• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Metroid Other M Movie- Did You Like It?

ironknuckle1

Archer Extraordinaire
Joined
Aug 31, 2009
Location
Fishing pond
I was recently rewatching all of Metroid Other M through the 2 hour movie in the theater mode. Now I am not asking for your opinion on the game but instead I want to know your opinion on the idea of including the game as a movie once you beat it. I liked it because It allowed me to see the whole story without devoting 10 hours to rebeating the game. I don't know if other games have done anything like this but when I look farther into it I see that a feature such as this would only work in very cinematic games such as FF13 or the Uncharted games. These kind of games that feel like you are controlling something from a movie. So What is your opinion on the Movie added into Metroid Other M and what is your opinion on features like this in future games?
 
a lot of games have theatre modes as an unlockable when you complete the game but very few games do what Other M did.

Other M is the most disappointing Metroid game that I have played which is so depressing after 25 years of classic after classic, all of which continually raised the bar. But one of the reasons that Other M was so disappointing wasn't the gameplay or the game itself (although some aspects of it really sucked), but the movie. It seemed that in his mission to better Retro's attempt at his own series, Sakamoto's brilliant idea was to make a movie out of a game. I'd have much preferred Other M to have just been a movie, at least in that respect it wouldn't have made the game so unbearable to crawl through.

The length of the cutscenes and the amazing CGI in them really made me think that Sakamoto was pushing for a movie and not a game. I was really surprised when i loaded theatre mode and it came up 'Other M: The Movie' Suddenly the lackluster game made sense...

The 'movie' itself is a tragedy, it is unfinished, terribly executed, poor written, awfully plotted and un-realised. So many scenes and plot devices are never alluded to or mentioned again after they take place and the constant flash backs to Super Metroid smacked of a desperate attempt to remind people that they were playing/watching a Metroid game.

The dangers of integrating a movie into a game make for jarring experiences, short bursts of gameplay are padded out with longer cutscenes and very often they follow one after another. Not even Metal Gear Solid strays this far away from video game territory in its cutscenes.

Perhaps Metroid was just a terrible franchise to force a movie into. Metroid as a whole has seen the player alone while exploring alien worlds and space stations and most of the time other humans are never seen. Yet Other M brought in a whole military force which forced their way not only into the narrative but the gameplay as well and turned Other M into an experience far removed from any Metroid game before it.

Integrating movies into video games, especially like Metroid means that more substance needs to be given for the narrative to move forward in classic storytelling style. This again was not suited to Metroid, giving Samus a voice (even though we have read her words both in Super Metroid and Fusion) was always going to be a risky one and it is evident now that Sakamoto has a very different idea of Samus's personality than what the games have depicted over the years. And in Metroid's case, this 'revealing' of Samus's 'true' character from the creative power itself backfired tremendously and only served to further detract from the essence of Metroid...

however, other games with characters who are more fleshed out such as Dante from Devil May Cry, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider etc etc probably would be better suited to having movie integrated into their games, but the dangers of jarring experiences between gameplay and watching is still present and based on the length of the gameplay or the movie then an interactive medium is in danger of tipping a balance into a non-interactive form of entertainment.

That being said, games really don't need to integrate movies into themselves. Hollywood will always pick up the desire for a movie on a best selling franchise and Game developers like Capcom, Square-Enix and Namco have already moved into the movie world with stand alone releases to be viewed along side their releases such as Tekken Blood Vengeance and Resident Evil Degeneration.

I hope games like Other M and their use of in game 'movies' don't happen all too often.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom