Other M: The Greatest Metroid

I didn’t play Other M back in 2010 because of my fatigue with all the Metroid games coming out at the time, but Smash Brothers Ultimate presented some intriguing looking characters, so I decided to get a copy and fire up the old Wii.

I was not disappointed.

As I suspected the characters were at times deep, complex, and believable given how they are presented. They are not mere plot devices. In some ways this draws from the Alien films the franchise was originally based from.

Putting reflective characters in a game likely takes a lot of effort, but it was satisfying for me in a personal life, existential kind of way -reminiscent of a Metal Gear game in some ways. We see Adam internalizing tough calls from the veiled view of a third party, Samus, and it challenges to ask if greatness is something we overlook in people because we write them off so quickly.

The absolute best thing in the game for me is how it invokes the anger and bitterness people have for authority when it makes hard calls that are not understood very well, only to reveal that they are often initiated out of the subordinates best interests or perhaps even love.

This is a life observation that challenges a person to reevaluate their perspective and reflect on their own story.

I also like the cold, empty way the modernist, futuristic world is presented … portraying the advantages of science as overstated and impersonal.

Other M certainly a lot of twists, which kept me interested. I enjoyed trying to figure out which side Madeline Bergman and Adam Malkovich were in, although I wish the game had resolved the “deleter” aspect of it beyond just the clues. The stages of Ridley’s transformation (hidden in plain sight) was genius tier story telling.

The game had a ton of nostalgia in it for veterans of the series. My two other favorite Metroids were Super Metroid and Metroid II -both of which had major villains from that story line represented. I thoroughly enjoyed the return to 2D side scrolling. The flashbacks were enriching, and the score is classic. I wish the Zelda games would return to their roots in many ways, especially the missing heroic music.

Other M has a lot of original content in it as well. The idea of controlling the Metroids from an AI and the involvement of the Galactic Federation in the game to that level had never really gone anywhere before.

The game mechanics of the Wii have been criticized in the game. They were a little goofy at times, but I didn’t really feel like wishing I could run while shooting in first person mode. That seems like it would added complexity to an already complex configuration of the controls.

Eventually, all video game systems would have the dual joy sticks, but this step in video game history was not significantly inferior to me.

The game was shorter for me than the other Metroid games (you get the space jump and screw attack at the same time for example), but how long the game doesn’t say much about how good it is. I’d rather play a good short game than a long mediocre game.

The game didn’t have the same emphasis on exploration that other titles in the series enjoy, and that was a little disappointing. The effort they put into helping you find everything in the epilogue was a nice touch, though.

All in all, Other M is my favorite Metroid game, beating out my two previous favorites and easily surpassing the Prime series. I eagerly await another Metroid game in this style or perhaps even an Other M II: The Return of MB.

Check out my book Mere Devotion available here.

Thanks to Christina Morillo and Alex Andrews for the images.