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I’ll admit it: I’ve flipped at the moment I saw that trailer last year. As soon as I saw Adam Malkovich and his infamous quote “Any objections, Lady?”, I knew this was something special. Of course, seeing it up close and noticing that it’ll take the same story-driven approach as in Metroid Fusion tells me that not only we’ll finally be able to see what happened to Adam before his eventual “return”, but also learn a bit more of our favorite female bounty hunter, Samus Aran. As Project M shows off promise (Team Ninja, hello), I can’t help but be hyped with this title.

Yet for some reason, when the game was released, reviews poured down on the game and started blaming it as the stain that ruined the once venerable franchise. People were saying that this would be the next Sonic the Hedgehog, or that Samus’ character was ruined. As a huge fan of Metroid I couldn’t help but feel a bit concerned about this, but I’ve decided to buy the game anyway – I was already deciding to do so anyways. Well, what do I think of it now? Let’s see.

One thing’s for sure, though: Other M is definitely cinematic-packed. I’d bet more than half of the 9.4 GB dual-layer disc has been filled up only with cut-scenes and voice-overs. All of them are in extremely awesome quality, as well – facial details, fluid movements, and decent use of lighting demonstrate that the guys behind them knew what were they doing. Metroid has never been a game so focused on story, with Fusion (and perhaps Prime 3) coming close to what Other M has achieved. In that end, I applaud Nintendo to take such a risk.

With that said, I have to agree with most of the reviews out there criticizing Samus’ new voice. While in the series she has remained somewhat silent and subdue (in the Prime series she is clearly mute, but the 2D Metroids she always had some sort of dialog), this time she talks. A lot. So much in fact that you started to wonder if this was the voice they were looking for her. Monotone dialog gets boring, and if she were the “human-with-emotions” character this game is presented we should expect that emotion to come out from her voice as well. Nevertheless, I do find some parts where she actually gets compelling to hear, and the various characters in-game compliment the voice-work very well. It’s too bad she somewhat ruins this experience.

Now then, I’ve talked about the cinema work, so now let’s just move on with the gameplay. Is it good? Is it worthy of the Metroid title? Somewhat. I’ll start with the controls. I’ll just say this once: I HATE NES-style Wiimote. It just doesn’t feel confortable for me to hold. I’d rather use the CC Pro I bought to play VC games or any shelf titles that support it. With that said, for all what I hate its style, it does work very well. You control Samus in a 3D space using the Control Pad – a bizarre choice if you ask me – but the game actually makes it very confortable to use since there’s very few moments when you’d wish you had a control stick. Most of the corridors or areas were meant to be passed through on one direction – forward – and the game adjusts movement accordingly as you continue to press forward. Very imaginative, and while at first I wanted to have the Nuchuck in hand, now I can’t really think of a better way to control Samus. Other than that, you still have the quintessential: shoot with 1, jump with 2, pause with +, and enter Morph Ball mode with A. B isn’t used at all when in third-person mode, which is good because nothing’s more awkward (in my opinion) than reaching out the trigger from behind in this setup.

That’s when first-person comes into play. Any time, you can point at the screen and enter first-person mode, Prime style. By holding B and pointing with the Wii Remote to look around and lock-on and using A to shoot the appropriate weapon required (the game automatically decides which one you’ll use), you have access to Missiles, scanning, and you can be able to freely explore your surroundings…at the cost of not moving at all. This means that your only means of movement here is evasion – a new technique Samus has in this game – by pressing the Control Pad any direction as danger gets near. In some ways this feels a lot like Resident Evil titles in which you can’t run or shoot at the same time – only this time you can’t shoot Missiles and run at the same time. It’s not a problem if you ask me – it just adds a bit of challenge. What is annoying, however, is scanning. Unlike the Prime series where they actually help you with icons and colored objects for you to easily notice what can be scanned, this game forces you to look carefully. In many instances, scanning is so hard because the object you’re looking for blends on your surroundings – and sometimes there are multiple objects to be concern about but you must scan the right one. This is one complaint that I had when using this mode, and I wish that, if they ever attempt to do something like this again, they better fix this.

Exploration still plays a role in this Metroid, but here’s the funny thing: no matter how much you could explore around the Bottle Ship, it’s almost as if the game forces you to play it as linear as possible. You could go look for a certain Missile that’s now reachable thanks to your new equipment, but it’s just so far away from your current location that you’d rather continue with your mission instead of go out and sequence break. (which I highly advice not to, as game-breaking glitches has been discovered in this game.) Also, unlike other Metroids where you earn upgrades by searching them around, you have them all at your hand and gradually “earn” them via authorization. Sounds stupid, indeed, but I had no complains about it. Not even the infamous Varia Suit authorization – I felt that it was simply the game giving you another challenge, not something idiotic for Samus. Though in some ways it is…but who cares.

Apart from the classic Missile Tanks and Energy Tanks, you’ll now look for Energy Parts – think of them as this game’s Pieces of Heart. Collecting 4 of them earns you a new Energy Tank, obviously. This not only expands the amount of items available for you to search, but also lowers the amount of maximum tanks in the game. Nevertheless, you sure will need to look for them if you want to survive, because this time around enemies no longer drop health or ammo. Instead, whenever you’re in critical (less than 50) you can concentrate to recover an amount of energy back by simply putting your Wii Remote vertically (think praying) and holding A. It’s somewhat silly, but it adds challenge into the game – adding more to Team Ninja’s requisite hardcore legacy, especially when fighting bosses or enemy swarms. By the way, boss battles are epic and fun to battle. These monsters put your skills to the test as you evade and shoot at the right moment, and they’re also good for showcasing new skills that Samus earns (or activates) on the way.

As much as the cinemas take over the game, I still felt that the meat of the game was exploring around all by yourself, and that’s definitely a staple of any Metroid title. There are fewer locales this time – as little as 5 main “worlds” compared to Fusion which it had 7 – but what’s there is plenty enough to be interested. While the graphics themselves aren’t quite up to the standards placed by Retro Studios or even the Mario Galaxy series, Other M achieves to impress and immerse you into the world inside the Bottle Ship. There’s plenty of fan service too – instantly recognizable enemies pop out from time to time, from the classic Zoomers to the annoying KiHunters to a certain villain that never knows when to stop annoying Samus. What I can’t help but complain isn’t the graphics – it’s the music. What happened with the eerie-but-beautiful compositions of Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano? Instead we have a more environmental approach towards ambient music is referred. It works, but I’d rather want those classic compositions in which Metroid is most famous of.

As the game ends in just about 8 hours, it definitely feels short – especially for a game so heavily focused on storyline. It doesn’t need to be any longer. However, I would have accepted this short time if the game actually begged you to look for different ways to complete it. After the credits role you can still go ahead and gather all the items at your own pace, and once you collect all 100 items you unlock Hard Mode (Harder enemies and NO PICKUPS - not a surprise seeing as Team Ninja is on the front), but in the end, there’s not enough replay value to say I want to go back and complete this game one more time.

Metroid: Other M has its flaws, and we all wish it didn’t have them since the franchise is usually one not having them. But this isn’t an excuse to let this one go. There’s a story beneath it that clears up a lot of mysteries lingering around since Metroid Fusion. The game sure is fun to play from beginning to end, even with all its hiccups. And while Samus may not be the character you want her to be, she is still that likable, badass bounty hunter that’s iconic to our video game heritage. What’s important is that it gets the stuff that matters – exploration, fun factor, and compelling story – right, and in my opinion, it is worthy of the Metroid name.