Metroid Database.com

Here's a sophomoric, but mostly informative writeup of that I site's impressions of M:OM. A word to the wise: There are spoilers.

Excerpts of note:

• "I found myself smiling at all of the phenomenal cut-scenes and the fact that Samus herself takes on genuine depth and layers via an inner-monologue, all of it voiced convincingly. But it's also got the exploration factor and that eerie, lingering sense of isolation that permeates the Metroid games. It's all wrapped in a beautiful graphical package that stomps all over the majority of titles filling Wii's library."


• "if you charge your beam completely and then switch to morph ball, Samus will automatically lay four or five bombs circling her perimeter, which is a great way to quickly dispose of enemies." (aka, THE RETURN OF BOMB ASSIST!)


• "The design of the world -- stretching in every direction, separated by doorways (some of which are locked), multi-tiered -- facilitates exploration, which was a previous point of skepticism for me. Nintendo reps on hand said that the demo only represents the very beginning of the game -- by comparison, the first 45 minutes of Metroid Prime, at which time exploration has only just begun. Based on that, I do indeed expect a grand adventure worthy of the series. My feeling now so far is that Other M plays a lot like a Super Metroid reborn with 3D elements -- there's really no way to criticize that."

Controls are surprisingly simple: the Wiimote is held sideways! D-pad is movement and 1 and 2 are shoot and jump, respectively. Special moves like Power Bombs are activated by holding down the 1 button for a period of time. Morph balling is accomplished with the A button, and 1st Person Mode is accessed just by pointing the Wiimote at your television (This technique was accomplished very well in Super Paper Mario). Though it's not mentioned, I'm guessing the minus (-) button allows you to switch to missiles and the plus (+) button allows you access to your map/status screen.

Also, Remember Me Guy's name is FINALLY revealed to be Anthony Higgs...which is coincidentally the same initials as the NP Super Metroid comic's Armstrong Houston!

We'll be keeping you up to date on all the news as soon as it becomes available. June 26 can't come ANY sooner!

--Infinity's End