I have often wondered what is the reaction inside the creative side of Nintendo when consumers not only refuse to buy their ‘genius’ game, but assert themselves on the Internet? In the case of American newspapers, the response is pure disdain. When customers get annoyed by the content or a story missing certain facts and complain, the newspaper will respond, “Who are YOU to say what a newspaper story should be?” and “You don’t like it? Well, here is MORE OF IT! Take that you stupid customer!” The result is that American newspapers end up in serious decline and approaching extinction. It is incredible that any business would argue with its customers and go so far as to intentionally put out things that piss them off. I watch American newspapers (and their free fall decline) in amazement.
So I wonder what the reaction is from people like Sakamoto when his Metroid: Other M, which he promised was the true heir to Super Metroid, ends up getting thrashed over and over. Is he full of disdain? Does he scream at the walls, “Those customers suck! They are so dumb, they do not realize what is truly going on!” “They don’t like it? Tough toenails for them! I am going to make Metroid: Other M 2! I will give them everything they hate! See how they like it!” If this ever becomes the attitude, then Nintendo would become like an American newspaper and see rapid, freefall decline (as they somewhat already have seen with the Wii).
There is a former Nintendo employee who posts on NeoGAF by the name of ‘Shikamaru Ninja’. Before Other M came out, his constant talk of Sakamoto as ‘A Great Visionary’ and his ‘Incredible Story Telling Skills’ inspired me to poke fun at him as a ‘Game God’ (which resulted in incredible white hot hatred from some Metroid fans). I would joke that when Sakamoto enters a room, everyone in Nintendo bows toward him as if he were Mecca. The Game God has entered! All bow!
Seeing how Nintendo pushed Sakamoto at GDC as ‘Amazing Game God’ and how Sakamoto had the license to do Whatever-The-Hell-He-Wanted with Metroid: Other M, ‘Shikamaru Ninja’s opinion of Sakamoto seems consistent with Nintendo’s actions. So it is reasonable to wonder whether ‘Shikamaru Ninja”s current opinion is how people inside Nintendo are thinking at the moment.
To this day I can’t get over the fact that the INTERNET is so transfixed on the story sequences of Metroid: Other M. But the again, what are we talking about here, it is the INTERNET, the wasteland of hyperbole and opinionated experts. Personally, I really don’t have any qualm with the story. Not because I thought it was well written or distractingly bad. Because for the most part I just watched in curiosity, I didn’t feel the need to psychologically match up my assessment of the 8-bit and 16-bit Samus as some type of watermark as to who the character was. I’ve seen some diatribe about how sexist the game is because Samus takes orders (Metroid Fusion doesn’t exist? Neither does Aliens aka the original inspiration of Metroid neither? All the Samus taking orders stuff derived there), or how Samus isn’t supposed to be scared of Ridley and it ruins the game (wasn’t that a flashback anyway?). And truthfully, how can anyone particularly claim to attain any deep characterization of a character that wasn’t characterized because of the medium available at the time. It’s like comparing present day Solid Snake to 8-bit Solid Snake. I think the problem is that Samus is presented as such a complex and conflicted character, she isn’t a generic fearless soldier.
Regardless, Metroid: Other M is a very ambitious project. Yes, Metroid Prime was an excellent piece of software but it also wasn’t treading any unfamiliar waters. It is in essence, taking the Metroid concept and applying it to a tried and true first-person shooter archetype. Ultimately, I felt Samus lost much of her abilities in the transition. The same engine could have been used and delivered an awesome Robocop game, that’s how mobile Samus felt to me in the “Prime” games. Her acrobatics and platforming were lost in the translation. I wish people spent more time discussing how cumbersome and frustrating the gameplay of Metroid: Other M is. I mean, that is, and should be the main discussion point. But I feel that gets overshadowed in favor of internet banter over Samus experts discussing the imposing rules they have on the “story of Metroid” against the creator’s wishes. Sakamo wanted the game 2.5 dimensional and accessible to anyone with the Wii remote, but Hayashi’s compromise found us playing a 3D space with a D-pad, with one of the most awkward first-person shooter pointer functions ever. Not too mention the level design from Team Ninja felt empty and uninspired. It’s a good game that is flawed; an ambitious game that needed more time in the oven. A game that will forever be lured of controversy and arguments amongst video game debaters.
Holy smokes! This view also fits Reggie saying he doesn’t know why ‘Other M didn’t sell’ and how Reggie said that they’ve heard people say Samus Aran doesn’t fit ‘their view of Samus’. I would not be surprised if this poster’s view above is close to the thinking inside Nintendo today.
I cannot resist. Let us go through this with me translating.
To this day I can’t get over the fact that the INTERNET is so transfixed on the story sequences of Metroid: Other M. But the again, what are we talking about here, it is the INTERNET, the wasteland of hyperbole and opinionated experts.
Those peasant scum! The Internet! Full of backwater people! If it wasn’t for that darn thing, that Internet, then everyone would love Metroid: Other M and wouldn’t be obsessed over the story!
Personally, I really don’t have any qualm with the story. Not because I thought it was well written or distractingly bad. Because for the most part I just watched in curiosity, I didn’t feel the need to psychologically match up my assessment of the 8-bit and 16-bit Samus as some type of watermark as to who the character was.
Those idiot retard gamers! They are SO STUPID they have some brain disorder that makes them want to match the 8-bit and 16-bit Samus Aran as a standard to what the character is.
I’ve seen some diatribe about how sexist the game is because Samus takes orders (Metroid Fusion doesn’t exist? Neither does Aliens aka the original inspiration of Metroid neither? All the Samus taking orders stuff derived there), or how Samus isn’t supposed to be scared of Ridley and it ruins the game (wasn’t that a flashback anyway?).
That woman reviewer was so stupid. Does she not remember Metroid Fusion? Does she not remember Aliens? And how can Samus being scared of Ridley ruin the game when it is was a flashback? Stupid customers!
And truthfully, how can anyone particularly claim to attain any deep characterization of a character that wasn’t characterized because of the medium available at the time. It’s like comparing present day Solid Snake to 8-bit Solid Snake.
Why is Sakamoto getting grief about this and Kojima didn’t? Stupid customers!
I think the problem is that Samus is presented as such a complex and conflicted character, she isn’t a generic fearless soldier.
The customers are TOO STUPID to truly understand the complexity that is Samus Aran’s character.
Regardless, Metroid: Other M is a very ambitious project. Yes, Metroid Prime was an excellent piece of software but it also wasn’t treading any unfamiliar waters. It is in essence, taking the Metroid concept and applying it to a tried and true first-person shooter archetype.
Metroid Prime took no risk at all. It was just a FPS game! Bah!
Ultimately, I felt Samus lost much of her abilities in the transition. The same engine could have been used and delivered an awesome Robocop game, that’s how mobile Samus felt to me in the “Prime” games. Her acrobatics and platforming were lost in the translation.
You stupid Westerners! You think Samus Aran is nothing more than a power-suit! But she is more! She is a ninja! An acrobat! If you stupid Westerners understood this, then Metroid Prime wouldn’t have sold so well.
I wish people spent more time discussing how cumbersome and frustrating the gameplay of Metroid: Other M is. I mean, that is, and should be the main discussion point.
I wish people would complain about the gameplay issues because I can blame Team Ninja for that. Then I can protect Sakamoto, my living Game-God whom I worship.
But I feel that gets overshadowed in favor of internet banter over Samus experts discussing the imposing rules they have on the “story of Metroid” against the creator’s wishes.
How dare these peasant gamers assert what is ‘proper’ or not. The only thing that matters is the creator’s wishes. The creator is a god. A Game God! He Shall Not Be Questioned! Or Told What To Do!
You peasant gamers like small insignificant bugs compared to the creative glory and might that is to Sakamoto: The Game God.
Sakamo wanted the game 2.5 dimensional and accessible to anyone with the Wii remote, but Hayashi’s compromise found us playing a 3D space with a D-pad, with one of the most awkward first-person shooter pointer functions ever.
Do not blame my Game God! Blame Team Ninja!
Not too mention the level design from Team Ninja felt empty and uninspired. It’s a good game that is flawed; an ambitious game that needed more time in the oven. A game that will forever be lured of controversy and arguments amongst video game debaters.
You idiots do not understand. Any flaws in Metroid: Other M are because the game was TOO AMBITIOUS for your feeble minds to grasp! The game needed more time to be worked on because its ambition was well beyond any and every other game. Therefore, keep bowing at your local Sakamoto shrine! He is still The Game God!
End of translation.
I’m serious. I think Nintendo likely thinks along similar lines.
Remember one of those scenes from Star Trek where Q would nonchalantly say he didn’t care which way or another what happened but would stick around because “I’ve never seen a space station sucked into a wormhole before!” or something like that? This is how I feel. I’ve seen Nintendo create a business that sells massive such as the Wii. It is equally as interesting to me to watch Nintendo burn it to the ground. It is fascinating to see a company so caught up in the creativity myth that they will continue to destroy a main franchise.
I fully expect Nintendo’s interpretation of Metroid: Other M to be thinking that the customers are the problem, that the customers stupidly cling to some other idea of what Samus Aran is. And even if this was true, why not have the genius Sakamoto create a brand new character to have ‘these feelings’? Why is such indulgence only taken with an established franchise?
In mature entertainment mediums, creators are not allowed to destroy the brand. For example, Nintendo would never allow the developers of Mario Kart to turn the game into something completely different such as an adventure game. Nintendo would never allow the developers of Wii Sports to turn the game into something like an RPG and destroy its brand. With Wii Fit, Nintendo would never allow its creators to turn that major brand into something like an alien shooter game.
Yet, when it comes to franchises that revolve around the content of an imaginary universe, this business rule is not applied. Everyone knows that Metroid is not, and never has been, about the characterization of Samus Aran. But what the customers are trying to tell Nintendo is that by turning Metroid into something it isn’t, the brand has been destroyed. The only way out of this trainwreck is to do a complete reboot of Metroid without Sakamoto.
There were warning signs Sakamoto was on the wrong path earlier on. With Fusion, there were complaints about the linearity of the game and how you were always stuck on a space station with silly dialogue. Apparently, Nintendo and Sakamoto didn’t get the message. Or perhaps they did but didn’t care. After all, Sakamoto is a genius, and we are a bunch of idiots who don’t know what Metroid is (even though we pay for it).
A fitting quote:
“But the audience is right. They’re always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don’t believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never.”
- William Friedkin, in a NYT interview
