Game:

Metroid: Other M (2010)

Duration: 22:47

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2

Samus's Log: "Why....why won't you die? It isn't fair! No matter how many times I kill you, you find a way to return. We're destined to do this forever, aren't we? A phantom that haunts every dark corner of my mind. I WILL stop you, even if it kills me."

This video is QUITE boss filled. First, ANOTHER encounter with Rhedogian...this thing won't let up! More homing missiles, and now it's adding in a fancy dash to dodge my shots, so I'll have to fire right out of a Sense Move. At least all these fights feel SOMEWHAT different.

But now we get to the REAL meat of this video, one of the most controversial cutscenes in the entire game. This creature that's been slowly evolving and evading us this whole time....has become Ridley, one of Samus's most deadly foes.

Now, the fight itself is actually pretty good. Good music, decently tough, and full of cool moments. Its really a pretty good representation of Ridley's abilities from past games. The Plasma Beam here (thanks Adam! *rolls eyes*) does the most reliable damage, really. The Super Missile (uh...thanks again, Adam?) takes a little too long to charge up. That said, at times Ridley takes on a...dark shielding that makes the Plasma Beam bounce off. For that, you need the Super Missile. That command grab is a tad annoying...good callback to the Ridley fight in Super Smash Bros. Brawl though!

Now...let's get to the REAL gripe here. Ridley appears in all his terrifying glory...and Samus freaks out, turning into a little girl. This scene makes absolutely no sense....unless one has read a fairly obscure manga that detail's the early years of Samus. In this manga, which Other M does seem to draw from in some respects, it is shown that Ridley killed and ate Samus's human parents right in front of her as a child. This would explain her freakout....to a point. But there's some big problems here.

In a game that's supposed to be all about fleshing out Samus, where she's narrated the brutally obvious and generally exposition is flung around everywhere....why is THIS the point where they refuse to elaborate? For something that seems REALLY important to Samus's character, I find it insulting it's confined to a very obscure manga that was never even given a release outside of Japan.

Even IF we ignore this, there's some inconsistencies here. Why would Samus break down here? Even if you don't take the Prime games as canon (and I don't see why you couldn't), Samus has fought Ridley at least twice before this point. It'd be one thing if this was the first time Samus encountered Ridley since her childhood, but this clearly isn't the case.

Overall, this leads to a very unfortunate implication that they HAVE to present Samus as fragile, and that she needs a man to save her. Speaking of, Anthony's about the only good thing in this scene...too bad he's dead. Why is it that Samus will reference Anthony's death, but says NOTHING about her freak out? Overall, the entire scene feels like it comes out of nowhere.

THIS is one of the worst scenes in Other M in my opinion. It shows a gross misunderstanding of Samus as a character, and how to convey that character. I have to wonder if maybe more exposition was cut from this scene, and if so, it was the wrong way to go. At least it's over...oh wait, Ridley escaped... Dammit.

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