Is it just me, or does something seem a little off about Metroid: Other M? It’s subtle, so bear with me for a moment.

According to 1up, the game will open by revisiting the climactic finale of Super Metroid. If you weren’t gaming in the mid-90′s (poor soul), here’s the cliff’s notes: intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran exterminated every Metroid on their homeworld, but the last larva hatched and imprinted on her. It was later abducted by space pirates, but the larva remembered Samus and sacrificed itself to protect her from series adversary Mother Brain. It’s one of the first good examples of integrated nonverbal storytelling in gaming, and it tugs at old gamers’ heartstrings. A followup has been a long time coming, so that’s all well and good.

Now consider that Other M developer Team Ninja is making a significant departure from Metroid as it has been previously established. The first series of games were 2D platformers, and Retro Studios adapted the series to 3D in the Metroid Prime trilogy as a deliberative FPS. Metroid: Other M is again another beast. It’s pacing the game to be more action-oriented, and pitting Samus against waves of enemies. At the same time, the controls are being scaled down to the sideways Wii remote, so the mechanics are being built with an eye to accessibility over control. It should be interesting to see how the new approach plays out, and history will do the critical analysis of what worked and didn’t. However, Team Ninja will almost certainly make a better game by following their creative vision than by making concessions to reactionary fans.

So what’s the problem?

These two facts don’t fit well together. Making an appeal to Super Metroid invokes older series tenets. Following that invocation with a drastic change in pacing and mechanics is like leading gamers down the garden path. Even if the lead-in is good and the game is good, the jarring shift from one to the other may leave players feeling duped. When Retro made Metroid Prime, they made a break with series continuity by hollowing out a space in the story and building their own game inside it (hence the prime). Team Ninja may be building themselves a cage of expectations, and they’re courting gamer ire if they can’t escape it.

I really hope they can.

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