Did Other M Kill Metroid?

Ah, Metroid. The science fiction cornerstone of Nintendo. My first ever game from this series officially was Metroid Prime 3. I say this cause I had owned a few in the past but didn't beat them. I had gotten the first Metroid Prime many years ago, but had traded it to someone for Shadow the Hedgehog. Never did get past the second level....and now my gamer pride is destroyed. Hey, I was young and didn't get puzzle games like that or Ocarina of Time. (Which I had given away, I miss that game. At least I'll be getting the 3DS port soon enough.) Anyways, I don't remember exactly when, but it was at least six years ago when I got Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. Again, I didn't quite get far in those and they laid dormant in the draw for years. It wasn't until 2008, when I moved to New Jersey that I started really becoming a fan of the series. On New Year's Eve, I had gotten Metroid Prime 3. It was one of the greatest Wii experiences I ever had, from the awesome intro to the hard-as-heck final boss. It took me sometime to beat it. After that, I went straight back to the Game Boy advance games and conquered them both. Around that time, I had purchased Hunters. (Best multiplayer on the DS ever.) Now we enter 2010, a great year year for Nintendo maniacs like myself. Super Mario Galaxy 2 AND Metroid Other M. (Only thing missing was Zelda, we wouldn't get it until a year later.) Other M was an ambitious project. Retro Studios, the geniuses behind the Prime series would not be doing it, instead a more 'hardcore' company in the form of Team Ninja was going to do it. This game was getting pretty big hype back two years ago, based on footage and interviews it was going to be a very story driven game, and Samus was going to talk! Metroid Other M released August 31st, and opened to positive reception on the gameplay. The story? Not so much. While it didn't 'bomb' in the sense like Battleship did, by Nintendo standards, it didn't do that well. The company literally didn't understand why an intended blockbuster game like Other M didn't sell as expected. To this day, the game (mainly its story and portrayal of Ms. Aran) is hated on. E3 just passed with some great upcoming titles. We have two new Mario games, even Pikmin 3 was announced. Prior to that, word on the street was that Zelda would be getting a 3DS game AND a Wii U game. So Nintendo....what about our bounty hunter?

Did Other M Kill Metroid?

You notice how no one is talking about Metroid anymore? Mario has always been the main subject, and thanks to the success of Skyward Sword, Link is enjoying a prospering time. Metroid on the other hand is a little in the dead zone. Star Fox was the other science fiction cornerstone of Nintendo. Do you what happened? A bad apple in the form of Command halted the franchise. Sure, the series got a re-release of the 64 one for the 3DS early last year, but that's it. Can you really see Star Fox getting a new game anytime soon? Yes? No? Maybe? F-Zero died many years ago, Star Fox is a property that has faded away just like it. Metroid seems to be a property approaching the same predicament. But why? Other M killed it. But could have there been other factors?

It was a three year gap between Corruption and Other M. The latter looked to deepen the series a bit, namely with Samus. Unfortunately they turned a tough-as-nails bounty hunter into an insecure girl. It was pretty sad. However, besides that, I thought the game was well-done. Gameplay was excellent, story was intriguing, and it really made the player feel like they were in a desolated place in the middle of nowhere. Alas, it under-performed according to Nintendo. The sales were disappointing, by November 2010 it had failed to sell half a million copies in the US. By July 16th, Super Mario Galaxy 2, which had released May 23rd, had sold a million copies! Looking at it that way, Other M really under-performed. Maybe if Prime 4 had come out instead would you be reading this editorial? Maybe. But it could also be that Metroid is no longer a selling title. It could be, like with F-Zero and Star Fox, the fan-base has died down and there are no more stories to be told.

So did Other M kill the Metroid series? I'm going to go ahead and say yes, it was a major factor. Who knows, maybe we'll see Metroid Dread come to fruition in the future. We'll see Ms. Aran in the next Smash Bros. outing, but we may never see her in her own title again. Maybe it'll take a twenty year break and come back with a fresh start, I bet no one thought Kid Icarus would come back. So maybe Metroid will come back in the far future. Or maybe I'm over-thinking this whole thing and we'll here tomorrow that Metroid Dread is coming spring 2013. But in all honesty, I see Metroid joining the deceased F-Zero and dying Star Fox.