The Metroid series should need no introduction. Nintendo just announced that Metroid: Other M will be out on June 27. Pretty surprising, since it appeared to be a fall/winter 2010 game... but hey, 2.5D Metroid? I'll take it. IGN has a writeup based on the demo and footage Nintendo is showing off in conjunction with the release date announcement. Informative stuff, including its place in the Metroid timeline and basic gameplay. I think we've got the game of the summer on our hands. Then again, Dragon Quest IX is also coming out in the summer... coincidentally, Nintendo is publishing that, too.
Desides......you just made my day. That is the best gaming news I have heard in a long time. This is the deal breaker for me. I will be purchasing a Wii. Now if they would only give Castlevania the same treatment.
No prob, guys. I'm excited for this one too; I totally skipped the Prime series because it seemed too much of a departure for me. Other M looks like the true successor to Super Metroid. Fun fact: Team Ninja (Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden) is doing the development on this one, with Nintendo supervising. Same formula that produced the Prime series. As for Castlevania, Hideo Kojima's Lords of Shadow looks like a worthy entry in that series.
I was hoping for a 2D Castilvania adventure but this looks awesome. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a cut-scene fiesta with Kojima Productions on board. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN7W3-_uTQY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN7W3-_uTQY[/ame]
There'll definitely be a story, but it won't be the usual Metal Gear zaniness. If you've ever played Zone of the Enders you'll probably have a good idea of what to expect. Besides, the Castlevania backstory is already pretty crazy: Igarashi has turned it into basically a thousand year family feud. Speaking of Igarashi, the only way to get a new 2D Castlevania is through him and the DS. Back on topic, Other M seems to significantly fill out Samus' backstory. Knowledge of all of the Metroid games seems to be recommended.
I am looking forward to it, not being able to move in first person seems like a PITA. You are missing out, the Prime series was great.
You can turn in place, that's it. It's a 2D game, would be strange if you could move in first person view. I don't feel like I'm missing out. I might give the Wii compilation a go one day.
Careful what you wish for. Nintendo's idea of a Star Fox game now involves jungle planets and third person action. Alternatively, outsourcing the entire franchise to the Ace Combat team.
Note the part about outsourcing. An outfit called Q-Games made Starfox Command. Thanks for the Youtube link, going to save that video.
Already happened. Star Fox Assault was made by the Ace Combat team. It wasn't very good. What everyone has to keep in mind about the modern Nintendo is that they're more of a publisher and an overseer of franchises than a true game developer these days. Yeah, they still make a lot of games in-house, but they've farmed out their "alternate" IPs to third parties. Metroid? Prime was made by Retro Studios, Other M is made by Tecmo-Koei (Team Ninja specifically.) Star Fox? Namco, Q-Games. Even games like SSBB are made with significant contributions by outside groups. Even Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't get personally involved with development these days. He's more of a project manager, directing a bunch of different development groups rather than making his own games. I don't think he's personally handled a Mario game since 64.
But he still makes sure things are right. Remember how long it took for the first Prime to come out? That's because Miyamoto came to America to see how Retro was doing, didn't like what he saw, and made them completely start over from scratch. Yes, he's not quite as hands-on as he was back in the day, overseeing every detail (near impossible with how complicated today's games are), he is still in control of what gets put into his games. The man is a genius when it comes to video games.
I don't think he's a genius. I think he's been using the same formula with slight upgrades every release (sounds strangely like Madden). I grew tired of his games a while ago... If it weren't for Mario Galaxy I wouldn't even pay him attention at this point. He sells well based on brands and nostalgia. If he had to create a new game without Mario, Zelda, or Metroid in the title... I bet he wouldn't even crack the top 20. Don't get me wrong... My hats off to the guy for what he's done in this industry. But in today's gaming environment, he's not an innovator or some kind of gaming genius. He's a guy that was successful with a few different formulas way back when and he's still riding the success today. For the record, Mario Galaxy 2 is one of my most anticipated games on 2010 :P
You're giving him too much credit. Retro was in constant contact with Nintendo during Prime's development. They weren't left to their own devices, only to have Miyamoto come in one day and say "Hey, this sucks, here's how to make it better." Further, I've never heard of Miyamoto forcing development to start over from scratch. That sounds like a distortion of a quote he gave during an interview: "Actually, we've been working for about three years on this game. This is the first time we've dealt with a foreign development team to this degree in building a game from scratch." Miyamoto had very little to do with Prime. And yes, his job as a project manager is to offer feedback to the multitude of development teams he oversees, but the fact is that Prime largely escaped his notice. EAD in general was working with Retro, not Miyamoto in specific. And the Metroid series in general has nothing to do with Miyamoto. He didn't even create it. Am I the only person who thought Mario Galaxy was pretty boring, and Super Paper Mario was a far better game?
Yeah, Gunpei created it. After he died, the series went into limbo. Miyamoto stepped up to fill his former mentor's shoes and oversee the development of Prime. From Wikipedia's article on Metroid Prime: Yes.
I don't see anything cited in that article that jives with the Miyamoto interview, especially the account of Retro approaching Nintendo with a demo. Perhaps the demo was in third-person? Still makes little sense to say that Miyamoto scrapped the whole thing, especially since he says development was a 3 year affair. You don't scrap everything and put a game out in 3 years... unless you're Valve working on HL1. Stitches is cooler than you.
I linked it at the bottom of the last page... Well, he likes Super Paper Mario, so that's not all bad.
Just read it. Deleted my other post because it now makes sense to me. I remember hearing about the part that I bolded and underlined way back in like 1999 (I wish I had kept my EGM collection, sigh). I'd be willing to bet that Retro was offering to change the game they were already working on into a Metroid game, and Miyamoto wasn't happy with it and ordered it to be completely started over. To be fair, the development was in it's infancy and there was not a whole lot developed at that time (Steve Barcia even said so in the interview). So it DOES jive.
It jives, but not in a way that makes Miyamoto the God of Metroid Quality. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed with the Prime series, and I hope Other M lives up to Super Metroid's legacy. The thing about Metroid is that it should offer at least the illusion of free wandering despite the fact that you need to accomplish certain goals to advance in the game. Prime felt a little too structured for the series.
Gunpei will always be God of Metroid Quality. But Miyamoto didn't let anything bad happen to Metroid on his watch, that's all. While it isn't as good as Super Metroid (not many games are, it's the best 2D action/adventure game ever made, IMO. sorry C:SOTN fanboys), Prime still felt like Metroid, and I didn't think it was going to be that way once I heard it was going to be 1st person. I thought it was going to BLOW. But I was extremely impressed when I first played it.
Going to have to agree to disagree on Prime, then. There was no reason why it couldn't have been as good as Super Metroid. Likewise, there's no reason for Other M to be inferior to Super Metroid. We'll see.
I didnt care for the Prime series and was thrilled to hear that it's over. I dunno about this M thing though. We'll see. As for TDF's comment about SotN, that's debatable. Those two games are probably my #1 and #2 games of ALL TIME. I'd take SotN simply because of depth, a leveling system, and multiple endings.
Gotta admit, the fanboy I was thinking about was you. I knew that comment would draw you outta your cave! I'm going to make a thread pitting SM against C:SOTN.
I am not a fan of the artstyle to be honest, it looks too cartoonish. Thats fine for Super Metroid but it doesnt translate well into 3D.
Looks fine to me. Nothing "cartoonish" about it. That's the Metroid series style. Street Fighter IV is cartoonish. Besides, not everything has to be hyperrealistic. In fact, realism is pretty boring, IMO. Give me a game like Dragon Quest VIII over a game like Gears of War any day.
Good post, I forgot all about starting this thread. Other M looks nice and quick, just like Team Ninja's certain other epic action game. I'm expecting big things from this.
Looks a bazzillion times better than the cheap Ninja Gaiden clone I imagined! Also, am I the only one annoyed that when they make a real game they use the controller conventionally? If the control scheme is that gd good, why do they switch to a controller the way the "weaker controlled consoles" use them? The Wiimote sideways is possibly the worse controller since the NES.
Probably. I'm glad they're not using much in the way of Wiimote gimmicks for this. I want a sidescrolling Metroid game, and damnit, I got it. Super Metroid didn't need pointing, and neither does this.
i think you misunderstood me LOL I like conventional controls. But after all the bull Nintendo sold us on the Wiimote, when good games like NSMB Wii and Metriod Other M comes out, we have to use the horrid wiimote sideways.... uhg
I've been bashing the Wiimote as a useless gimmick since 2006. Just as Nintendo knocks sequels while churning out endless hordes of them, so too do they hype up their own "originality" while conveniently setting that supposed creativity aside when it suits their purposes. The sideways Wiimote controls are much more welcome than duct taping some generic motion controls on just for the hell of it. I can understand incorporating some Prime-style elements with the first person view, but there's no need for the nunchuck configuration with this game, Nintendo's self-marketing be damned.
Direct feed Other M trailer from Nintendo's E3 conference, complete with an awesome arrangement of the Super Metroid theme: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzHMjJRETVU"]Official trailer[/ame] Shakycam clips of the game itself are available on Other M's Gametrailers page. I'd link them but I don't think Gametrailers videos embed in the forum the way YouTube videos do. Game comes out August 31. Can't wait. It looks amazing, the true successor to Super Metroid.
The camera isn't set at a fixed view. It'll shift around depending on the room and where you're at, with no user control. Samus moves on a 2D plane, and can go into first person view to look around if you point the Wiimote at the TV. (Default controls have you holding the Wiimote sideways.)