They're taking a character who lacked flaws and gave her some. Is that sexist just because she's a woman?

That is a gross oversimplification. Lacking flaws requires that we show a lack. That seems like a contradiction, but a lot of real Sue stories show what I mean.

And the story did not just give her flaws. It gave her flaws that don't make any sense, even from the past the game shows us. It seems she has those flaws just because a woman is supposed to have those flaws. That is why Abbie assumed this game is sexist.

That didn't happen she told Anthony not to fight Ridley she would handle it and he went in with his plasma gun that needed to charge, he gets knocked off and she made the tough choice of fighting instead of risking her life and the mission...

she sat there frozen with fear while everyone is trying to wake her from her slumber of fear.

Ripley in the Aliens movie had maternal instincts for the little girl newt.

When Newt needed rescue her fears were drowned out by her sense of duty she didn't think about for a second.  No shrinking out of fear just action, Ripley was a well done fleshed out take charge women.

This Samus is a train wreck 

Maybe strong women is what I like 

And younger Japanese culture like the  weak women type

 Been avoiding reading/viewing anything about the newest Metroid until I buy it.  Read all nine pages of this thread (at 25 posts per page) just now.

I don't have Other M yet.  I plan to grab it this weekend, though.  Here's my two cents:  Most other reviewers touch on the problems found in X-Play/G4/Heppe's review.  Some people think Samus' characterization is a big deal.  Some people don't mind.  Some people seem to like/appreciate the new personality.  I don't know what side I fall onto.  What I do know is that X-Play gets more viewers than any other magazine or web site.  With that comes a certain degree of responsibility.  You don't give a game that will likely be embraced by a huge majority of people--a game that's been worked on for an extreme amount of time by many dedicated designers--and a game that imho is the type of game with the kind of production values that Wii games need, a 4/10 without some pretty strong reasons.

It's not just about getting viewers, causing contraversy, or serving any sort of personal agenda.  For a game like this, one of the few BIG Nintendo games of the year, a game that will effect the partnership between Nintendo and other parties (like Namco with Starfox or Capcom with Zelda) for the future, and a game that will effect a franchises future and those people who will work with that franchise, there needs to be a little more depth to the review.  All I got from that review (and I've respected X-Play since it was still being called Extended Play on Tech TV) is "Samus' character is whiny."  Surely there was more to it than that.  And it may be Abby Heppe's honest opinion but is it the opinion of the audience that she's trying to review for?   It doesn't seem like it. 

I'll hold my tongue on this matter until I'm playing this game on Saturday.

Well she does mention she found the gameplay clunky and awkward. Also, it was the Ridley scene she also took issue with in terms of what was done with Samus.

She touched on the gameplay so briefly, though.  One--maybe two sentences.  What about the graphics?  Sound?  Exploration?  Game length?  Puzzles?  Boss fights (besides a rematch with Ridley)?  You know--the things that I enjoy about a Metroid game?

Three paragraphs in the written review are about the controls.

I'll go for a single answer.

No, people here are not hardened soldiers, but the point is that being either male or female is not what's gonna decide if that reaction would make sense. So if sex has no bearing in dictating if that could or could not happen, there's no way that scene can be sexist.

Thus, it only makes sense to say that scene is so if you actually believe that someone is supposed to always freak out on that situation if it's a woman but supposed to never do so if it's a man. Now, that's sexist thinking.

Also, so what a man saves her. Would it be ok if another woman saved her? Besides, how many men has she saved before? Are those men less of a man because of that? Again, that'd be a sexist interpretation. So basically if you ever need help, or anyone sacrifices for yourself, you're a woman. Right, Sakamoto is the sexist one.

So yeah, you don't need to like the sequence, but calling it sexist makes no sense. Ripley killed her friking parents when she was a child. And the damn thing seems like it actually never dies, as it had told her before. Sure only a woman could ever gasp for thirty seconds on that situation.

I didn't read the review.  In this case, I'll check it out.  But since X-Play is a TV show that's viewed by a lot of people, I assume there are probably more people that watched the show than read their review.  And maybe everything they said is justified.  Maybe the game does suck.  KylieDog seems to think so.  It's just such a contrast to the other reviews I've read. 

They're making such a big deal about "She thinks really hard......"Is it more plausible that I can shoot an alien and a missle will fall out?  Is it such a problem in Halo/Call of Duty that I can just avoid fire and wait to heal?  Why is it so much of a problem in this game?  Why is it being held to such a higher standard of realism? 

I'll see how jarring it is, soon enough.