As we move into the game's month of release, more and more information shall be unveiled, critic reviews may start rolling in in the next couple of weeks (depending on how Nintendo handles things, at any rate), so i would like to shift discussion here according to the question i recently added to the second post

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=113085&page=1

What is the root of Metroid's appeal? Why do you like (or dislike) Metroid, and does Other M fit in with that appeal, or is it opposed to it?

I would say that, objectively, Metroid's appeal seems to come from being a survival game, a game that creates the notion of you fighting to survive against an entire world that is out to kill you, and the weapons are primarily tools of survival.

I can say that objectively given that its easy to rate the Metroid series by sales, and you can see Metroid, the game that sold the most, that created the best sense of a survivor struggling to find tools to help in her quest. Metroid II got away from that a little, given that you had to kill a certain number of Metroids for the acid to recede so that you could go deeper, but II had a neat little feature of beams being both non-stackable and non-swappable, meaning that you had to go find the beam you needed at different occasions for different purposes. II also used the Spider Ball to tremendous exploratory effect. Super Metroid, however, put the game on invisible rails, in that there was a more-or-less set order to get items and beat bosses through the need to have different items to open different kinds of doors or destroy different kinds of walls.

Of the modern Metroids, Prime was the closest to Metroid's original appeal, though Prime had the invisible rails that Super Metroid also had, that there was a set order for item accumulation, but Prime was the only game around at the time that still tapped the Metroid appeal (given that Fusion made the mission system rather blatant, telling you what powers you needed next and moving ahead very much in that fashion). Fusion broke that spirit, despite the fact that Fusion was very good at creating the sense of a hostile environment (especially through the terrifying encounters with the SA-X)

Prime 2 obviously created an incredibly hostile world, but the game just felt off as it departed from the world of Metroid as it was, instead pursuing the somewhat separate story of Phazon. Progression was extremely formulaic, too, in that you knew what your ultimate goal was, whereas in the first Prime it created the sense that you were finding these new items and tools as you explored the world, not getting them merely to fulfill missions.

Prime Hunters was obviously more built purely as an FPS, and it too was heavily mission-based, but you were wandering around in these worlds as other hunters wandered around, creating a sense similar to that of the SA-X's pursuit (though you could obviously beat those hunters unlike the SA-X, but it was still in a similar spirit). And Prime 3 took the FPS-like nature of things still further. It was all the more heavily mission-based, with its saving grace of hostility relating to having to balance out Phazon use.

Ultimately i think that the presence or absence of cutscenes and story emphasis in Other M is peripheral to the game's success or failure, that it will come down to whether this is another mission-focused game or not. There is definitely evidence of missions so far, but the question is how power-up acquisition incorporates with that. Is it going to be a case of "You need Wave Beam for this next thing. Go find that first," or a matter of "in the course of trying to turn on this generator, i found the Wave Beam." A question that remains unanswered

Its a matter of progression that gives Metroid its appeal, i say, so the story focus shouldn't harm Other M, but its mission structure very much might.

I'd like to point out that Metroid Prime was the Metroid game that sold the most, even if it was at least partially due to very aggressive bundling on Nintendo's part.

As to the appeal? Hm.

Well, to understand where I'm coming from, I need to tell you that Metroid Prime was my first Metroid, annd I only played the others later - I only played the remake of the first game, and never played Return of Samus at all.

I think the thing that sums up Metroid's appeal, for me, is somewhat related to yours: not in the hostility of the world but in its alienness, in the sense of discovery and learning. Don't get me wrong, the most memorable moment of Metroid Prime was the first time I fought my way out of the lab where you get the Infrared Visor, but the experience that is emblematic of Metroid, for me, is scanning enemies and looking at their profiles and biologies in the database.

Corruption faltered somewhat in this ,as did Fusion, in that I didn't feel like I was learning as I progressed. Almost everything about the environment was known from the get-go, and the sense of alienness was reduced in turn.

I never bothered to research it. I was under the assumption that the original sold in the 4-5 million range.

Nah. Off the top of my head it was like 2.7 or somethingn like that, a few hundred thousand below Metroid Prime.

Looked it up - Metroid Prime sits at 2.83 million, the original at 2.73.

Again, though, you can blame that on bundling if you like.

Eh, i don't like to tack qualifiers on things. Though doesn't that mean that the franchise has never topped 3 million?

Yep. In point of fact, those two are the only games that have ever topped two million:

http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=Metroid

Obsoiv.

I find it interesting how low Super Metroid ranks tthere, in spite of being so well-loved. Outsold by Corruption, Fusion, a whole mess of games that broke the Metroid formula much more than Super did.

What i find odd was how well Fusion was received in the USA. I thought that was the game that the Japanese had favored.

American gamers like them some Metroid, regardless of how it's dressed up.

I remember the other big appeal to me for Metroid: boss fights. This series has some of the best boss fights in the business, and only Zelda really matches it for consistently great fights.

I know my opinion is far removed from that of the average fan, so I don't think I should speculate as regards what other people appreciate about the series.

I don't think the Metroid 'essence' inheres in the core concept as such - that of a solitary bounty hunter fighting space monsters in the catacombs of an alien world - nor do I think it stems from the general structure of exploration, combat and reward. Rather, when I think of Metroid, I think of a certain sense of dread, solitude and wonder; in other words, an atmosphere.

I think I can exemplify this with Metroid Prime.

What I remember most fondly about Metroid Prime is not the controls, the combat or the plot, etc. What I remember, is the exploration of new locales, not knowing what I would unearth next. Dread, solitude, and wonder. I can't fault any aspect of this game's design, but the three 'world agents' - the Chozo, the Phazon mutagen, and the Space Pirates - I consider quintessential to the game's atmosphere. What they contribute to gameplay, locales and lore cannot be understated, nor can the way they represent different perspectives of the game's events. The sense that 'something is wrong with the world' grows into a struggle between a dying world, a broken empire, a foul poison, and those who would take it all and use it to their own ends... Live through that struggle, and live through Metroid Prime.

Every Metroid game embodies a similar experience. The games build atmosphere through the world and your interactions with it. This is the purpose of the Chozo. This is the purpose of the dead space marine. This is the purpose of that not-so-tiny little larvae that got itself killed. etc.

That, at least, is how I see it.