Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi has told G4TV that the widely criticized story behind Metroid: Other M was completely down to Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto rather than Team Ninja themselves.
“We definitely worked with them on the project, but that was all him,”
“There are definitely things we learned from Other M by working with Mr. Sakamoto and with Nintendo.”
And… the point?….
it was not team ninja’s fault that the story was bad, it was nintendo
how could it be their fault if the story was bad if it wasn’t bad in the first place?
I agree, on paper the story for other M was pretty good, origin of samus, pre-bounty hunter life, how ridley shows up, its all cool, but the storyTELLING, was way off mark
No. The CONCEPT was good.
The story sucked, and Team Ninja couldn’t make a gold out of crap.
no the story was good lol @ your expectations of team ninja
if team ninja wrote the story, there would be a lot more cleavage. cant have a good story without jiggle physics!
Yeah, I can see that getting intelligent conversation out of you is going to be like getting blood from a stone, or a good story out of Sakamoto.
And yet you talk as if team ninja would of done better with the story. Story was okay, not crap. list some reasons then we can have an intelligent conversation.
Given that I’ve already shut you down below, and you’re arguing with the capability of a gradeschooler, I believe that the onus of this argument is now on you.
So shit or get off the pot.
But the story was bad…
I liked the story, and I already guessed in the past that Nintendo wrote the story.
Anyone notice that the girl in the pic is holding a Nerf gun?
Yeah I noticed.
What was wrong with the Other M story!? That was one of the best games I have played in a long time!
I rather liked how Samus was made into more of a human, rather than just a thug in a robot suite.
I’d have to say I liked the game as well. The story wasn’t that bad, but the story seemed “small” as it only had about one thing going on and there were no real surprises. It did seem a little too heavily based off of Metroid Fusion, though.
well its a direct prequel to fusion so it makes sense
You are in the minority.
That’s probably because she didn’t have to have speaking lines or obnoxious personality traits in order to be as “human” as you say she should have been. She always was more of a human, and anyone who couldn’t see that in previous games are really blind.
then i guess you havent played other great games, jk.
He must of had one hell of an off day considering Other M’s story. (Yeah I don’t agree with the people crying about how Samus was portrayed character wise but still, the story itself was crap)
Slow news day? *trollolololol*
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3n0vBcW5fc&w=420&h=315%5D
trollolololol
If it wasn’t for the bad controls, I might have played more than 3 hours of it. Rotating the controller from 2 hands back to the remote (1 hand) to do a lot of tasks didn’t work to well (at least for me). I wished they kept the Prime controls, those were spot on. 3rd person view vs. 1st person view didn’t matter, my opinion is strictly on the controls (which are vital to a game).
True, they could’ve also applied the 2D metroid controls THAT ACTUALLY WORK
I am sorry, but the controlls were pretty good and it was a cool idea to have a 3D-Shooting-Mode if you point at the screen. I (and all that I know that played the game) could handle that with relative ease.
But I agree on the Story, it was a bit lame – cool to bring the human side of Samus more into focus, but the rest wasn’t great.
All in all it was one superb Metroid-Game and I would not compare it to the Prime-Trilogy for it is totally differnt in gameplay
I had stated my opinion, not a fact. I didn’t like that you couldn’t move while in 3D mode, and the need to recharge in the middle of battle. It was too much switching back and forth (had to go to 3D just to shoot missiles at a door). It’s not that they were complicated, just seemed they didn’t design the use of the controls well (IMO).
What they could have done was allow the nunchuck to be used, so the joystick could control Samus in the 2D+ world, then just use one of the nunchuck triggers to switch to 3D mode so you already had the remote in one hand can could immediately start aiming, and switch back to move easily instead of fumbling around turning the remote 90 degrees in 2 directions. That’s what worked in Super Paper Mario, just the click of a button to alter 2D to 3D.
Either that or just use the prime controls, that’s why I bought the updated 1 & 2 in that trilogy pack, Prime 3 controls were just sweet.
The controls are perfect. In all honesty, it’s not that difficult to rotate a wand.
Other M was not a Metroid game. It was a game that featured Samus and Metroids. IMO, all this game did was portray our previously silent, cold-blooded heroine as a whiny teenaged sissy. Thanks a lot, Sakamoto. I’m going to go play Super Metroid now.
Agree.
He pretty much wrote the story for every Metroid game, out there, so don’t say that he screwed up because he didn’t. He takes conservative approaches with every game he writes.
Except on all the prior instances he had Gunpei Yokoi and Mokoto Kano to get rid of what sucked.
Without their input, we got Other M.
There was no way to get input from either of them from the first place because Gunpei Yokoi died in the 90s and Mokoto Kano quit game development while still working at Nintendo, so Sakamoto had 100% of the rights to the Metroid franchise. He was a devoted follower to the Metroid franchise ever since Kano and Yokoi worked on the original, so I don’t know why they are hating on Sakamoto because he isn’t doing anything wrong. Without their input, we also got Metroid Fusion, and that was a great game. That game was an indication that Sakamoto was setting everything right for the franchise.
I wasn’t saying that those two needed to add their input. The point I was making is that without Yokoi and Kano, Sakamoto was the only one who was calling these shots, and had nobody to rein him in and tell him that his ideas stank.
He’s done plenty wrong, the issues present with Samus in Other M could have been seen in Fusion, which while it was a decent game, it was NOT as good as it should have been. The abusive relationship from Adam is plainly visible in Fusion, which I went back to look at after the awful implications of everything that happened in Other M.
I loved the game, for me it was like a Super Metroid tribute and i’m looking forward to next one…. i bet is in the works for Wii U. Yeah!!!
Or 3DS Project: DREAD anyone
eeeh of course they were behind it, it’s their IP.
Anywho the story was bad, the only semi interesting thing was the Deleter.
and that’s about it.
The Deleter would have been a much better plot element if they’d called it something that didn’t make me pause and say “Really?”
Just like the “Baby’s Cry” emergency distress call mentioned at the beginning of the game. It was an attempt at being different in a sci fi setting, and all it did was sound like Sakamoto was brain damaged and had mommy issues.
Indeed.
Overall, I considered the story to be ok. Not the best, but it kept me entertained for a while.
I do agree that they went extremely overboard with the maternal references. “Baby’s Cry”? Why would something called the Galactic Federation name a distress call that? There’s nothing else that calls attention?
I think they mostly need to do away with the japanese drama that I believe hurt the story a bit. That much is clear in the Ridley scene. As for Samus, most parts of her personality are fine to me, except the fact that she seemed a little too submissive to Adam.
Metroid Other M WAS NECESSARY to the Metroid saga!!! that game is so good as Metroid Prime
Anyone cares ?
The idea was good but badly executed. I wanted to see the human side of Samus not another frustrated teen of Twilight. Other M is not terrible, is just that it was basic in all aspects. Basic gameplay, basic graphics, so so story, nothing truly stand out.
Exactly.
As I have been saying to people! Team Ninja only worked on the gameplay and design of the whole game while Sakamoto was the one who made the story. I never thought the story was bad because everyone, including critics and gamers, criticize it because they never read the Zero Mission prequel manga. Don’t give me crap that the story in Metroid: Other M was bad because it wasn’t. If you followed the Zero Mission prequel manga, then you would know that the story actually made sense. People who hate the story in Other M obviously are not true and devoted followers of the franchise as story-telling was there in the Metroid franchise ever since Super Metroid. They just don’t see that because they only stick to the gameplay without being conservative with their gaming tastes. That’s all I’m gonna say. Saying that Samus Aran being sexist is bad when Lara Croft being sexist is good means that your just a hypocrite. Have some accountability in the story and ideas they put in, for once.
It’s not about the story making sense. It’s that it just wasn’t told very well. You can’t keep excusing bad storytelling forever. Just because it happened to be written by Sakamoto doesn’t mean it’s gold, and just because the story is canon doesn’t mean it’s actually GOOD. Now THAT doesn’t make any sense. I think a franchise as great as Metroid should have more rational fans.
Dude, he handled the plot of every Metroid game from the beginning of the franchise, so there was no need for the hatred since it was already indicated that Metroid is a storied franchise, overall. Sure, he may not please everyone, but at least he should deserve more credit for making it a Metroid game, overall. I can tell you obviously haven’t read the Zero Mission prequel manga, and if you compare it’s story to Aliens, then you can tell that Samus Aran has similarities to Ripley so that she can show her human side and not remain as the tough heroine that everyone loves about her. People who think she should remain as and tough, inhuman heroine is being sexist, right there. When it comes to story, there are morals that a character goes by, and stood by those morals to the very end; especially when trying to regain Adam’s trust when he called her an outsider. If she remained as a renegade bounty hunter and acted on her own accord, then she would probably lost his trust. There are lots of things that actually make sense if you look at them more closely.
I don’t have any problem with what you just said because I agree with most of it. However, there is a bit of a problem with the relations to the manga. I’ve read the prequel manga (assuming we’re thinking of the same thing) and some things seemed inconsistant between it and Other M.
The manga protrayed Samus as a soldier who hardly ever obeys orders (which she also states in Fusion). She also seemingly overcame her PTSD problem with Ridley near the end of the manga.
The fact that Other M has Samus perhaps be a little too willing to obey orders and the fact that she once again had PTSD problems when fighting Ridley (after killing him many times) is what has erked fans.
Once again, I don’t discredit your opinion. This is just my view, take it as you will.
Adding to that, I do agree of making Samus more like human rather than a robot. Honestly, when I played Metroid Prime, I felt like I was controlling a robot.
Yes finally some people who enjoyed the nice storyline it was like a movie and the graphics, gameplay, story, and everything else were great there is nothing wrong with this title so stop bashing it, it is probably the coolest metroid and the most movie like its the length of the game people THE FUCKING LENGTH! The game won’t be forgotten to me stop bashing it! Nintendo deserves more credit you fuckin ppl bash nintendo then you FUCKING bash every game that’s good well FUCK you people learn to think and grow a pair! nintendo games are flawless! Nobody is here to brag about sony and how they have this or that nintendo is better! Metroid other m had positive reviews the only issue is the fucking idiots who bash good gAmes so learn and think!
Why so serious?
I don’t think Other M was bad. I do feel the expectation were too high. If it had been another game, I believed more people would have liked it. As it was Metroid, people had in their mind what they though Samus should sound like and be like so the disappointment was correct on their part.
I actually really liked other M’s story…
I thought the story was engaging and interesting, and I loved what they did with Samus’ character. Before Other M she WASN’T a character. She had no voice, no personality. She was essentially a robot bounty hunter with an indifferent, ruthless inner monologue.
Nintendo’s range of characters are quite shallow when it comes to depth of character and people complain about them not appealing to the hardcore market. This was one of their attempts, which I believe to be a fantastic one, and so many people bash it.
I love the cinematics, and the majority of the gameplay (the only thing I couldn’t stand were the forced first-person searching parts, but there were hardly any. Powerups being unlocked via Adams authorisation was also quite vexing).
I also liked they thought of it as a kind of interactive movie, and you were able to watch the movie once you’d completed the game.
While Prime/Echoes and Corruption will remain my favourite Metroid games, Other M is definitely a worthy entry into the Metroid lore and I would be very happy if a sequel or game similar to it was released.
Other M Samus is a realistic character that’s human and relatable. She manages to be a powerful, independent woman whilst still having feelings and relationships, and realising the consequences of what she does.
Well put, I totally agree unlike these unrealistic whiners
Well done! I totally agree!
TBH I’m kinda tired of nintendo having outside studios develop Metroid games. I mean, prime was great and all, but I’d like to see them actually make a new one for once.
I’m mostly pissed because I’m tired of sony fanboys making fun of nintendo! Metroid other m was fucking awesome!! The storyline was awesome and I’m hoping for a sequel nintendo can always make a good game!
Other M was beautiful. The graphics were better than Metroid prime and it finally gave us background on samus. I love how you fags are saying she was a whiny teenage sissy. You actually sound like one right now. Is she suppose to be a robot or another master chief? She’s a human who was telling her past and how she lost the last person she was close to. I guess you guyz ain’t human either. As far as controls go, it was perfect and classic. That was the point of putting those controls. Id play through other M again. “Oh we want a bad ass chick that doesn’t show feelings or talks”……yea get to reality. Only problem I had was samus’s voice actor.
Everyone complains about Samus’ winy voice in other M.
On youtube there’s a film that parodyed lots of times and someone made one where he complains about Other M and G4, saying Samus was to whiny.
The Graphics were great, but why does the N gamer mag say Prime 3 had better graphics?
LOL g4. that says it all
You know, I just want to know. Everybody reply to this and state in YOUR opinion how samus character should be like…
Well, my general thought is that Metroid: Other M was a great concept, but poorly executed. I feel that the Prime series was not really a great representation at all, as it is practically impossible to pull of the acrobatics you are used to doing in Metroid in a FPS environment. Just because Halo/Gears of War/Call of Duty did it, it doesn’t mean it’s cool.
I have nothing against how they portrayed Samus. I don’t know where people got the idea that she’s Master Chief, but I like that they gave her a personality. It could have been better executed, sure, I mean, look at Metroid Fusion.
The issue I saw with Other M is the infernal switching of controls. Never have I seen so much swearing and anger from my girlfriend than when she was trying to fight the Metroid Queen and couldn’t freeze the other Metroids in place without 2 others defrosting and biting her in the face. I don’t know why they didn’t either just use the classic controller or the wiimote/nun-chuck.
tl;dr It had it’s good points, but it could have been much better. The controls sucked. I hope they don’t use this as an excuse to ruin/kill off/give an unnecessary gritty reboot to Samus.
My thoughts exactly. I even mentioned an idea for better controls outside the obvious use the nunchuck idea.
We can blame Miyamoto for using solely the wii remote, at least from what I heard. I believe they wanted to use more simple controls to make it similar to the old 2D Metroid games.
The reason why we got 3D was because Team Ninja wanted to make a 3D game. A compromise was eventually reached.
My god, do yu really think that Samus is going to get paralyzed from PTSD upon seeing Ridley? Did you forget that she had already killed him TWICE, maybe three times according to the chronological order of Other M? The correct response is “oh, not this douche again”, not turning into a child an being unable to fight. Samus was turned from a complex loaner independent badass to yet another woman who needs to be saved by men.
How does anyone like this story?
No, the Ridley thing was a little strange, as she did kill him before, but you do have to remember the fact that he barbecued her mom in front of her for fun. That’s…. gonna leave some emotional wounds.
Edit: I also agree she should have not been paralyzed in fear if she had killed him before. Didn’t want it to sound like I disagreed. I would think she would react in anger more than anything else.
There’s different emotions and reactions. One person could be paralyzed with fear of being bbq’d the same way or you could be angry and want revenge. Just becuz she killed him b4 doesn’t mean she isn’t still afraid. That’s like saying you just barely got past the thing your most afraid of so you shouldn’t be scared but then boom it comes back again and could be worse than b4. Yea samus was afraid but she still fought back so get a grip.
Sorry but after reading all the comments the only thing that bugged me was the article title.
Nintendo *was* behind
Singular vs plural.
He were
They were
He was
They was
I never understood the hate towards this game. I loved the story and I think it was better than Metroid Prime 3. Samus may be a badass chick, but everyone has a not-so-badass beginning. I do agree that following someone’s order to unlock your weapons was rather dumb. Other than that, I loved the game. People asked for story telling in Nintendo games; well, there you have it. It was easy to criticize Team Ninja since they were “behind the game,” but if it had been Nintendo, then ther wouldn’t have been so much negativity.
This WASN’T a beginning.
At the point of Other M, she’d obliterated the Space Pirates main base and committed genocide against the Metroid Race. She’d had several games’ worth of character growth. Her “Not so badass beginning” would be better shown in a remake of Metroid 1. Which they did. And she was STILL a badass there.
We do want storytelling from a Nintendo game. We don’t want Misogynistic morons telling us a story that nobody asked for.
So you’d want a character with no background history of how they became wat they are. They just appeared from thin air???
When my alternative is a story about a remarkable heroine turning into a battered woman at the hands of her commander over the course of a couple of hours?
Yes. Yes I would.
That makes no sense, how was she a battered woman? He IS a commander (And the man she views as a farther figure). She officially couldn’t do much about it, so state some reasons why you think this?
Why don’t you read the link below to get a better idea?
But since I don’t think you’ll entertain that thought, here.
Adam’s personality is controlling and domineering. Their “Falling out”, as the game puts it, was simply because Samus left his command.
Adam authorizes NO defensive systems until well after Samus needs them, exerting control over every facet of her behavior. Furthermore, Samus does nothing to protect herself without his say-so. Battered woman syndrome. (And I’m talking about passive defenses, not weapons.)
He shoots her in the back, not trusting her to listen like any competent, healthy father figure would. Additionally, he does this while she is in the presence of a DEADLY ENEMY that he wasn’t sure he could defeat on his own. He didn’t even try to neutralize the enemy first. If he’d messed up? Samus was dead, while he could have at least run for his life.
And throughout the game, he literally doesn’t say one single positive thing to her.
The only person in the game who thinks there’s a father/daughter relationship there is Samus. It is a textbook case of domestic abuse on a military level.
(And no, Samus was under no obligation to follow his orders, or do what he said. There was no chain of command to require it, nor could it have been enforced if Adam tried to. She CHOSE to do what he said, at the expense of her own well-being. Like a battered woman going back to the man who abuses her in the hopes that he’ll love her.)
Seriously, read the blog in the comment below. It goes into everything here, and more.
Here, a really good article about Other M problems with samus characterization.
http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html
Wow…that was deep! I never thought about it like that.
Extremely deep. Bacicly every reason why people had problems with other M.
It’s easy…
Gamers HATE the fact that Samus has voice and feelings, like a good protagonist.
Gamers want the Samus that doesn’t speak, and only run and kill things.
That’s all.
True, Nintendo had a tradition on giving their characters no voice, but it changed.
Gamers always wanted Samus to be an Emotionless alien killer like before, Not a whiny girl.
I love the story. Good job.
I loved the game but I could understand samus breaking down! her parents being killed in front of her face she may have gotten so angry and scared because she never paid attention to her past as much as she did there that she lost control and started to daydream and when she noticed what was happening she was ready for battle this is likely more than just a kickass awesome story but a mark in the series that she still is traumatized (duh!) Don’t bash the damn game!
And uh people whouldnt be bashing if samus was wearing nothing 100 percent through the game
What’s up with hating the story? I liked it. Samus was a human in the game rather than a robot (she never has any emotions in the other games which make her seem more like a robot than a real human being). Last I checked, every human has emotions. Especially women. And guess what! Samus is a woman. I thought the story was good. I was much more engrossed in the story than any other game I’ve played. I think some people just think that Samus should be a robot with no emotions rather than a human being. Or rather they want her to be a robot with the appearance of a woman.
Give this a read
http://www.metroid-database.com/news-post.php?id=449
The story was good, but was a little cheesy and the voice acting was almost as bland as Keanu Reeves
People today are fucking retarded. Period.
Story was fine. Game was great. Don’t like it? Fuck off.
And Team Ninja…wow, how about trying to stand up for your products a bit more you bunch of fools.
Wow, such humility and maturity in one post.
Why are you blaming Team Ninja for something they had no control over? This is not new news.
Team Ninja only handled the gameplay. We should all know by now that Nintendo was the ones handling the story.
like everything nintendo ruins everything
it was sakamoto’s idea to make her emo-ish and team ninja’s inconsistent controls that let the game down. if nintendo are to be blamed for other m, it is that they published it, not realising parts of the storyline was flawed.
you can’t just blame nintendo.
WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE THIS GAME SO MUCH!?
story sucked, if i wanted to play a 2d-style metroid game, i’l just open a super metroid rom. should of just stick to the first person like prime.
What i dont get is people bitching about how samus is a emo winny teen. lets see how you would react while seeing everyone you care about die infront of your eyes, would you be happy and laughing at them while they die. if you do your a psychopath and second the story was good not awesome but good but thats what i expect from a prequel stuff that that alredy happened, people should not call this game terrible because this game was good it was necessary for the series.
ii forgot to add one thing this i a very joyful game i would give it an 8.5/10
Are you trying to say that people have to cry every time people die in front of them? No one reacts in the same fashion, and you have no right to dismiss people as psychopaths just because they don’t outright express the emotions. Everyone handles emotions differently, and Samus isn’t exactly your everyday person.
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Don’t know why everyone complains about the new game, It was good.
It’s mainly G4 that Hated the game most.
i wouldn’t trust G4 in terms of video games. besides, they hate most of anything that is nintendo-related.
I actually really enjoyed Other M. My only complaint about the story is that they never revealed who the killer on the team was.
My only real complaint about the game is that it sometimes does not load when I try to play it. And I’m using a brand-new Wii to play it…
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