Also checking in to complain about Other M. It's perhaps the only thing that I can say I actually believe has achieved the prestigious status of Fractally Wrong, in which it is the same amount of wrong at every possible resolution.
I just hate Metroid Other M so very much. It's like some otaku wrote a fanfiction where they, as Adam Malkovich, got to order Samus around and save her from Ridley and paralyze her (what) then save her life again through heroic self sacrifice. And she goes along with it all because he can't write female characters so she's a 1-dimensional waifu with a baby fixation who needs a firm heroic man to face enemies she's already killed by this point in canon.
Let's not forget, she hasn't just killed Ripley by then, she killed him
twice by then. They can't even fall back on her reaction stemming from discovering Ripley's impossibly robust resurrection tendencies.
I understand that Ripley slaughtered everybody she ever loved and all, and that was what they were going for, but Samus Aran is a bloodthirsty killer. They could have actually done that scene correctly, had that been the reaction instead of crippling fear.
It's totally canon (and possibly the last one)
I genuinely fear there will indeed never be another Metroid game due to the sheer magnitude of failure that Other M managed. Retro has the contract if one is ordered, but that order has to come in the first place...
And her power armor keeps disappearing mid-fight somehow even though that's never happened before.
This also has another element of Wrong to it: The Varia Suit isn't a traditional suit of armor and gets stored in hyperspace when not used (which they somehow did get right), but it also isn't maintained by Samus' consciousness, just summoned by it. This is why in the opening of Fusion (the game Other M was SUPPOSED to compliment, no less) the Federation is forced to surgically remove it to prevent Samus from dying of X infection: it's stuck on her and she's not conscious enough to turn it off.
Oh, and the Prime Series? Declared noncanon. Even though it was far better gameplay and story wise, but I guess he didn't like an actually competent team having anything to do with his deadly-yet-subservient waifu.
This part is actually a misconception. Prime is still canon, Sakamoto said he didn't take it into consideration while making Other M (as is obvious). Some people translated this as "Prime is now non-canon", but that isn't the case.
While with Metroid we find out that we only *thought* Samus was a strong role model because the NES/SNES didn't let this dumbass write much.
Eh, forget him. There are other people involved in Metroid, and it's also kind of a long-runner. His viewpoint on Samus may be more recent then he's letting on.
My big pet peeve with Other M is kind of a strange one, and that's Samus' height. Those of you with lots of Metroid experience may note an interesting fact: Samus Aran is fucking gigantic. Her height was once officially listed as 6'3'' normally and 7'3'' inside the Varia Suit. And indeed, in just about every game Samus has a considerable physical presence....except for Other M, where she is
shorter than everybody else for no reason, even inside the Varia Suit.Why do a bunch of Federation schmucks have armor that dwarfs a creation of the Chozo, a species that effectively reached the end of technological development? Why is Samus depicted as paper-thin waifu compared to an average group of humans when she is canonically made of Hulkamaina? All these questions and more can be yours to ponder if you play Other M! Why Nintendo? Just why?
Other M is also mechanically flawed (where's my
Scan Visor, what is this weak flavorless shit that replaces it), but I could forgive that if not for the total character assassination.
If we're very, very lucky, then Retro will get to make their promised game in the style of Prime and Sakamoto will be distracted with some kind of compelling optical illusion while they're making it.