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[Shinra]

Even if this is a 1st party Nintendo title, everyone needs to remember that it was developed by Team Ninja. Think about what that means for a second.

Again; Team Ninja had nothing to do with the story.

[teg]

I remember reading a DA entry somewhere a while back where somebody said that they personally interpret the Metroid games as being Lovecraftian horror in space.

I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

As I read on, I started seeing exactly what they meant. I realized that although my interpretation of Metroid was vastly different to theirs, both were absolutely true; and my confusion settled into "I guess I never thought of it that way before. Huh!" then I started thinking about just how many ways there were to interpret the games without compromising the creators' intent.

When it comes down to it, the girl in the video isn't Samus. When I'm playing Metroid, I'm Samus.

And then some jerk starts making me do weird shit in cutscenes that I don't wanna' do.



NOTE: In this post, I'm not complaining about this specific interpretation of Samus. I'm complaining about the fact that Nintendo is interpreting her for us.

[Frocto]

but how is her sideboob

[Bleck]

If a female character in japan has any amount of bravery, it will either falter with a plot-armor weak point, she's written as a completely gender neutral character and the plot wouldn't change in the slightest if she had a penis instead of tits, or she's half-naked and constantly jiggling in erotic poses that she has no reason to be in.

I can't think of many American female characters that don't fit into the exact same criteria, though.

[James Edward Smith]

Yeah, when I first saw that cut scene, I thought I was mad that they were derailing Samus as a character. But I realized quickly that the real reason I hate it is because THEY'VE ADDED SUPER LONG CUTSCENES TO METROID. It's more apparently jarring because the writing in the cutscenes also sucks and is assassinating a beloved character in some of them. But deep down the real problem, the real rape is that Metroid was an early video game that managed to be compelling and cool through being my newly coined term of "gameamatic" rather than trying to be overly "cinematic" like so many games today are. If I want cinema, I'll go to a movie, sit down and not interact. I will view a GOOD cinema creator's work of art instead of game developers trying to copy parts of movies they liked.

When I want to play a good GAME, I'll fire up Super Metroid and explore the erie depths of Zebes.

[Bongo Bill]

My favorite part of Metroid is how, in the original, Hip Tanaka wrote the soundtrack specifically with the intention that it would not be catchy, and designed the sound effects so they'd sound like part of the music.

I don't think anything like that has ever been attempted, before or since.

And now he's the president of pokemon.

[James Edward Smith]

Well, Rez made the sound effects part of the music but that game's music was damn catchy.

But then Brinstar and Kraid's Liar are catchy as hell, so I guess Hip failed? Zero Mission even managed to make the old norfair music bearable.

[Brentai]

I can only assume Brinstar was meant as contrast.  It is after all the topmost, safest part off the planet.

[teg]

And now he's the president of pokemon.

holy poop this makes so much sense

I was going to mention Pokemon as a similar example of a game in that both Pokemon and Metroid use a lot of thematic motifs rather than meaningful dialogue to establish their scenario.

One thing I'm finding really interesting: pretty much everyone is upset that Other M shows Samus as being weak and stereotypically feminine, but nobody has made mention of the fact that everything outside of cutscenes (by which I specifically mean the QTE) shows Samus at her most overcompensatingly badass. When I saw the first trailer reveal that Samus is basically Kratos now, I was skeptical. Now that I see the hilarious contrast the cutscenes create, I think I'll give this one a pass for the time being.

[Brentai]

samus is ask amw

Samis is akame

Samis is akanw

Samis is a lhasa me

Samis is akane.

Samus is &:54

Samus is Ak assn e

Samu

Samus ks is.ca kz

Sus

Samus is Akane

I almost got jt that tome assn d rhen I hit the spwch to've ewxt vurom inatead od the piotr eiod.

Samui sak assn e.

[Brentai]

Down wi th e bl ody bkg he ad

[Dooly]

Everyone making the Team Ninja=Rampant Tits arguments should remember that Itagaki hasn't been involved with them for two years.

[Bleck]

I doubt the fixation with gigantic cans can be attributed entirely to Itagaki.

But yeah, bought this earlier today. Cutscenes are long and boring, and Samus' voice actor is awful. But oh my god does it play excellently.

[Brentai]

Everyone making the Team Ninja=Rampant Tits arguments should remember that Itagaki hasn't been involved with them for two years.

During which time they made this and Dead or Alive: Paradise.

[Bongo Bill]

The less than 25% of the cutscenes which aren't monologues are brisk, functional, and even a bit interesting. But for the monologues, all you can really do is lie back and think of England.

Gameplay is great. Exploration level isn't as high as Super but it's also not as low as Fusion. Combat is very fun. WHY WOULD YOU BUILD A VOLCANO ON A SPACE STATION

[Disposable Ninja]

If you can build a volcano on a space station, why wouldn't you?

[Frocto]

WHY WOULD YOU BUILD A VOLCANO ON A SPACE STATION

sorry, what?

[Thad]

Got game.  Have a plane to catch in the morning (NOTE: I will be out of town for 5 days.  I am sure it will take another six months for people to stop talking about how I'm never here.) so I haven't gotten too far along in it.

On the "crying child" thing: haven't gotten to it in-game yet, but they're already building it up as a major recurring symbol in the game (she refers repeatedly to the baby Metroid's cries in the opening), so at least there's a context for it.

My major complaint is the fucking narration.

The problem is not just that they're trying to make Metroid "cinematic", it's that they fucking suck at the basic principles of cinema.  Ever hear the phrase "Show, don't tell"?  Hello?  Visual medium?  You can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel angry!

[Bongo Bill]

So I just beat this.

52%
9:14

As you can see, I didn't try to explore much or go out of order. That's just not the done thing the first time through a Metroid. It certainly felt more open than Fusion did.

Although I don't think it was nearly as offensive as people were worried about, it is true that the cutscenes just kept getting dumber and dumber. There's just no two ways around that. However, when the core gameplay is as good as it is in this game, I'm willing to overlook a lot of bad; a lot more, it turns out, than I actually had to.

The only time the gameplay really got on my nerves was the final boss (before the credits), because it consisted entirely of a gimmick. However, the penultimate boss ([spoiler]a Metroid Queen[/spoiler]) was five kinds of awesome, and [spoiler]the extra boss after the credits (Phantoon)[/spoiler] was at least eight kinds.

Significantly, this is the first 3D game I've ever played that felt 2D. It took until 2010 to make that happen, but they did, and it is great. I hope this point doesn't get overlooked when it comes time to do the retrospectives.

[Brentai]

So I just beat this. Including [spoiler]the bit that comes after the credits, which is[/spoiler] where the obligatory escape sequence is (SPOILERS: THIS IS A METROID GAME: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO END WITH).

I didn't know [spoiler]it was going to come after the credits[/spoiler], which would have been a neat twist.

Now it's not.