Metroid Other M: Bad Or Kinda Decent?

In this video, BlueFates takes a critical look at Metroid Other M which is said to be the worst game in the Metroid series. Is it that bad or has it been over hated for nearly 14 years?
Edited by BlueFates
Thumbnail by Man-Man

[@bluefates58]

Forgot to put this in the video but the Metroid Pinball Footage is from ShadowMario3, Also I hope you all enjoy the video :)

[@TopMostFlavor]

They really thought they were going to flex on Retro with this

[@-ak-634]

Is Metroid: Other M really that bad? Kind of YES and deservedly so. It may be a pretty good action game, but it's still by far the WORST Metroid game in series. Even so, I still play it from time to time as part of Metroid Canon (which is confirmed once more by Dread) and while there's bad aspects that do not age well, there are still good elements that I enjoyed from development team's efforts to make this game as Metroid as it can be: GOOD - Gameplay. Once you get past the mostly linear nature of game, the Bottle Ship opens up very nicely and there's typical exploration loop in it that really define Metroid games. I always enjoyed exploring and collecting items and blasting beasties on my way to 100%. - Control. I have barely any problems with controlling Samus, as I felt that even though the environments weren't well designed around her movesets, Samus does feels tight and fluid even if a bit too fast. That's probably as good as she can be in this kind of action game. The key is to keep in mind of WHERE she's facing when you're shooting, dodging, going in and out of first-person mode. - Bosses. With good enough of control, the bosses are hella fun to fight and defeat. At least, most of them are, aside from few clunkers. That's pretty par for course in any Metroid games. - Mystique. There's some bit of mysteries going on in the Bottle Ship and while not all resolutions are satisfying, I still very much liked how the game handled its mysteries in comparison to the other games. Samus and GF Squad get to be detectives in the game and it's quite satisfying to see how everything unfold. - Characters' developments. Hear me out, I get that overall, it wasn't handled all that well and I agree! I very much liked what they TRIED to do with Samus, Adam, Anthony, and MB in the game. There's seeds of potentials and intrigues in who they are, what they're going through, and what they became in the end and I very much liked how it all progressed and unfold over the course of game. MIXED - Voice acting. Some of Samus, Anthony, and Adam's voice acting are solid given the materials, though some scenes, lines, and other characters just fall flat. You can tell that they're trying to be serious, though ironically being overtly so ended up sounds very cheesy in some parts (THE BABY!). - Art Design. Comparing to the forever incredible Metroid Prime series, I disagree about Metroid: Other M looking great. It looks fine, if bit uninspired though I can see where they're going with the art. They're trying to hew closely to Japanese's styled sci-fi aesthetic that defined the games in 80's and 90's and they actually succeeded here, which I can respect. BAD - Plot & Script. Easily the worst aspect of the game. It not just how the overall plot develops and concludes, but also how the characters interact, act, and speak among one others and by themselves. This is where the game really fell apart as some most critical moments of game turned out illogical, hysterical, and cheesy. Look at how Adam's treated Samus in few scenes, how Samus constantly narrates when it wasn't needed (something that Fusion have perfected), and how her PTSD was treated when faced with Ridley. I can understand how and why they did lot of these elements, though with better treatment in script and dialogues with more thoughts toward how to best craft these scenes, the game could have turned out more favorably. - Item Authorization. I get why the developers took this path of giving Samus' ability, given how powerful her weapons can be in midst of actual Federation's setting that may have surviving citizens in it. The execution of granting permission is lacking, the most offending being Adam NOT allowing her to use Varia Suit in a VOLCANIC ZONE. Again, this tied back to scripting issues and I believe that with better forethought, they could figure out why Adam wouldn't want to allow Samus to wear Varia Suit. Guess we'll never know. - Linearity. If you didn't already notice, the game really railroaded you into one set path for about 2/3rd of game before the exploration loop really get interesting here. - First-Person Pixel Hunt. I HATE THESE WITH PASSION. - Audio Design & Soundtrack. Basically nonexistent, just some blips and beeps and ambients, which is extremely disappointing considering the series' reputations for having absolutely stellar audio designs and soundtracks. - Hard Mode. The fact that you cannot even do 100% Run on Hard Mode already made this difficulty option completely useless and unnecessary and total waste of time. If you can't even do endgame contents and face Phantoon and play out that niffy escape sequence in the true conclusion of game, what's the point of doing Hard Mode? Stick with Normal Mode for any canonical play through to get full story experience and you won't be sorry for missing out some truly brutal suffering. So what's Metroid: Other M? A potentially good game trapped in mire of bad designs and decisions from gaming and narrative standpoints. That's what I see in this game and while I still lament how the game turned out to be, at least I can appreciate how the development team did tried to make a decent Metroid game even if it turned out not to be so in the end.

[@Mysticshosh42]

Worst metroid game belongs to federation force imo other than that i agree with everything you said

[@novustalks7525]

The story is great. The gameplay sucked. But still it's not the worst metroid. That's samus returns

[@-ak-634]

@@Mysticshosh42 Well... I can't argue with that. it's either Other M or Federation Force. At least Federation Force is pretty fun for most part, similar to how I enjoyed Other M. There's also lot of bad designs and decisions here and there, so I'll give you that.

[@bluefates58]

Yeah before I played it I was kind of mad to see it be acknowledge as canon but after playing it I am indifferent to it. I have heard about people moding the game through emulation so it uses a normal controller and has missiles and the concentration being mapped to buttons. Honestly, that sounds pretty fun and if I were to replay Other M I would probably do it that way.

[@bluefates58]

@@-ak-634 When it comes to which entre is the worst in the series I am surprised that Metroid on the NES isn't mentioned much (I have never played it but I would imagine that it would have the most jank)

[@TheDoc.]

Other M was truly the game.

[@Quackra]

You can make an argument for it being both. It sounds weird until you find out that the English script is horribly mistranslated.

[@pendranomechannel6786]

Other M is is unironically one of my favorite Metroid games. Although it definitely has its downsides, I just love how agile and powerful Samus feels in the game. I think this is because I don’t care that much about the story. To me the most important thing in a video game is that you get to play as a cool character who can do cool things. A good story is just the cherry on top, a luxury if you will

[@TempoTronica]

It's funny that he thought it would stand out, cause the power suit already stuck out like a sore thumb

[@MusikageKira]

My left ear really enjoyed 17:09 onward😂

[@bluefates58]

Oh crap, must have messed up something in Audacity (or DaVinci failed me yet again). Next time I will double check the video before uploading it

[@jaydub7386]

Other M Nooooooooo! That's like saying Prometheus or Covenant.

[@InsanoRider777]

Decidedly bad. Team Ninja was cooking with this one, but bad writing, bad gimmicks and some bad bosses just kills it.

[@bluefates58]

@InsanoRider777 yeah the Bosses weren't anything to right home about a good chunk of them I though were mini bosses or something.

[@novustalks7525]

The writing was great

[@LiamNajor]

@@novustalks7525 Until you back up your (asinine) statement, I will take it as the unfounded opinion of an idiot.

[@ArmaBiologica35]

I tried getting into the game again with an open mind as I wanted to replay every 2D mainline Metroid game in preparation for Metroid Dread... Got bored after the first 15 minutes of unskippable cinematics. Like, the game is fine, it's not an unplayable mess, it's not plagued with tons of glitches... But being a bit boring is it's biggest flaw.

[@GBDupree]

They are unskippable though, but only as long as you have already played the game once. after that on any save file it will let you skip cutscenes at any time with the - Button. Also the game is plagued with bad translations and changes to the script, so its not like you'd be playing the intended story anyways. Like the translation is so bad that it removes all context for everything, and removes a bunch of story reveals because the dialog is so borked. Like the reason Samus isn't acting in-character isn't because its poorly written, but she is actually acting out-of-character in-universe. So when she notices that she is unusually emotional she thinks this is affecting her ability to do her work and decides to challenge herself in order to get serious and show that she is still in control (also at the time she isn't aware of what is causing this emotional instability, so she thinks is just a natural response, but the truth is a later reveal). So that is why she goes into the heated area without a suit, because she hopes that will prove to herself that she's still got it and is in control. Only when the boss shows up and things get serious does she put the Varia suit back on. In the original Japanese, Adam doesn't "authorize" the suit, he pleads for her to put it on because he's confused why she doesn't have it on her. This then shows to Samus that Adam still cares, because their interactions were outright changed in the translation (like it wasn't even a translation at that point, likely just a rogue writer changing things, like Her and Adam are just fanfiction in the English). In the original Japanese Samus is very suspicious of Adam and believes he is behind everthing, which is then proven when she finds his signature on some documents. But in that scene in English, she denies the signature, believing it must be forged because she "knows Adam! He would never do that!", but in the original that was just further proof of what she already figured out on her own. This is why the ending was supposed to be so emotional, because Samus thought Adam was no different than all the other rogue GF officers that were doing all the secret experiments, only to find out that he still cares for her and is sacrificing himself to atone for his mistakes. There's a bunch of other reveals about the Metroids and such that are also super broken in English to the point they don't say anything of value at all, let alone the lore and reveals they needed for the story to make any sense. But if you are interested in more there is the video "the Other M that never was" that shows how bad the translation was and what the story was supposed to be about.

[@keithrees4755]

Metroid Other M i think has really set the tone in the room and has bringed it to the next level for metroid series forever this game was truly a game changer i mean sure is it still fun to see the side scrollers of metroid absolutely but Metroid Other M really made me felt i was really going where no one has gone before and i hope we see more other Metroid Other M clones come out later down the road

[@midling6321]

I went through and played through Other M for the first time, just to see if it was this abhorrent game that ruined everything I heard it as, and it was genuinely one of the most fun I've had with a game, even if I did experience some out of game and of my control issues (Wii remote disconnecting). I didn't mind linearity, unlike apparently every other person to ever play video games, and I enjoyed Samus' monologuing. It wasn't that bad to hear what she thought.

[@bluefates58]

Hey its awesome that you found a game that you loved I wish I was in tge same boat. I do like the idea of Samus monologuing and giving her thoughts on the events unfolding though I think it was done better in Fusion. In Other M it kind of felt like she was just recapping what just happened in plot and less of her opinions on what's going on in the Bottleship.

[@Nandru85]

Its a good action game, but took fusion's narrative driven gameplay too far, it's hardly a metroid game. That and the controls. I do love how agile and powerful samus feel.

[@midling6321]

@@Nandru85 I can't say I mind a more story based game, but from what I've seen most people don't care much for any linear games for some reason.

[@Nandru85]

@@midling6321 agree! I love Fusion and it's approach, but here they went all in, lol. Yep, it's because linearity and metroid aren't 2 concepts that you normally don't associate

[@orangeslash1667]

@@Nandru85 Fun Fact: At the time of it's release Metroid Other M was the second best selling Metroid game in Japan, with Fusion being the best. To make matters worse Super Metroid isn't even in the top 5 in Japan.

[@evasiveupgrade]

I honestly really enjoyed other m. The story was a bit off but all around the game itsself was very fun

[@supersmashbro596]

it's the story that utterly kneecaps this game. and a very good case for gameplay not always being enough to support a bad story.

[@novustalks7525]

It's the opposite. The story is great

[@cmdrfokker]

@@novustalks7525 Nah, its bad.

[@novustalks7525]

@@cmdrfokker no it's not

[@cmdrfokker]

@@novustalks7525 Nah, it is. People who like it suffer from cranial-rectal inversions. I'm sorry, there is no cure.

[@novustalks7525]

@@cmdrfokker I'm sorry you have trouble understanding the real story instead of whatever fan fiction you had

[@Chaseneiz]

I really enjoyed this game I don’t care what people say. The only thing I didn’t like was samus being over the top emotional

[@josiahtheobald689]

What? When?

[@bluefates58]

I thought she was very monotone during the game other than the PTSD scene and Adam death

[@GBDupree]

Did you know that there is a story reason for her being so overly emotional and out-of-character? It's only in the Japanese version, because the English translation of the game is SO bad that the dialog fails to even mention this (or most of the plot for that matter!). There is a video called "the Other M that never was", that explains HOW the translators could've failed so badly as to remove big plot reveals like this (though the Adam and Samus interactions are NOTHING like the Japanese script, to the point that even he thinks that was a rogue fanfiction writer that altered the script entirely rather than translate it properly). Check that video out if you want to understand what the story of Other M was supposed to be, its very fascinating.

[@bluefates58]

@GBDupree Okay but Sakamoto was in charge of the localization and this is the version he gave us. If he wasn't involved with the localization I wouldn't be as harsh but that's not the case

[@GBDupree]

@@bluefates58 Where does it say he was involved in the translation? He helped with the voice direction for sure, but not the actual translating, he doesn't even speak English.

[@trunks2585]

Man it's like hearing my own thoughts on this game all over again. You're more positive on some parts than I was. A few things of note to point out though, in no particular order. In a game that held your hand on telling you when you could use a new move, you're never told you have powerbombs for the final part of the metroid queen. Sure anyone that played 2 might know to try that, not everyone has, and again, don't condition players to be told what they can use, and then expect them to critically think for the first time in the whole game. Much like you're never told about dodging in FPS mode. Even if we want to justify the PTSD scene with Ridley, it's poorly executed with no real explanation. Samus goes out of her way to monologue and explain things in detail, but for Ridley, they once again break from their format to be abstract about it and the players are just expected to know the history. The very idea that Ridley is basically a pokemon disgusts me. I'm not positive, but I think the game breaking glitch is actually triggered much earlier on your first run-through of the lava sector where if you backtrack you get locked out of a future door. Which this combines with another complaint, no shooting doors to open them. You are railroaded on your path. Adam's big 'noble sacrifice'. Did no one think to just fly their ships, that have guns, outside and shoot the sector? Pretty sure external damage that extends to the interior would have worked as well. Shit, have Samus go inside, plop a powerbomb down (which would give you authorization to them for the rest of the game and not just the end of one fight), and do an escape sequence before it detaches. The actual end of the game is won with one last scan action. And finally. Samus accomplished nothing. She doesn't stop MB, the Galactic Federation firing squad does. She doesn't kill Ridley, the Metroid Queen Does. Anthony is the one that pumped the Breaks on the Ship. (Not Samus). She doesn't deal with Sector Zero, Adam Does. She doesn't stop the Deleter, MB does (And the Deleter killed the rest of the squad so she didn't save anyone either.) Sure she beat a few bosses, but most of the main plot stuff, she didn't do anything.

[@PIE50100]

Other M is bad, but I feel like in a strange cosmic way we have to thank it and Federation Force for being responsible for Mercury Steams games. If Other M didn't fail so hard Nintendo probably would have made that style the new standard. But instead they waited 7 or so years and handed the series to Mercury Steam and now Metroid Dread is fully realized.

[@m3tr0id86]

As far as the mechanics of the game, it is lore accurate on how agile she is, but storytelling-wise, it's an abomination.

[@Gorgonzeye]

Garbage story, garbage gameplay, and no replayability. There isn't anything here to like. Controls? Yeah, If I talk about those I'll have an aneurism.

[@novustalks7525]

Great story*

[@whosthisguy7333]

It's trash. The story sucks, the voices suck, the writing sucks, the gameplay sucks, the setting design sucks. Other M sucks.

[@erusean8492]

The only correct opinion. I don't understand people saying "the writing was bad but the gameplay was good" when the gameplay is super dumbed down and barebones and the controls are atrocious

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

Most of the gameplay itself was fine, even if the klunky controls were super frustrating. What bothered me was turning Samus into this annoying pick me girl. Turning off parts of her suit because some asshole ordered it? And not even turning on the varia suit when she's burning up? That was stupid.

[@bonjoe1758]

I enjoyed other m when I was 14 back then and I enjoyed it days ago being 27 years old. Other m fits as a complementary title in the metroid series. I acknowladge its flaws but appreciate its qualitys much more

[@volvolume]

same sentiment however after experiencing it myself it felt like the N64 metroid game we never got. seeing it how the graphic have a similar glow to the era of gaming. and the fact that Samus looks very similar to the model that we got in the super smash bros series of games. it appears to be a case akin to Duke Nukem forever. a delayed game that just came out too late.

[@bluefates58]

Yeah I can see where you are coming from with it feeling like what a Metroid game on the N64 would have been.

[@robertkenny1201]

As muchbas I personally enjoyed it gameplaywise Other M is a failure that needs to be removed from the canon and forgotten.

[@meziembamara4004]

Played this before Prime series. Not a bad game. 😊

[@Armedus]

Other M had its time. Sakamoto did his best and had no regrets. He has moved on, and so should we. Let sleeping dogs lie.

[@bluefates58]

Of course, I rationalize the only way I would get Other M is if I made a video on it.

[@Armedus]

​​@@bluefates58 Of course. By all means, stomp on this trash fire to your hearts content. The video is well said and very entertaining. I'm speaking more towards those that remained, the ones out there that, for whatever reason, still cling to this game. They exist _and they scare me._ 😱

[@bluefates58]

@Armedus I am glad you liked it, thank you very much

[@cmdrfokker]

It's still bad, OP.

[@bluefates58]

Yeah I don't think I will ever replay it but it does have good elements like the graphics and if it had a better control scheme I think this stlye for 3D Metroid could be pretty fun

[@cmdrfokker]

@@bluefates58 If I wanted to play a game with miserable gameplay strictly to praise the graphics, I could play a Crysis title. I would rather the series die again than play anything that is remotely similar to Other M.

[@bluefates58]

@cmdrfokker I see, also I have never played a Crysis game maybe I should check it out

[@TheMan-Man]

​@@bluefates58 They literally just said it has terrible gameplay

[@bluefates58]

​@TheMan-Man yeah but how else will I know if my computer can run Crysis

[@dis_inferno9173]

Japanese version of Other M is way better and I consider it's a masterpiece.

[@nahte123456]

No it is not. It has very minor improvements in the story and that's it.

[@dis_inferno9173]

@@nahte123456 if it's was the case, I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece, buddy. You're definitely coping hard right here.

[@nahte123456]

@@dis_inferno9173 oh no, rather than having an argument you said the term "coping" NOOOOOOO!!!

[@dis_inferno9173]

@@nahte123456 you can't give me good arguments anyways, because you have no idea what are you talking about, buddy.

[@nahte123456]

@@dis_inferno9173 Sure I can. It's a bad story. Making it clear that the Galactic Federation is split into factions is nice but doesn't change much as it still means the government has corruption to deal with. More details on Metroids is nice but not really the game that focuses on them and some of it doesn't make sense. Deleter is still dumb, literally 1 game ago the GF said Samus is stronger then orbital bombardment, sending 1 guy to kill her is stupid and he's not even handled well just kind of dead at the end. The PTSD thing is still handled horribly. Samus being more childish is an interesting take but still a bad one, Authorization is still dumb for a lot of the equipment Samus has like armors. There's a reason Japan doesn't like the game either.

[@novustalks7525]

The story is great but the gameplay was bad and lacked any depth

[@robertkenny1201]

Yeah like anyones going to believe what you have to say.

[@orangeslash1667]

@@robertkenny1201 I wonder if this game inspired Team Ninja to work on Hyrule Warriors????

[@bluefates58]

@@orangeslash1667 I wouldn't say inspired but it probably built the trust between Team Ninja and Nintendo for them to get the green light to make Hyrule Warriors

[@bluefates58]

Why do you think the story is great would like to know what you see in it that I don't

[@DanielMazahreh]

Neither. Other M is a great game. You people are just not smart enough to appreciate it

[@bluefates58]

Can you explain why you think it's a great game would like to see your perspective on it