Like any good fanboy, I went right out and bought Metroid: Other M when it was released yesterday. I guess a really good fanboy would have found a line to wait on until midnight, but there were none around.

After a mere hour of playing, I think it’s safe to say: I’m in love. I’m such a sucker for 2-D gaming, and they really found an innovative and exciting way to make a 2-D game for the 3-D gamer generation. Depending on the time of day and the wind direction when you ask me, Super Metroid might be my favorite video game, and Metroid: Other M is clearly trying to re-create and expand upon the experience of that game… right down to beginning the game with a cinematic re-play of the climactic battle between Samus Aran and the Super Mother Brain… and the very poignant death of the Baby Metroid Samus rescued at the end of Metroid 2.

An overview of initial critical reception is here, although I’m not going to read much of it. I think it’s fair to say that contemporary gamers who are used to stuff like Halo and God of War and Call of Duty and so on will find this to be unsatisfying; it’s not the same kind of blow-you-away-with-its-graphics-and-difficulty product, and in attempting to honor its roots in Super Metroid it’s obviously something of a throwback… there’s a lack of sophistication in the cinema cut scenes - flat delivery and uncompelling dialogue - that doesn’t feel so much like ineptitude as a different aesthetic, one that calls to mind the storytelling style of Metroid: Fusion and other older games… I can see some people not digging it, but I am really enjoying it.

I’ll post more as I get further!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 8:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.