I am not clarifying my Other M review

01 September 10 | 18:57 | Posted by:

Because I didn't write a review, remember? However, I feel like a few statements in my not-a-review of the game merit a little more explanation. So let's do that, shall we? (I meant to write this yesterday, but the past 36 hours have been kind of crappy and stressful.)

First, I referred to Super Metroid as "a game whose success was a fleeting stroke of good luck," which rankled a couple of people who didn't understand what I meant. Which is this: Super Metroid is one of those games that was a product of its time and technology, and its impact was especially potent for its good fortune in arriving when it did. It possessed a subtly and sophistication lacking in other games of the day. Super Metroid would have been a great game even five years later, but in 1994 it was a towering achievement. That's all.

More deserving of explanation and reconsideration is this comment: "Other M's plot bits come off with that awkward quality of early PlayStation games, because that's precisely where Nintendo is in terms of narrative design: where everyone else was 15 years ago."

I need to retract that statement, at least in part, because it disparages Nintendo as a whole when I was really remarking on a very specific facet of the company. Internally developed Nintendo games rarely focus on narrative, and outside of Other M the only place you'll find story-heavy first party Nintendo titles is under the auspices of Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Paper Mario, etc.). Yes, there have been a few exceptions through the years -- I'm thinking primarily of the Famicom Tantei Club series and EarthBound -- but those titles were very much genre pieces (adventure and RPG, respectively).



[Camera cuts, revealing mysterious girl behind window]
GIRL: "Samus... so we meet again."
Other M is unusual in that it's the company's first real attempt to develop (or co-develop, anyway) a narrative-heavy game brimming with real-ime cutscenes and CG and dialogue and even touches of in-game narrative. Nintendo just doesn't make games like that; even Zelda games rarely have more than a couple of minutes of dialogue at a time, and those are never fully voiced. Other M is Nintendo venturing into new territory... and, perhaps not surprisingly, they've fumbled their first attempt. A lot of people are pointing the finger of blame at the company's choice of partners, and in truth some of Other M's more egregious quirks do demonstrate a suspicious trace of Team Ninja's fingerprints. On the other hand, Samus doesn't demonstrate any pneumatic chest-jiggle that I've noticed, so you have to admire the presence of at least that level of restraint.

Really, though, I think the bigger problem with Other M is just that Nintendo's veteran staff doesn't have much experience with this sort of storytelling. They've always subsisted on a more minimalist approach to conveying plot, and the company's narrative style hasn't really evolved much beyond the 16-bit approach of text boxes and pantomime. And that's been fine, for the most part; their games' stories have been sufficient to get the job done, and the localizations are always a step or three above average. Other M ventures beyond the 16-bit style to attempt presenting its game in the fashion of mid-'90s FMV-heavy games... and that's exactly how it comes off, but not in a good way. It's stilted, awkward, and painfully Japanese in the worst way, what with all its heavy-handed symbolism and dialogue that circuitously skirts around important backstory details that all the characters know so those common facts can be doled out to the player at the director's discretion. I guess you'd call it "contrived withholding." I'd put Other M's presentation about a half-step ahead of the original Resident Evil's. Which makes sense, because like I said, Nintendo's forays into this space put them about where everyone else was 15 years ago.



"I also hope that's not Chris' blood...."
I just hope the push-back they're seeing from fans will encourage them to push ahead and refine their efforts rather than simply retreat into the comfortable familiarity of the 16-bit style. Nintendo has a lengthy history of innovation, and I think they could do amazing things with modern in-game narrative, just as Super Metroid did in its time. Here's where were invoke another Japanese storytelling trope: the one where those of us on the sidelines clench our fists and think vigorously about how much we believe in Nintendo as speed lines zoom behind us. Ganbare, Nintendo Software Planning & Development division! We believe in you!!

Anyway, blah blah blah. I wish Other M weren't so annoyingly intrusive with its once-per-hour mandated quota of crappy story, but the action is really impressive. I hope everyone has had a chance to give it a fair shake and judge the final results for themselves... which, really, was the ultimate point of my previous post. Whether you like the game or not, it's always best to sort that decision out for yourself.

Uh, not to say we reviewers are superfluous or anything! Ha ha. Sigh.

category: blog | forums | sixteen comments | §

A final, quick reminder

31 August 10 | 09:54 | Posted by:

Here is my final act of pimpage for GameSpite Quarterly 5. Today is the last day that Blurb is offering free shipping on books (coupon code SHIPPINGFREE), so if you were considering picking up a copy now would be the time to do it. Going by their typical patterns, it'll be a couple of months before they have another offer like this.

Of course, if you weren't planning to pick up a copy, that's totally fine and we won't take it personally. Money is a scarce resource these days. The book's contents will make their way online soon enough, because information wants to be free... and opinion is worth even less than that.

category: gamespite | forums | eleven comments | §

This is not a review of Metroid: Other M

30 August 10 | 09:54 | Posted by:

I was thinking I'd have a personal review of the new Metroid up today, since I had plenty of time to play it over the weekend. But... I actually didn't play it much. After reviewing Ys Seven, I just couldn't willingly subject myself to a game with the exact same problem as the latest Ys: lots of sublime action interrupted by entirely too much compulsory, poorly-written, unwanted, and frankly unnecessary narrative. In fact, I'd say it goes a step beyond "unnecessary" and into "counter-productive."

That being said, Other M is a really good game, and I don't want to contribute to all this weird groupthink I've been seeing since the reviews began to hit. An alarming number of gamers who were seemingly looking forward to Other M saw mixed reviews and suddenly decided to bail on the entire game without even trying it for themselves. I'm admittedly annoyed by the contrivances of the plot and the gawdawful voice acting, but that doesn't change the fact that the other 90% of Other M is a brilliantly crafted take on the Metroid formula. I'll be playing through the game for myself once I've recovered from Ys! This weekend, though, I decided I needed a little time with Dragon Quest IX, since I'm 100 hours in on my file and enjoying a more-or-less chat-free experience in which I'm free to muck around as I please, exploring advanced game mechanics, without being forced to stop and sit through stilted cutscenes once an hour.



In some ways, I think Nintendo is making a mistake in bothering to make new Metroid titles at all. There's no real benefit to it. Sure, fans clamor for them, but said fans also hold the series to the impossibly high standard of Super Metroid, a game whose success was a fleeting stroke of good luck. How do you follow up a work that many people consider perfection? If you stray too from its design (as in Fusion and Other M), you're slammed for missing the point. If you replicate the design, you might get away with it by wrapping it in new tech (as in Metroid Prime) -- but only once. Look no further than the Zelda series for a more fully realized example of what I'm talking about. Ocarina of Time was little more than A Link to the Past in 3D, but because it was in 3D it felt fresh and new. Twilight Princess was simply a more refined iteration of the same structure, and it's suffered tremendous blowback for feeling stagnant and unimaginative. Wind Waker, on the other hand, deviated considerably from A Link to the Past's structure, and the parts that were different are the ones people hate.

Nintendo's brought them upon themselves, of course. Their approach to game design is often revolutionary, but once they've struck upon a great idea they iterate it almost mechanically to the point of nauseating redundancy. I'm sure Skyward Sword is going to sell well enough, but it's been greeted with infinitely more skepticism and derision than one could have imagined facing a Zelda game 10 years ago. Nintendo's adherence to formula isn't always bad; the core structure of the Super Mario franchise has barely changed since 1985. But the Mario framework is much larger and more loosely defined than the templates for Zelda and Metroid; Mario's is about running, jumping, and acquiring power-ups in a series of diverse levels grouped within large, thematic worlds. That creates a canvas for all sorts of creative expression, and with only a very few exceptions (mainly the first New Super Mario Bros.) Mario's designers have maximized their freedom while still remaining true to the series' spirit. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii clearly share a common heritage, yet each one is a huge adventure bursting with brilliant new ideas in every stage. They form a one-two punch that demonstrates just how perfectly the Mario formula lends itself to invention.

With Zelda and Metroid sequels, on the other hand, Nintendo doesn't merely replicate the big-picture structure, but also the specifics of flow, plot, and player progression. Mario games have a sense of progression only in that you know each world will offer more difficult challenges than the last; the other series, however, tend to force the player to gain the exact same skill set in the same order every single time. The specifics change, but not enough to prevent a sense of stagnation seeping in.

I think the best Nintendo can hope if they stick to this repetition-or-revolution approach is a release so offbeat and different that it becomes a cult favorite, a la Majora's Mask. But that's another fleeting stroke of genius we'll never see again.

I'm increasingly growing concerned for the future of Zelda and Metroid. Nintendo desperately needs to rethink their approach to them; simply grafting a new interface onto game design that's otherwise failed to change significantly since their 16-bit iterations is a gimmick that's wearing distressingly thin. The biggest problem reviewers have had with Other M, I think, is that it's essentially Metroid Fusion in 3D, just as Prime was Super Metroid in 3D. But it takes the parts that people didn't like about Fusion -- all the forced chatter, monologuing, and locked doors -- and amplifies them, while the parts carried over from Super Metroid aren't significantly improved, just more action-oriented. I'm not really sure who the game is targeted toward, but if they were hoping to appease Metroid fans... well, clearly they don't understand the psychology of fandom very well. The people who are most inclined to enjoy it are also the ones who are the least inclined to give it a fair chance, their hands being full of so much baggage and all.



That's why I adamantly refused to be assigned the 1UP review of Other M, actually. Well, I declined in part because I believe the site can benefit from other voices weighing in on legacy series, but I also sat this one out because I could see how different Other M is from its predecessors, and I was worried that -- given the series' influence on my tastes and my life -- I wouldn't be able to give it a fair shake. In playing it, though, I'm finding that isn't the case. I've really enjoyed the game so far, and my distaste for the narrative isn't because it doesn't belong in a Metroid game or because they're destroyed Samus's character, bloo bloo bloo. It's because the narrative is really badly written, badly acted and directed, and intrusively grinds the action to a frustrating halt. Yet Other M has also helped me realize that somewhere in the past year or two, I've stopped getting worked up about sequels to beloved franchises. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not, but they don't diminish the classic games that I love. At their best, a contemporary sequel can reinvent and modernize a franchise; at their worst, well, I can just ignore them. But I don't expect a sequel to some game I loved on NES or PlayStation to offer a shinier carbon-copy replica of that old game, which is, I suspect, what a lot of people do want. But this medium needs to evolve, and it's important for legacy series to participate in that process rather than simply stagnate. I don't think holding Other M side-by-side with Super Metroid and raging because they're not the same experience would do anyone any good, and honestly I'll take an uneven but ambitious attempt to reinvent a series a la Final Fantasy XIII over yet another predictable romp through a well-established formula.

Which isn't to say I didn't love the hell out of Mega Man 9, of course, but every rule has its exception.

Thankfully, Other M does make an effort to advance. Its cutscenes are wretched and invasive, sure, but they're the most involved that have ever come from an internally developed Nintendo game. Other M's plot bits come off with that awkward quality of early PlayStation games, because that's precisely where Nintendo is in terms of narrative design: where everyone else was 15 years ago. Maybe the next time around, they'll catch up with the rest of the industry and create something that isn't quite so dated and cringeworthy. In the meantime, the rest of Other M is fairly predictable, but it's expertly constructed and feels like a brilliant midpoint between the classic and first-person chapters of Metroid -- and it's saturated with a haunting sense of solitude that sends pangs of Super Metroid reminiscences shooting down my spine.

In the fact, the more I think about it, the more I wish I'd kept playing over the weekend. So I guess it does something right, eh.

category: blog | forums | 42 comments | §

Something happened on the way to heaven

28 August 10 | 18:20 | Posted by:

Hey folks, just a quick bit of janitorial work regarding GameSpite Quarterly 5. Unfortunately, it looks like there's a pretty noticeable goof on page 70: The text is skewed 12 degrees clockwise. All of the text. You can see what it's supposed to look like here, but the actual printed version doesn't look quite right. What with the text being skewed 12 degrees and all.

The really infuriating is that it wasn't this way in the proof version -- this is a problem that crept in during the corrections process. For some really annoying reason, Adobe InDesign doesn't play nicely with MacBook trackpads. As I laid out this issue, I was constantly correcting objects that suddenly rotated themselves for no good reason. The problem is that Apple trackpads have been tweaked to work like iPhone/iPad interfaces, offering the same drag, pinch, and twist gesture commands as their mobile touch devices. Unfortunately, in my experience, those gestures are horrible in an indirect touch context -- the only place the rotating motion ever actually seems to work is with layout objects in InDesign, and only when I'm not trying to make use of it. When I try to rotate things with the trackpad, nothing happens. When I'm simply trying to scroll the screen to the next page, though, half the time my swiping motion is mistaken for a twist.

Evidently that's what happened in my final rounds of proofing, and somehow I failed to notice it when I scanned over the final PDF, probably because page 70 is the single least interesting page layout in the entire book. I don't think this is a crisis worth of a refund, and also I'd like to be able to pay my rent next month, but I would like to offer an apology for this error. I'm really meticulous about proofing and feel terrible that this slipped past my notice. The page will be reprinted correctly in issue 6, for whatever that's worth. You can also right-click to download the corrected version as a PDF that can be read more easily (and, I suppose, printed and slipped into your copy of the book, if you like).

Hopefully that will be the only problem with the book that comes to light. Otherwise, I'll... I dunno, eat my skull in despair or something.

(Well, there's also the matter of the three articles that I overlooked when laying out the book; they'll be printed in GSQ6 as well. And this is precisely why we will never do another maximum-page-count monstrosity ever again.)

On the plus side, this did prompt me to do some research and discover that those stupid trackpad gestures can be turned off, so this error will never happen again. There's room for plenty of other errors, of course! But not this one. So, in summary: mea culpa, my apologies, and corrections have been put forth.

category: blog, gamespite | forums | sixteen comments | §

GSQ5: The secret best Retro Game Challenge article

27 August 10 | 09:53 | Posted by:

Kid Culture on the NES
OK! So with this posting, I've done a pretty good job of carpet-bombing the site with a spread of GameSpite Quarterly 5 content. I think now you have a pretty good picture of what's inside the issue now: Short game retrospectives, lengthier game retrospectives, bite-sized gallery retrospectives, and articles like this, which are game retrospectives masquerading as something else.

Anyway, you get the picture. It sounds like people who shelled out for rush shipping are beginning to receive their copies of GSQ5 already, which is nice. They also seem not to hate it, which is even nicer. I spend so much time with these things that I lose all objective perspective on their quality by the end of the production cycle and honestly can't tell if they're awesome or wretched. So far we seem to be trending toward the former rather than the latter.

Meanwhile, I have already immersed myself in the next issue, because I'm stupid like that. As it happens, I need one more contributor to round out the ranks for GSQ6! Specifically, I need someone who (1) wants to write, (2) writes well, and (3) wants to write well about Panzer Dragoon Saga. If this sounds like you, I think it would be pretty great for you to drop me an email sometime today to express your interest. I mean, you're certainly under no obligation to do so, of course. I'm merely putting it out there as a suggestion. You know. If that's something you'd be into.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 29 comments | §

GSQ5: Obligatory joke about sucking

26 August 10 | 10:02 | Posted by:

Kirby's Adventure
I know that every joke about Kirby has been made, including "lol this game sucks geddit" and various oblique references to Jack Kirby. So I won't bother. But man, wouldn't a game about Kirby's Fourth World be amazing? Sure, it would probably end up being a minigame collection for Wii ("Can you outrace the Black Racer?"), but a man can dream. Of course, this game is pretty great, too.

category: games, gamespite | forums | thirteen comments | §

GSQ5: A new ambition

25 August 10 | 08:24 | Posted by:

Mega Man 4
Another entry in this week's all "GSQ5, all the time" mandate brings us a look at Mega Man 4. Don't worry, I promise there's more to this site than just posting content its print iteration. Next week, GameSpite will go back to its normal charter of musing about game history, being nostalgic for the NES, and griping about Mega Man -- a welcome 360-degree turnaround from today's material.

category: games, gamespite | forums | 17 comments | §