Not metroid.
Let's talk about the game and its aspects, though, to be concrete and crystal clear in this review.
The gameplay is fairly shallow, as it follows a storyline that is wether impressive nor actually engaging. This is because most of the plot is thrown at your face, as if you were forced to watch a hollywood flick. What is that about? Hollywood + Metroid DOES NOT COMPUTE, Nintendo!
This is one of the many dissappointing factors that has led many Metroid fans to cry out desperately, in hopes of reaching the far away personas of Nintendo.
Since when does Metroid need to throw such a mundaene storyline at your face with cut-scenes. Here's the story in a nutshell:
Basically, Samus randomly receives a distress signal from the far-reaches of space, after the fall of Zebes in Super Metroid. She follows and lands on a desolate shuttle called the Bottleship. She meets up with Adam and co., and joins the team, allowing Adam to command her, and disable her permission to use all of her weapons.
After single-handedly destroying Mother Brain, Ridley and the entire Space Pirate compounds in Zebes, you would think Samus to be bad-ass enough Bounty Hunter to follow her own rules, but no. Adam has the word and Samus is his underling, what a huge contrast in leadership.
Well, once you've gotten over the fact that Samus can act his little underling and carry out his given assignments, you in the end after being involved in a CSI:Miami-like crime story confront Mother Brain. Yes, mother brain. But embodied in the form of a small fragile woman, who can be defeated in the last boss fight by simply scanning her. SCANNING HER. THAT'S HOW TO DEFEAT THE END BOSS. Simply stunning!
I took about 3 seconds after figuring out how to finish the fight, 3 seconds. This is an embarassing outcome of Nintendo at best.
If you enjoyed the gorgeous music scores that are indefiably linked to the awe-inspiring atmospheres in the previous Metroid games, you can kiss that entire aspect of wondrous Metroid-goodness goodbye, because in Other M, you get NOTHING of that sort. The music during the boss fights can be described as mediocre at best, for it does NOT compare to the other Metroid tracks, which have led to many fans asking for the composers name.
There are many minor faults that showcase the imperfection and lazy game design of this game, in a broad and wide picture. For example, many of the enemies that make for an exhilarating battle experience are often recycled, and re-used in areas completely different to the one's they originated from, there is little sense of logic in the sense of the biology and environment, as there was one in the previous games, this makes for an unconvincing gaming experience. You might call it nit-picking, but it all just adds up to an unimpressive image. Another thing is the difficulty of bosses, some have such ridiculous time lengths in battle, that you wouldn't consider them boss battles at all! The end fight takes less than 3 seconds, the queen METROID takes about 20 seconds after figuring out what to do, and Ridley's appearance is probably the only true engaging battle, but even Ridley doesn't pose a challenge and doesn't show his ferocity, as he is consumed by the queen metroid in a, again, hollywood cut-scene.
The gameplay is linear, and apart from the battle system, nothing is compelling enough to keep you engaged. The storyline is random and uninspiring, you cannot feel the might of the bounty hunter we all love anymore, instead are put in an underling position.. DISASTER, Nintendo, absolutely disasterous decisions have been made here.
This is a game that cannot be acknowledged as a Metroid game and should be taken out of the history of Nintendo games. It is displayed in an unconvincing environment, vastly linear and simply shallow.
Do NOT play this game, IF you liked Metroid in the past!