Zelda 25th Anniversary website is up and running, what's a Metroid?

[Yggdrasil]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/zelda25th/

This is cool and all that, but...



Metroid 25th anniversary |OT| Gaf does what Nintendon't

[Prime Mover]

No kidding. Metroid REALLY needs some love these days, especially handheld love.

[Maxximum]

Both awesome franchises. I grew up with these games, but didn't really catch the bug until my SNES days. That's when I fell in love with both Zelda and Metroid. Ocarina of Time was the first game I ever pre-ordered. Funny thing is that I got so hyped for it that, despite being a great game, it failed to live up to my expectations. When they said the world was so huge it took a whole day to traverse it, I really thought they meant 24 hours. It was somewhat true, it did take a day. Problem being, that it was an in game day which only lasted a few minutes of real time. I still loved it, but it was nothing like i imagined it would be. Metroid Prime was a different story. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I was leaning towards a generic FPS in the Metroid universe. I managed to snag the Trilogy edition for a good price. Gave it a quick play, wasn't really that impressed, and then planted it on my waiting list while I went about finishing other games. When I finally got around to playing more than a few minutes, I realised why this game got so much praise. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't playing an FPS with a Metroid setting. I was playing a real deal Metroid game from an FPS POV. I still have not finished the first one because the game is huge and I like to take my time and explore everything to find all the hidden goodies. But now, just the thought that I still have two more Primes waiting for me on the same disk makes me as giddy as a litte girl at a Barbie doll expo. I've heard some less than flattering opinions about Other M, but I still intend to buy and beat it. Same goes for Twilight Princess, and I really like what I've seen of Skyward Sword so far. Over the years, I started to lose interest in Nintendo. But as long as these titles live, the big N's dot won't vanish from my radar.

[Yggdrasil]

Metroid: Other M - The Elephant in the Room

In where we discover that Yoshio Sakamoto has serious problem in his little head.

[Aeolus]

For the 25th anniversary, the Zelda collectors edition will consist of that GCN Zelda collection disk (not the OoT/MQ pre-order bonus that Windwaker came with, and also no bug fixes for games like Majora's Mask) a letter from Zelda, an 8 page artbook/developer interview book that'll get leaked long before the game hits the shelves, and at least two limited print runs.

On the upside, it'll have a decent box.

[Maxximum]

For the 25th anniversary, the Zelda collectors edition will consist of that GCN Zelda collection disk (not the OoT/MQ pre-order bonus that Windwaker came with, and also no bug fixes for games like Majora's Mask) a letter from Zelda, an 8 page artbook/developer interview book that'll get leaked long before the game hits the shelves, and at least two limited print runs.

On the upside, it'll have a decent box.

I get the feeling you're not too impressed with this package.

[Ashtrot]

Metroid: Other M - The Elephant in the Room

In where we discover that Yoshio Sakamoto has serious problem in his little head.

Yeah, a writer he is not. Let's just hope it's the result of a shitty writing ability and not misogyny.

[Eusis]

Metroid: Other M - The Elephant in the Room

In where we discover that Yoshio Sakamoto has serious problem in his little head.

Yeah, a writer he is not. Let's just hope it's the result of a shitty writing ability and not misogyny.

I imagine if he were truly misogynist Samus wouldn't have been female in the first place. Probably is a case of where he likes the idea of a strong, well developed female character but can't actually write one without making her look bad.

[Prime Mover]

I imagine if he were truly misogynist Samus wouldn't have been female in the first place. Probably is a case of where he likes the idea of a strong, well developed female character but can't actually write one without making her look bad.

And the final possibility...

Bureaucracy ruins everything. Even though Sakamoto is credited as the lead writer, often group mentalities, rushed timelines, and conflicting internal pressures result in strange decisions that really noone intended. Just look at Final Fantasy XIII. I refuse to believe that ANYONE in the FF13 team was happy with what came out of the story in that game... but it happened. I suspect that Other M was also a victim of bad group decision making. What was brought to the table as an interesting analogy to motherhood (which was done well in Aliens with Ripley and Newt), got completely blown out of proportion before anyone could really stop it. What was supposed to be an emotional flashback into Samus's traumatic childhood became a gross deprecation of her present character. What was supposed to be a complex, but ultimately positive father/daughter relationship ended up being pounded into a cold, abusive one. It's hard for me to believe that when the team stepped back to finally look at this as a whole, that they were happy with what they had done. This wreaks of the common mistakes that get made in badly managed team decision making. This accounts for a good 95% of all bad storytelling in movies/games.

It's hard for me to really, truly think of Sakamoto, individually, as a outwardly misogynistic asshole, or a complete hack... no one person would create a story that full of problems. More likely, it paints the picture of a director with very bad management skills who didn't have the ability to rally his team around a centrally cohesive idea, get them on the same track, and inspire them to use good judgement. This is not to diminish his blame... HE FUCKED UP, BIG TIME... but I would suspect that for different reasons than most are giving.