Nintendo's Alien

I'm playing Metroid: Other M and once again I'm reminded that Metroid is Nintendo's answer to Alien. There are many problems this game has, but ambiance and mood are not among them. This game has a way of making me feel uncomfortable, like something is out to get me.

There are federation soldiers that you come across and there are cut scenes now (Not the first time, I think Metroid Prime 3 you also encountered bounty hunters), plus flashbacks to let you in on more of Samus's back story. They flesh out the character of Adam Malkovich, who we first met in Metroid Fusion as the computer.

As I said, aside from the problems, there is a lot to like in this game. Samus now literally kicks ass. Team Ninja have brought into play some fighting moves. Samus always jumped and fired. She had gadgets that let her do double jumps and space jumps and attack in her jumps. She had gun upgrades and bomb upgrades. This time around she has melee attacks, automatic animations where you see Samus get down and dirty in her fighting. If you charge a shot and approach an enemy, you'll get to see Samus jump on top of the enemy, put her gun against his head, or even right up to his gaping mouth, and just blow him away. In one case, I've seen Samus rip off the wings of a space pirate bug looking thing. It's really quite cool. Add to that split second dodging to get out f the way of attacks and Samus comes closer to the ass kicker we see in Smash Bros.

More soon.