The three points you listed are all "repaired" in Metroid: Other M. But it sold less than the Prime Games. Are you sure, you know what People want?

Or just focus their efforts on firing Sakamoto.

Other M is one of the best games this gen.

The hate this game got from some critics and gamers is part of the generic Wii/Nintendo hate that some gamers and journalist celebrate.

If Other M had been a PS360 game it would have rave reviews.

Um, it was mainly the Wii gamers that hated on this game. Its Metacritic score is in the 80s, which even with the "anything below 7 blows" angle is still on the positive end.

The game is a FLOP AND DESERVES TO BE. IT's the worst mainline Metroid game and an insult to the franchise. IT doesn't deserve good sales, in fact it'sa good thing it sold poorly because it means back to the drawing board on the metroid franchise for Nintendo.

Prime is the bestselling metroid for a reason, not only was it a game GC owners had ot paly because there was **** all else but it was also an outstanding masterpiece that was ahead of it's time. Other M at  the very best is a decent action game with a crappy storyline.

Summary - Average deserves Average sales

Also z101, best game this gen? are you trying to be funny or what? if you are then you didn't make me laugh, just scared that someone has spent the last 5 years just playing one game.

So did you buy Other M? going by your preferences you would have enjoyed it more than the Prime games...
If you didn't, may I ask why?

Sakamoto's similar to many of their other guys, give him a shoestring budget and a specific mandate, and he'll hand you Tomodachi Collection (which probably cost a fraction of Other M to develop and pissed all over Other M's worldwide sales just in Japan because it was never released anywhere else!), but his "vision" includes a fair amount of bloat (though i would argue that if he had hired good writers instead of doing it himself, the whole game would've been received well)

Calling for his head is just petulant. A short-sighted approach when he's shown to be an excellent performer if management keeps a leash on him

I think that applies for many talented people in many media. Give them too much freedom, and you actually take out the bad idea filters.

As someone already said, Other M fixed a lot of what made Prime less of a Metroid game.  Let's not kid ourselves, Prime was not a 'traditional' Metroid game.  And to use my own analogy similar to your own, its like playing Ocarina of Time always in first person, no ability to run and half of your powers taken away.

But aside from these points, Prime probably is the better game compared to Other M.  Other M was fun, but it was in no way the pinnacle of the series.  And while it was much closer to a traditional Metroid game than Prime, it also suffered from some things that made that 'traditional' gameplay feel forced.  Such as the quick time events, story events (if Anthony or other characters die in certain scenes its game over), and of course the poorly acted and written story.

Now, I'm not going to defend the story of Other M.  It was pretty chessy.  I will say that its no worse than a Resident Evil or MGS game for how over-the-top it was.  Plus, many common plot devices were used as those games.  I still contend that the story we see was Sakamoto trying to appeal to a larger fanbase (such as those who like RE and MGS).  But what we found is people didn't want that for Metroid.  However, I also think a lot of the reason it seems so poorly done is a rather weak translation by Nintendo of America.  I mean, have you read those 'mission briefing' scenes when loading a save file?  Talk about run-on sentences and horrible grammar.  Not to mention stuff like using 'and' three times in one sentence or tons of fragments.

But sadly, a bad translation can't get around the main story points.  And this is where I think Other M should have changed some things.  It kind of forced 'the baby' and 'I gotta prove myself to Adam' down your throat.  But more than this, it was just the monologue 'I am Samus, hear me whine' approach.  People probably would have accepted any story that was given to them, as long as Samus wasn't acting like a FF hero whining about their role in life and 'what could have been'.

In the end, Other M was a good experiment.  I have actually been waiting since the N64/PSX days for someone to do that type of game engine where you can run and fight in a 3D area with just a D-Pad.  But it probably wasn't the best choice to make that kind of game today where joysticks and 10 button controllers are standard.  Still, all story aside, I had fun with the game.  At the very least, I loved Team Ninjas role in the game and actually like the gameplay more than the on-rails and dumbed down gameplay of Ninja Gaiden 2.

This.  I swear, all the people who are calling for Sakamoto's head, you're more of the problem than Sakmoto.  Would you do the same thing if Miyamoto suddenly directed a Zelda or Mario game and it didn't do what you liked?  No, you'd probably defend him and say 'oh well, just one bad game out of a thousand'.  But Sakamoto tries his hand at both appeasing the fanbase and trying to take Metroid to a new level, and you're out for his blood.  Nevermind the fact that he directed four of the best Metroid games prior (Metroid, Super, Fusion and Zero Mission) and is the co-creator.

There's a laundry list of possible reasons for why Other M had problems, including the fact that most of the people who previously worked on Metroid, like Makoto Kano and Kenji Yamamoto, weren't there.  If they returned for a new game, I'm sure it would be that much better.  But considering they haven't worked on a Metroid game since Super and Prime, they probably can't or won't in the future.

Sorry, double post.