No to "Metroid : Other M"

Dear Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Mr. Yoshio Sakamoto

This is a response to the announcement and the E3 trailer of the game so called "Metroid : Other M".

Though the trailer of the game was nice, particularly the cinematic part, most Metroid fans, at the first broadcast of the trailer in the last E3 2009, were far from being able to tell what licence it is about until the word "Metroid" appeared on the screen, this is for the simple reason that we dont recognize Metroid in this trailer, wich is due to the the cheap cartoon graphic design, and the naive character design, both are really very far from what we could expect from a new Metroid title.

Metroid is my favourite game series, and Super Metroid with no doubt my favourite game of all time, and i have played hundreds of games, although, as an old and loyal Metroid fan, I must say I have been greatly disappointed, and even shocked, by the trailer, the orientation of the game, and the disrespect of its basis, wich made me wonder if the project "Metroid : Other M" isn't simply an attempt to enlarge the Metroid series to the mass market, or maybe just an awkward exploitation of a no longer used licence.

For these reasons, I suggest that the validity of the project be fully rethought and the development of the game wisely reconsidered

Because, as we can easily conclude it from the trailer, everything that has been made on the series, since its creation, is destroyed, shattered to pieces ...


- The gameplay :

With "Other M", the gameplay of the serie changes from a complex metl of adventure, action, exploration and reflection, to a silly Beat-them-all/Action game.
The Beat-them-all is an unwise and inadequate type for Metroid, I don't call this an evolution, as it will critically handicap the most important qualities of the franchise, like the atmosphere that the series is known and appreciated for, actually, this would more suitable for a discreet Spin-Off game as Metroid Prime : Pinball, and not an official title implemented in the main story.

Though, I don't imply that the serie must be limited to it's original type of gameplay, we could expect and think of other orientations for a Metroid game, I think of three types exactly :

* Survival horror, as some sequences in the Metroid games proved it, the Survival horror genre can be very interesting for the Metroid series, and without compromising its universe.

* Infiltration, like the successful sequence added in Metroid : Zero Mission.

* Real time strategy, I believe that an RTS in the Metroid universe is very possible, and can be a success if well developped, and can could even develop and deepen the metroid universe. Of course such a game would rather be a Spin-Off.

And there must be many other game types and possible orientations I haven't thought about.


- The universe :

Nothing from the Metroid universe and story seem to have been respected, insomuch that we can come to wonder if this game has any link with the serie other than the name ...
Apparently, The first element to suffer from this mass denaturation is the main character, Samus Aran.

The mysterious heroine that was imagined as an athletic and charismatic woman, has been transformed into a common lolita of one meter fifty (while it was supposed to be one meter ninety one tall.)

She now speaks profusely, and with a naive voice of a little girl moreover, while it never used to do, and that was an integral part of her personnality, the mystery and the phantasm surrounding her.

Revealing more about the character isn't a reason, it is possible to reveal more about her without making her say a single word, as in Zero Mission, or to make her speak without a voice, through subtitles only like in Metroid Fusion, and like the characters of tons of other games, and that just proves that the main goal here was never to develop the character or reveal more about it.

She was supposed to hide her true identity and masquerade as a cyborg and act as such, we could think that the Amiral Adam Malkovich is the only one, or one of the only ones, that knew about her, but in the trailer we see her happily walking (and without a suit) in what it appears to be a Galactic Federation building. Isn't something wrong there ?

In most scenes we clearly see through her visor, while we almost never used to, even in the Metroid Prime trilogy it was only exceptional, another detail that makes the character more human and thus more appealing to an hypothetical larger number of players.

These changes tend to literally kill the original character and the myth surrounding it, and transform it into a different and much more common one, and I can hardly think of it other than as a way to make the character more welcoming and more appealing for a larger number of players.

The hand-to-hand fighting in cartoon style, while this looks funny in a Super Smash Bros, here in a serious solo game it is most ridiculous.


- The graphic design :

Here, I'll try to chasten my words, and it isn't easy, so let's just say that the graphic design is quite naive and cheap, though I don't need to state that it doesn't fit the Metroid universe, as it is actually the opposit of what one could expect from it, that is to say a dark and stressful Science fiction universe, like we had in most Metroid games, wich can install the unique atmosphere the series is so famous for.

In-game, the environements, enemies and characters all seem made of cheap plastics, a toy design, very disgraceful for the Metroid serie, and I think a famous Science-fiction saga of twenty three years old deserve better than this.

This is even more sad when we think that it happens just after the talented developpers of Retro Studios succeeded in almost perfectly transposing the Metroid universe to 3D, in evolving it, and developping the design, with a dark Science-fiction tone that perfectly reflected the spirit of the game.


- The atmosphere :

The direct result of a beat-them-all gameplay and a cheap cartoon design, is the loss of the atmosphere, the soul of the game, the very thing that made it so special, so unique, and so great.


However, the most desastrous part of the report is the character design, we barely recognize any of the known characters, and sorry for the term, but they all look really pathetic, this is nearly insulting ... for all fans.


This result isn't surprising when we think of the team charged of the development : Team Ninja. Of course, I don't insinuate that the Team-Ninja aren't talented, far from it, but that they are simply not an adequate development team for a Metroid game, as they are not used to the Metroid series, and as it's a kind of game that is in contradiction with what they are used to make. Nonetheless, I am sure the game is going to be good, as Nintendo and Team-Ninja always used to do, the problem is that it is going to be a bad Metroid, or to be more clear, not a Metroid at all.

So now the ultimate question is : WHAT IS THE POINT OF COMING WITH A NEW GAME BASED ON A PARTICULAR FAMOUS UNIVERSE IF IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY REAL LINK WITH IT ? IF IT HAS TO DENATURATE IT ? IF IT HAS TO BE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FIRST AND MOST TRUE FANS ?

We can legitimately think that Metroid isn't the only licence that is possible to work on, not to mention that new ones can always be created, and there are many franchises at Nintendo, like Starfox, F-Zero, Mother, Fire Emblem (et cetera ...), that can be developped and be more profitable than a Metroid game will ever be, then why not considering developing another game, like Kid Icarus ?

As for Metroid, we want a serious, ambitious and immersive game in the Metroid universe, and that can exploit its potential, not a trivial action game with poor graphics.

For all these reasons, we beg you to reconsider developing and releasing "Metroid : Other M" as we saw it in the trailer, please, do not sully a serie of twenty three years old, do not defile the memory of its genitor.


Thank you for reading,

Yours sincerly,

Lazord.

Dear Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Mr. Yoshio Sakamoto

This is a response to the announcement and the E3 trailer of the game so called "Metroid : Other M".

Though the trailer of the game was nice, particularly the cinematic part, most Metroid fans, at the first broadcast of the trailer in the last E3 2009, were far from being able to tell what licence it is about until the word "Metroid" appeared on the screen, this is for the simple reason that we dont recognize Metroid in this trailer, wich is due to the the cheap cartoon graphic design, and the naive character design, both are really very far from what we could expect from a new Metroid title.

Metroid is my favourite game series, and Super Metroid with no doubt my favourite game of all time, and i have played hundreds of games, although, as an old and loyal Metroid fan, I must say I have been greatly disappointed, and even shocked, by the trailer, the orientation of the game, and the disrespect of its basis, wich made me wonder if the project "Metroid : Other M" isn't simply an attempt to enlarge the Metroid series to the mass market, or maybe just an awkward exploitation of a no longer used licence.

For these reasons, I suggest that the validity of the project be fully rethought and the development of the game wisely reconsidered

Because, as we can easily conclude it from the trailer, everything that has been made on the series, since its creation, is destroyed, shattered to pieces ...


- The gameplay :

With "Other M", the gameplay of the serie changes from a complex metl of adventure, action, exploration and reflection, to a silly Beat-them-all/Action game.
The Beat-them-all is an unwise and inadequate type for Metroid, I don't call this an evolution, as it will critically handicap the most important qualities of the franchise, like the atmosphere that the series is known and appreciated for, actually, this would more suitable for a discreet Spin-Off game as Metroid Prime : Pinball, and not an official title implemented in the main story.

Though, I don't imply that the serie must be limited to it's original type of gameplay, we could expect and think of other orientations for a Metroid game, I think of three types exactly :

* Survival horror, as some sequences in the Metroid games proved it, the Survival horror genre can be very interesting for the Metroid series, and without compromising its universe.

* Infiltration, like the successful sequence added in Metroid : Zero Mission.

* Real time strategy, I believe that an RTS in the Metroid universe is very possible, and can be a success if well developped, and can could even develop and deepen the metroid universe. Of course such a game would rather be a Spin-Off.

And there must be many other game types and possible orientations I haven't thought about.


- The universe :

Nothing from the Metroid universe and story seem to have been respected, insomuch that we can come to wonder if this game has any link with the serie other than the name ...
Apparently, The first element to suffer from this mass denaturation is the main character, Samus Aran.

The mysterious heroine that was imagined as an athletic and charismatic woman, has been transformed into a common lolita of one meter fifty (while it was supposed to be one meter ninety one tall.)

She now speaks profusely, and with a naive voice of a little girl moreover, while it never used to do, and that was an integral part of her personnality, the mystery and the phantasm surrounding her.

Revealing more about the character isn't a reason, it is possible to reveal more about her without making her say a single word, as in Zero Mission, or to make her speak without a voice, through subtitles only like in Metroid Fusion, and like the characters of tons of other games, and that just proves that the main goal here was never to develop the character or reveal more about it.

She was supposed to hide her true identity and masquerade as a cyborg and act as such, we could think that the Amiral Adam Malkovich is the only one, or one of the only ones, that knew about her, but in the trailer we see her happily walking (and without a suit) in what it appears to be a Galactic Federation building. Isn't something wrong there ?

In most scenes we clearly see through her visor, while we almost never used to, even in the Metroid Prime trilogy it was only exceptional, another detail that makes the character more human and thus more appealing to an hypothetical larger number of players.

These changes tend to literally kill the original character and the myth surrounding it, and transform it into a different and much more common one, and I can hardly think of it other than as a way to make the character more welcoming and more appealing for a larger number of players.

The hand-to-hand fighting in cartoon style, while this looks funny in a Super Smash Bros, here in a serious solo game it is most ridiculous.


- The graphic design :

Here, I'll try to chasten my words, and it isn't easy, so let's just say that the graphic design is quite naive and cheap, though I don't need to state that it doesn't fit the Metroid universe, as it is actually the opposit of what one could expect from it, that is to say a dark and stressful Science fiction universe, like we had in most Metroid games, wich can install the unique atmosphere the series is so famous for.

In-game, the environements, enemies and characters all seem made of cheap plastics, a toy design, very disgraceful for the Metroid serie, and I think a famous Science-fiction saga of twenty three years old deserve better than this.

This is even more sad when we think that it happens just after the talented developpers of Retro Studios succeeded in almost perfectly transposing the Metroid universe to 3D, in evolving it, and developping the design, with a dark Science-fiction tone that perfectly reflected the spirit of the game.


- The atmosphere :

The direct result of a beat-them-all gameplay and a cheap cartoon design, is the loss of the atmosphere, the soul of the game, the very thing that made it so special, so unique, and so great.


However, the most desastrous part of the report is the character design, we barely recognize any of the known characters, and sorry for the term, but they all look really pathetic, this is nearly insulting ... for all fans.


This result isn't surprising when we think of the team charged of the development : Team Ninja. Of course, I don't insinuate that the Team-Ninja aren't talented, far from it, but that they are simply not an adequate development team for a Metroid game, as they are not used to the Metroid series, and as it's a kind of game that is in contradiction with what they are used to make. Nonetheless, I am sure the game is going to be good, as Nintendo and Team-Ninja always used to do, the problem is that it is going to be a bad Metroid, or to be more clear, not a Metroid at all.

So now the ultimate question is : WHAT IS THE POINT OF COMING WITH A NEW GAME BASED ON A PARTICULAR FAMOUS UNIVERSE IF IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY REAL LINK WITH IT ? IF IT HAS TO DENATURATE IT ? IF IT HAS TO BE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FIRST AND MOST TRUE FANS ?

We can legitimately think that Metroid isn't the only licence that is possible to work on, not to mention that new ones can always be created, and there are many franchises at Nintendo, like Starfox, F-Zero, Mother, Fire Emblem (et cetera ...), that can be developped and be more profitable than a Metroid game will ever be, then why not considering developing another game, like Kid Icarus ?

As for Metroid, we want a serious, ambitious and immersive game in the Metroid universe, and that can exploit its potential, not a trivial action game with poor graphics.

For all these reasons, we beg you to reconsider developing and releasing "Metroid : Other M" as we saw it in the trailer, please, do not sully a serie of twenty three years old, do not defile the memory of its genitor.


Thank you for reading,

Yours sincerly,

Lazord.