Dear Malstrom, as a devoted reader for several months (your Birdmen article was absolutely fantastic and eye-opening) I must express my gratitude for having the guts to clearly lay out why Sakamoto has been poisoning Metroid. It is truly disheartening that Gunpei Yokoi had to die, for I think that were he still alive Metroid would not be in the sad state it is now.
That is not the reason why I am sending you this e-mail. I am sending this to you to give you an example of just how horribly Other M is ruining the franchise. The following is an in-game cutscene from Other M.
This video. This video embodies everything that is wrong. Samus has faced and defeated Ridley several times before this encounter without batting an eyelash. Why does she now break down and need a big, strong man to save her? This cutscene effectively destroyed the very last glimmer of hope I had for Other M. If LJN were still around and making games, I would rather have them make a Metroid game than Sakamoto.
No words can possibly express the fury I feel toward Sakamoto at this very moment. As a gamer who also grew disillusioned at the end of the SNES era (I chose the Game Boy Color instead of any console due to my reluctance of 3D) I weep for what was once a unique and fantastic franchise.
Wow. That is… horrible. Other M truly is the CDi game of Metroid.
I don’t think Nintendo realizes how much anger and hostility there is out there over this game. I deliberately didn’t post anything about Other M for the last few months so no one could blame me for firing up a mob. And these angry people know Sakamoto is responsible for this trainwreck.
Do you think any of these people are remotely interested in buying a 2d Metroid from Sakamoto? Or is it more probable that they will boycott any Sakamoto Metroid game from now on? I think it is the latter. I definitely won’t be buying anything Metroid that Sakamoto makes.
The only silver lining in the disaster that is Other M is the entertainment I get from watching Sakamoto cultists turn themselves into pretzels trying to defend anything and everything of this game. They are Sakamoto cultists because they worship Sakamoto as a type of ‘game god’, and he never does anything wrong. If the audience reacts negatively, it is because the audience isn’t smart enough to realize Sakamoto’s vision. It is too funny.
I bet a Sakamoto cultist would respond to you by saying, “You need to read the manga!” or “There wasn’t technology back then for Sakamoto to express his characters!” (which isn’t true, NES Ninja Gaiden did ‘character expressions’) or “You just have a strange pure vision of what Samus was! The only true version comes from Sakamoto!”
The Sakamoto cult worship is a good reason why I think game god worship is a bad, bad idea. In entertainment, the audience is always, always right. The director’s “vision” or the actor’s “vision” doesn’t matter. The audience is right. With video games, we measure audience reaction by sales numbers. So good sales means the audience was pleased. Regardless, no business can survive without sales. Sales are everything.
It will be very curious how Other M sells. I’ve always seen this scenario of someone who bought a Wii for Mario 5 after not buying game consoles for a long time. Then, all of a sudden, he sees Metroid: Other M and says, “Hey, I liked playing Metroid on the NES and Gameboy. After having fun with Mario 5, I think I will go for some new Metroid.” Boy, will he be surprised! hahaha
At this time right before and right after a game releases is when hype is at the highest. The problems of a video game tend to be realized only weeks after the game is released. The fact that there is so much hostility to Metroid: Other M now, and the game is to be released within days means that the hostility and anger is going to snowball once the ‘hype high’ is over.
The Youtube comments on that Ridley video are full of disappointment, anger, hostility at Sakamoto on one side and a few Sakamoto cultists who I think we should begin renaming as ‘Sakamoto Apologists’. Nothing Sakamoto does is ever wrong. Everyone else is wrong, Sakamoto is pure and divine! I’ve never seen anything like this!
Here are some comments that made me laugh:
Loving the mandatory black character that speaks like a gangster, the fact samus is now a whiny bitch and not a fierce fisted woman and that she’s now so non-self sufficient that she needs some idiot screaming in her ear to shoot her basic weapon.
It’s funny because it’s true.
Samus being all BAWWWWW, some douche yelling “DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO TREAT A LADY?”, Samus being all BAWWWWW again about him, Samus freaking out over Ridley, random Zero-Suit…
What the shit.
It isn’t that there is just one thing bad with the video. It is like the sum of all ingredients are bad. CDi Metroid indeed!
That’s obviously because this is the only Metroid game where Samus has a personality, and where it focuses on a story. This is what Sakamoto always wanted Samus, and Metroid to be like, he just didn’t have the technology for it until now. Expect more Metroid games like this, if he’s involved in them.
It is like the Sakamoto cultists are having meetings and putting out talking points. They all say there wasn’t technology for it.
But this isn’t true. Many NES games had cutscenes and story sequences. Ninja Gaiden series for the NES is a good example. The difference has to be that the producer would not allow such nonsense (for the first three Metroid games, that would have been Gunpei Yokoi who was a brilliant toymaker or Yamauchi who was president of Nintendo then).
i definitely don’t have a problem with Sakamoto getting his story out there. I really admire him for being brave enough to do it, considering Metroid fans are a rabid bunch.
This is a good example of a Sakamoto cultist. Sakamoto is worshiped and the audience is condemned as ‘rabid’ as if classic Metroid fans are dogs.
The rage this scene is getting, and the amount of people saying that Sakamoto is the Devil, and wishing this game wasn’t canon is just appalling. What’s even more disgusting is that many of these people think they know what Samus should act like, or should be like, when no other Metroid game gave her a real personality. Fusion, and Zero Mission are the only ones that come close, and Fusion in particular told us that she loves doing inner monologues. :-P
The audience experience is the authority, not the Sakamoto vision or Sakamoto experience. The audience is always, always right. The Metroid fan is the King, and Sakamoto is the servant, not the other way around.
It completely amazes me seeing these cultists define all quality, all authority, all everything on Sakamoto and everyone who disagrees with him or have a poor reaction is “wrong”. It is stunning to me how Sakamoto is never wrong about anything to these people.
This cutscene alone has caused me to never buy this game.
What utter garbage.
That fanfiction story Metroid High School is more respectful than this.
It does feel as if this game is bad fanfiction.
I expect the MOM complaints to grow once the game gets in people’s hands. It stings watching this junk. Imagine if you paid $50 for it! Expect fons of Metroid: Other M to appear at used game stores immediately following release!
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