I don't think they ruined Samus. They gave her a side not everyone will like, but worst of all for me, it was clumsily done. That's the issue I have with the game. The execution of the dialogue and narrative is not up to the standards I would expect-Nintendo finely polishes every aspect of their games, so I would expect them to do the same with dialogue and narrative.

Like the article says-when you are in control of Samus, she's Samus she ever was

She doesn't really "talk", she mostly explains stuff really.

The game did play very well though.

This whole issue of Other M is getting ridiculous.  Are there any other publishers that get this kind of over-annalizing done to their product.  It seems only Nintendo can spark this kind of nonsense.

Stories in general have ruined gaming.  Other M is just commentary on the industry. ;)

from what I've heard, the characterization is pretty bland and japanesy.  It seems as though the whole maternal thing was kind of crowbarred in and not very well executed.  This of course is coming from someone who hasn't played other m yet, but these are my impressions.

Pretty much. But it's not like they can't just pretend this whole thing never happened and release a Retro developed Metroid Prime 4 next gen.

Thank god!  It's nice to have real Metroid back.

Just cut Sakamoto's budget so he has no cash for voice and CG, then do a 3DS Metroid 2 remake using the Other M engine.  

Then who will make Donkey Kong Country Returns 2?!

Ninja theory with Sakamoto?

Then we'll find out more about the Donkey Kong cast and see their character development......OMGOMGOMG

Donkey Kong Country : The Other Kong!

It'll be easy to avoid Other M's significance to continuity, given that it mostly sets the stage for Fusion (and in that point entirely by explaining Adam's death), so storywise they could move on to something else entirely. Really, a post-fusion story might be very interesting indeed because of the possibilities (Samus as a straight-up outlaw, possibly having to find a new Chozo suit again)

But I imagine we don't have to worry about it. Nintendo at one point was banking on Other M to mainstream the franchise. Given that it clearly did not, they're going to push the franchise in another direction, but i don't think that direction will be back to Prime. They've tried Metroid as an FPS, as a competitive FPS, and now as an Action Game, and its generally stayed in the same sales range (aside from the immaculate Prime, which benefitted strongly from bundling and an 8-year franchise hiatus)

If Donkey Kong really takes off, my bet is they're going to see if Metroid can't also get on the 2D-revival train, which could lead it back to Retro, or not.

No. In light of Other M's epic phailure & DKC Returns' humongous commercial success and critical acclaim Nintendo will recognise Retro's immense talent and invest in expanding them into a super-dev a la N64 Rare with the capacity to churn out a AAA classic every year.

In a perfect world :(