i have a small backlog of Wii games to play and so i finally started Other M today. my god, i don't want to make any rash judgements, but it's so too ridiculous to take seriously. im going to play through the whole thing because the first boss fight, the last thing i did, was ok. i think the game will be funner to play. but the story thing is insane, i feel like it was a huge mistake. i know there was a backlash from fans for doing this but i can see why it was so big. i loved super metroid, metroid 1, prime 1, and i even liked fusion. they all had no to very little story, sans fusion, but even then it wasn't that pervasive. i havent played prime 2 and 3 yet. but i plan to. i just cant believe nintendo thought adding those cutscenes was a good idea, it took me a good 7 minutes of watching movies before i got to the training thing.

i just recently played phantom brave, wario shake it, wii sports resort, kirbys epic yarn, and sin and punishment 2, and they were all great games imo. i liked how all those games had little emphasis on story, barring phantom brave. i thinkk the presence of story was ok in phantom brave because its an rpg and you could skip scenes if you wanted to. ive come to expect story in jrpgs and srpgs only, but thats the way i would like it. they usually have enough playtime where you can go on long runs of gaming and watch story if you want.

what do you guys think about story in games? i feel that it should be kept limited in all genres except rpg, and even then, it shouldnt be the main focus. i put this in nintendo discussion because i mostly play nintendo stuff btw, and i feel they have the best non-stroy driven games.

If Nintendo produces stories like in Paper Mario (N64), Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, etc.. then I have no problem. I don't think many games can even compete with the those storyline. However, those are pretty much Action/RPGs. For their other games the story can take a semi back burner for games such as Super Mario because it is just trying to rescue the princess. For games like Zelda the story is semi important and that isn't a RPG. Metroid series seems like it could benefit from a story but perhaps the story they told wasn't too good (never played Other M).

To me story is an important factor, but it can never make or break a game. If the likes of FFVI, Xenogears and Metal Gear Solid had shit stories, I would still love them.

Gameplay will always come first IMO when I'm judging a game. This is clearly illustrated by my opinions on the Final Fantasy Tactics series, all which are fantastic SRPGs. In case you aren't aware the original FF Tactics has an incredible story, among the best in any game, while the 2 recent instalments, FFT Advance and FFTA2 have shallow crap stories. Despite the originals far superior story, I think the more recent games are moderately better as their gameplay and everything else (maybe apart from music) is easily superior IMO, such as the removal of random encounters, the fixed camera angle, a far improved skill learning system and the statute system. Story is nice, but comes second to other factors when playing a game.

ive played all the ff tactics and i personally dont see what the big deal about the originals story was. i thought the other ones were more intersting personally, i liked the whole imagination book thing. i also agree that the other games are better though because they are better gameplay wise, ie more stuff to do, more classes, you can pick jobs, and i liked the judges thought it was a cool aspect. i used to feel that story was more important, but i realized i was confusing story with my memories of playing the game. i think that fighting a memorable boss or playing the game your own way is what i remember most about games i love and i created all those moments.

No nintendo game should have a large story. None its a rule. Though they seem to be breaking it with other M and Twilight Princess to tell you the truth

There is major scope for them to introduce some story-heavy games.

I don't agree with this. I think it's more about how the story is presented rather than its complexities. Metroid and Zelda games have told stories through their enivronments and moderate cutscenes in a seperated perspective, and that is why extensive personal cutscenes don't fit too well(although twilight princess had very little of the latter and fits traditionally imo.) That doesn't make their stories any less "large"; however.  On the other side of things, first party Nintendo series like Fire Emblem, and Paper Mario had decent stories with a traditional cutscene presentation. I enjoyed Twilight Princess's story, and while Other M wasn't what I'm used to in a Metroid game, that is the only reason why I didn't like the story. If it wasn't Metroid I'm sure it would have been decent. I think what it comes down to is whether or not there is direct or indirect character development. For most 1st party Nintendo games that have backstories, which make sense, we see the latter. 

Nothing wrong with a story when it's done right and properly integrated with the gameplay in a way that benefits all components of a game. Story in Other M is a pretty good example of how *not* to do story in a game.

I was pretty forgiving of it on account of Nintendo having very little experience with these kind of things, as well as feeling a large part of the story's awkwardness came from it being "too Japanese", or perhaps simply not given enough freedom in the localization department. That being said, I hope Nintendo's next effort at story telling and cinematic presentation is a big step up or they should just leave it be.

Even if it isn't, I find it hard for a bad story to truly bring down the experience as long as the gameplay is there.

I don't think story should be the main focus in any genre, not even story driven ones. Game play greatly affects the storytelling and no matter how good the story is it will still suck if the storytelling is bad. I don't think story should be limited to only RPG's though. It really depends on the game. Sometime it fits and sometimes it doesn't.

Personally I would never want a big story element in Mario platformers as I play those merely for the awsome levels and solid gameplay and I feel that a story would only limit the game and it wouldn't add enough to justify it.
On the other hand I want some story in Zelda and especially in Metroid.

Meh, I prefer to make my own story in games. Thats' the point of video games, to create your own experience. I don't mind some backstory, but the main thing is I don't like games pushing their own story to the point where it limits what I can do.