One of Nintendo’s big video game releases of the year Metroid: Other M seems to have polarized reviewers.

Previews of the game suggested that the final code would be a triple A title but after playing through the game in its entirety, reviewers for the biggest video game websites have handed in barely above average review scores.

For this article I will copy and paste three quotes each from four different video game websites. The websites I will be using are GameInformer.com, 1UP.com, Giantbomb.com and Eurogamer.net.

We’ll start with GameInformer’s review who gave the game a poor 6.25…

• The combat isn’t the most painful part of Other M, though; that award goes to the stilted dialogue in its many overlong cutscenes.
• Since control is limited to a single Wii remote, many of the game’s encounters boil down to running in a circle, charging up your gun, and shooting over and over until the enemy dies, praying that the game’s dodgy auto-targeting works.
• Metroid: Other M is the most disappointing Nintendo release in quite some time and a blemish that isn’t likely to be forgotten on an otherwise superb franchise.

1UP liked the game a little better awarding it a B-(or at least I think a B- is better than a 6.25)…

• Other M’s story fails through clumsy execution
• Also, at other times, the game interrupts the action to force you into a first-person view from which to scour the environment, akin to finding clues in an adventure or Ace Attorney game. The problem is, most of the time you have to place your cursor precisely on the exact pixel the game wants you to see, even when you’re not given any clue as to what you’re supposed to be looking for.
• Other M shows the white-knuckle excitement you can still feel from a single-player only side-scrolling adventure.

GiantBomb.com gave it 4 stars out of 5…

• It’s a strange hybrid of 2D and 3D third-person action that you play solely with a bare Wii Remote turned on its side, NES controller-style.
• However well the combat and controls do or don’t work at any given time–and they generally do work well–this definitely feels like a Metroid game in pacing and format.
• It may not fully nail every one of its ambitions, but Other M at least gets close on all of them.

And finally, Eurogamer.net gave it a respectable 8 out of 10…

• In Other M, as it should be, lonely wandering is still the order of the day, and the game is actually almost everything Metroid fans have been saying they’ve been after: a genuine sequel to Super Metroid
• The game’s corridors and closets are still densely packed with puzzles and secrets and unexpected Morph Ball speedways, but that old sense of genuine discovery is slightly diminished.
• Metroid has spliced its genes once again, and the results are typically fascinating.

So there you have it. Metroid: Other M; it seems like a rental to me…

Metroid: Other M is released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii tomorrow.

Photo courtesy of www.truegameheadz.com

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