A rare moment of self-reflection: I am, apparently, simultaneously both a rabid Nintendo fanboy fanman and someone who’s been attacked for bashing Nintendo for the looming turd that is Metroid Other M.
A rare moment of self-reflection: I am, apparently, simultaneously both a rabid Nintendo fanboy fanman and someone who’s been attacked for bashing Nintendo for the looming turd that is Metroid Other M.
Broad reaching selective targeting to suit the concepts of a specific segmented notion out of the whole.
It’s like calling someone anti-American for not agreeing with the American government on everything.
So who would the “hardcore Douchebags” be in this instance, Jack? Me? Are you seriously calling me a “douchebag” because I disagree with you, no matter how forcefully?
This is how you’ve chosen to respond to the critique? Insults?
You can’t generate a constructive dilemma from the two different sides here, Jack.
One point is that some people call you a fanboy at Infendo because they’re hateful of Nintendo and want to argue with their boosters.
The other point is that some other people who are not even in the same group on spome other blog are saying you’re hasty in judgment, prone to 180 mood swings, and intellectually dishonest in your premature and extreme criticism of a game that’s not even out yet. You’ve characterized this as your critics HERE saying you are “bashing Nintendo” which I believe so far nobody’s accused you of.
These two points are unrelated to each other.
But, I suppose there’s no point in arguing anymore. We’ve crossed the rubicon once insults enter. I do not wish to insult, nor do I wish to be insulted in online debates, so I’ll darken your doorstep no further.
Looming turd? Wait a sec, Jack..
*watches the latest gameplay trailer..for the umpteenth time*
No, no, I don’t see the resemblance. I see a Metroid game, not a turd. Is it any wonder you’re being attacked then?
“These two points are unrelated to each other.”
That’s just it, Jeff: if Jack wasn’t the type that was prone to 180 mood swings and irrational arguments (i.e., Hardcore behavior) he would haven’t even made this point. The fact that he posts so very often about this so-called Pokemonesque teen anime-coated looming turd–to me that indicates that his frustration with Other M has reached such depths that his posts on the subject can no longer be rational; he is simply ranting and raving. If Jack would spend more time actually explaining why this game will fail instead of insulting the game and/or us, we might not even be having these discussions.
Wouldn’t it be delightful, where Other M is concerned, this were more like a regular blog instead of a depository for “ARRGGH! THIS IS POKEMON KIDDIE BULLSHIT!!!!!”? Not only is that the kind of comment one would expect from the “hardcore douchebags” that Jack hates so much, it’s hard for me to look at the any of the trailers–gameplay or story–and take such remarks seriously.
“So who would the “hardcore Douchebags” be in this instance, Jack? Me? Are you seriously calling me a “douchebag” because I disagree with you, no matter how forcefully?”
I’m baffled how someone could be so insecure and/or full of themselves that they’d believe a particular tag on this blog was somehow passively aggressively about them. If I wanted to single you out on this meager little blog, believe me I’d do it, thanks very much.
Apply the category to the post. In this case I am being labeled rather “hardcore” in my beliefs about Other M, hence the tag.
But, by all means, assume away!
“Looming turd? Wait a sec, Jack..
*watches the latest gameplay trailer..for the umpteenth time*”
But Poochy, this is EXACTLY what I did! It still stinks, but that’s just,like, my opinion, man.
No, I think you’re confusing the story trailer for the gameplay trailer. To this day you have said nada, nothing, zilch about the gameplay. You’re so hung up on “teh anime kiddie bullshitz” that I don’t think you’ve even been paying attention to the gameplay videos or to people’s E3 impressions of the game.
What did I say again?
*watches the latest GAMEPLAY trailer..for the umpteenth time*”
If that’s EXACTLY what you did, then please, humor us for a spell: tell us WHY it still stinks in your, like, opinion, man.
Poochy, I’m pretty sure in one of my “bipolar” spells, to quote someone else, I actually lauded the return to 2D.
However, in that same breath, I’ve also said (in the past on Infendo, et al), that as good as that looked, I was so put off by the fluff and filler that Team Ninja had wrapped around it that I’d be incapable of like the game as a whole.
So, no, saying that I’ve said zilch about the gameplay is simply not true. And, as I’ve said countless times before, I’ll also fire off a quick acknowledgement to guys like you should I play it later this month and have it surprise me. Chances of that are slim to none of that happening, in my opinion, man, but I’ll honor my word ;-)
Let me get that:
“intellectually dishonest in your premature and extreme [admiration] of a game that’s not even out yet.”
There.
I saw Other M for the first time in person at San Diego Comic Con and I came away more worried than relieved. I loked older Metroids because you kinda hit the ground running. Even the Prime games (sans 3) do this.
Other M had the pace of any other ho-hum Serious Business game. A long stretch of hand holding and coddling and nonthreatening encounters spaced out between lots of flat “exploring” leading to a boss. The boss? This team of space marines help Samus out and she’s given “authorization” to use one of her weapons…
…it was just…weird. I never cared much about the Metroid mythos. My attraction was always in the atmosphere and isolation created. The looming feeling of panic because You’re on Your Own…all of that seems nonexistent in Other M.
Right, because Team Ninja believes that when a woman is your central character she needs to explore her feelings.
Mark my words, Other M will be remembered as Nintendo’s ill-conceived attempt to satiate the “hardcore” crowd with “story” and “maturity” when all the series really needed was a great, isolating 2D platformer. Ironically, this would have been the more mature, challenging approach all along.
And I’ll never get over this: Authorization to user her weapons? I already knew about that, but still… I still shake my head.
This is also troubling, especially since game play seems to be the one thing still holding this game up (at least for me):
It almost sounds like Gears of War. Staged fight scenes, big boss battle where you shoot weak spots for massive damage, all the while being overall unfulfilling and ultimately forgettable.
Again, I’m angry because I’m passionate about the series. Or at least, passionate about what the series was.
“Or at least, passionate about what the series was.”
….in 1986.
You are indeed passionate about Metroid, in the same way many people say they are Sonic fans when they were really only ever passionate about Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In Sonic’s case you got these so-called “fans” that with each new Sonic game clamor for things to return to the way things were in the first two games, and then there’s everyone else–the people who never stopped playing, who played Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, etc..
Since the presence of a —*gasp*—”story” in a Metroid game (which is tradishunally about fast-paced alien blastin, hur-hur!!) bothers you so much, what Metroid games HAVE you played?
Let me guess: you haven’t been able to get into side-scrolling Metroid since Super Metroid, since Sakamoto went and ruined Fusion with cutscenes and dialogue, right? But while people like you were waiting with bated breath for Nintendo to turn back the hands of time and bring you a *new* Metroid game chock full of 1990′s core values, there’s been a growing Metroid internet fanbase, writing stories and drawing artwork of Samus Aran and her adventures. While you were waiting for the arrival of a Metroid game that would remind you of good ol’ 1986, Nintendo released official comic-book and manga adaptions of several Metroid games (at least one of which was co-written by Yoshio Sakamoto) and Metroid fans–the TRUE fans that have stuck by the series side, unlike you–have gobbled it all up.
So…while people like you, Kevin, and Terebi sigh for the demise of what you think Metroid once was, while you roll your eyes in disgust at this game that revels in the Metroid “mythos”…..I am not impressed. If anything I’m saddened that there are fellow Metroid fans who have resigned themselves to their self-determined fate of not enjoying the game due to the presence of a story (which is Pokémon-like, of course, and not at all standard, par-for-the-course sci-fi fare), regardless of whether the game is even fun or not!
And now, since I’ve run out of things to say, I give you a bit of prose:
“Dur-hur”, quoth the Hardcore Metroid of ’86 Gamer, his head drooped beneath his shoulders, drooling on the latest copy of EGM that lay open at his desk.
“Dur-hur-hur at these silly, childish anime graphics and emotional storytelling. What this game needs is guns and testosterone. Guns and testosterone, I say!”
“I do not care for female emotions!”, screamed he.
“I did not feel anything when the baby Metroid died, nor was I aware that ye olde Metroid games had such things as storylines and characters!”, he raged, slamming his fists on his keyboard. “Shit of the bull, I say! Shit of the bull!”
Composing himself, he then muttered “Metroid has always been about Metroids and no one cares about Samus Aran as a character. The idea of giving video game characters extra dimension is utterly preposterous and since I say so everyone must say so, or suffer the most disreputable of titles: “Hardcore Douche Bag”.
“And I know a thing or two about Douche Bags”.
“there’s been a growing Metroid internet fanbase, writing stories and drawing artwork of Samus Aran and her adventures.”
I think this is the dividing point. You give much more importance to the internet community than we do. Are they enough to make Other M a success? Are they millions? Are they going to buy the game, instead of pirating it?
“resigned themselves to their self-determined fate of not enjoying the game due to the presence of a story”
Give a little more credit to people. After playing, they will enjoy the game if it is to their liking. Don’t “worry” about me or them. Haven’t you hear about “low expectations”?
I worry, because I know word-of-mouth can make or break a game. I have no doubt that the Metroid fan community will support this game–it’s sites like Infendo (I’m sure JACK will be the one to review the game), Kotaku, 1UP, etc. that I worry about. Ever since I saw what the gaming press did to Wind Waker (a fun, fantastically well-made Zelda game if I ever saw one) over it’s cell-shaded graphics, I have been admittedly paranoid over the opinions of people who I believe hold sway in the industry who prematurely criticize games that I happen to or am confident that I will love. The idea of attacking a Metroid game for being infused with traditional core Metroid values–fast action, creepy environments and an engaging story/mythos–is in my mind, preposterous. And yet this anti-Core Metroid Values disease has been spreading from the moment Sean Malstrom opened his fat, uninformed mouth.
Am I wrong for wanting to control how people feel about this game, and for letting it affect me so personally? Absolutely. But as a devoted fan of the series (and ALL that it has to offer), I’m not content to sit back and let these so-called Metroid fans bash a game that for all intents and purposes looks to be the next logical evolutionary leap for the series.
Again, using Wind Waker as an example, I looked past the art design of the game and judged the game for how fun it was/how much replay value there was, and what happened? Because of the backlash against the art style and a ridiculous petition organized by IGN against the inclusion of Tingle in future games, many of my favorite elements in Wind Waker have yet to return in a console Zelda and Nintendo is now more doggedly determined than ever to make Ocarina of Time 2.0 (since that is what “Zelda fans” seemed to be crying for when they buried Wind Waker with criticism).
I’ve seen how internet feedback can influence Nintendo, so I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be quiet like I was when the Wind Waker controversy took place. If the whiners are going to whine, I might as well join in–on the opposing team. If people are going to argue against what I feel is the first TRUE Metroid game since Fusion (and be honest…it is), I will argue for it. If people will bury the game and it’s creators with insults, I will bury the game with praise. For a hardcore fan of *anything*, there is no greater calling than to support that which you’re a fan of. It’s only natural.
“I worry, because I know word-of-mouth can make or break a game.”
Yes, it can make or break, but word-of-mouth is not what some guys say on a magazine or forum, or what some company puts on its website. Word-of-mouth is more like what people you “know” say to you, and it is what you “see” for yourself in the field.
I don’t know what break Wind Waker, but is very unlikely that it was the internet. I understand how it can seem like it was the internet to you, but if the Wii and some of its games have showed something, it is that the “internet” (e.g. gaming forums, gaming websites) have little influence on games people play, besides those more “core”.
I can tell you the case of my girlfriend, which is NOT a seasoned gamer. She started playing Wind Waker, and she found the looks fantastic. She really really really wanted to play it, but could not pass the initial “stealth” phase (even after pouring time on it). I passed that part, but she found the game to be “too difficult” (her words) for her and never got to it again. A potential “fan” that never got to be.
Probably you looked past some stuff before getting into the game (the 1-hour introductory stealth game?). You cannot ask the same from people who do not usually play. Why should they be wasting 2 hours in the same section if they could see a movie or two House episodes in the same time?