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action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...
developed by
Tecmo Koei is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo ...
's
Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo. It was founded in 1995 as Tecmo Creative #3, a division of Tecmo headed by Tomonobu Itagaki. It is best known for franchises such as '' Ninja Gaiden'', ''Dead or Alive'' and '' ...
and
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and published by Nintendo for the
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
. It is the eighth main installment of the ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...
'' series, and takes place between the events of ''
Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...
'' and ''
Metroid Fusion is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous ''Metroid'' game, ''Super Metroid'' (1994). ''Fusion'' is par ...
''. The player controls intergalactic bounty hunter
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano and introduced in the first ''Metroid (video game), Metroid'' (1986) for th ...
, who investigates a derelict space station with a Galactic Federation platoon, including her former
commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...
, Adam Malkovich. Longtime ''Metroid'' director and series creator
Yoshio Sakamoto (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the ''Metroid'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Resear ...
approached Team Ninja to develop ''Other M'', while animation studio D-Rockets handled the
cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s. The development team employed a simple control scheme to make the game appealing to modern players, and gave significant focus on plot and characterization, with extensive cinematics and voice acting. ''Other M'' is played from a third-person perspective using only the
Wii Remote The Wii Remote, colloquially known as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with an ...
, and focuses on exploration and combat. It introduces
melee A melee ( or ) is a confused hand-to-hand combat, hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term ''melee'' originated circa 1648 from the French word ' (), derived from the Old French ''mesler'', from which '':wikt:medley, medley'' and ...
attacks which can only be executed when an enemy's health is reduced. ''Metroid: Other M'' received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its elaborate cutscenes, graphics and action-oriented gameplay, receiving honors from several publications, but its story proved to be controversial and a point of criticism among both critics and the ''Metroid'' fanbase. Despite being the third-best-selling video game in Japan during its first week of release and the ninth best-selling game in North America during September 2010, sales were considered disappointing for a flagship Nintendo franchise. The ''Metroid'' series entered an extended hiatus following its release, not seeing an original series entry until '' Metroid Prime: Federation Force'' in 2016, and not seeing another mainline series entry until ''
Metroid Dread ''Metroid Dread'' is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after ''Metroid Fusion'' (2002), players control the bounty ...
'' in 2021.


Gameplay

''Metroid: Other M'' is an
action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...
with three-dimensional graphics. Players take control of series protagonist
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano and introduced in the first ''Metroid (video game), Metroid'' (1986) for th ...
, a bounty hunter who investigates a derelict space station, known as the Bottle Ship. The main environment is the vessel interior, known as the Main Sector, along with the other environments that are contained in "sectors" or gigantic spheres within the ship: the Biosphere, a lush, tropical region; the Cryophere, an arctic environment; and the Pyrosphere, a heated, lava-filled area. The gameplay revolves around solving puzzles to uncover secrets, platform jumping, and shooting enemies. The game unfolds in a linear manner, and the in-game map highlights the next objective. Similar to ''
Super Paper Mario is a 2007 action role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third installment in the ''Paper Mario'' series following ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'' (2004), and the first Mario ...
'', the game operates between two perspectives with differing controls, depending on the orientation of the
Wii Remote The Wii Remote, colloquially known as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with an ...
. The regular gameplay features a
third-person perspective Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to storytelling, convey a narrative, story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to del ...
, where players hold the Wii Remote horizontally. Samus can jump, fire the arm cannon, and turn into a morph ball, which can roll into narrow passages and drop energy bombs. While gameplay is similar to early ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...
'' games, the environments are three-dimensional and movement is not limited to a two-dimensional plane. When the Wii Remote is pointed towards the screen, the angle switches into a
first-person perspective A first-person narrative (also known as a first-person perspective, voice, point of view, etc.) is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from that storyteller's own personal point of view, using first-person grammar suc ...
, where players can lock onto targets and fire missiles, but cannot move in this perspective. There are several instances where players will have to constantly switch between play modes; for example, fighting off a horde of flying enemies in third person, while switching to first person to destroy their spawn points. Additionally, the first-person mode is also used in exploration, such as locating hidden items. ''Metroid: Other M'' is the first game in the ''Metroid'' series to feature melee attacks. With well-timed button presses, players can use special techniques, such as the Sense Move, which allows them to dodge enemy attacks, and the Overblast, where Samus jumps on the enemy and fires a charged shot at
point-blank range Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm or gun can hit a target without the need to elevate the barrel to compensate for bullet drop, i.e. the gun can be pointed horizontally at the target. For targets beyond-blank range ...
. Unlike other ''Metroid'' games, enemies do not drop items, with the restoration of
health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...
and ammo occurring either by using the Navigation Booths, or employing of the Concentration technique, where Samus rests and replenishes missiles and health. Players can also use the Navigation Booths to save their progress. While there are
power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...
s scattered around the Bottle Ship, a few items are already equipped by Samus, but she agrees to wait to use them until commanding officer Adam Malkovich authorizes her to do so. Players can find items that will augment Samus's abilities, such as Energy and Missile Tanks. As a special feature, players can unlock "Theater Mode"—a two-hour film presentation—after completion of the game. Divided into chapters, this film contains every
cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
of the game, along with clips of gameplay footage recorded by the developers for bridging purposes.


Plot

''Metroid: Other M'' takes place between ''
Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...
'' and ''
Metroid Fusion is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous ''Metroid'' game, ''Super Metroid'' (1994). ''Fusion'' is par ...
''. After awakening in a Galactic Federation facility,
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano and introduced in the first ''Metroid (video game), Metroid'' (1986) for th ...
departs for space and picks up a
distress signal A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a sou ...
from a derelict vessel known as the "Bottle Ship". Soon after landing, Samus encounters the Galactic Federation 07th Platoon; among the Platoon are Anthony Higgs, an old friend from her military career, and her commanding officer
Adam Malkovich is a series of nonlinear science fiction action games published by Nintendo, featuring side-scrolling, metroidvania, and first-person shooter elements. The player character and protagonist of the series is Samus Aran, a space-faring bounty hunter ...
. After Samus saves the platoon from monsters, Adam allows Samus to cooperate in their mission, under the condition that she follow his orders. Samus and the 07th Platoon head to the Exam Center in the Biosphere, and learn that the Bottle Ship was conducting research on bioweapons and the person in charge of the project was Dr. Madeline Bergman. After being attacked by a large lizard-like creature, Samus is ordered to follow the monster to the Pyrosphere, but is quickly directed to the Cryosphere to search for survivors. While there, Samus encounters a young woman, but the two are attacked by a soldier piloting an industrial robot. Samus realizes that there is a traitor among the 07th Platoon and decides to call him the "Deleter" until she learns his true identity. After returning to the Pyrosphere to follow the reptilian creature, Samus discovers that it is actually a juvenile stage of the dragon-like
Ridley Ridley may refer to: Education * Ridley College (Ontario), a university preparatory boarding and day school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada * Ridley College (Melbourne), an evangelical theological college in Melbourne, Australia * Rid ...
. Anthony draws Ridley's attention and challenges him, but is seemingly killed. Samus fights Ridley, who subsequently escapes. Samus leaves the Pyrosphere and realizes she cannot contact Adam. She follows the "Deleter" to the Bioweapon Research Center where she meets the same woman from before, who introduces herself as "Madeline Bergman". Madeline reveals that the scientists were propagating the Metroids in the Bottle Ship, reproduced from the remnants of the infant Metroid found on Samus's power suit after her return from the planet Zebes. Madeline adds that the scientists have created a
Mother Brain is a fictional character created by Nintendo for the ''Metroid'' series. She is one of the most prominent antagonists within the series, serving as the main antagonist of ''Metroid'' and ''Super Metroid''. Mother Brain has been killed multiple ...
-based
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
called "MB" in order to control the Metroids, which are hidden in Sector Zero, a recreation of Tourian. Before leaving, Madeline informs Samus that Adam is the creator of the Metroid operation. Samus heads to Sector Zero, but Adam stops her from entering, warning her that the Metroids in Sector Zero cannot be frozen. When Samus asks Adam why he is credited as the Metroid military report's creator, he explains that the Galactic Federation headquarters requested him to write the report. In his report he explained why the operation should not be attempted due to potential dangers. Adam states his intention to enter Sector Zero and to destroy it; he explains that, by causing enough damage to the sector, it will detach from the Bottle Ship before self-destructing, thus destroying MB and the Metroids. Before sacrificing himself to destroy Sector Zero, Adam commands Samus to secure a survivor in "Room MW" of the Bioweapon Research Center and to defeat Ridley. Samus returns to the research center, where she finds the body of the "Deleter", whose real identity is revealed to be James Pierce, and the
mummified A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furthe ...
remains of Ridley. She also finds a survivor, and defeats a Queen Metroid. Samus pursues the survivor, who reveals herself to be the real Madeline. Madeline explains that the woman Samus met earlier was in fact MB, an android created from Mother Brain's genetic material to establish control over the Metroids. Feeling betrayed by the scientists and Madeline (most likely due to Mother Brain's corrupting influence through her DNA), MB telepathically commanded the Space Pirate special forces to attack those on board and had managed to propagate the Metroids in Sector Zero. Samus and Madeline are then confronted by MB herself. A group of Federation troopers rushes into the room, and MB summons the Bottle Ship's most dangerous creatures to attack. Samus clears away these monsters to allow Madeline to shoot at MB with an ice cannon, leaving her defenseless and helpless for the Federation soldiers to finish her off, ending Mother Brain's reign of terror once and for all. The colonel compliments Samus's efforts but orders a soldier to escort Samus back to her ship; the soldier reveals himself as Anthony, the only surviving member of the 07th Platoon. Samus, Madeline and Anthony leave for the Galactic Federation headquarters in Samus's gunship. Days after the incident, Samus returns to the Bottle Ship to retrieve something that is left there. After battling Phantoon, one of the monsters Samus had fought on Zebes, she arrives at the control room and recovers Adam's platoon helmet. The Bottle Ship's self-destruct protocol is remotely activated, which an armorless Samus escapes with Adam's helmet.


Development

''Metroid: Other M'' was developed by "Project M", a team of over 100 people that includes staff from
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
,
Tecmo was a Japanese video game company founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in the Kudankita district of Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Prior to 1986, Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for ...
's
Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo. It was founded in 1995 as Tecmo Creative #3, a division of Tecmo headed by Tomonobu Itagaki. It is best known for franchises such as '' Ninja Gaiden'', ''Dead or Alive'' and '' ...
, and D-Rockets, with production lasting for three years. When the Wii console was released, Nintendo producer and chief ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...
'' designer
Yoshio Sakamoto (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982. He has directed several games in the ''Metroid'' series. He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Resear ...
decided to create a new ''Metroid'' game for it, but opted to work with an outside company, as his usual development team did not have experience in producing a 3D game. Sakamoto eventually approached Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja to discuss the incorporation of the flashy
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...
used for ''
Ninja Gaiden is a media franchise based on action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as in Japan. The word " gaiden" in the North American ''Ninja Gaiden'' title means "side story" in J ...
'' (2004) into a new engine to encompass his new vision of a 3D ''Metroid'' game. Sakamoto served as producer and scenario designer, and main design was done by three designers from previous 2D ''Metroid'' games—''
Metroid Fusion is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous ''Metroid'' game, ''Super Metroid'' (1994). ''Fusion'' is par ...
'' (2002) and '' Metroid: Zero Mission'' (2004). Team Ninja took charge of the
programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...
and
3D modeling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based Computer representation of surfaces, representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in Three-dimensional space, three dimensions vi ...
, and D-Rockets handled the CG cutscenes. Hayashi described the work on the game as "a great honour" since he was a fan of the series, and stated Team Ninja tried to include as many creatures seen in previous games as possible. Development was unaffected when Tecmo merged with
Koei Koei Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game publisher, developer, and distributor founded in 1978. The company is known for its historical simulation games based on the novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', as well as simulation games based o ...
to form Tecmo Koei months before the release of the game. While
Retro Studios Retro Studios, Inc. is an American video game developer and subsidiary of Nintendo based in Austin, Texas. The studio is best known for its work on the '' Metroid Prime'' and ''Donkey Kong'' series and has contributed to several other Nintendo- ...
tried to create "the ultimate first-person experience" with the ''
Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main '' Metroid'' game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspec ...
'' series, resulting in an experience resembling
first-person shooters A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
, Sakamoto's approach with gameplay was different, particularly for the story ''Other M'' intended to tell. Sakamoto's intent was to create a game with "controls as simple as those of a
NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
game", so it would appeal to modern players. Team Ninja agreed with that approach, as they felt control schemes with excessive buttons were possibly turning players off the action genre, and tried to make the game employ only the Wii Remote, without resorting to the
Nunchuk is a traditional East-Asian martial arts weapon consisting of two sticks (traditionally made of wood), connected to each other at their ends by a short metal chain or a rope. It is approximately (sticks) and (rope). A person who has pract ...
. The development team also tried to use the simpler controls to provide flashy action, with varied special attacks that would need few button inputs to be executed. Sakamoto focused on 2D-like gameplay because he considered it more "comfortable" for audiences, particularly during shifts from gameplay to cutscenes, as he thought 2D " oesn'thave the same distractions when you want to give them story sequences". While the developers felt no need to integrate everything from the ''Prime'' series as they were games with different concepts, a few of the elements that "made those games unique" were implemented into ''Other M'', such as the "immersive sight" of the first-person mode. When questioned if ''Other M'' would be too similar to ''Ninja Gaiden'', Hayashi responded that while the new game will feature heavy action-based sequences, there will still be the exploration-based sequences characteristic of other ''Metroid'' games. Sakamoto said that ''Other M''s story progression was in the same manner as ''Metroid Fusion'', and that the collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja is "unlike anything that's ever been done at Nintendo; it's more than just a collaborative effort — it's one group working toward a common goal". Before ''Other M''s development, Sakamoto did not think too much about "what kind of person
Samus Aran is the protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by the Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano and introduced in the first ''Metroid (video game), Metroid'' (1986) for th ...
was and how she thinks and her personality", particularly because the games tried to depict Samus as a mysterious person. Sakamoto and Team Ninja put much focus on backstory in the game to present Samus as an "appealing human character", something important for future installments, as players would get further interest in Samus' adventures. Hayashi said that one of the development team's goals was to have the player "connect with Samus as the story and action develops". Sakamoto also said the game would "bring everyone up to the same level of understanding in the ''Metroid'' universe", and would not only introduce the series to new players but also create new challenges for fans. The chronological setting between ''
Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...
'' and ''Metroid Fusion'' was chosen because Sakamoto considered the period important, and without addressing it, they wouldn't be able to make new games that show Samus' adventures that take place after the events of ''Metroid Fusion''. D-Rockets, a company specialized in CG animation for video games and commercials, was brought into the project for its in-game cinematics on Team Ninja productions. Director Ryuji Kitaura said when Nintendo gave him the instructions, he considered the work "overwhelming" - most of D-Rockets work only involved high-quality CG, while Nintendo aimed to "make the parts of the game that the player controls the same quality as the cinematics, in order to make them seamless" and Sakamoto intended to cutscenes to give emotional depth to Samus. Team Ninja and D-Rockets worked separately most of the time, and only started to collaborate about a year into production, to make sure the in-game action and the cutscenes had the same style. Over 300
storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...
s which took six months to be completed, and ten teams were employed on the development of cutscenes. For increased realism, professional
camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...
s helped with the
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...
, and Samus' face had a more detailed frame to make expressions more lifelike. Kitaura tried to include more scenes with Samus outside her
powered armor An exoskeleton is a wearable device that augments, enables, assists, or enhances motion, posture, or physical activity through mechanical interaction with and force applied to the user’s body. Other common names for a wearable exoskeleton in ...
, to illustrate "the human, weak side of Samus, her expressions and gesture", but Sakamoto convinced him otherwise with a declaration that the Power Suit acts as a shield for both enemy attacks and the reveal of her emotions. ''Other M'' uses a dual-layer disc due to extensive usage of cinematics in the game.


Audio

Kuniaki Haishima is a Japanese musician and composer. He is known for his music in several anime and ''tokusatsu'' shows, as well as video games, films and Japanese television drama, dorama. His compositions for the Fuji TV series Tales of the Unusual, ''Tales of ...
composed the soundtrack of ''Other M''. The team hired Haishima to write the music because the producers felt he could "tell the story with melodies" and "powerfully elpedus depict Samus' feelings and emotions". Parts of the soundtrack were recorded and performed by Arigat-Orchestra in Tokyo and Asian Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing. A sheet of piano music was also made within a day at Sakamoto's request; according to audio director Ryo Koike, Sakamoto expressed his desire to create a piano melody for the game. Koike brought in a piano-playing staff member to play the music. When Koike presented it to Sakamoto, he stated that parts of the music were "wrong". Sakamoto's criticism continued until the music became a simpler melody that brought him to tears. For the game's voice acting, Jessica Martin was cast to play Samus in the English version of ''Other M'', and said that recording sessions took over a year which resulted in the voice cast being required to record lines with storyboards and unfinished cutscenes as basis. Adam Malkovich was voiced by Dave Elvin, while Mike McGillicuty provided the voice of Anthony Higgs. In Japanese, voice actors Ai Kobayashi,
Rikiya Koyama is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator currently affiliated with Haiyuza Theatre Company. He has done popular voicing roles in '' Hajime no Ippo'', ''Utawarerumono'', '' Kamen no Maid Guy'' and ''Yakuza'', and has become well known for vo ...
,
Kenji Nomura is a Japanese voice actor from Okayama Prefecture affiliated with Aoni Production. Known for playing characters large in size, he has starring roles in anime shows, including Mitsunori Kugayama in ''Genshiken'', Chairman Harabote in '' Kinnikum ...
and
Shizuka Itō is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Tokyo, Japan. She is represented by Ken Production. She won a "Best Actress in Supporting Roles" award at the 10th Seiyu Awards for her roles in '' Prison School'' and '' Sailor Moon Crystal''. She ...
provided the voices of Samus, Adam, Anthony and MB respectively.
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
-based
Bad Animals Studio Studio X (formerly known as Bad Animals Studio and Kaye-Smith Studios.) is a music and media recording studio in Seattle, Washington, United States. Originally part of the Kaye-Smith Enterprises media conglomerate founded by Lester Smith and ac ...
and
Ginza Ginza ( ; ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo ...
-based Onkio Haus recorded voice-overs in English and
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
languages respectively.


Marketing and release

''Metroid: Other M'' was first announced by Nintendo of America president and CEO
Reggie Fils-Aimé Reginald Fils-Aimé ( ; born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the President (corporate title), president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game co ...
and a trailer was briefly shown at
E3 2009 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3 2009) was the 15th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 2, 2009, and ended on June 4, 2009, with 41,000 total attendees. Majo ...
. Fils-Aimé said that ''Metroid: Other M'' would take players deeper into Samus' story, and also noted that the game would be a return to the style of the traditional series as opposed to the ''
Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main '' Metroid'' game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspec ...
'' series, though the game would have a "harder edge". At
E3 2010 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 (E3 2010) was the 16th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 14, 2010, and ended on June 17, 2010, with 45,600 total attendees. The ...
, the game had a playable demo, which ''
GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
'' picked as Best Wii Game and Action/Adventure Game of the expo, and was nominated for Game of the Show. Previews of ''Other M'' were also featured in the 2010 editions of
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...
and Nintendo Media Summit. Fils-Aimé expected global sales of between 1.5 and 2 million units. The game was released in North America on August 31, 2010. It had an original release date of June 27, but was postponed by two months, as the high standards of the development team got them behind the completion schedule. In other territories, ''Other M'' was released on September 2 in Japan and Australia, and one day later in Europe, where its release was preceded by a large marketing campaign with television spots, trailers at theaters, and online ads.
GameStop GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer, headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). The brand is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operated 3,203 stor ...
began providing an art folio for purchasers who
pre-order A pre-order is an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their popularity. Companies then had the idea to allow customers to r ...
ed the game containing 16 individual high-quality cards; the cards feature concept artwork, in-game screenshots, and a description from Samus' perspective. Two
strategy guide Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and video game walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the ...
books were published in Japan: by
Koei Tecmo is a Japanese video game, amusement and anime holding company created in 2009 by the merger of Koei and Tecmo. Koei Tecmo Holdings owns several companies, the biggest one of those being its flagship video game developer and publisher Koei Tecmo ...
on September 15, 2010, and by
Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...
on September 17. ''Other M'' was later re-released on the
Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...
's
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, in Japan on March 17, 2016, in Europe on March 31, and in North America on December 8.


Technical issues

After the release of ''Metroid: Other M'', the game was reported to have a bug where the door in Sector 3 is permanently locked and impassable, preventing players from continuing.
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
revealed that a bug is triggered when the player backtracks to the room within Sector 3 where they have previously obtained the Ice Beam. The company set up a program that allowed players affected by the bug to send in an
SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...
or their Wii console with their save files to be repaired. As ''Other M'' uses a dual-layer disc, Nintendo said that some Wii consoles may have difficulty reading data off a large-capacity medium due to a contaminated laser lens of an
optical disc drive In computing, an optical disc drive (ODD) is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can on ...
.


Reception

''Metroid: Other M'' received "generally favorable reviews", according to a
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website
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. ''
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''s Tom McShea praised the control scheme and combat system as "unique and responsive", and wrote that the search for secrets was "very rewarding". Craig Harris of ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' called the gameplay "a really impressive evolution of the old-school ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...
'' design", and ''
GameTrailers ''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
'' described it as "a nice compromise between satisfying fans and opening up the series for a wider audience". In a review for an Australian television series '' Good Game'',
Stephanie Bendixsen Stephanie Claire Bendixsen (born 31 March 1985) is an Australian video game critic, author, and is best known as one of the former presenters of the video game television programs '' Good Game'' and '' Good Game: Spawn Point'', where she went b ...
enjoyed the game's atmosphere, while Steven O'Donnell remarked on how the developers "kept the control scheme so simple, and yet it works so well". The writers from ''
Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...
'' also praised the game for the Sense Move technique and the switch between perspectives. The graphics were also well received. Christian Donlan of ''
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
'' exclaimed that ''Other M'' bears graphical similarities to ''
Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main '' Metroid'' game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspec ...
'' which "tend to come across as nicely-built video game levels at best". Harris wrote that while the graphics are not being on par with the ''Prime'' series, it was still regarded as one of the best-looking games on the Wii. Tom Hoggins of ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' described the environments as "lush and detailed", and said they helped "capturing the
ethos ''Ethos'' is a Greek word meaning 'character' that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the ...
of old-school ''Metroid''". Harris also praised the game's "storytelling with motion-captured acting and voice-over", and ''
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''s Chris Kohler applauded cutscenes "with slick graphic effects". The music was praised as atmospheric and faithful to the franchise, though McShea felt they were "more like outtakes from older entries than a moody new soundtrack". Complaints were raised on the first-person perspective, with Ryan Scott of ''
GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...
'' considered it a "weird forced handicap". Phil Kollar of ''
Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...
'' expressed disappointment that the game prevents the player from moving while in first person view. ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
''s David Wolinsky found the pixel hunting sequences irritating, while ''
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''s Chris Scullion similarly described them as the "only truly horrible moments" in the game. Critics responded poorly to the mechanic of power-up restriction; they derided it as a deviation from the series' tradition of item discovery, and even more strongly criticized it as nonsensical and condescending in terms of story. ''
GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', '' Edge'' and ''Computer ...
'' derided the game's linearity in comparison with ''
Metroid Fusion is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, which had developed the previous ''Metroid'' game, ''Super Metroid'' (1994). ''Fusion'' is par ...
'', a game which took a similar approach. The website also found the enemies to be "a largely unimpressive collection", a gripe which ''
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'' also had; it wrote that "truly testing enemies are only found in the last stretch". ''Other M''s short length was criticized by reviewers, by critics such as ''GameTrailers'', which writes that the bonuses such as art galleries were not stimulating enough to entice replay value. Heavy criticism was directed toward the script, dialogue, and cutscene length. McShea felt that the unskippable cutscenes and "the overabundance of story in ''Other M'' were a negative deviation from ''Metroid'' tradition". Kollar states that they "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". Justin Haywald of ''
1UP.com ''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conte ...
'' complained that as the game progresses "instead of getting more of the things that work , you get more of the things you don't care about ". Donlan notes that the plot is considered as "the future's dumbest
soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
". Wolinsky echoes the misgivings about Samus' immaturity, petulant behavior, and misguided loyalty. Tae K. Kim of ''
GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...
'' writes that while the story and Samus' monologues did not compel them, "it helped contextualize her entire existence" which developed the character to "an actual human being who's using the vastness of space to try and put some distance between herself and the past". Contrarily, Haywald found the portrayal "lifeless", "boring" and "nonsensical".
G4TV G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and digital network owned by NBCUniversal and later Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games. The network was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NB ...
's Abbie Heppe was critical on Samus's portrayal; she wrote that Samus "cannot possibly wield the amount of power she possesses unless directed to by a man", and found that her anxiety attack cannot be reconciled with her previous portrayals. In a feature for ''1UP.com'', Jeremy Parish states that many ''Metroid'' fans were disappointed by the game's story, power-up restrictions and its "awkward handling of its leading lady". Video game scholar Luke Arnott argued that players were dissatisfied with ''Other M'' because it did not consistently balance gameplay constraints with player agency, and because it failed at what he calls "imperative" storytelling. Arnott suggested that studying how games like ''Other M'' create meaning in virtual spaces may help design better games and situate them within wider theories of postmodern subjectivity. Clyde Mandelin of ''Legends of Localization'' noted that the game received mixed reactions from Japanese fans. ''
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
''s Luke Plunkett wrote that Team Ninja was blamed by "many people" for the game's story; Hayashi later clarified that Sakamoto wrote the story himself. Nintendo Treehouse producer Nate Bihldorff stated that the scene depicting Samus' encounter with
Ridley Ridley may refer to: Education * Ridley College (Ontario), a university preparatory boarding and day school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada * Ridley College (Melbourne), an evangelical theological college in Melbourne, Australia * Rid ...
"is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. People who call out that scene as anything but empowering are kind of missing the point". He added that Samus' story "has largely been a matter of individual perception, especially in the US, where people haven't read any of the official manga related to her childhood". In May 2022, former president of
Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...
Reggie Fils-Aimé Reginald Fils-Aimé ( ; born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the President (corporate title), president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game co ...
expressed his disappointment with ''Other M'', believing it would be a hit: "I really thought that that was going to be a defining moment for the ''Metroid'' franchise. It was giving much more of a perspective about Samus. I really thought that was going to be a killer moment in the franchise's history, and it wasn't. It didn't deliver – not the business results, it really didn't touch the player the way we hoped it would".


Sales

''Metroid: Other M'' was the third-best-selling video game in Japan during its week of release with 45,398 copies sold, ranking it behind ''
Wii Party ''Wii Party'' is a 2010 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game heavily borrows game play elements from the ''Mario Party'' series, another Nintendo franchise. It is also the firs ...
'' and '' Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airu Village''. An additional 11,239 copies were sold the following week. It was also the ninth-best-selling game in North America during September 2010, with 173,000 copies sold. In the United Kingdom, the game failed to make the top 10 and placed 12th in its first week. In November, Fils-Aimé said that the game was close to a half of million copies sold in the United States.


Awards

''Other M'' received honors and distinctions from various gaming sites and publications. In ''IGN''s Best of 2010 Awards, the game received the award for Coolest Atmosphere. It was also nominated for Best Story award, but lost to ''
Epic Mickey ''Epic Mickey'' is a 2010 platform game developed by Junction Point Studios and published by Disney Interactive Studios for the Wii. It was released in November 2010 in North America and PAL territories. The game focuses on Mickey Mouse, who a ...
''. ''Wired'' listed it 12th on its list of the twenty best games of the year. Conversely, ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' chose the game as the second worst of 2010. ''GamesRadar'' chose ''Other M'' as the "mangled makeover" of 2010, writing that it painted Samus as "an unsure, insecure woman who desperately wants the approval of her former (male) commanding officer". ''Game Informer'' listed Samus first on their list of the Top 10 Dorks of 2010 due to her "lame backstory", and placed the game third on their Top 10 Disappointments of 2010 list, ranking behind "studio closures, layoffs, ndrestructurings" and the " Infinity Ward debacle".


Legacy

Since its release, elements of ''Metroid: Other M'' have appeared in other games. The Geothermal Power Plant is featured as a playable stage in '' Dead or Alive: Dimensions'', a
fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...
developed for the
Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...
by
Team Ninja is a Japanese video game developer and a division of Koei Tecmo. It was founded in 1995 as Tecmo Creative #3, a division of Tecmo headed by Tomonobu Itagaki. It is best known for franchises such as '' Ninja Gaiden'', ''Dead or Alive'' and '' ...
. The stage features
Ridley Ridley may refer to: Education * Ridley College (Ontario), a university preparatory boarding and day school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada * Ridley College (Melbourne), an evangelical theological college in Melbourne, Australia * Rid ...
as a stage hazard, while Samus appears as an assist character in the Morph Ball form, who will drop a Power Bomb that switches the combatants' location when a sound is made in the microphone. Samus is not featured as a playable character in ''Dead or Alive: Dimensions'', as Yosuke Hayashi explained that "it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in ''Dead or Alive: Dimensions''". The Pyrosphere also appears as a stage in ''
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and , both commonly referred to together as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'', are 2014 crossover fighting games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U video game cons ...
''. Ahead of the release of ''
Metroid Dread ''Metroid Dread'' is a 2021 action-adventure game developed by MercurySteam and Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on October 8, 2021. Set after ''Metroid Fusion'' (2002), players control the bounty ...
'' in 2021, Nintendo released a large amount of marketing material which leaned into nostalgia value and the franchise's long history, including releasing classic artwork from older titles in high resolution. ''
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'' noted that
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
was however omitting ''Other M'' from this process. They added that "Nintendo hasn't officially removed it from the canon, but they're also clearly not drawing from it". The only mention of the game was a section on the ''Dread'' promotional website discussing the franchise's history.


Notes


References


External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 2010 video games Video games about genetic engineering Video game interquels Metroid games Team Ninja games Science fiction video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Wii games Wii-only games Video games featuring female protagonists Video games scored by Kuniaki Haishima Video games set on fictional planets Extinction in fiction Action-adventure games Metroidvania games Wii games re-released on the Nintendo eShop