Review by: Danielle Riendeau

Never have I played a game that so violently whiplashed between being a fresh, fun take on a classic game series to a cringe-inducing strain on my patience. Other M represents a step forward and backward for the iconic franchise, making it a true oddity in the Nintendo pantheon.

It all begins with a beautifully-rendered, horrendously voiced cutscene detailing Samus’ final moments in Super Metroid – her final face-off with Mother Brain and the baby metroid’s poignant sacrifice. It’s heavy-handed, but does little to belie the cinematic horrors up ahead.

Shortly thereafter, you’re thrown into a tutorial that brings you up to speed with Team Ninja’s very unique take on Metroid gameplay, including the radically different controls and perspective. Everything is rendered in 3D, but a forced perspective makes the experienced extremely focused – it “feels” like a 2D game in a lot of ways. You’ll hold the wii-mote sideways and move with the d-pad – which sounds weirder and jankier than it actually is.

The basic powers will be familiar to series fans. The A button gives you your infamous morphball power (which comes with bombs), while 1 and 2 provide you with ammunition. Tilting the wii-mote to point at the screen allows you to enter first person mode (wherein you can turn around in 360 degrees, but not physically move) to scan and/or shoot missiles. The combat emphasis is less on aiming (everything is auto-aim) and more on dashing out of the way at the last possible second (hitting the d-pad at the right time blasts Samus to safety), and pumping little yellow bolts of light at everything that moves. It’s all about timing and reading enemy patterns, rather than applying a blanket strategy to any given foe.

Once you’re thrown into the main game, it becomes obvious just how different the experience is from past titles in the series. The rapid changes in perspective can be disorienting (especially when they are forced), but after getting used to them, the controls generally feel dynamic and well implemented. You’ll learn new moves and “acquire” new powers as you move through the sprawling stages, each of which is as intuitive to use as your basic starter equipment.