'Metroid: Other M' succumbs to tweaks

When I saw the debut trailer for "Metroid: Other M" in 2009, I had the same reaction as many fans. I was nervous about another big change to the series I love so much, but mixing the exploration and atmosphere of "Metroid" with the tight acrobatic action of developer Team Ninja's "Ninja Gaiden" series seemed like a possible win -- you know the old cliché about two great tastes that go great together. Unfortunately, this combination proves sour.

To begin with, the series' signature sense of isolation on a harsh, alien planet is largely absent, because Samus is no longer running solo. Shortly after boarding a derelict space station, she meets a crew of Galactic Federation soldiers, and -- surprise! -- she has a secret history with several of them. The new allies could have presented a forgivable way to mix up the "Metroid" formula, but they end up having a negative impact on almost every aspect of the game.

Samus ends up working with the crew, which makes sense. However, in a totally absurd decision that doesn't work well for her character, she follows the orders of commanding officer Adam Malkovich. Although you supposedly begin "Other M" fully powered, Samus will not use her variety of missiles, advanced guns or armor upgrades until Malkovich authorizes it. I refuse to believe that a ruthless bounty hunter would refuse to activate her armor's heat-resistant Varia suit as she marches through the heart of a volcano with her health constantly draining -- an actual scenario from the game.

You'll run into situations such as this again and again. It's as if Team Ninja wanted to prove that it could come up with a more contrived way to lock down your powers than the average "Metroid" game, where you just lose them in the beginning sequence.

On the other hand, using Samus' full range of weaponry is a pain. Since control is limited to a single Wii remote, many of the game's encounters boil down to running in a circle, charging up your gun, and shooting over and over until the enemy dies, praying that the game's dodgy auto-targeting works. Aiming at the screen with the Wii remote takes you into first-person view, which is the only way you can shoot missiles. Unfortunately, this also takes away your ability to move.

The combat isn't the most painful part of "Other M," though; that award goes to the stilted dialogue in its many overlong cut-scenes. Instead of the subtle, effective storytelling of "Super Metroid" (which "Other M" follows in the "Metroid" timeline), you'll get cinematics that look beautiful but often run as long as 15 minutes, exhausting players with repetition of obvious plot points and overwrought dialogue as mature and interesting as a teenager's diary.

The biggest culprit in the bad storytelling is Samus. She has a constant running narration, which makes the whole experience feel unnecessarily expository. I assume it's meant to lend her emotional gravity, but the soulless voice acting and ham-fisted writing make that impossible. Even worse, Samus often comes off as an idiot. After one supporting character has clearly established that the space station has been doing biological weapons tests, Samus asks, "Do you think they were doing biological weapons tests?"

Late in the game, once Samus unlocks all of her abilities and begins meeting more familiar faces from the series, I experienced fleeting moments where it all clicked, and I saw glimpses of how great "Other M" could have been.

But an hour or two of less painful game play can't make up for the bad design choices at the game's core. It especially can't make up for what "Other M" has done to Samus as a character. She'll forever be trapped in my mind as a whiny, talkative child who is too willing to give up her freedom and too petulant to be likable.