Nintendo bring Samus Aran to the Wii with the newest addition to the Metroid series. But does it do its predecessors any justice?

From the moment that I heard there was a new Metroid coming out I was excited. Then with addition of videos showing how it was going to incorporate the old style, side scrolling, platformer perspective, I became even more excited. Developed by Team Ninja, Metroid: Other M is a game that should satisfy fans of the earlier works in the series and fans of the newer Prime series. The game blends both features of the newer and older series pretty well, with fast paced side scrolling and nice first person interaction.

The game is set between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion and Samus, the series’ protagonist, receives a distress signal called “Baby’s Cry” from a Bottle Ship, floating near a federation vessel. Other M explores more of Samus’ emotions and her past experiences with members of the Galactic Federation, such as Adam Malkovich. She is portrayed as a more caring and emotional character than in previous installments, which may be to some fans’ dislike.

Controlling Samus in this game is simple, you hold the Wii remote sideways and treat it as you would like any other regular controller. When you need to enter first person mode you turn the controller round, aim it at the screen then control it like you would have in the Prime Trilogy. Combat in the game is much faster paced than it’s recent first person predecessors and is reminiscent of people attempting to do “speed runs” like in Super Metroid. Exploration and collection are still key features and big boss battles are most certainly present.

At times the switching between first and third person perspectives can be quite irritating, especially if your sensor bar decides that it doesn’t want to pick up the signal from your controller. With that said, it’s great to see Metroid back to its roots and the majority of the game is spent in third person and definitely a lot of fun.

Score: 8/10

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