Metroid: Other M - The Black Sheep....or so we thought

[gumby_trucker]

oniyide said:

^^^who are these people this is the first time ive ever heard that. Most people i know like it just as much as OOT or more, dissapointing and MM have never been heard in the same sentence for me

Personally I prefer MM to OOT, but it has only risen in popularity in recent years. There was a long time where every site had OOT listed as Best Game Ever Made, while MM was considered something of a black sheep in that it didn't follow in the foot-steps of Zelda 1, LttP and OoT.

I can dig up an old article for you if you like... Either way, the point is many of Nintendo's games have the tendency to be further appreciated as time goes by, even if the initial response is luke-warm (such as Wind Waker, or Sunshine which was really heavily criticized).

There is even a post on this thread from Rol mentioning that Super Metroid wasn't considered the best thing since sliced bread immediately when it launched.. Wide-spread appreciation of novel ideas takes a long time, way longer than a single console generation affords.

That's not to say every game that isn't immediately well received ages into a classic, far from it! But it does mean that on many an occasion initial impressions can be misleading. Something as trivial and unimportant as the name "Wii" was ridiculed for at least a year until it was accepted by people who heard it. How many years do you think it should take a 20 hour game  to reach that same level of penetration? or a controller shaped like a remote for that matter?

I'm sure there are many people who played Other M and didn't like it, but what I'm saying is that there are at least as many who haven't played it and would enjoy it for its good qualities. In that sense you could say the game failed to reach its target audience, and I'd agree.

It may even turn out that Other M is forgotten, and that still wouldn't diminish my appreciation of Nintendo for taking risks and going in different directions. On the contrary! If you never try, I can guarantee you that you never fail... I'm confident Nintendo have enough perspective to realize the good qualities in games like Other M and use those ideas again on a different concept.