Metroid Dread has a lot of DNA from other M’s, and that’s not a bad thing

Editor’s Note: This article looks at an audio-based character moment near the end of Metroid Dread. If you are sensitive to spoilers, you may want to end the game and return to this article later …

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For 15 years, Metroid Dread was just a rumor. Now, it’s real, it’s been available for over a month, and it’s fantastic. Samus Aran’s latest adventure is packed with just about everything a Metroid fan could ask for, from wild boss fights to a massive maze-like map.

As the fifth and seemingly final entry in the series’ 2D ‘arc’, Dread is infatuated with the franchise’s story, taking inspiration from its narrative predecessor, 2002’s Metroid Fusion. But while playing Dread, we couldn’t help but detect glimpses of a different Metroid game: the eternally divisive Metroid: Other M.

If you’ve played Other M, you might see it too. It became a trend on social media not long ago, and has seen something of a reevaluation from some gamers in recent years. Dread’s brutal hand-to-hand combat and cinematic camera are instantly reminiscent of the much-maligned 2010 spinoff title. Take a closer look and you’ll notice how Dread continues Other M’s concern for Samus’s life and relationships, as well as his attention to the history of the series in the scenes and dialogues.

Of course, Dread abandons the worst ideas of Other M as well, and there were many. The famous silent protagonist utters only one line in Dread, in stark contrast to the myriad of incoherent monologues that gobbled up the Other M script. Players follow their own curiosity through the tunnels and towers of planet ZDR, rather than waiting. instructions from a brusque commanding officer.

It’s been 11 years, but for Metroid, Other M left a lasting impression. Metroid Dread, whether you intend to do so or not, is unveiled in 2021 as an answer to its Wii predecessor. It’s the result of Nintendo carefully reducing Other M to its best elements, while quietly eliminating what made it so controversial.

It may seem like an odd comparison, but both games share DNA. Although Other M and Dread were developed by different studios (Team Ninja and MercurySteam, respectively), the clear line between them is series leader Yoshio Sakamoto, who produced the latter title.

Nintendo gave Sakamoto carte blanche to make a big, noisy AAA Metroid game for the sizzling Wii. It would be the last Metroid game in six years.

Sakamoto is one of the oldest members of the Nintendo staff, with credits dating back to the company’s early days in the video game industry. And since 1994’s Super Metroid, he’s been the parent brain behind the series. While Sakamoto stepped aside for the popular first-person spinoff Metroid Prime and its sequels, he was pivotal to the franchise’s 2D games in the 2000s. With the series at its peak in the 2000s, with an online multiplayer shooter game and A pinball game to his name: Nintendo gave Sakamoto carte blanche to make a big, noisy AAA Metroid game for the sizzling Wii. It would be the last Metroid game in six years.

Sakamoto positioned Metroid: Other M as a game of big ideas. In it, Samus would speak at length for the first time. It would combine the Metroid 2D and Metroid Prime styles together, fill part of the series’ vast empty universe, and use an innovative control scheme. He brought together a great team to accomplish this, bringing in staff from Nintendo, action game specialists Team Ninja, and CG studio D-Rockets to bring to life a script he had written that consisted of nearly two hours of scenes.

The final product was a spectacular disaster in the estimates of many players. The controls asked him to use a single Wii remote held on its side, requiring them to navigate in 3D with a D-pad and turn the remote to point at the screen to use missiles. The cutscenes dragged and the dialogue was monotonous. Critics gutted Other M for her portrayal of Samus as naive, sentimental, scared, unfit for her own work.

Worse still, Metroid’s famous non-linear upgrade system was now tied to the whims of Samus’s former military CO, Adam Malkovich. Instead of discovering the heat-resistant Varia Suit yourself, you had to race through a dangerous land of lava that burns Samus’s health before Adam deigns to “authorize” the use of his suit. Why she is willing to hurt herself to respect Adam’s authority is not well justified.

It’s hard to see through all that garbage to get a glimpse of the really cool ideas at the heart of Other M.

Other M turned out to be the opposite of what many fans love about Metroid – removing player-driven discovery and replacing it with scripted plot beats. Samus’s personality was no longer subject to interpretation; now he was a rigid and defined character that many found difficult to accept.

It’s hard to see through all that garbage to get a glimpse of the really cool ideas at the heart of Other M. Team Ninja clearly approached the game with a deep appreciation for the series. They brought their signature action style into their combat, injecting Metroid’s once-fleeting monster encounters into tense duels with slow-motion dodges and parry moves. Samus rips the tails off the creatures and freezes her legs to the ground, jumping on their backs to shoot lasers straight at their faces. The camera enjoys the jump to full 3D in third person, moving from room to room, pulling hard on Samus to finish off the blows and backing up for wide shots in those areas of glowing fiery lava and murky swamps.

It’s funny how so many of Other M’s ideas are exactly what fans are crazy about in Metroid Dread. The intense and prolonged boss fights, that dynamic camera, even the story-soaked narrative – it all dates back to Other M.

There were hints of this direction in MercurySteam’s criminally underrated Metroid: Samus Returns in 2017. That game, which Sakamoto also produced, featured a new melee counter for Samus, similar in effect to the dodge stop in Other M, and some of the biggest adrenaline rush. -pumping of boss fights in the series. Even on the small screen of the Nintendo 3DS, the camera zooms in when Samus enters the save stations or counters a Metroid at just the right time.

With Dread, MercurySteam and Sakamoto brought those elements together in one elegant package. Samus is faster than ever, gaining new slide moves and air dodges. Nintendo Switch’s high-definition footage allows the camera to really zoom out, offering even wider shots of the game’s massive corridors, rain-slick railroad terminals, and overheated caverns. Continue with the interactive boss fight scenes from Samus Returns, where you can hammer missiles down a space monster’s throat if you seamlessly connect a melee counter.

For all the sci-fi action overflow from MercurySteam’s Metroid games, Samus herself is written with remarkable restraint. The bounty hunter is not entirely stoic; his eyes and body language calmly convey a range of emotions. And when he speaks in a climactic scene, it is in his adopted language Chozo. Once again, players are invited to imagine what Samus is thinking rather than being told through storytelling.

Nintendo is aware that Other M would be on people’s minds prior to the release of Dread. During a live demo of Dread after its reveal at E3, Nintendo employee Theresa Apolinario was careful to point out that Samus’ ship AI ADAM, based on the authoritarian Adam Malkovich, would play a much smaller role in this new game: “He doesn’t give Samus any address. It is up to the player where they want to navigate and explore. “ And in a september Nintendo Power podcast episode, Chris Slate explicitly excluded Other M from the story arc leading up to Dread.

While Nintendo probably didn’t want fans whose enthusiasm soured for Other M to write off Dread, it’s clear that Sakamoto still thinks I have gold left in that hybrid entry. Metroid Dread won’t rehabilitate Other M’s reputation, but it doesn’t really have to. For some, Other M will always be a disappointment. For others, it will remain a misunderstood classic. No matter how people feel about it today, his legacy has shaped the future of the Metroid series.

Don’t hold your breath to make a new version.