“Any Objections, Lady?” - Solving the Problems of Metroid: Other M

Metroid is one of my most beloved video game series. I've probably spent the equivalent to weeks of my life playing through Super Metroid time and time again in pursuit of 100% item completion in under three hours. (Did that, next goal is under two hours, which I'm close to achieving.) When Metroid Prime brought a new perspective to the series, I was skeptical at first, but it ended surpassing all of my expectations. As for Metroid: Other M's goal of combining the game play of the 2D side-scrollers with some first-person elements and having a greater emphasis on story, it succeeded in some respects while faltering in others. While far from a horrible game, it is very easy to focus on the bad and overlook the things that it did right. Here, I'm going to propose a few minor changes that could have had changed the popular negative views of the game.

This post is rated SPOILER-RIFFIC!

Proposal # 1 – New Opening

The game started out on the wrong foot by having too much set-up before it finally handed over the controls to the player. This Youtube video of the beginning of the game clocks in at over 13 minutes, with the only gameplay present being a very lame tutorial section and a short run in the Bottle Ship before Samus meets up with Adam Malkovich's Galactic Federation platoon. I often found myself wishing the game would “just get on with it” throughout much of the exposition.

My first proposal here is a re-imagined opening that would engage players both familiar with and new to the franchise. Let's look at what is present in the current opening: the ending of Super Metroid. Instead of having a scientist bark orders at you like a test subject, a much more interesting tutorial would have been to actually play through the entire ending sequence of Super Metroid. The setting of Tourian could have provided as a nod towards Metroid fans and a way to get first-time players familiar with the storyline.

Taking a cue from Metroid Prime, have Samus fully powered-up with all of her abilities intact. Simply show text boxes with the controls instead of becoming intrusive. Redesign the layout of Tourian to show off Samus's abilities and get the player familiar with the game's combat system.

This would all culminate in the final battle with Mother Brain, a battle that Samus is meant to lose. When Mother Brain shoots her Laser Brain Attack (yes, that's the actual name) it can act much like it did in Super Metroid. Instead of just depleting Samus's Energy Tanks, Missles, Super Missles, and Power Bombs, why not cause all of Samus's abilities to permanently malfunction? This would solve many of the problems players had regarding Adam's authorization. Once it seems like Samus will not survive this battle, send in Baby Metroid to save the day and cue the story sequence.

Proposal # 2 – Eliminate Authorization

Expanding on the idea introduced in the last paragraph, having Samus lose all of her powers would have been a much less controversial decision than the one that was implemented in the game: Adam's authorization. With Samus fully powered up, it is just silly to have Samus hold back when people's lives are in danger, including her own. Granted, Adam did give a reason as to why he didn't think Samus should use Power Bombs (they could kill any survivors in Bottle Ship), but I was yelling at the television when Samus had to RUN THROUGH A LAVA-FILLED ROOM before Adam authorized the use of the Varia Suit. Really, was authorizing armor necessary?

With the Bottle Ship essentially serving as a replica of Zebes through cloning with DNA recovered from the planet's remains, what else was recovered from the rubble? It could have been possible that the Galactic Federation discovered some Chozo artifacts that Samus never found while she was on Zebes on her two trips there. They could have hidden them on the Bottle Ship, allowing for Samus to recover her abilities in that fashion. Another option could have had the Federation sending Samus data updates to her suit or recovering them from enemies much like in Metroid Fusion, though finding hidden Chozo statues is much more satisfying.

Proposal # 3 – Eliminate First-Person Elements (Or Fix Them!)

I know it was meant to be a gesture toward fans of Metroid Prime, but the first-person sequences didn't turn out very well. While in terms of exploring the environment it worked, I didn't like that it was impossible to move while shooting missiles. Adding to the frustration were the many first-person sections where you had to hunt the screen for a small detail to continue the storyline. Often I found myself hovering over the object that should have triggered the sequence to continue, but for whatever reason the game wouldn't recognize it until I passed over it five or six times.

Proposal # 4 – Analog Controls

It's weird to play a 2D side scroller with an analog stick, so who thought it would be fine to control a 3D game with the d-pad? Also, the Wii Remote doesn't have many buttons, so some compromises had to be made with button configurations. I'm not sure why the designers thought that the Wii Remote alone would have provided better control than with the Nunchuk attachment, but I think it would have proved to be better.

Proposal # 5 – Give a Reason for Samus's Fear of Ridley

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Other M occurred fairly late into the game: Samus's post-traumatic stress disorder episode upon seeing Ridley alive and well. The game never fully explained why Samus was able to face Ridley many times before, yet here is completely immobilized by fear.

To fully understand why Samus is going through this, the player needs to know some of Samus's back-story that is never mentioned in the game: When Samus was a young child, Ridley and his soldiers were responsible for killing Samus's parents and destroying her colony. While she defeated him many times prior to Other M, Ridley's defeat and the destruction of Zebes in Super Metroid was supposed to mark Ridley's true death. So seeing a creature that's been tormenting Samus since her childhood that she thought she finally killed come back to life – it would be a very frightening and traumatic event.

Too bad the game never explained any of that, despite all of the other back story that it found necessary to expand upon.

These five proposals represent my major problems with the game and possible solutions to them. While these wouldn't have necessarily solved many of the issues with the game, things could have turned out very differently with other choices in design.

“Any objections, Adam?”