Prime 1 and 2, terrible controls?  Oh no way, Retro made the right choice on the controls for those games.  The games weren't meant to be FPS titles, and for the way Prime 1 & 2 were played, the controls were perfect.  Both games also had a lot more originality and depth than Other M, which has an overall emptiness to the game and the exploration is gimped. 

Other M's controls vary from pretty good to twitchy to hit-or-miss.  Switching from holding the remote sideways to pointing it is annoying and floaty.  The dodge move from first-person mode almost never works, and the third-person segments are just ungainly and slow.  The jumping and platforming is worse than any of the Prime games what with Samus' weird stopping at the edge of a platform.

The game is, like I said, just Metroid by numbers, and if you had played through Prime 1, 2, and Super, you'd see that.  This took what was the same basic gameplay of those titles, and just reused it without expanding upon it.  Rather, it's gimped by having to switch modes, a lack of creativity in weapons and items, and the mostly linear story-based exploration.   "Samus go there." "Samus do this."  "Samus come here." Dude, lame.  Exploration, for that matter, is a secondary feature (if not tertiary).  In a normal Metroid game, I see all sorts of areas and things that are out of reach early on, and I remember them and come back to them upon finding the right item or weapon.  Here, half the time, I'm not allowed to go back because doors are just plain locked when I want to go back.  In a normal Metroid game, once a door is open--it's open.  None of this "now this door is locked because Adam wants Samus to go somewhere else right now" bullshit. 

The Wii's microscopic D-pad is just about the worst thing I've ever used for moving a character in three dimensions.  The gameplay is fast, to be sure, but it's certainly not more fun than any previous Metroid game.  Maybe more fun than the very original title on the NES, but you really started with nothing on there.  The arm cannon didn't even shoot all the way across the screen in the beginning!

Other M, for that matter, is the first game in franchise I've ever seen with cheap deaths.

Don't get me started on Ridley being in the game.  Besides the fact that the best Ridley battle ever was his appearance in Prime 1 (as Meta Ridley), I'm sick of him appearing in every single game.  Even his attacks in Other M are just copied from previous games making this even lamer.  Oh, I have to admit it, the battle early in Prime 3 with Ridley was just outstanding.  I'm still sick of him, though.

Amazing post. Bolded what i agree with and i italized what i dont agree with. The problem is that new (OP, maybe Maxwell) nintendo fans are barely getting to know the Metroid Franchise, and yes, Other M is a "good" game, but they never had the chance to play the old games which are CLASSICS, to notice how the franchise has progressed, and what makes "Metroid" metroid. Anime fans who love cliche and horrible story telling, probably fell in love with this game, and  since they hadn't played a metroid game ever, they believe its a "9" rated game... so much PHAIL in this thread.   

Best to worst in my opinion: Super Metroid > Metroid Prime 1 >  3 > Metroid Zero Hour>  Metroid Fusion> MoM > 2 > M

and the moments where it sticks you in first-person mode to scan the area looking for one tiny detail?  Damn that's annoying.

Hey thanks!  I hate to do it, but I also place the original Metroid near the bottom of the list, but it's about the only game in the series that actually shows it's age.  For the rough graphics of the Game Boy Metroid II, that game had some forward-looking features (such as the game save feature and Spider Ball), and also featured a unique storyline and was the only game besides Fusion to feature the evolution of the Metroid species.  That is something I'd like to see explored in a new game. 

Out of curiosity, why do you place Metroid Prime 2 so low?

Amazing post. Bolded what i agree with and i italized what i dont agree with. The problem is that new (OP, maybe Maxwell) nintendo fans are barely getting to know the Metroid Franchise, and yes, Other M is a "good" game, but they never had the chance to play the old games which are CLASSICS, to notice how the franchise has progressed, and what makes "Metroid" metroid. Anime fans who love cliche and horrible story telling, probably fell in love with this game, and  since they hadn't played a metroid game ever, they believe its a "9" rated game... so much PHAIL in this thread.   

Best to worst in my opinion: Super Metroid > Metroid Prime 1 >  3 > Metroid Zero Hour>  Metroid Fusion> MoM > 2 > M

You did not just imply that I'm a new Nintendo fan >_> FFS I've been gaming since I had an Atari 2600, NES, Genesis and SNES as a child... the Metroid series is just something I got into last gen since there weren't a lot of good games, it was much easier to miss the Metroid series in the SNES days... I was a Castlevania IV guy myself...

His analogy is still valid.  You fully admitted to, essentially, "only just getting into Metroid" and as such, you have little to no idea what made the series so great to begin with.  And saying there weren't a lot of good games?  Seriously dude, even for all the negatives I've given to Fusion, it's still a fun game--because there really were no bad Metroid games.  Just, for Fusion and Other M, there are wrong Metroid games.  Maybe Hunters, which is the only game I haven't had ample time with since, when I bought my DS, it was no longer for sale, except used, and I haven't gotten to it.  Strangely enough, I do have the First Hunt demo, complete with it's packaging...

And yes, I just realized I cluttered this thread with my posts...