Other M is furious fun and a fresh Metroid experience, though some aspects could've been better.
The game begins when Samus finds a ship's distress signal and decides to take a look. Finding Galactic Federation troops under the command of Adam (previously made famous in the story of Metroid Fusion), Samus cooperates with them to discover the source of the ship's problems. Other M's plot is told through much more conventional means: a strong departure from previous Metroid games. Samus now has a personality and a voice, and the backstory and is told along with the main plot in a straight-forward fashion, instead of through scanning (or just not being told at all). The story between Samus and Adam is finally told, and the ending is touching. The beautiful CGI cutscenes (loved Samus' short-hair look) told most of the story, but for an action game, some of them sure dragged on for a long time. But much of my positive criticism ends there. Some story sequences were interesting, and it showed a lot of potential, but the once-seemingly-invincible Samus was shown as a spoiled brat through much of her backstory. There were other times in the game where she showed huge vulnerability, somewhat tarnishing my image of her. To top it off, the dialogue (not helped by mediocre voice-acting) was monotonous, making Samus especially seem less than human. The story-telling definitely had potential, and I actually wouldn't mind seeing it return again; however, there is a lot to be improved, and I'm not sure I'd like to see Nintendo run the risk over further ruining Samus' character.
Shaking up the franchise every bit as much as the presentation of the story is the completely overhauled gameplay. Other M isn't a FPA, nor is it a side-scroller. It actually combines both genres to an extent, but for the most part becomes a linear action/adventure. With the controller sideways, you use the control pad to walk and the buttons to perform Samus' other actions. Auto-aim is on for her blaster, and jumping on most enemies results in a quick combo melee/blaster attack. Charging or jumping on certain enemies when they're low on health also ends in a combo in which you can blast them with a powerful attack, or pull off some other form of finishing blow. The control pad isn't perfect for moving, though Samus automatically turns in twisting and turning hallways. But she usually either runs straight, back, or diagonally, which can cause problems in battle. To switch into first-person, you aim the Wiimote at the screen. The transition isn't always smooth and can cost you precious seconds in a battle, leading to some annoyances. But from there, you can blast regularly or lock on with a missile and blast away at your foes. Also with the D-pad, you can dodge, which is crucial to survival, though I wish it would take more skill than just continuously pressing on the pad. In all, it's a very interesting and (aside from the occasional hiccup during transition) fun gameplay innovation. The pointer is slow though, and it takes forever to turn around, but I didn't really have too bad a time with it. The biggest problem is the game's linearity. Other than having plenty of items and secrets to search for in the rooms, you're mostly forced on a specific path (which is always marked on the map, though you can backtrack mostly at will) and there's little exploring you'll want to do until late in the game.
Other M is by far the fastest-paced, most hectic game in the franchise. Brutal action will break out in most rooms, resulting in melee after melee. The decent variety of enemies that change drastically from area to area in the ship means the action stays fresh for the most part while you pull off your awesome finishing moves. A good amount of mini-bosses thrown in on occasion will also provide a nice touch of challenge. There are a few puzzles tossed in between the action and platforming segments, but most of these are simple and just serve as a transition between the two aforementioned gameplay elements. The platforming segments are well-though-out and pulling off many wall-kicks in a row is still very fun. Dodging blasts from enemies while running full-speed and jumping from platform to platform is exhilarating, especially when you start firing back in what's basically a high-speed shoot-out.
There are some huge bosses in this game, some of which take a long time to finally bring down. I wouldn't say that any of them are truly difficult, but the later bosses are certainly not total pushovers. Even though you can recharge health and missiles, the game really hits just the right difficulty. However, it would be easier if not for one ridiculous order by Adam at the beginning of the game: don't use items until they're authorized. It's a weak excuse for making you unlock all of your weapons, and you'll see why it makes no sense. Depending on how many of the abundance of items you search for, the game will probably take 11-13 hours on a first play-through, which isn't bad for an action-oriented game. After what seems to be the final boss, there is also an extended mission with a true ending and another boss, adding to the total time. If you finish the game with all power-ups, you can also unlock Hard mode, which isn't really worth your time.
If there was one thing about Other M outside of the story and characters that disappointed me, it was the game's visuals. While there are definitely some beautiful scenes, much of the game is plagued by low resolution textures that often look worse than those seen in Metroid Prime 3. Many of the environments look very blurry, and despite decent draw-distance (not as good as MP3's), they're just not impressive. There are some good artistic touches in the wide variety of environments, from the typical ice setting, lava setting, and jungle setting. However, even the decent art, along with some good lighting effects, don't overcome the bland, ugly textures. Despite the game even having a good amount of shrubbery in the forest/jungle areas, it's just hard to be impressed when seeing the horribly pixelated leaves on a tree or bush. It's depressing that the environments couldn't be any better considering that the world is much smaller than MP3's, with more 2D sequences. Not to mention you can click computers in most areas that remove the appearance of most environments and make them look like any other room in the spaceship.
There are some other decent lighting effects besides the environmental ones too, like Samus' variety of beam blasts and the projectile attacks of some enemies. The enemies themselves look good. Even the bigger ones are fairly detailed and not nearly as blurry as the environments. Other M is also capable on putting about a dozen of them on-screen to fight at one time without any hitches in the frame-rate, which is nice. As far as the frame-rate goes, running at 60 fps at all times without slow-down like MP3 is one of this game's bright spots. Along with the bosses of course, which are absolutely stunning. Unlike most of the game, the bosses are very detailed, huge, and bright. They compete with anything seen on any other Wii game. The character models are fairly detailed too, though not as much as in MP3. Samus looks about the same, but the armor on the other characters isn't nearly as detailed, though their faces look better than they do on most Wii games. Samus' animations, especially in combat are done well, and I really like how she puts her arm down and steps over stumps and objects in her path automatically instead of forcing you to jump. That little addition helps keep the action moving quickly from one room to the next and subtly aids what could've otherwise been a minor annoyance.
This game's soundtrack is mostly recycled tunes and slightly altered tunes from older Metroid games. I wish they could've put more new up-tempo songs that would've more closely matched the gameplay, but the tunes usually did pick up tempo and match the action and story for the most part. The music during the cut-scenes is pretty good and helped the story move along. The voice-acting was wooden and very average, not aided by the monotonous, often unnecessary dialogue. It still bewilders me that Nintendo refuses to find top-notch voice-actors when so many big-name games are able to get the best available. The other sound effects are mostly carried over from previous Metroid games: the same screeches from monsters, Samus' blaster, her charge beam and missiles, the sound of doors opening, etc. However, grabbing an item doesn't result in the tune that has been always used in the franchise, which is strange.
Despite all of my negative criticisms, Metroid Other M is a pretty good game when all is said and done. The action is fun and furious, and the controls work well (even first-person isn't as bad as I feared) regardless of a few hiccups. The art direction is very good and helps to cover up disappointing textures, and the CGI cut-scenes are beautiful. Some very entertaining boss battles really cap off this good action game. And overall, it's always nice to see a fresh attempt at an old franchise. The story was mediocre despite a few good moments, but if they do a better job with the dialogue, I wouldn't at all mind seeing them try another Metroid game with traditional story-telling. However, as much as I enjoyed this game's gameplay and style, I do hope Other M is the last of its kind, as linear level design gets old to me. The good thing is, whether you're new to the franchise or a long-time veteran, this game is worth a shot. It's not one of the better games in the franchise by any means, but it's definitely worth playing.