Higgs, who states that his orders under Adam Malkovich, authorized by the Chairman of the Galactic Federation, are to ensure the safety of any survivors, overriding the Colonel's command. He also reveals that he was the one responsible for hitting the emergency brakes on the Bottle Ship, and if he hadn't, he tells the Colonel they "might have missed each other." Madeline and Anthony then hitch a ride in Samus' gunship, leaving the Bottle Ship for the Galactic Federation Headquarters. Anthony reveals how he survived the battle with Ridley, in which a Magdollite appeared below him as he fell, and that he was able to freeze it. This briefly awakens Madeline, now under Samus' and Anthony's protection, who blames herself for MB going rogue, and believes she was the insane one, not MB. Samus questions whether MB was truly evil all along, or if she was a mere android who had a consciousness awaken in her, only to be driven mad by the greed of humans.

Days after the incident, the Galactic Federation has decided to destroy the Bottle Ship by utilizing its self-destruct mechanism. Before then, Samus flies back to recover an important treasure. She re-explores the Bottle Ship and is confronted by her old foe Phantoon before she is able to work her way back to the location where Adam sat and left his helmet. He had witnessed the conversation where Samus told MB that she would go to Sector Zero to destroy the Metroids, quickly grabbed his guns and hurried out to stop her, leaving his helmet behind. Samus clutches the helmet, remembering the man who was like a father figure to her; her best friend and the person who knew her most, and sacrificed himself to save her. The moment is interrupted when the ship's self-destruct sequence is activated. With Adam's helmet in her possession, Samus, in her Zero Suit, quickly escapes the Bottle Ship before it is utterly destroyed.

Development
Yoshio Sakamoto has said that the primary focus of the game was to show Samus' personality, since the Prime series left many players with their own idea of who she was, and he wanted her to be consistent for any future titles. The game was also intended to seamlessly blend cutscenes with gameplay. As a result, the story and gameplay were developed simultaneously. Sakamoto said that he sees the game as another 2D Metroid game due to its simple controls and "elegant" gameplay, and calls it an extension of Metroid Fusion. 

He claimed later in an interview that he regretted absolutely nothing about the project and felt that very little could have changed or been done better. It entirely reflected his original vision of the game. He was concerned about how the fans would take the Search View feature's lack of movement, but he didn't want to add the confusion of figuring out where players were after switching between the two views; he anticipated backlash but felt it was still the right way to go.

Many aspects of the original Metroid game came about due to technical limitations--he cited the Ice Beam as an example. They couldn't add any major changes to the code for upgrades, but simply changing enemies' color and collision settings led to one of the most iconic and dynamic features in the series. He sought to recreate these limitations in Other M's development by forcing the use of only one Wii Remote, hoping this would lead to inventive workarounds for issues rather than just powering through them like other companies do.

Gameplay/Differences from Past Games
There are three upgrades (two being new items) in the game. The upgrade that was previously used in other installments are the Seeker Missiles. The newer items are the Diffusion Beam which appears to be similar to the Diffusion Missile in Metroid Fusion, and the Accel Charge upgrade, which increases how quickly Samus can perform a charge shot.

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 bar some exceptions later in the game. Some "new" powerups, such as the Accel Charge, will be collected in a more traditional manner, however. 

Besides the new upgrading system, Samus's character model has also changed as well. The Power Suit is now yellowish in color (like in Super Metroid, with a redder helmet, and Samus's face cannot be seen through the greenish glow emitting from her visor, unless in a cutscene. Samus only seems to activate the greenish glow during cutscenes when attacking or when she is under attack. The Gravity Suit appears, but no longer alters the colour of the suit and instead adds a purplish glow and makes the lights on the suit pink. It has the same use as other games. Damage reduction returns, having been missing in the last Wii Metroid game, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.



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 titled 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. On 21st August, 2010, the English site was also updated to include the same features as the Japanese site. Links to the main Nintendo website are also present now.

Title
The title most likely refers to the Character of Melissa Bergman, or "MB", implying that Melissa is a "Second Mother Brain." Other M can also be rearranged to form the word, "Mother"; the acronym of the title is "MOM". It is possible (although unlikely) that as the word 'Metroid' means 'Ultimate Warrior' in the Chozo language, the title refers to the other ultimate warrior of the series - Samus herself.

Reception
Early reviews of the game have been mostly positive, with some negative/mixed reviews.


 * Metroid: Other M received a score of 8.5 out of 10 from IGN.
 * X-Play gave Metroid: Other M a 2 out of 5, saying that Samus's character was unacceptable and the controls were too clunky.
 * GameInformer Australia gave Metroid: Other M an 8, but GameInformer US gave it a 6.25 out of 10.
 * GameSpot gave Metroid: Other M an 8.5 out of 10.
 * GameTrailers gave Metroid: Other M an 8.6 out of 10.
 * GamesRadar gave Metroid: Other M a 7 out of 10 in its Super Review.
 * Joystiq gave Metroid: Other M 4.5 stars out of 5, (9.0 out of 10).
 * The Official Nintendo Magazine gave Metroid: Other M 91%.

Much of the criticism was aimed at the long cutscenes, the possibility that Samus's character's portrayal is sexist, the weak plot (compared to past Metroid games), and some bad dialogue. However, some reviews praised these qualities and did not view them as negative. The game was positively received overall, and most reviews believed that it was a good example of the traditional Metroid formula, although it did not have as much impact as previous groundbreaking titles.

Trivia

 * Metroid: Other M is the first canon Metroid game where Samus Aran speaks, as she did not speak in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. She had previously spoken through text during the intro of Super Metroid, at various intervals during Metroid Fusion, and in two instances in Metroid: Zero Mission. Samus had grunts of pain in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, and spoke in all of her taunts as Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Yoshio Sakamoto claimed in a Super Metroid interview that he was the only person to know "where Samus' beauty mark is," which was not visible until the 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 or March 25, 2010). However, this was later proven false as the actual release date for North America was August 31, 2010.
 * Metroid: Other M is the first Metroid game to receive a 16+ PEGI rating.
 * Metroid: Other M is the first game in the Metroid series to have orchestrated music.
 * Metroid: Other M is the third game in the Metroid series to not have an ending based on clear time or completion percentage, the first being Metroid Prime Pinball and the second being Metroid Prime Hunters. The Zero Suit sequence at the end was most likely intended to be the ending.
 * Metroid: Other M is currently the only game that requires Samus to actually run through superheated areas before being allowed to use the Varia Feature (or obtain the Varia Suit in context of other games).
 * Metroid Other M has many traits that set it apart from many games in the series.
 * Metroid: Other M is the only 3-D game in which the Speed Booster and the Shinespark appears.
 * Metroid: Other M is the only Metroid game that requires 100% completion to unlock Hard Mode.
 * Metroid: Other M is the only Metroid game that has a Hard Mode that limits Samus to just her weapons and abilities.
 * Metroid: Other M is the first in the series to feature melee combat.
 * Metroid: Other M is the only Metroid game that has no Energy Capsules or Missile Ammo dropped by enemies. Instead, Samus must use either Concentration or a Navigation Booth to restore them.
 * Metroid: Other M has the most ways to get an instant Game Over.


 * Metroid: Other M has the same number of bosses as Metroid Fusion, with a total of thirteen.

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)
 * Metroid: Other M Commercial 1 (Japanese)
 * Metroid: Other M Commercial 2 (Japanese)
 * Metroid: Other M UK Commercial 1
 * Metroid: Other M UK Commercial 2
 * Metroid: Other M US Live Action Commercial
 * "Metroid and Me" Retrospective
 * Metroid Other M Begining
 * Metroid Other M Ending

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