After the success of the “Metroid: Prime” trilogy, it’s easy to forget the magnitude of the gamble Nintendo took in commissioning Austin, Texas-based Retro Studios to transform Nintendo’s hallowed 2-D sidescrolling franchise into a first-person shooter. With Retro off working on a secret project (later revealed to be the upcoming “Donkey Kong Country Returns”), Nintendo gambled again, developing “Metroid: Other M” in collaboration with Team Ninja, the folks responsible for the melee-heavy “Ninja Gaiden” games. The result is the most distinctive “Metroid” yet, at once a tribute to the 16-bit era and a tale that meets today’s higher standards for storytelling.
The developers set out to make “Other M” both an action platformer and a first-person shooter, all while using only the Wii Remote — no Nunchuck attachment here. How does this work? Most of the game is played with the Wiimote held horizontally, like an original Nintendo controller, to run, jump and shoot through “Super Metroid”-style areas. Point the Wiimote at the TV, and the action switches into first-person, where you can’t move, but you can shoot rockets.
The transition between the two perspectives seems inelegant at first, but soon the action develops a logical rhythm: wear down enemies in two dimensions, then point your Wiimote at the screen to blast their exposed weak points with rockets.
After you’ve gotten used to the game’s controls, what takes the spotlight is the game’s storytelling. “Other M” humanizes the latest adventure of our heroine Samus by populating the celestial battlefield at hand with characters from her past. With a cutscene-heavy, “Resident Evil”-style story progression and a dash of Agatha Christie, “Other M” marks the first story told by Nintendo that made me curious about what would happen next.
Unfortunately, the story is also where “Other M” falters, with occasional “excitement-building” sequences that reduce Samus’ walking speed to about a mile an hour. Even worse are maddening parts that force you to scan the screen for something “strange,” often about the size of a pixel, before you’re allowed to move on. Purge these sections from your mind, and you have a game you hope will be the first in another great “Metroid” trilogy.
