Ask any Nintendo fan about the weirdest experiment in their history, and they won't say the Virtual Boy or the Wii U. They'll say Metroid Other M. Released in 2010 for the Wii, this collaboration between Nintendo’s "Team Ninja" and Yoshio Sakamoto was supposed to be the bridge. It wanted to bridge the gap between the classic 2D pixel-art exploration and the high-octane 3D action that modern audiences craved. It didn't quite work out like that. Instead, it became one of the most polarizing games ever made. People either love the fluid combat or absolutely despise the way Samus Aran was characterized. Honestly, there isn't much middle ground here.
The game sits in a strange spot in the timeline, squeezed right between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. That’s a lot of narrative weight to carry. You've got the most iconic game in the series on one side and the most tense, horror-leaning one on the other. Metroid Other M tried to fill the silence Samus usually carries with a full-blown internal monologue and a cinematic story that... well, it took some big swings.
The Bottleneck Problem: Why Controls Felt So Weird
The Wii era was defined by gimmicks. Some were great. Some were just a pain. For Metroid Other M, the decision to use the Wii Remote held sideways—with no Nunchuck support—was baffling to almost everyone. Why would you limit a 3D action game to a D-pad? It felt like Sakamoto was trying to force a 2D soul into a 3D body. You’re moving through these beautiful, atmospheric corridors on the Bottle Ship, but you’re clicking away on a plastic rectangle like it’s 1986.
When you wanted to fire a missile, you had to physically point the remote at the screen to enter a first-person mode. It was jarring. It broke the flow of combat. One second you're flipping over a Ridley-clone in a flurry of martial arts, and the next, you’re fumbling to aim at a sensor. Team Ninja, known for Ninja Gaiden, actually did an incredible job making the third-person movement feel snappy despite the hardware. The "Sensemove" mechanic, where you just tap the D-pad to dodge at the last second, made Samus feel more athletic than she ever had in Metroid Prime. But that first-person transition? It felt like hitting a brick wall at sixty miles per hour.
The Authorization Controversy: Adam Malkovich and the Power Suit
If you want to start a fight in a Metroid forum, just bring up the "Authorization" system. In every other game, Samus loses her gear because of an explosion or a technical glitch. In Metroid Other M, she has all her gear from the start. She just... isn't allowed to use it. Commander Adam Malkovich, her former CO, tells her not to use her Power Bombs or her Varia Suit because it might hurt civilians or damage the ship.
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This led to some truly absurd moments.
There is a specific section where Samus is literally running through a volcanic, lava-filled sector. Her health is ticking down. She is visibly burning. But she won't turn on her heat-resistant Varia Suit until Adam gives her the "OK" over the radio. It felt patronizing. To many long-time fans, it turned the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy into a subordinate who couldn't think for herself. The intent was to show Samus’s respect for military hierarchy and her complicated past with Adam, but the execution made it feel like she was being babysat.
The Voice of Samus
Then there’s the voice acting. Jessica Martin voiced Samus in this outing, and her delivery was intentionally flat. Sakamoto wanted a "monotone" style to represent Samus's detachment and professional trauma. The problem is that in a medium like gaming, where we rely on character expression, it just came off as wooden. You're watching these high-fidelity cutscenes (which still look great today, by the way) and the emotional payoff just isn't there because the narration feels like someone reading a grocery list.
Technical Brilliance in a Narrative Mess
Look, we have to give credit where it's due. Visually, Metroid Other M was a powerhouse for the Wii. The way Team Ninja blended pre-rendered cinematics with in-game engine transitions was years ahead of its time. The Bottle Ship itself—a massive, multi-environment space station—was a cool concept. You had a jungle sector, a desert sector, and a cryo-sector all contained within this sterile, metallic hull. It felt claustrophobic and vast at the same time.
The combat was actually fun. Once you got used to the "Sensemove" and the "Overblast" finishers, Samus felt like a lethal weapon. She wasn't just a tank with a gun; she was a ninja. The way she would jump on a monster's head and blast it point-blank was satisfying in a way the slow, methodical Prime games never were. It was fast. It was brutal. It was Team Ninja at their best, even if they were handcuffed by the "Wii Remote only" rule.
But then there's the "Pixel Hunt" segments.
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Occasionally, the game would force you into a fixed first-person view where you had to find one tiny detail on the screen to progress. No hints. No movement. Just scanning a green wall for a green bug. It was the antithesis of what Metroid is supposed to be. It halted the momentum.
Why We Still Talk About It
So, why does Metroid Other M stay in the conversation? Because it represents the moment Nintendo tried to make Metroid "mainstream" by making it "cinematic." They saw the success of games like Metal Gear Solid and wanted Samus to have that same depth.
The backlash to this game was so strong that it essentially put the franchise on ice for years. We didn't get another original 2D Metroid until Metroid Dread in 2021. Interestingly, Dread took some of the best parts of Other M—the cinematic counters and the fast movement—and stripped away the baggage. It proved that Samus could be agile and talkative without losing her agency.
The Ridley Scene
We can't talk about this game without mentioning the Ridley scene. When Samus sees her arch-nemesis, she has a full-on PTSD breakdown. She cowers. She reverts to a terrified child.
Fans were furious.
They argued that she had already killed Ridley five times by this point in the timeline. Why would she be scared now? The counter-argument, usually from Sakamoto himself, was that this was the first time she saw him after "finally" killing him for good in Super Metroid. To her, he was a ghost. Regardless of how you feel about the psychology of it, it felt out of sync with the Samus we knew. It was a moment of vulnerability that felt like a regression rather than a revelation.
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How to Play It Today (If You Dare)
If you’re curious and want to check out Metroid Other M now, you’ve got a couple of options. You can hunt down a physical disc and play it on a Wii or a Wii U (it's surprisingly cheap because of its reputation). Or, if you’re into emulation, the Dolphin emulator allows you to map the controls to a modern controller.
Mapping the D-pad to an analog stick and the "point" mechanic to a trigger makes the game 100% more playable. It doesn't fix the story, but it reveals the rock-solid action game hidden underneath the questionable design choices.
Key Takeaways for the Curious Player:
- Ignore the "Metroidvania" label: This is an action game first. It is very linear. If you go in expecting Hollow Knight, you will be disappointed.
- Focus on the combat: Learn the Sensemove timing early. It’s the key to enjoying the boss fights.
- Watch the "Maxximum Edition" fan cut: There are fan-made versions of the game's story online that trim the redundant monologues and fix some of the pacing issues.
- The Bottle Ship is worth exploring: Despite the linear path, the atmosphere is top-tier Metroid.
Metroid Other M isn't a "bad" game in the sense that it's broken or unplayable. It's a high-budget, polished, and experimental title that just happened to misunderstand what its core audience loved about the protagonist. It’s a fascinating relic of a time when Nintendo was trying to figure out how to tell stories in the HD era.
If you want to understand the evolution of Samus Aran, you have to play it. Just be prepared to roll your eyes at Adam’s "authorization" every ten minutes. It’s part of the experience. After you've spent some time on the Bottle Ship, compare it to Metroid Dread—you'll see exactly which lessons Nintendo learned and which ones they (thankfully) threw into the vacuum of space.
Next Steps for Metroid Fans
If you've finished Other M and need a palate cleanser, jump straight into Metroid Fusion on the Nintendo Switch Online GBA library. It handles the "Samus talking to a computer" dynamic with much better tension and pacing. Alternatively, if you want to see Team Ninja’s modern work without the Nintendo constraints, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin carries a similar "action-first" DNA with a much more self-aware tone.