| 1 | ! Spoilers for all ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' works preceding this one, specifically ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', will be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned! |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/metroid_other_m.png]] |
| 4 | [[caption-width-right:350:The tale of Samus can now be told.]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ->''"Any objections, lady?"'' |
| 7 | -->-- '''Adam Malkovich''' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Released in 2010, ''Metroid: Other M'' is the second original ''{{Franchise/Metroid}}'' game released for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, following ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption''. The first and only 3D non-''Prime'' entry in the franchise, the game is a third person action-adventure/platform game developed by Nintendo SPD in collaboration with Team Ninja (of ''{{VideoGame/Dead or Alive}}'' fame) and animation studio D-Rockets under the name "Project M". |
| 10 | |
| 11 | After the events of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', Samus Aran is contemplative about her final battle against [[BigBad Mother]] [[BrainInAJar Brain]] and the death of the infant Metroid. With both the Metroids and the Space Pirates no longer a threat, she spends quite some time drifting through space and dwelling on these thoughts until she picks up a {{distress call}} from a decommissioned biological research station known as the Bottle Ship and sets out to investigate. Once there, she encounters a [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]] platoon that also picked up the signal, and also happens to include some familiar faces from Samus' military past: Anthony Higgs, her best friend from the academy, and Adam Malkovich, her former commanding officer. While she's happy to reunite with the former, she has mixed feelings about seeing the latter again, with him being incredibly cold and dismissive in return. However, as they begrudgingly work together to figure out the truth about the facility's operations following a surprise monster attack, Samus finds herself forced to come to terms with the events surrounding her military past as well. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | !!This game contains examples of: |
| 15 | * EleventhHourSuperpower: The Power Bomb is only usable during the tutorial, [[spoiler:the battle with the Queen Metroid and the epilogue]], but is by far the most destructive weapon in Samus' arsenal. |
| 16 | * HundredPercentCompletion: Collecting all items in the game will unlock the path to a TrueFinalBoss ([[spoiler:Phantoon, of ''Super Metroid'' fame]]) and ending. Since all items minus the essential powerups are absent in Hard Mode, the game lacks a PlayableEpilogue (including the aforementioned TrueFinalBoss) in that mode, which ends after the defeat of the standard FinalBoss. |
| 17 | * AbandonedLaboratory: The game takes place in a station quite similar to the one from Fusion, used as a laboratory for researching biological weapons. In fact, it appears to be the predecessor to the secret research carried out on the B.S.L station. The specific sectors intersect with other tropes: JungleJapes (Biosphere), SlippySlideyIceWorld (Cryosphere), and LethalLavaLand (Pyrosphere). |
| 18 | * AbilityMixing: Like in ''Super'', once Samus has the Charge Beam and Morph Ball Bomb upgrades, entering Morph Ball mode with a fully charged beam will cause her to disperse the energy by laying five bombs at once (which, unusually, do not float in midair like normal). |
| 19 | * AbortedArc: The sub-plot with The Deleter just kind of cuts off, but with the clues presented it becomes easy to figure out the Deleter's identity and what ultimately happened to him. [[spoiler:Of the last two plausible suspects, one (K.G.) was dumped in the lava by the Deleter, and Samus never found out what happened to him. James, the last remaining suspect, is found having clearly not been thrown in lava; thus, he has to have been the one]]. Neither Samus herself, nor any other character for that matter, ever mentions the Deleter past the point where the sub-plot drops off, though. |
| 20 | * ActionCommands: Samus's dodge-roll maneuver grants her a few frames of invincibility and charges up her beam cannon instantly. In some cases it even becomes ''literally'' PressXToNotDie. |
| 21 | * ActionGirl: Samus, of course. This game's heavier emphasis on fighting really highlights her combat prowess in a way that hadn't been done in previous titles. |
| 22 | * ActionizedSequel: In sharp contrast to previous ''Metroid'' titles, this is a full-blown action game, with heavy emphasis on combat. Almost all the exploration elements the series is known for were saved for the PlayableEpilogue, when Samus' actions are no longer being restricted by the MissionControl. |
| 23 | * AdaptationalCurves: Before ''Other M'', Samus was portrayed with a slender yet muscular physique with a large bust. Here Samus is given a more realistic body with a smaller bust but with more pronounced legs and [[MaleGaze backside]]. |
| 24 | * AddedAlliterativeAppeal: One that is somewhat PlayedForLaughs: the '''S'''eriously '''S'''ophisticated '''S'''ecurity '''S'''ystem. |
| 25 | * AerithAndBob: All the Federation soldiers have normal names (Adam, James, Anthony, etc.) compared to Samus. |
| 26 | * AesopAmnesia: [[spoiler:In spite of the trouble the Galactic Federation had with Metroids, Space Pirates, and Mother Brain, replicas are deliberately made of ''all three'' (with an accidental Ridley clone to rub salt on the wound)]]. |
| 27 | * AfterBossRecovery: The game shows a notable aversion for the series. This is due to there being no health and missile pickups whatsoever, because of a technique called Concentration where you can restore health and missiles. Restoring health is only at critical damage, though, and sometimes you're automatically healed anyway. |
| 28 | * AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:MB's interaction with the Metroids led her to develop a personality of her own and start objecting against her creator's original plans]]. |
| 29 | * AIRoulette: The main storyline's final battle. Your objective is to blast the Desbrachians out of the way so that Samus can aim at [[spoiler:MB]], but said enemies behave erratically. There is a chance they will focus exclusively on the G.F. troopers, turning the battle into a ZeroEffortBoss; but they can also gang up on the player, making it near impossible to take out the real target. |
| 30 | * AlreadyDoneForYou: |
| 31 | ** Halfway through the game, the Deleter is introduced. Figuring out his identity and stopping him from destroying the evidence aboard the Bottle Ship becomes one of Samus' priorities, but [[spoiler:he is ultimately KilledOffscreen by [=MB=] not long after]]. |
| 32 | ** Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:[=MB=] informs Samus about Sector Zero, the place on the ship where Metroids are being bred. The protagonist makes her way there, but is stopped by Adam just before she can enter it. Knowing that the only way to kill the genetically engineered Metroids would be by causing the sector to self-destruct, he incapacitates Samus and takes her place in the suicide mission]]. |
| 33 | ** Once [[spoiler:Sector Zero has been destroyed]], Samus turns her attention to [[spoiler:Ridley]], who is injured from the previous battle, but still considered the biggest threat aboard the Bottle Ship. [[spoiler:By the time she finally finds him, he has been reduced to a decaying corpse, courtesy of having his life force drained by the Queen Metroid]]. |
| 34 | * AmbushingEnemy: the Grippers, which pretend to be random flowers growing in the background before jumping out and attacking when you walk past. |
| 35 | * AntiClimax: The game sets up several sub-plots only for most of them to be resolved off-screen by someone other than Samus. |
| 36 | ** The plot twist of [[spoiler:Sector Zero existing as a breeding area for Metroids]]. Samus never enters it, as [[spoiler:Adam steps in to blow it up from the inside]]. |
| 37 | ** The revelation that there is a traitor among Adam's team. [[spoiler:Samus herself never learns his true identity, and he is killed by MB.]] |
| 38 | ** After all the build up to the final battle against the true antagonist, [[spoiler:Samus has no input whatsoever, as MB is frozen by Madeline, after which TheCavalry finishes her off.]] |
| 39 | ** Samus' quest to [[spoiler:defeat Ridley once and for all and avenge Anthony's death]] is cut short when [[spoiler:he is killed by the Metroid Queen]]. |
| 40 | * AntiFrustrationFeature: If you reach the final phase of the Queen Metroid fight with less than two tanks worth of health, Samus will automatically refill her health via Concentration during the cutscene so that you have enough energy to survive being inside the queen while readying a Power Bomb. |
| 41 | * AnyoneCanDie: Out of the seven who enter the Bottle Ship at the beginning, only Samus and Anthony make it out. |
| 42 | * ArbitraryEquipmentRestriction: The game's justification as to why you're starting from scratch with power-ups: Samus refuses to use her perfectly-functioning weapons and abilities until Adam, her (temporary) commanding officer, gives her permission. While this can be hand-waved as being for safety purposes (so her super missiles don't accidentally blow up the station), it makes zero sense when she dies from heat exhaustion in lava-filled rooms because Adam has not yet told her, "Hey, you should probably turn on your heat-resistant Varia suit now." |
| 43 | * ArbitraryMissionRestriction: |
| 44 | ** Played straight with a paper-thin {{justifi|edTrope}}cation. In most ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, Samus finds new items throughout the game which she uses to power up her suit and then has for the rest of the game. In this game, Samus has ALL her powers from the beginning, but depending on the point in the story or section of the game, she can only use the power-ups her commanding officer Adam Malkovitch allows her to use. |
| 45 | ** The restriction fails to stay consistent when Samus finds a brand new power-up like the Diffusion Beam, and immediately activates it without waiting for Adam's permission. And then, while Samus does activate a power on her own after [[spoiler:losing contact with Adam]], even after [[spoiler:Adam ''dies'', leaving Samus with no supervision,]] Samus still refuses to turn on the [[spoiler:Power Bomb]] until she absolutely has to use it. |
| 46 | * ArcWords: [[DrinkingGame Take a shot]] every time you hear the word "Baby." |
| 47 | * ArmedWithCanon |
| 48 | ** Creator/YoshioSakamoto stated that Samus' depiction in the game is the "true Samus", effectively contradicting many of her other canon and non-canon depictions. The first scene changes the ending to ''Videogame/SuperMetroid'' compared to ''Super Metroid'''s treatment of the prior to games. The gravity suit no longer exists because it was deemed too strange for Samus to be colored purple, in defiance of Nintendo's official specification. The so called "zero suit" was given high heel like wedges, despite the design notes from ''Videogame/MetroidZeroMission'' specifically telling the sprite artists not to add such a thing. Samus is noticeably shorter and slimmer than many other soldiers, especially unarmored, where previously she had been on par or noticeably larger than all but a few bounty hunters, and was fairly bulky even unarmored in some ''Super Metroid'' and ''Metroid Zero Mission''-''Metroid Fusion'' [[OldSaveBonus linked]] ending pictures. The very first game's manual described health and ammo pickups as a function of her suit, where such pickups could be scanned in ''Videogame/MetroidPrime'' and adapting to circumstance in ''Videogame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', but are totally absent here in favor of a crystal flash like recovery that isn't fueled by ammunition but "concentration". ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' comics likened fighting Samus to fighting a tank but she suffers more damage and KnockBack in this game than any before it and performs many more acrobatic manuevers. The biggest nonvisual/gameplay alterations are Samus's personality as compared to the original manga and her personal history. Her time as a police officer in an {{interservice rivalry}} with the military she personally provoked, as well as her up bringing with the Chozo, is excised and ignored, respectively. Samus also lacks ShroudedInMyth status she had in the first game's manual, that was expanded upon in ''Videogame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. |
| 49 | ** The attributes of Metroid instars have been changed to suit the story, though to be fair ''that'' started with ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'''s Omega Metroid being vulnerable to ice. Nonetheless ice immunity is now revealed to be a shocking development and the queen metroid's behavior only superficially resembles that of ''Metroid II Return Of Samus''. |
| 50 | * ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Hologram generators help mask the fact that all of the rooms are in a space station. Finding and deactivating them is needed to reach the exit of the room. |
| 51 | * ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Defied, FrontLineGeneral aside- Samus is essentially working with Adam's unit as a private military contractor. Once she agreed to work with them, she followed Adam's orders and adheres to the mission parameters, like any other military contractor would be required to do. |
| 52 | * AudienceShift: To counter a history of low sales in its native land, the game was designed to appeal to Japanese audiences with a stronger emphasis on story and a more linear style of gameplay. |
| 53 | * AutomaticNewGame: You are given the option to turn on the subtitles, then you're thrown straight into the intro. Bypassing even the title screen! |
| 54 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Anthony's Plasma Cannon is the most powerful weapon in his arsenal, but takes a long time to charge. This becomes plot-critical when [[spoiler:he confronts Ridley, as he misses his first shot and is unable to fire another one before the villain knocks him into a lava pit]]. |
| 55 | %%* BackToBackBadasses: Samus and Anthony in one of the trailers. |
| 56 | * BadassAdorable: "Little Birdie" is a tiny ball of fur with chicken legs, but this KillerRabbit grows up ''fast'' to become [[spoiler:Ridley]]. The fact that he would have eaten any who tried aside, it almost makes him huggable. |
| 57 | * BagOfSpilling: DoubleSubversion. Samus retains all her upgrades from ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', but she needs Adam's authorization to use them. In practice, it works the same way; you still need to reach certain points to use certain abilities. Oddly though, Samus arbitrarily decides to impose these restrictions on ''herself'' before ever officially teaming up with Adam. |
| 58 | * BarelyChangedDubName: In the English version of the game, the 07th Platoon scout Keiji Misawa is called K.G. Misawa, which is pronounced the same way. |
| 59 | * BattleThemeMusic: The game gives each boss and mini-boss a unique theme, except Phantoon (it reuses Metroid Queen's). |
| 60 | * BeatingADeadPlayer: Most enemies will still attack or walk over Samus after she is killed. |
| 61 | * {{BFG}}: Anthony Higgs carries a huge plasma cannon on his back. It takes a while for it to charge, but is so powerful it [[spoiler:sends Ridley into a seizure]]. |
| 62 | * BigBad: [[spoiler:Melissa Bergman, otherwise known as MB, is an AI based on Mother Brain that takes over the Bottle Ship and intends to use the creatures in it to commit acts of genocide against the rest of the galaxy. However, the Galaxy Federation (or at least the people responsible for her creation) is the GreaterScopeVillain]]. |
| 63 | * BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler:Though MB is the FinalBoss and the catalyst of the main plot, the Deleter and Ridley both play major roles in the plot and confront Samus throughout the story (although its not made clear whether Ridley is acting on his own or under MB's control).]] |
| 64 | * BigDamnHeroes: |
| 65 | ** Samus does this a few times over the course of the game when she protects [[spoiler:MB from the Deleter]] and Adam's troops from the bioweapons. |
| 66 | ** [[spoiler:Anthony does the same to cover Samus from Ridley, then performs a less action-packed but still awesome one in the end to escort Aran and Madeline safely away from the Bottle Ship]]. |
| 67 | * BioweaponBeast: [[spoiler:The purpose of the BOTTLE SHIP was to create a special forces unit composed of bioweapons for the Galactic Federation to use. It all went horribly wrong when the MB, an AI modelled after Mother Brain that was designed to control them, went rogue and made them into an army for herself after the Federation ordered her termination out of fear that she would eventually become like her predecessor]]. |
| 68 | * BittersweetEnding: Samus achieves a measure of closure with her past, her relationship with Adam, and her fear of Ridley; has put a stop to the dangerous threats aboard the Bottle Ship; and escapes [[spoiler:with Anthony and Madeline]]. However, [[spoiler:Adam and the rest of his team are dead, victims of a pointless and avoidable conflict]]. |
| 69 | * BookEnds: |
| 70 | ** Samus being referred to as an outsider, by Adam at the beginning, [[spoiler:and by the Federation officer at the end]]. |
| 71 | ** The opening cinematic shows Samus' fight with Mother Brain in ''Super Metroid''. [[spoiler:MB, an AI based on Mother Brain, is the last antagonist you face in the main story]]. |
| 72 | ** [[spoiler:The postgame plays with the Book Ends, as the boss of the postgame is another Super Metroid boss: Phantoon.]] |
| 73 | * BossRush: Sort of. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, the corridor leading up to Phantoon features most of the minibosses you've fought throughout the game, including two Rhedogians.]] |
| 74 | * BreakingOldTrends: Excluding exclusive features (i.e. authority system and no refill items), the biggest change in the series were missile expansions. Usually, you will get 5 Missiles each time you collect one. While VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters changed expansions to a high 10, Other M is only 1. The trend to get less than 5 missiles carried on from here, with VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns and VideoGame/MetroidDread being evident of that. |
| 75 | * BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Once MB/Melissa is a cutie who gets very, ''very'' broken, and [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ends up very dangerous]] as a result]]. |
| 76 | * BrownNote: [[spoiler:Little Birdie's cry]] throws tougher enemies into a frenzy. |
| 77 | * TheBusCameBack: Adam makes a reappearance from ''Metroid Fusion''. [[spoiler:Nightmare, a new Queen Metroid, a rebuilt Mother Brain, and Phantoon return as bosses]]. |
| 78 | * CallBack: As this is the direct follow-up to ''Super'', the story of that game does not go unmentioned by any means. There are also at least a few that allude to ''Metroid II'', but those at least tie in with ''Super'' as most if not all of them have to do with the baby Metroid. |
| 79 | * CallForward: Being the prequel to ''Metroid Fusion'', there are a number of plot points in ''Fusion'' that are set up in this game, such as [[spoiler:Nightmare]] being a boss here (with his body [[{{Foreshadowing}} mysteriously vanishing after the main storyline ends]]). Also, the frozen husk of [[spoiler:Ridley]] in ''Fusion'' is given a backstory here as [[spoiler:the Queen Metroid sucks Ridley dry]]. |
| 80 | * CaptainObvious: Much of Samus' dialogue has her restating what she'd just been told or stating something that the player has just seen. For example, when Samus and company enter a room and see a corpse on the floor, her internal narration talks about how she could sense this place was dangerous. ''Then'' she tells Adam that this place is dangerous. |
| 81 | * CaretakingIsFeminine: The game emphasizes the femininity of the protagonist Samus Aran and the villain Mother Brain by placing them in a plot centering around motherhood, in contrast to prior games where their gender was incidental. For Mother Brain, the Galactic Federation builds an android named MB based on Mother Brain's design, which they intend to have develop a maternal relationship with Metroid bioweapons so that the GF can use her to control them. As for Samus, she appears in more scenes out of armor, recounts sexism in the GF military, and characterizes her feelings towards the fallen Baby Metroid as explicitly maternal, as opposed to previous games where she was rarely seen unarmored and her feelings towards the Baby Metroid were implied to be affectionate but not familial. |
| 82 | * CatastrophicCountdown: An AI voice announces over an intercom that a self-destruct sequence will detonate in about five or so minutes. For some reason, your escape becomes riddled with burning debris and wreckage. |
| 83 | * ChekhovsGun: The Power Bombs. Adam forbids Samus from using them outright at the beginning of the game, citing their extreme destructive power. You can't use them until the very end of the game, but it's oh-so-satisfying to [[spoiler:vaporize the Queen Metroid with them]]. |
| 84 | * ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The "Concentration" mechanic inexplicably replenishes Samus' health and missiles. It can only be used in a NearDeathExperience, so it doubles as a PressXToNotDie. |
| 85 | * CombatStilettos: Samus' Zero Suit is given a wedge version of this, despite previous artworks depicting it with flat soles. One of said artworks even said not to implement this trope onto the Zero Suit. |
| 86 | * CombatTentacles: Unlike in ''Super Metroid'', [[spoiler:Phantoom makes a frequent use of its tentacles during battle, and becomes hard enough to be promoted to TrueFinalBoss for this reason]]. |
| 87 | * CompilationMovie: Theater Mode presents the cutscenes with clips from gameplay interspacing them as one long movie. |
| 88 | * ConceptArtGallery: ''Other M'' has a gallery of concept art unlocked via item completion, much like the ''Prime'' games. |
| 89 | * ConstructionVehicleRampage: In the Materials Storehouse of the Cryosphere, Samus faces the [[TheMole Deleter]] who operates the futuristic industrial heavy-lifting vehicle known as [=RB176=] Ferrocrusher, which features giant claws for lifting, [[EnergyWeapon lasers]] for precision-cutting, and buzzsaws for ripping and tearing. |
| 90 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 91 | ** [[spoiler:The final boss in the main story is a Queen Metroid like in ''Metroid II''. You are also forced to finish it with a Power Bomb, mirroring its weakness to the regular bombs in the previous game]]. |
| 92 | ** After the credits, [[spoiler:Phantoon]] appears while exploring [[spoiler:a ghost ship.]] |
| 93 | * ContinuitySnarl: |
| 94 | ** When Samus is rendered unconscious, her suit disappears. However, ''[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Fusion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption Corruption]]'' have prolongued sequences where Samus is knocked out without any consequences to her armour. |
| 95 | ** The game claims that this is the first time that Samus has taken orders from the Federation since her youth. This completely ignores the events of most of the rest of the series, including ''VideoGame/Metroid1''[[note]]Where the Federation sends her to destroy the Space Pirates' operations on Zebes[[/note]], ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus''[[note]]The Federation sends her to exterminate the Metroids on [=SR388=][[/note]], ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''[[note]]The Federation sends her to investigate the missing troopers on Aether[[/note]], and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption''[[note]]She works extensively with the Federation to stop the Space Pirates' plan to spread Phazon[[/note]]. |
| 96 | * ConvectionSchmonvection: [[ZigZaggingTrope At first averted, but later played straight]]. In the infamous Sector 3 runthrough, Samus doesn't activate her Varia suit, and takes constant damage as a result. Later, when Samus [[spoiler:saves Anthony, he doesn't seem to have any ill effects from being around the hot lava, though it is possible that the G-Fed army suits are very good at protecting from the elements. This is also in play when the miniboss you just fought suffers no ill effects from diving straight into the lava]]. The fact that there is lava all at means that this trope is played very straight. Space, being a vacuum, means that heat has nowhere to go, therefore the bottle ship should be at volcanic temperatures all through. |
| 97 | * CoveredInGunge: Blasting an enemy in the first person view sometimes results in the guts splattering on the viewscreen. Also, though it didn't show in-game, apparently Samus spent the last portion of the [[VideoGame/SuperMetroid preceding game]] covered in the guts of [[spoiler:the infant Metroid and Ridley]], from which each was later cloned (Ridley's was accidental). |
| 98 | * CuteCreatureCreepyMouth: Little Birdie is a small, fluffy creature with large, sharp teeth and a long tongue. |
| 99 | * {{Cutscene}}: The game has one hour's worth of cutscenes, and all are replayable in theater mode when you beat the game. Theater mode even adds sections of gameplay between the cutscenes, effectively making it TheMovie of The Game. |
| 100 | * CutsceneBoss: You only have to [[spoiler:aim at Melissa Bergman]] to end the battle, although you do have to first [[spoiler:knock her Desbrachians out of the way so she can be targeted.]] |
| 101 | * CutsceneIncompetence: Samus is reduced to her Zero Suit by a single shot to the back from [[spoiler:Adam's]] pistol. No attack in the game, even boss attacks (much less a shot from a pistol), is capable of disabling Samus by that stage in a single shot. This is justified by being a sneak attack and the {{Retcon}} of Samus's armor relying on concentration. |
| 102 | * CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Played with. [[spoiler:MB, at first, was just an artificial intelligence shaped like a human. After bonding with Metroids and Madeline Bergman, she gained self-awareness and emotions, effectively becoming "human". After feeling abandoned, said emotions go flying out the window and she decides to take revenge on "the humans"]]. |
| 103 | * {{Cyborg}}: Many of the EliteMook enemies and mini-bosses are shown to possess varying degrees of cybernetic enhancements, implying that they were meant to serve as [[spoiler:the backbone of the Federation's bioweapon special forces unit]] before [[spoiler:MB took them over]]. |
| 104 | * CypherLanguage: In this game, the written Chozo script is a substitution cipher that translated directly into English. |
| 105 | * DarkerAndEdgier: The normal music is subdued and ambient and battle music is heavy on "Psycho" Strings and intense percussion, the setting is more artificial and constricted, and the story tries for heavier themes such as betrayal, past pain, conflicting loyalty, government conspiracy, and sacrifice. |
| 106 | * DeathByTransceiver: "Samus! What's going on? Respond! RESPOO---" |
| 107 | * DeathGlare: Little Birdie gives Samus one when you first meet it. [[spoiler:Given that he is a clone of Ridley, it would be OutOfCharacter to do anything less]]. |
| 108 | * DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: |
| 109 | ** If you die and continue, you'll usually respawn a few rooms away from where you died with as much health/missiles as you reached the checkpoint with. [[NintendoHard Considering how hard it is to regain health in this game, this is quite a blessing]]. |
| 110 | ** In Boss Battles (not counting mini-bosses) you only respawn back at the beginning of that fight, and even then, it's only at the beginning of the section where you died (if you die while inside the [[spoiler:Queen Metroid]], you just respawn and get eaten again right away, so you get as many chances of nuking the [[spoiler:Queen Metroid]] as you'd like). |
| 111 | * DeathIsGray: The King Kihunter's death is signaled by its body and the nest it's attached to shriveling and turning a pale gray colour. |
| 112 | * DegradedBoss: You first run into the FG-1000 security drones early on in the game, where they function as a fairly tricky miniboss battle. Much later, you find a few more, but by that time, you can blast through them with a single charged Plasma Beam blast, without even having to wait for them to expose their weak point. |
| 113 | * DesignatedPointMan: According to Anthony's personnel file, he was the point man for the 07th Platoon. |
| 114 | * DeusExMachina: The explanation for Anthony's survival after [[spoiler:he was knocked into a lava pool by Ridley. As the hero was falling, he noticed a random lava monster in perfect position below him, which he froze with his gun in order to make an icy platform for him to land on]]. |
| 115 | * DialogueReversal: Adam was known to end any order he gave to Samus with "Any objections, Lady?". Whatever the fans may have thought about him, [[spoiler:especially compared to his ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' persona]], at one point he goes missing with the Deleter presumably on his tail. At one point, Samus reaches a bridge, only for someone on the other side to raise it and render her unable to cross it... whereupon she decides to self-authorize the Space Jump and Screw Attack. |
| 116 | -->''"Any objections, Adam?"'' |
| 117 | * DiedHappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Melissa/MB, Adam, and Samus' fallen teammates all appear as clouds of glittering gold space dust as she flies away from the Bottle Ship, suggesting that they have found peace.]] |
| 118 | * DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Anthony Higgs apparently dies when Ridley knocks him into a pit of lava. Turns out he managed to survive by freezing a Magdollite below, and returns to aid Samus during the game's ending]]. |
| 119 | * DisposingOfABody: The Deleter disposes of one of his victims (implied by process of elimination to be [[spoiler:Keiji Misawa]]) by throwing the body into a pit of lava. |
| 120 | * DistressCall: The "Baby's Cry", a signal meant specifically to attract attention. |
| 121 | * DodgeTheBullet: Samus can do this with her new 'Sense Move' ability. |
| 122 | * DoomedByCanon: ''Fusion'', which takes place after this game, dictates that [[spoiler:Adam must die in a HeroicSacrifice]] and that [[spoiler:Ridley must end up a frozen husk]]. |
| 123 | * DramaticIrony: The Galactic Federation had Samus destroy the Metroids because the Space Pirates intended to mass produce them and use them as bio-weapons. [[spoiler:In this game and ''Fusion'', Samus finds out that... the Galactic Federation intended to mass produce Metroids AND Space Pirates and use them as bio-weapons]]. |
| 124 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: The Deleter, to the point that his identity is never explicitly revealed, although it can be pieced together from the clues: It's [[spoiler:James]]. |
| 125 | * DualBoss: The two snake creatures (Fune and Nahime) early on in the game. Sometimes the tougher enemies can be fought in pairs or threes, acting as miniboss battles. Overlaps with WolfpackBoss in those cases. |
| 126 | * DullSurprise: Samus during her monologues. Less so when she actually talks with the others, but still. This was deliberately done, since emotional detachment is considered badass in Japan, though it admittedly can come across as rather jarring to a Western audience. |
| 127 | * DynamicLoading: Elevator sequences help hide loading for the next area and enemies fill corridors to delay the player so the next area will be ready. However, people who swiftly bypass enemies or blaze through the area with the Speed Booster may find the door not opening right away and the game will literally throw up a "now loading" message on screen until the data is done loading. Thankfully, those are very brief. ''Other M'' also has to load everything when you start a saved game. It disguises the loading time by giving a recap of what happened previously in the game in the form of a text scroll. Once the game is ready to start, you can skip the summary if it's still playing. The game also used literal speed bumps--little ledges Samus vaults automatically to prevent the player from using the speed booster everywhere. |
| 128 | * EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:Phantoon. In ''Super Metroid'', he's a bit taller than Samus, maybe three times as wide. In this game, he's the size of a mid-size space craft, spawns disembodied hands, and shoots swirling portal vortex things at you. And according to the concept art, that "mid-sized space craft" sized head sits atop a vaguely humanoid body about as big as any of the starships in the Metroid universe; it's just all you can see in the visible dimension is his head.]] |
| 129 | * ElevatorActionSequence: There's an elevator in Sector 2 where you fight a swarm of space pirates, then a boss makes its first appearance of ''four''. Thankfully, on subsequent jaunts to this elevator, it's completely devoid of enemies and exists purely for transport back to the entrance of Sector 2. |
| 130 | * EmergencyEnergyTank: The game features a variation: when Samus' HP are low, she can "Concentrate" to restore a small amount of HP (normally this only restores missiles). You can also collect E-Recovery Tanks which increase both the amount of HP restored and the threshold at which this option becomes available. |
| 131 | * EmergencyWeapon: The pistol (now called the "Paralyzer" thanks to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'') returns in this game during the epilogue when Samus has to race out of the Bottle Ship in her Zero Suit. This time, it is capable of stunning Pirates even with uncharged shots, but it's still pretty useless in combat. It's really only used in the sequence to short-circuit closed gates and open them. |
| 132 | * EnemyScan: Locking on to a boss in first-person mode allows you to see its health meter for the rest of the fight. |
| 133 | * EternalEngine: Bottle Ship is a huge space station that simulates a variety of natural environments, thus most of the levels [[HailfirePeaks have a few mechanical aspects to them]]. |
| 134 | * ExpositionFairy: Adam serves primarily as MissionControl, but he's on your ear piece through most of the game guiding the player through the story. |
| 135 | * EventFlag: The Authorization system, and how it directly leads to the first (and so far only) time an official entry in the series forces travel through extreme temperature areas without the Varia Suit. It is mitigated somewhat by greatly reducing the rate of heat damage in those areas in comparison to the heated areas you're NOT supposed to be in yet. |
| 136 | * EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: Samus' Overblast and Lethal Blows are punctuated with very pretty rainbows. |
| 137 | * EvilVersusEvil: |
| 138 | ** After [[spoiler:Ridley]] flees from Samus, he comes face to face with [[spoiler:a Queen Metroid]]. Given he was already wounded, he is quickly defeated and [[spoiler:drained of his life force]]. |
| 139 | ** The last time [[spoiler:the Deleter, aka James]] is seen alive is when he tries to assassinate [[spoiler:MB. She kills him offscreen shortly after]]. |
| 140 | * ExplainExplainOhCrap: When Samus is speaking to [[spoiler:Madeline Bergman about the fact that the Bottle Ship has cloned Metroids to be used as bioweapons, she explains that the only way to control them would be through Mother Brain's telepathy... and then immediately realizes that the Federation must have cloned her as well]]. |
| 141 | * ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: The game slows Samus' walkspeed when she's in an area that needs [[PixelHunt a scan to a particular clue to trigger the next cutscene]]. Unfortunately, that clue can be as small as ''a spot of green blood on an entirely green grass lawn''. |
| 142 | * FailureHero: Samus resolves none of the issues in the whole game. TheMole is walking around killing people? [[spoiler:MB murders him]]. Ridley is resurrected? [[spoiler:The Metroid Queen makes him her bitch]]. [[spoiler:Sector Zero is crawling with Metroid clones that can survive cold temperatures? Adam destroys it in a HeroicSacrifice]]. [[spoiler:The Galactic Federation is about to apprehend the one person who can testify about the crimes commited aboard the Bottle Ship? Anthony is there to escort her to safety]]. In the grand scheme of things, the bounty hunter is just an overpowered distraction while every other character does most of the work. |
| 143 | * {{Fanservice}}: There's only a couple ass-shots in the game, but boy howdy. |
| 144 | * FeedItABomb: [[spoiler:You finish off the Queen Metroid by letting her swallow you and laying a [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Power Bomb]] in her stomach]]. |
| 145 | * FemaleFighterMaleHandler: Adam to Samus. Too bad their relationship is [[{{Pun}} handled]] poorly. |
| 146 | * FetalPositionRebirth: Samus, during the opening cinematic of the game, to symbolize her "rebirth" upon absorbing the Metroid baby's DNA. |
| 147 | * FlashBack: The intro depicts the ending of ''Super Metroid''. |
| 148 | * FloatingHeadSyndrome: The game's cover shows the heads of Samus and Adam, along with young Samus in almost full-body profile. |
| 149 | * FlunkyBoss: |
| 150 | ** [[spoiler:The Queen Metroid spawns Metroid larva to attack Samus. Destroying them begins phase two, where she TurnsRed]]. |
| 151 | ** [[spoiler:Melissa Bergman's boss fight consists of shooting the Desbrachians out of the way in order to aim at her]]. |
| 152 | * ForbiddenChekhovsGun: The game combines this with ATasteOfPower for the [[spoiler:Power Bombs]]. You test them out in the beginning of the game, and are promptly told to ''never'' use them, and in fact attempting do so will fail. [[spoiler:Until the final boss, where you HAVE to use them after being swallowed.]] Also a GuideDangIt since you have, most likely, completely forgotten they exist by that point and wouldn't think to use them after all the hubbub about not using them previously. |
| 153 | * FourStarBadass: General Adam Malkovich is the person Samus respects the most in the game. But you have to be badass to do what he did at the end of the game; he could very well be the only human capable of [[spoiler:killing Samus]], judging from when he [[spoiler:shot her, causing her to lose her power suit and most of her stamina. And this was only ONE shot!]] |
| 154 | * ForegoneConclusion: ''Fusion'' mentions several times about how [[spoiler:Adam sacrifices his life at some time in the past to save Samus]]. As a prequel to ''Fusion'', most of the fandom inevitably assumed that event would be shown in this game. |
| 155 | * ForceFieldDoor: Surprisingly, this trope is fully averted. Admit it, if you're a Metroid veteran, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory you tried to shoot the door to make it open]]! |
| 156 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 157 | ** There's a reason that scientist at the beginning of the game seems like a total douche. He [[spoiler:is conducting illegal experiments within the Galactic Federation, and harvested the genetic material from several dangerous species while pretending to "clean" Samus' power suit]]. |
| 158 | ** James Pierce is the Communications man of the squad and was trained by the Federation Central Information Agency. [[spoiler:As the game progresses, a mysterious traitor starts killing off members of the squad, and the communication systems within the Bottle Ship seem to be non operational...]] |
| 159 | ** If you listen closely to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjK6ApPWVHI&feature=related the song that plays]] when Samus is attacked by the "Mysterious Creature" in the Biosphere Test Area, you can hear hints of [[spoiler:Ridley's theme]]. |
| 160 | ** A rather interesting one that only the Japanese could get. In Japan, the official explanation for [[spoiler:Phantoon was that he was the manifestation of Mother Brain's consciousness]]. This fact, as well as the rather eerie feeling of the Bottle Ship, particularly in the postgame, might have raised some eyebrows over there, and is the best explanation for his reappearance. |
| 161 | ** If you look at Melissa, [[spoiler:her barrette is shaped suspiciously like a Metroid's tri-nucleus]]. |
| 162 | * FragileSpeedster: Samus tends to feel like this in comparison to other games in the series. It doesn't take many hits to wear down her shields, but adds the dodge mechanic and Concentration Mode to balance it out. |
| 163 | * FreudianExcuse: Samus' biological parents were mercilessly killed in front of her (and the monster that killed them [[JokerImmunity keeps coming back]]), her adopted Chozo parents disappeared and she had a falling out of some kind with her father figure in the Galactic Federation. |
| 164 | * FreezeRay: The Galactic Federation soldiers have ice beams as their primary weapons. Samus is authorized to use hers once she arrives at Sector 2. |
| 165 | * FutileHandReach: At the very beginning of the game, we are taken back to the battle against Mother Brain at the very end of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', with the Baby Metroid shielding Samus as it uses the life energy it stole to recharge her Power Suit and bring her back from near death. Just as Mother Brain is about to unleash a Hyper Beam, the Baby lets go of Samus and charges forward, taking the entirety of the blast. As Samus enters a SlowMotionFall she reaches her hand up towards the Baby, only to see it explode before her eyes. |
| 166 | * {{Futureshadowing}}: Lots of it for ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', such as [[spoiler:the [=GF=] (or at least a part of it) being a NebulousEvilOrganisation]]. |
| 167 | * GagSub: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wht3rRGMw28 Metroid: Other M -- The reMovie]] which, among other things, has Samus [[CloudCuckoolander monologuing about whether she should order baby-back ribs after her training exercise]], and the authorization mechanic is explained away as Samus doing a low % run just to piss off Adam. |
| 168 | * GaidenGame: This is the only 3D game in the franchise not under the ''Prime'' banner. The game takes place between the events of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' and explores elements of Samus's past; mostly her time as a soldier working directly under the Federation before leaving to do solo contract work. While the game does the needed work to fit into the timeline as a "[[{{Interquel}} Metroid 3.5]]", just like ''Hunters'', it has zero effect on the overarching story, which was exemplified by series producer Yoshio Sakamoto introducing ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' as the end to a five-game MythArc, not a six-game one. |
| 169 | * GameBreakingBug: There is a glitch where a door in Sector 3 that you have to go through will not open, no matter what you do. Nintendo had to accept [[http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/ts/metroid-other-m.jsp mail-ins for cards with save files.]] They claim the cause of the bug is picking up the Ice Beam, going into the following room, killing all the enemies to open that room's next door, and then immediately backtracking into the Ice Beam room before continuing on into the room you just opened at least once. |
| 170 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: |
| 171 | ** According to [[http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/metroid-other-m/vol1_page4.jsp this Iwata Asks interview]], a large focus during development was averting this. For example, in cutscenes, Samus retains her current health and missile count and even views things the same as the player does in first-person mode. She does still pull off some kick-ass moves the player can't do, however. |
| 172 | ** Played mostly straight with the "Concentration" mechanic. Samus actually uses it once in a cutscene, but the maneuver itself is never justified in-story, and is instead explained in various manga released years previously. Of course, the game's previous use of health and ammo pickups, which concentration replaced, was ''also'' justified in story. Albeit, [[AllThereInTheManual only in the first game's manual]]. |
| 173 | * GeneticMemory: It's implied that the clone of Ridley has the memories of the original Ridley, thus he antagonizes Samus throughout the game. |
| 174 | * GenreBlind: Adam sends Samus to a lava area without authorizing her Varia Suit (a suit that protects Samus from deadly heat and convection), despite the justification for the authorization system was that it was a rescue mission so strong ''weapons'' are to be restricted to avoid collateral damage. Note that this only applies to the official translation, as the Japanese version of this scene was ''completely different'': in the Japanese version, [[spoiler:Samus outright refused to turn on her Varia suit to prove a point, to which Adam effectively responded, "OK, I get it, now ''please turn on your suit''."]] The massive differences between the Japanese and English versions go a long way towards explaining why this game is much less popular in the West. |
| 175 | * GhostShip: The setting is a space station overrun with bioweapons. By the time the protagonists reach the ship, [[spoiler:Madeline is the only surviving human]]. |
| 176 | * GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: |
| 177 | ** The superboss [[spoiler:Phantoon]] randomly attacks Samus when she returns to the ship in search of [[spoiler:Adam's helmet]]. |
| 178 | ** The [[spoiler:Rhedogian mini-boss that comes out of nowhere, shoots missiles and EyeBeams, and can apparently survive the high temperatures of lava]]. |
| 179 | * GlassCannon: Most bosses, who usually don't take many hits to go down, but can kill Samus with just a few of their own. As a result, Samus herself is this too. |
| 180 | * GoForTheEye: Like in ''Super Metroid'', [[spoiler:Phantoon can only be damaged when his eye is open]]. |
| 181 | * GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:Everything that happened in the Bottle Ship was the work of a rogue faction in the Federation.]] |
| 182 | * GravityIsPurple: The Gravity Suit is just a feature of the Varia Suit instead of its own thing. Activating it causes Samus to be surrounded by a purple aura, turning her immune to all gravitational effects. In addition, in ''Other M'', passages with strong gravity have dark purple walls. |
| 183 | * GravityMaster: [[spoiler:Nightmare]] can affect the gravity in its arena, hindering Samus' mobility and rendering her missiles useless. |
| 184 | * GravityScrew: The rooms leading up to [[spoiler:Nightmare]]. They have Samus go upside down, and also increase the gravity so that jumps are heavier and more sluggish. Once the Gravity Feature has been activated, you backtrack to this place and play it normally without the gravity effects. |
| 185 | * GuideDangIt: |
| 186 | ** The player is supposed to use [[spoiler:a power bomb]] to kill the [[spoiler:Queen Metroid]], but the only hint given is a blink and you'll miss it shot of Samus pressing a button in her arm cannon. If the player fails to realize that it was meant to symbolize her unlocking the upgrade, they will be trapped in morph ball mode being constantly damaged until her health runs out. |
| 187 | ** An AllThereInTheManual example, the game itself doesn't tell you some enemy attacks can be [[CounterAttack counter-attacked]] by pressing the 1 Button at the right time. And knowing which attacks can be countered requires experimentation or a guide since the game doesn't provide button prompts or other visual/audio cues. |
| 188 | ** Neither in the manual nor the game itself does it tell you that you can use the Sense Move while in first-person view, aside from a green border around the screen before the attack connects. Figuring this out on your own is required in order to beat the first boss. |
| 189 | * HailfirePeaks: The setting of ''Other M'' is, at heart, an EternalEngine spacestation, but there are specific sectors within that combine their machinery with themed settings: It's done with JungleJapes (Sector 1/Biosphere), SlippySlideyIceWorld (Sector 2/Cryosphere), and LethalLavaLand (Sector 3/Pyrosphere). Elements of AbandonedLaboratory can also be seen all throughout each sector, in the form of the various containment tanks and maintenance rooms between the environmental rooms. |
| 190 | * {{Handwave}}: Adam disallows most of Samus' arsenal because it could easily injure his troops or civilians by accident. This doesn't explain why she goes without suit upgrades like the Varia suit and Gravity feature or mobility ones like the Grapple Beam, or why she continues not to activate these devices in dangerous environments. |
| 191 | * HealingCheckpoint: Like in the ''Prime'' games and unlike in the 2D games, save stations double as replenishing stations. |
| 192 | * AHeadAtEachEnd: The Dragotix is a dinosaur-like creature with a small, fire-breathing head at one end and a pair of massive jaws at the other end. |
| 193 | * HeartbeatSoundtrack: Used extensively in the opening cutscene, and also used when Samus falls into lava. |
| 194 | * HeartContainer: There are 5 Energy Tanks that each add 100 extra units of energy, just like in the other ''Metroid'' games; however, the game adds another 4 with the newly-introduced Energy Parts (of which there are 16, with 4 assembling a new Tank, similar to the Heart Pieces in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games). |
| 195 | * HeroicBSOD: Samus, [[spoiler:upon confronting a very much alive Ridley]]. This is probably the most controversial part of the entire game, as [[spoiler:she had faced him multiple times before without breaking down]]. She also happens to be going through a less severe one involving the death of the baby Metroid from ''Super'' throughout this game. |
| 196 | * HeroicSacrifice: |
| 197 | ** [[spoiler:Adam]] sacrifices his life in order to destroy the Bottle Ship's [[spoiler:Metroid hatchery]]. |
| 198 | ** [[spoiler:Anthony]] protects Samus from [[spoiler:Ridley]] and is apparently killed when the monster knocks him into a pit of lava. [[spoiler:Subverted in that he manages to survive by using his ice beam to freeze a Magdollite below, creating a platform he could safely land on]]. |
| 199 | * HijackedByGanon: The events aboard the Bottle Ship are the fault of MB, who is essentially a resurrected Mother Brain. The postgame is a more jarring and unexpected example. Remember Phantoon? A boss who only appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and was never heard from again? He takes control of the Bottle Ship in the postgame and, considering the creatures are still out to kill you, he may have helped MB cause the uprising from the background, making him the GreaterScopeVillain. |
| 200 | * HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Thanks to the authorisation system. This lessens throughout the game as more and more abilities are authorised, but Samus is still holding back way more than is necessary. |
| 201 | * HollywoodChameleons: The chameleonlike Ghalmanians. Could possibly be [[HandWave handwaved]] as [[InvisibilityCloak futuristic technology]], though. |
| 202 | * HollywoodTactics: For such a "[[Videogame/MetroidFusion brilliant military mind]]" Adam sure does use a lot of these. |
| 203 | ** He splits the squad up to explore the Bottle Ship's different areas alone, even though he knows communication is impossible except at the ship's own communication rooms. |
| 204 | ** Samus is a woman who is more heavily armed than the entire squad put together ten times over, specializes in exploring and securing hostile environments and is the only person he can remain in constant communication with. What does Adam do with this major windfall? Heavily restricts her armaments, defenses and methods. His first job for her: go turn on the lights. |
| 205 | * HornetHole: The [[JungleJapes Biosphere]] has a single room that is a giant hive of Ki-Hunters, aggressive insectoid enemies driven only more aggressive by a roar heard nearby. You fight a bunch of them and then the King (who just sits in his hive) as a minor boss fight. |
| 206 | * HubLevel: Bottle Ship serves as the literal hub of the space station you're exploring, and does so by connecting the other, more uniquely-themed sections. |
| 207 | * IDidWhatIHadToDo: One explanation for [[spoiler:Adam shooting Samus in the back]], and the reason [[spoiler:he let his brother die]], and why [[spoiler:he went into Sector Zero alone, committing his heroic sacrifice]]. |
| 208 | --> '''Samus''': "He would understand that some must live and some must die... He knew what it meant. He made that sacrifice once." |
| 209 | * InformedAbility: Adam is described as being "a father figure", and yet none of the scenes shown in-game support this statement. On the contrary, a lot of scenes that he shows up in seem to give off the impression that he really dislikes Samus. He's also described in Fusion as being a military genius, with Samus using the phrase "perfect military mind" in her ending monologue in Fusion. The man we see in this game appears somewhat oblivious to things going on around him and [[HollywoodTactics makes some very questionable tactical decisions]] during the story, as well as [[spoiler:losing all but one of his squad, including himself]]. |
| 210 | * InformedAttribute: Samus has been previously stated to have an Amazonian build at 6 feet 3 inches and 198 pounds. When you see her without the suit in this game she looks waifish, and on average comes up to the shoulders of male characters. Either someone didn't get the memo or it is perfectly normal for men to be seven feet tall in this world. |
| 211 | * InnerMonologue: A large portion of Samus' lines are this, as she reminisces about her past and questions how the other characters might be feeling given the current situation. |
| 212 | * InSeriesNickname: The small bird creature is called "Little Birdy" by the scientists aboard the Bottle Ship, while Samus is called "Lady" by Adam, and "Princess" by Anthony. |
| 213 | * InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: Samus is able to adjust the opaqueness of her visor. It's solid yellow-green by default, but she makes it transparent whenever she's talking to people. Her visors also takes up more of the helmet than in any previous game. |
| 214 | * InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: There's a missile tank in Sector 1 placed at the end of a balcony that would be theoretically easy to get with the Screw Attack, except an InvisibleWall is preventing any access from side of the spot Samus goes thoguh first. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nS1ADTJY0 See for yourself]]. |
| 215 | * InterfaceScrew: When you are under the effects of [[spoiler:Nightmare]]'s gravity limitations, everything seems blurry and the sound seems to be softened a little. |
| 216 | * {{Interquel}}: ''Other M'' is one between ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion''. |
| 217 | * InvisibleWall: The game has you run into what appears to be one of these in the Biosphere, but almost immediately afterwards you run into a control panel that reveals that it was a real wall -- the {{skybox}}es in the ship's artificial biomes are holograms of some sort. Occasionally you will have to disable them to reveal an actual door to leave the room (presumably the panel locks the doors automatically when it turns on the holograms). It later plays it straight with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nS1ADTJY0 Missile Tank]]. |
| 218 | * IronicEcho: |
| 219 | ** [[spoiler:Anthony]]'s thumbs-down in the ending, which [[spoiler:ironically comes right after Samus gives a thumbs up for the first time]]. |
| 220 | ** [[spoiler:"Any objections, Adam?", which Samus says as she finally activates one of her power ups without Adam's explicit consent]]. |
| 221 | * ItemGet: Averted unlike every other Metroid game ever. There is no fanfare for any items you are authorised, nor is there one for the two items you actually pick up. |
| 222 | * JawsFirstPersonPerspective: Played with [[spoiler:a young Metroid that you don't get to fight. Played straight later with [[FinalBoss the Metroid Queen.]]]] |
| 223 | * JokerImmunity: Not just [[spoiler:Clone Ridley]], who survives his boss fight, but also the RecurringBoss Rhedogian that just won't stay down. |
| 224 | * JumpScare: |
| 225 | ** At the Exam Center part of the game, there's a room with six doors. You hear a [[HellIsThatNoise strange monotonous beeping noise]] as you walk through the room. [[spoiler:Five of these have nothing in them. However, the third door has what appears to be the lifeless corpse of a Zebesian; the camera immediately cuts to a close-up of it as it falls toward Samus. Even she jumps.]] |
| 226 | ** Another example is Samus's first glimpse of [[spoiler:Melissa Bergman.]] During a scan mode section, the player might not even notice [[spoiler:her]] until they pass the cursor over the window [[spoiler:she's]] peering out of. When that happens, the camera rapidly zooms in on [[spoiler:MB]], accompanied by an appropriate ScareChord. |
| 227 | * JungleJapes: Sector 1, the Biosphere, which is mostly an artificial jungle. Plants try to eat you and stuff like that. The backgrounds are pretty, but they are artificial, and once you find the generators, soon replaced by the space station architecture. |
| 228 | * JustifiedSavePoint: The game takes place on space stations that probably would have locations to perform specific functions; voice recordings in the game refer to the act of saving as "data recording and shield restoration sequence." |
| 229 | * JustThinkOfThePotential: The entire game's plot was kicked off by [[spoiler:some Federation higher-ups thinking of the potential of pet Metroids.]] |
| 230 | * KillerRabbit: The [[http://www.metroid-database.com/mom/choogle.jpg bunny chicken thing]] nicknamed "Little Birdie" by the scientists. Poor [[spoiler:Lyle]] probably didn't even see it coming. To make it worse, it is actually [[spoiler:two growth phases away from becoming Ridley himself]]. |
| 231 | * KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter |
| 232 | ** The Federation Troopers use machine guns. ZigZagged with Anthony's BFG EnergyWeapon and the [[FreezeRay ice guns]] that appear to be a standard-issue secondary weapon for all Fed troops. They use them almost as much as their [=SMGs.=] Unfortunately, these machine guns are shown to be pretty ineffective against the creatures on the Bottle Ship. |
| 233 | ** Damage ratios with missiles and charged shots have been completely inverted, resulting in what would have forgettable room design in previous games becoming boss fights here due to the inability to freely fire, much less aim missiles. |
| 234 | * LastChanceHitPoint: Any attack that reduces Samus to zero energy instead leaves her LifeMeter flickering between 0 and 1, and she can take ''one'' more hit before a Game Over. She ''can'' get killed in one attack if multiple hits are involved and she's reduced to zero mid-way in the attack (for example: if Samus gets grabbed, slammed into the floor, and then thrown across the ground, she'll be dead if the first hit knocks her down to her LastChanceHitPoint). This doesn't apply in Hard Mode. |
| 235 | * LastNoteNightmare: The game makes this with a loud self-destruction siren interrupting a low, sad tone [[spoiler:that interrupts Samus while she was hugging Adam's helmet.]] |
| 236 | * LateArrivalSpoiler: The very first thing you see is a cutscene showing the events of the end of ''Super Metroid''. |
| 237 | * LaterInstallmentWeirdness: It's far more focused on story and has loads of cutscenes and dialogues. The game is more linear than its predecessors and has less exploration than other games, including ''Fusion''. The gameplay includes unusual melee combat and quick time events. Also you no longer need to shoot doors to open them. The powerups are gotten by authorization instead of finding them in some places, and enemies no longer drop collectibles (meaning that Samus has to use Concentration to refill). This game also introduces a collectible item called the "Accel Charge" which reduces the time needed to charge up the Charge Beam: no other game in the franchise has featured this. Also, because of the Concentration mechanic, Samus has to collect "E-Recovery Tanks" which enables the ability to restore more health, otherwise Concentration will only ever recover up to 99 health points. Another new collectible introduced in this game are "Energy Parts" which equal 1 Energy Tank for every 4 Parts obtained. This is also the only game in the series where Power Bombs do not have ammo, only a cooldown period. Some of these elements would later be used in the games developed by [=MercurySteam=], with both ''Samus Returns'' and ''Dread'' featuring a heavy emphasis on melee counters leading into flashy cinematics and then QTE prompts. ''Dread'' would also bring back the Energy Parts collectibles. |
| 238 | * LeParkour: It's a ''Metroid'' game. Samus will vault over any waist-high obstacles in her path. |
| 239 | * LethalLavaLand: The Bottle Ship's Sector 3, the Pyrosphere, is a superheated area due to the lava present. You are required to run through it before you can use the Varia Suit, a first for the series. |
| 240 | * LoadBearingBoss: Averted in the main game, but played straight in the epilogue. Shortly after the battle against [[spoiler:Phantoon]], the Bottle Ship's self-destruct mechanism is activated, forcing Samus to make a run back to her ship before the countdown hits zero. |
| 241 | * LoadingScreen: The game has a brief summary on what happened in the story when you load a saved game. If the game is finished loading before the text scroll is done, you'll have the option of skipping the summary and get straight into the game. |
| 242 | * LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: This is the first game in the series to actually pause the screen and say "LOADING". If you're playing casually, you may never see this -- but if you're playing for speed, you'll see it a lot. Sometimes a load even takes place while you're wall-climbing, which may cause you to fall and get a loading screen for the ''previous'' room again. |
| 243 | * LonelyPianoPiece: The alternate title screen music is this. A more full rendition with strings in is near the end of the playable epilogue when [[spoiler: Samus finds Adam's helmet and reminisces to the situation where Adam decided to sacrifice himself to save her]]. |
| 244 | * LostInTranslation: Sakamoto, despite barely speaking English, insisted on overseeing the English localization of his precious script. So in addition to the English version being littered with badly-rewritten artifacts of the original Japanese, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTuMfsWwd0E several ideas were lost in translation]] due to oversimplification, exaggeration, and even just plain mistranslation of character motivations and behavior. One example is Adam calling Samus "Lady" back during her military days. In Japanese, Samus goes into detail about how she hated the nickname, even after she grew to respect Adam's leadership, since it felt like it was a veiled insult concerning her womanhood. Meanwhile, the English translation goes in the opposite direction, with her loving the nickname precisely because it meant Adam acknowledged her as a woman. In fact, the English script as a whole seems to portray Samus as a schoolgirl with a crush, muddling a character arc centered on her dealing with self-perceived weakness, all of which only worsened perception of what would have already been a divisive game in the West. And that is to say nothing of how vague and confusing the details of the overall plot were made. [[spoiler:Another element that got lost in translation was regarding the ending. In the Japanese script, it was explicitly stated in the post-game that the bioweapon conspiracy within the Federation Army was shut down thanks to Samus and Anthony protecting Madeline as a witness, whereas the English dub implied that the conspiracy movement was [[KarmaHoudini largely unaffected by Samus's actions]].]] |
| 245 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: Rhedogian does this. After you beat it the last time, you get the Seeker Missiles. |
| 246 | * ManlyTears: [[spoiler:Samus weeps when Adam [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]].]] |
| 247 | * MasterComputer: [[spoiler:MB ''used'' to be one of these, but had her [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]] downloaded into a RidiculouslyHumanRobot.]] |
| 248 | * MauveShirt: [[spoiler:Adam's entire squad, save Anthony]]. |
| 249 | * MeaningfulEcho: [[spoiler:Adam's final words: "No objections, right, Lady?"]], which is followed by Samus giving a "thumbs-down". |
| 250 | * MetamorphosisMonster: [[spoiler:Ridley's larva form is a small rabbit-bird-thingy, which then becomes a feathered lizard kind of creature before finally evolving into the space dragon we all know and love.]] |
| 251 | * {{Metroidvania}}: Severely downplayed. While the series stable of Samus getting new weapons and abilities as the game progresses is still in place, the structure of the game is linear to a point where it even surpasses ''Fusion'', as doors frequently locks behind Samus, effectively preventing any meaningful backtracking or exploration. The game first fully opens up during the PlayableEpilogue, during which all there is left to do is collecting left-over energy and missile tanks and fighting a {{Superboss}}. |
| 252 | * MissionControl: Adam Malkovich keeps track of Samus Aran's current objectives in the mission, though mostly in the role of person giving orders, much to Samus's chagrin. |
| 253 | * TheMole: A member of Adam's squad which Samus nicknames "The Deleter" is killing the other soldiers and sabotaging the Bottle Ship's computers, with the intent of covering up the ties between the illegal experiments and the Galactic Federation. While never outright stated, his identity is presumably [[spoiler:James, who is KilledOffscreen by MB]]. |
| 254 | * MoodWhiplash: Twice at the end of the PlayableEpilogue. [[spoiler:One moment, Samus is in an intense fight with Phantoon, the next, Samus finds what she was looking for, the quiet "reminiscing" music is playing -- only for the moment to be abruptly interrupted by the self-destruct starting up.]] |
| 255 | * MookBouncer: An indirect example - there's an enemy that you can't kill when you first meet it. It resides on ceilings and has a large tentacle which, if you get grabbed by it, electrocutes you for heavy damage, THEN plops you back to the beginning of the room. It's a huge relief once you get the Plasma Beam, and can kill it easily. |
| 256 | * MoreExpendableThanYou: Adam disables Samus with his ice gun, and specifically says "I'm no galactic savior" to her before going on to [[spoiler:sacrifice himself in the destruction of Sector 0 and its ice-resistant Metroids]]. |
| 257 | * MotherlyScientist: The game features [[spoiler:Dr. Madeline Bergman, director of the Bottle Ship's secret bioweapons program. To control the Metroids that they had been breeding, her team decided to create an [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]] based on [[GreaterScopeVillain Mother Brain]]. They placed the AI, dubbed "MB", in a gynoid body under the belief that it would foster a maternal bond with the Metroids, which seemed less risky than a dominance-based relationship. Naturally, the scientists started anthropomorphizing their creation, to the point where Madeline treated her as a daughter and named her Melissa. However, unlike most examples of this trope, Madeline's maternal feelings weren't strong enough to persuade her to stand up for MB when things went pear-shaped; faced with MB developing emotions, the scientists opted to alter her programming rather than risk her jeopardizing the missions, and Madeline stood on the sidelines rather than intervene. MB did ''not'' take this well, and what had been fairly minor rebellion up until that point [[NiceJobBreakingItHero became genocidal rage]].]] |
| 258 | * TheMovie: In a manner of speaking. After you beat the game, you basically unlock the ability to watch the entire game as a movie, with pre-recorded segments of gameplay between cutscenes. It even has a title when you decide to watch the whole thing: ''Metroid: Other M: '''The Movie'''''. |
| 259 | * MultiMookMelee: There's a hallway just before the control bridge (Phantoon boss arena), where you face some of the more powerful foes of the game. Fortunately, it should mostly be a laugh, as about half of them can be killed with a single Screw Attack, and the rest with a Power Bomb. |
| 260 | * MythologyGag: One of [[spoiler:Ridley's]] attacks has him [[WipeTheFloorWithYou slamming Samus against the wall and dragging her across it]], much like [[spoiler:his first appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl''.]] |
| 261 | * NarratingTheObvious: Samus does this a lot in the game. Sometimes repeating what another character just said in monologue form so she can state her opinion on the subject or give a deeper analysis of the actions of another character, usually Adam. |
| 262 | * NeverASelfMadeWoman: Samus never talks about her own opinions or beliefs, only Adam's. |
| 263 | * NeverFoundTheBody: The assassin known only as "the Deleter" shoots one of the Federation troops in the back and tosses his corpse into a pool of lava. The victim's identity is not shown in the cutscene, but [[spoiler:Keiji Misawa]] is the only member of the squad left unaccounted for by the end of the game. His corpse is never recovered for obvious reasons, and in the epilogue he is listed as "missing in action". |
| 264 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: Oh, [[spoiler:Ridley]]. You [[spoiler:had Samus right where you wanted her.]] If you had just [[spoiler:ignored the other one and finished Samus first]], you could have won. But no, you had to go and [[spoiler:[[DisneyDeath kill]] Anthony first, snapping The Hunter out of her HeroicBSOD]] and opening yourself to a world of hurt. |
| 265 | * NintendoHard: |
| 266 | ** It'll take you a few tries to defeat some of the earlier enemies as you learn the combat mechanics, and even then, this game requires a lot more skill and attention than the other Metroid games. |
| 267 | ** A minimum powerup run would be incredibly hellish, and this is exactly what [[HarderThanHard Hard Mode]] is. [[spoiler:You're limited to 99 energy, and you're limited to 10 (rechargeable) missiles and a slowly charging charge beam, as all the expansion tanks are removed.]] |
| 268 | * NobodyPoops: Still played straight as in previous games, but more noticeable in that there are a pair of restrooms aboard the station. A tad odd that there are only two? Considering at least two parts of the ship require gear for extreme heat or cold, you can forgive them for assuming your protective suit handles that as well. |
| 269 | * NoGearLevel: There's one at the end of the playable epilogue where Samus takes off her suit (and thus, all her gear) after she gets what she is looking for, only to get interrupted by a count down sequence. Samus chooses to escape in her unarmored state using nothing but the stun pistol. |
| 270 | * NonAnswer: In the Sector Zero, when Samus asks Adam why [[spoiler:he shoots her in the back when she was about to kill a metroid]], he just replies "You can't destroy these Metroids" then changes the subject. |
| 271 | * NonStandardGameOver: |
| 272 | ** Occurs if you let a certain boss kill Anthony before you use the just authorized Grapple Beam to get to him. Fortunately, he can't die during the actual boss fight. |
| 273 | ** There's one scene where Samus has to jump up a broken elevator shaft while enemies chase her. She has to make the elevator crash down on the enemies to dispatch them, but the elevator has just as good a chance of killing Samus as well. |
| 274 | * NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Anthony Higgs wields a Federation-issued Plasma Rifle. It's twice as long as he is tall, and takes about 10 seconds to charge up enough energy to fire a single shot. Samus' Plasma Beam is rapid fire and integrated with her ArmCannon to the point where she can charge for a stronger blast. The Federation is reverse engineering Samus' weaponry, they're just nowhere close to the Chozo's level. |
| 275 | * NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom: The game consists mostly of corridors with one entrance and one exit and leaves virtually no room for exploration at all except for the post-game. |
| 276 | * NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Compared to the preceding ''Prime'' games, ''Other M'' goes back to having no adverse affects for falls, provided Samus simply falls. If she is ''thrown'' towards the ground, however, then she can be injured. |
| 277 | * ObstructiveCodeOfConduct: The "Authorization" imposed by Adam Malkovich toward Samus Aran to [[BagOfSpilling explain how Samus "lost" almost all of her powers]], as the game is clearly a sequel to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''. |
| 278 | * OddballInTheSeries: Aside from being the only 3D game that is not first-person, it's also the game with the most emphasis on plot and cutscenes, as well as the first to feature Samus' melee abilities outside of the non-canon ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' (''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' would also feature a melee counterattack, but it was more streamlined and downplayed compared to ''Other M''). |
| 279 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The fight between [[spoiler:Ridley and the Queen Metroid]], as well as the confrontation between Adam and [[spoiler:the Deleter]]. |
| 280 | * OhCrap: [[spoiler:Ridley]] has one [[spoiler:when he tries to recover from his battle with Samus]] and [[spoiler:notices Queen Metroid is coming right for him]]. |
| 281 | * OneHitKill: |
| 282 | ** In Sector 3's Pyrosphere running into the glass pipe, Samus is given a short time to dodge Vorash's lunge. Failure to do so means Vorash will swallow her whole, instantly killing her. |
| 283 | ** Failing to get to a secure spot when the elevator drops down instantly kills Samus. |
| 284 | ** Hard mode turns many seemingly-trivial enemy attacks into this. [[spoiler:Due to the player being stuck at 99 energy max, some enemy attacks halfway to near the end of the game will inflict damage more than a whole Energy Tank's worth, and since there's no LastChanceHitPoint mechanic in Hard mode, GameOver.]] |
| 285 | * OneHitPointWonder: Hard Mode removes all extra Energy Tanks, Missile Expansions, and Accel Charges, leaving Samus with 99 energy (one Energy Tank) and 5 Missiles. By halfway through the game, most enemies and bosses will do more than a whole energy tank's worth of damage, killing her in a single strike. |
| 286 | * OnlyIdiotsMayPass: Happens a lot in the game. For instance, getting the speed booster requires you to go down a long corridor until you reach an ice wall that you need the speed booster to break; it's not until you turn back that your commander allows you to use the speed booster. |
| 287 | * OnSiteProcurement: A notable aversion for the series, as Samus still has all the abilities she'd gained by the end of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', but since she's working with regular people who could be instantly vaporized if she's not careful with them, she has to have her abilities authorized for use by Adam. |
| 288 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Samus is a character seeping with DullSurprise...[[spoiler:until a certain space dragon returns to haunt her.]] |
| 289 | * OutrunTheFireball: Shortly after authorizing the Wave Beam, Samus is forced to outrun an avalanche after activating a lift. Since this happens after you get Speed Booster authorized (and you had to use it multiple times in that very room), you can guess how Samus gets out of the way. |
| 290 | * PercussivePrevention: There's a controversial example when Adam shoots Samus in the back to prevent her from entering the Metroid breeding lab. The problem is that he could have easily warned her verbally instead, and stunning her like that allowed a Metroid to get within attacking range before he stopped it. |
| 291 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: The game keeps this trope running in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' franchise. At one point in Sector 2, there is an area with a Missile Tank, which is behind a pillar. Unless you [[GuideDangIt have a guide]], chances are you'll miss it. Wouldn't be so bad except that the area suddenly succumbs to an avalanche after you solve the puzzle. This avalanche covers the entire area and you can never go back and get the items you missed, even after you beat the game. In at least some versions of the game, this is addressed. Going into the avalanche-ruined room and looking up in first-person mode in the postgame will reveal a grapple buoy that can be used to get up to the missed missile tank. [[GuideDangIt Naturally, there's no indication to look up at all.]] |
| 292 | * PersonalSpaceInvader: A couple of foes are like this, either trying to latch on to you or ram you, but [[spoiler:where there's Metroids, there's only one thing to expect]]. |
| 293 | * PinballProtagonist: Aside from killing the Queen Metroid and most of the aliens onboard except for Ridley and retrieving Adam's helmet, Samus accomplishes nothing of worth in the entire game; all major plot developments are handled by other characters. |
| 294 | * PivotalBoss: Except for one attack, Nightmare iis fought in this fashion [[RecurringBoss the first time you face him.]] |
| 295 | * PixelHunt: There are several forced first person segments, where you're trying to find one small detail in a much larger picture. The most infamous of these involve [[spoiler:a spot of green blood on a field of green grass.]] The player not only isn't given any hints about this, but they also receive a RedHerring in the form of the game [[spoiler:making you face in the ''complete opposite direction'', where there is a corpse that all the [=NPCs=] are surrounding and commenting on the condition of. You're expected not to go with the natural assumption that you need to find a way to examine it, and instead turn 180 degrees to look at a barely noticeable puddle.]] |
| 296 | * PlasmaCannon: Anthony's plasma cannon, which is noticeably more primitive in that it "takes forever to charge". |
| 297 | * PlayableEpilogue: After the credits roll, she returns to the Bottle Ship to find [[spoiler:the late Adam Malkovich's helmet]], various missed items, and the TrueFinalBoss [[spoiler:Phantoon]], among other things. The ship does later explode, but only after Samus completes her errands and escapes alive. |
| 298 | * PlayerDeathIsDramatic: Samus screams as she collapses and her suit fades out if she dies, leaving her body exposed to her killer(s). Adam screams out her name [[spoiler:until he goes missing later on in the story]] and then the Game Over screen appears. If Samus dies in lava, she reaches out with her hand before it slowly sinks back into the lava. |
| 299 | * PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler:MB, a.k.a. Madeline Bergman, who is revealed to be Mother Brain]]. The [[spoiler:Metroid Queen]] is the main final boss, the last part is just a first-person thing and you just have to aim for the enemy ([[spoiler:Madeline]]) in order for a cutscene to play. It only resembles a challenge due to being backed up by four unique EliteMooks (Desbrachian supersoldiers) who can still be knocked out of the way easily once you figure out the proper trick to them. However, there is a PlayableEpilogue afterwards with its own TrueFinalBoss, [[spoiler:Phantoon]]. |
| 300 | * PoweredArmor: Samus wears her Power Suit in this game, with the her other ones being replaced by the Varia and Gravity ''Features''. |
| 301 | * PreMortemOneLiner: As Samus prepares to avenge the baby metroid's death at the hands of Mother Brain: "Mother! Time to go..." |
| 302 | * PressXToDie: It's possible to crush yourself under a broken elevator early in the game. |
| 303 | * PressXToNotDie: When you're going through a tunnel in sector 3, the dragon worm...[[BuffySpeak thing]] will smash through the tunnel. If you don't jump or sense-move out of the way, you will be killed by it. |
| 304 | * PsychoStrings: [[spoiler:Nightmare]]'s battle theme has some flute/chorus in the beginning that serves a similar purpose. |
| 305 | * RecurringBoss: One miniboss appears ''four times'', [[CowardlyBoss retreating after all but the last battle]]. Then he appears twice more, in the epilogue. [[spoiler:Ridley tried to be this, but the Queen Metroid had other plans, though the first fight against Ridley is his adolescent stage, where the characters are unaware it's actually Ridley]]. |
| 306 | * ReducedDowntimeFeatures: The level design differs from previous games in the franchise by focusing on traversing from room to room, with very few branching paths and doors that are prone to lock behind the player to prevent Backtracking. Also, rather than the usual way of refilling health and ammo by collecting drops of defeated enemies, the concentration move allows players to refill both instead of farming enemies for drops or running back to a recharge station. |
| 307 | * RedShirtArmy: Surprisingly inverted in a way; [[spoiler:All but one of the named soldiers are given scenes where Samus finds their corpses, yet we see none of the nameless ones die]]. |
| 308 | * RememberTheNewGuy: Invoked by Anthony Higgs, despite this being his first ever appearance. |
| 309 | * ReplayMode: The game has a cinema mode that is unlocked when beating the game for the first time. It plays all the cutscenes in order with automated gameplay mixed in between scenes to make the game feel like a movie. |
| 310 | * {{Retcon}}: |
| 311 | ** A minor one, but still interesting to note. Samus describes Adam as ''"the only father-figure I ever had"''. This completely ignores Samus' backstory with Old Bird, Gray Voice, and the Chozo in general as her foster family. |
| 312 | ** The game shows us that Samus's past combat service with the Federation was in their Army. This changes a detail the ''Manga/MetroidManga'' from 2002 told us she had been with the Federation ''Police'', and her commanding officer in the manga was a man named Chief Hardy; she was never under Adam's command. |
| 313 | ** In this game, Samus' armor is something she spawns from a badge on her Zero Suit and maintains through concentration. While games in the series also have the suit activated and powered by some level of mental and/or spiritual energy, this is the only instance where constant concentration is needed to ''keep'' the suit activated. [[VideoGame/MetroidFusion One game]] even has Samus' suit remaining active while she's unconscious serve as a major plot point. |
| 314 | * {{Retool}}: Below listed are mechanics exclusive only to this game and has not carried on since: |
| 315 | ** No health or missile refill items from enemies. You can only refill when your life is low or at a save point. |
| 316 | ** The authority system. |
| 317 | ** Power Bomb usage having a recharge bar. |
| 318 | ** Slow loading times during gameplay when progressing without saving. The game strongly encourages you to save every often to refresh the game's nearest locations and objectives. |
| 319 | ** Has PostEndGameContent. Once you [[spoiler:defeat MB and watch the ending, Samus goes back to the Bottle Ship for her own reasons with days of time lapse]]. From here on out, all locked areas you may have missed or were locked on purposes until the main game was completed are now unlocked. Additionally, you cannot re-fight the FinalBoss, but you do get a bonus TrueFinalBoss instead. |
| 320 | * SameCharacterButDifferent: Inverted for both Samus and Adam. While neither character had been ''heavily'' characterized before, they had, at least, received the broad outline of characterization from other games in the series (namely the ''Prime'' trilogy and ''Fusion'') and [[Manga/{{Metroid}} the official manga]]. This game features them acting very differently from their generally-established characterization, and even only fits the initial description of the events involved in very BroadStrokes. |
| 321 | * SamePlotSequel: To ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', or rather a Same Plot Prequel. Both games involve Samus investigating a massacre on a space station which is divided into sectors based on habitats from Zebes while under the command of someone from the Federaton named Adam, both games involve Samus reminiscing about her past, and both culminate in [[spoiler:Samus finding out that the Federation has been secretly hatching Metroids]]. Both games also feature fights with [[spoiler:Nightmare and a ressurected Ridley]]. ''Other M'' is mainly different thanks to a few additional subplots (the Deleter and MB) and differences in Samus and Adam's characterizations. |
| 322 | * SavedByThePlatformBelow: Anthony attacks Ridley to save Samus, but Ridley knocks him off the platform and he falls into a lava pit where he is presumed to be dead and his in-game profile even has him marked as killed in action. At the ending, Anthony shows up alive and well with only some singes to his armor. It's revealed that Anthony managed to freeze a lava monster on his way down with his freeze gun, providing a safe platform for him to fall on. |
| 323 | * SaveGameLimits: Navigation Rooms serve as Save Stations, and are the ''only'' way, besides Samus' ship, to fully replenish her energy reserves. You can also restore all life and missiles with the Concentrate feature, but the life-restoration bit is only usable when you are about one hit away from death. |
| 324 | * ScaryShinyGlasses: The scientist that directs the game's tutorial. [[spoiler:He turns out to be part of the reason Metroids exist again.]] |
| 325 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:After the fight with Ridley, Anthony is so fearful for his life he blasts a hole through a wall and jets through it trying to get away]]. |
| 326 | * SeeminglyHopelessBossFight: The Queen Metroid fought at the end swallows you and you're seemingly stuck inside while your health drains. Unless you try laying a Power Bomb in her stomach, which had been forbidden to use up until now and [[GuideDangIt which you weren't even notified that you could use them now]]. |
| 327 | * SequenceBreaking: Unlike other Metroid games, there is exactly ''one'' minor instance where you can do this here; an Energy Tank can be obtained earlier than usual in an area that would normally require the Speed Booster to reach in the Cryosphere by utilizing a break in an overhead Morph Ball passage and repeatedly interrupting Samus's spin jump by shooting. |
| 328 | * SexSells: The [[http://media.tumblr.com/59ac4558d4dd14fbfca68ae558dd7ae9/tumblr_inline_mx95i96ZCK1r5618z.jpg redesign of the Zero Suit]] for ''Other M'', which includes adding [[CombatStilettos high heels]] that were [[http://media.tumblr.com/91f44318b45126781a6af76b0bf85a5d/tumblr_inline_mx95epDqug1r5618z.png specifically pointed out as impractical]] in the ''Zero Mission'' designs. Also, the removal of Samus' muscles. |
| 329 | * ShoutOut: |
| 330 | ** Quite a few ''Alien'' references, as per tradition: |
| 331 | *** One's of Lyle's lines near the beginning is "They're coming outta the walls!" |
| 332 | *** [[spoiler:The only time Samus faces the Deleter, he attacks her and MB, using what appears to be some sort of construction vehicle (a load lifter), which just happens to have a close resemblance to the one Ripley uses at the beginning of ''Aliens'', and at the end to fight the Alien Queen.]] |
| 333 | ** The title screen opens to a refreshing piano melody overlooking a starry backdrop, Like the first ''Metroid'' game. |
| 334 | ** The naked fetal Samus at the beginning almost seems designed to evoke memories of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. |
| 335 | ** Ridley slamming Samus against the wall of the Geothermal Power Plant and [[WipeTheFloorWithYou dragging her along it]] is a shout-out to his pre-boss fight cutscene from ''Videogame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'', only this time Pikachu's not there to save her. |
| 336 | ** The Game Over screen is a reference to the [[VideoGame/MetalGear Metal Gear series]], with the MissionControl begging the fallen protagonist to respond through the Codec. |
| 337 | * ShouldersOfDoom: Samus, unsurprisingly, but what makes this particular time unique is that the cutscene that shows Samus in the army features the original power suit with the triangular shoulder pads. Samus now sports the shoulders without the Varia function on. Of course this can be explained by the fact that it is now a Varia '''function''', not a suit. The Varia suit is now an upgraded power suit with Varia and gravity functions. |
| 338 | * ShowsDamage: Ridley's model changes as he takes damage during his boss battle. His wings get some tears, his skin is burned and several parts of his body have open wounds leaking green blood. |
| 339 | * SkyBox: The skyboxes in the ship's artificial biomes are holograms of some sort, so this trope is {{invoked}} by whomever built them InUniverse. |
| 340 | * SlippySlideyIceWorld: Sector 2, the Cryosphere, looks like ARC (''Fusion'') and Phendrana (''Prime'') combined in one. It's a very cold, Arctic-looking facility within the Bottle Ship where creatures adapted to low temperatures are help captive. A room features jagged and cjoppy icicles, while in another Samus has to walk across a fallen ice pillar over a frigid pool of water. |
| 341 | * SlowElectricity: When you're reaching for [[spoiler:Sector Zero]], the lights begin to turn on this way. |
| 342 | * SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:Anthony is the only member of Adam's squad to survive the events of the game, while Madeline is the sole remaining scientist who had worked aboard the Bottle Ship]]. |
| 343 | * StoryDifficultySetting: The unlockable "movie" mode shows the entire story without any interactive gameplay. |
| 344 | * StoryToGameplayRatio: Two hours of the about ten hour game is cutscenes, and once you've beaten it, you have the option of watching it as if it were a movie (with the gameplay segments as videos.) |
| 345 | * SpacePirates: Samus technically scattered them all, but [[spoiler:through cloning, and using MB, an artificial human version of Mother Brain, as a method of control, the Galactic Federation intends to use them as {{Super Soldiers}}. The plan goes to hell, of course, and damn near causes the resurrection of the very enemies they spent years to destroy. To make matters worse, a clone of Ridley was accidentally created, and Phantoon survived ''Super Metroid'']]. |
| 346 | * SpinAttack: The famed Screw Attack is powerful enough to one-shot most enemies. |
| 347 | * SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: "Any objections, lady?" Back in ''Fusion'', it was Samus' sign that [[spoiler:the AI was Adam]]; in ''Other M'', its use in the trailer was the first tip-off to the ''fans'' that it was a ''Metroid'' title. And Anthony is the only person who calls her "Princess." [[spoiler:That's the tip-off that he survived in the ending]]. |
| 348 | * StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:MB's general development, but somewhat diverted due to not becoming... [[BrainInAJar you know]]. Fits nicely with the layout of how she UsedToBeASweetKid, but [[FromNobodyToNightmare suddenly turned evil]]. It doesn't exactly fit with FromNobodyToNightmare since she was [[ForScience Experimented]] on with the close intent of many]] other M[[spoiler:[[MadScientist ad Scientists]]. Compare WhatMeasureIsANonHuman below.]] |
| 349 | * SuddenlyVoiced: Samus has had grunts in the ''Prime'' series and brief taunts in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'', but this is the first time she speaks full lines and engages in dialogue (although she mostly speaks through narration when it's her turn to talk) and monologue (well, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG4ei3it8B0&feature=player_embedded first time that isn't]] unused). |
| 350 | * {{Superboss}}: If you play the post-credits sequence for 100% and the extra ending, you have to butt heads with [[spoiler:Phantoon from ''Super Metroid'', who not only has new powers, but is also much scarier-looking than before. For technical reasons (namely the absence of items and thus the impossibility of a PlayableEpilogue), the Phantoon fight was intentionally left out of Hard Mode.]] |
| 351 | * SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: The room just before [[spoiler:Ridley]] has an Accel Charge "and" an Energy Tank, both of which are blatantly easy to reach. |
| 352 | * TakingYouWithMe: One of the rarer enemies jettisons a worm-like inner body from its exoskeleton when close to death. The new creature's only method of attack is wrapping around Samus and blowing up. Ki-hunters can resort to it now too. |
| 353 | * ATasteOfPower: You get to use Samus' Missiles, Bombs, and Power Bombs in the training section at the game's start, then are told you can't use them unless Adam says so once the game kicks off. Although you merely need to get to the first boss before bombs and missiles are unlocked again, Power Bombs are not unlocked until much later. |
| 354 | * ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Samus speaks in a very monotone voice when narrating and often uses this. |
| 355 | -->The word he so obviously chose, "outsider," pierced my heart. |
| 356 | * ThirdPersonSeductress: Samus is constantly shown wearing the Zero Suit: MaleGaze galore in cutscenes with it, Samus reverting to it during game overs, and an EscapeSequence at the end in which she's fully playable in it. This particular version of the Zero Suit even possesses [[CombatStilettos wedge heels]], despite concept art from ''Zero Mission'' specifically saying not to. |
| 357 | * TookALevelInBadass: |
| 358 | ** [[spoiler:Phantoon]] is at least five times larger than last time. |
| 359 | ** In previous games, Zoomers simply strolled along a set path, only bumping into Samus by accident. In ''Other M'', they actively attack Samus. |
| 360 | ** Samus each time she gets one of her top weapons. The Screw Attack can one-shot many of the tougher regular enemies Samus faces, like the Zebesians. The Power Bomb can one-shot ''every'' non-boss enemy, including the Rhedogians (the flying anomalocaris-like creatures). |
| 361 | * TransformationSequence: Samus is given one when she first puts on her power suit. |
| 362 | * TranslationConvention: It's more than obvious (if you're playing the Japanese version) that everyone is speaking English but translated to Japanese for the players' benefit. Even in the Japanese voice acting, many characters (Samus included) uses [[GratuitousEnglish lots of English loanwords that could be translated without problems]] like ''baby'', ''princess'', ''lady'', etc. |
| 363 | * TraumaCongaLine: Before the game starts, Samus is just recovering from a very physically and mentally taxing mission, then meets her former CO and parental figure, Adam, whom she left with bitter terms and hasn't met for a long time, so has to reconcile. [[spoiler:But then she has to once again take arms and fight. Then she has to confront Ridley, her most feared and hated enemy who should this time be DeaderThanDead, and then witnesses her close friend getting killed. After that, Adam has to sacrifices himself in front of her in order to save everyone, and after that, she was left almost powerless to do anything when the military takes action. Then she returns to get Adam's helmet and is attacked again, this time with the enemies under Phantoon, and then is almost killed in the destruction of the Bottle Ship.]] |
| 364 | * TriggerHappy: Lyle kills a bug DeaderThanDead, and continues to pump lead [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill after it exploded!]] |
| 365 | * TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Phantoon takes over the Bottle Ship in the epilogue and attacks Samus when she goes to retrieve Adam's helmet]]. |
| 366 | * UnderTheSea: The game doesn't have a dedicated water sector, but [[JungleJapes Sector 1]] and [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Sector 3]] have significant portions of underwater sections. The oddity is that you ''have'' the Gravity Suit that allows you to move underwater unhindered, but it isn't authorised until extremely late into the game. |
| 367 | * UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Samus can do this, in rapid succession even, to dodge attacks, and it even somehow charges her beam instantly. |
| 368 | * UpgradedBoss: The second battle against [[MechanicalAbomination Nightmare]] has it use two new attacks, a BreathWeapon and firing a black hole that attracts all projectile weapons to it for a short period of time. Though it's not that much tougher as the battle happens just after Samus obtains the Gravity Suit. |
| 369 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: |
| 370 | ** After [[spoiler:the destruction of Sector Zero]], the access corridor starts to break off, leading to explosive decompression. While you're escaping, you see several Zebesians trying to cling on for dear life in the corridor -- if you so wish, you can help speed them to their demise by shooting them, which causes them to lose their grip and fly off into space. |
| 371 | ** There is a hallway early in the game with several Grogranch enemies stomping around outside it. After receiving the Wave Beam, Samus can shoot them through the windows with total impunity for some catharsis. |
| 372 | * ViewersAreGoldfish: Samus often exposes what just happened. |
| 373 | * VoodooShark: |
| 374 | ** The Authorization system was intended to make more sense than the series's typical BagOfSpilling OnceAnEpisode. Instead, every review notes the justification of possible harm to allies as a reason Samus can't use purely defensive or exploration based upgrades makes less sense. |
| 375 | ** ''Other M'' also features, as a major plot point, the idea that the Federation has been engineering [[RemovedAchillesHeel unfreezable Metroids]]. Except the game features many other Metroids that are fully freezable. It attempts to justify them as "control groups" or "too young", but it ends up casting major doubts on the idea, especially since [[InformedAbility we never actually see an unfreezable Metroid]] and Adam acknowledges he doesn't know if the idea is true. The only evidence is a corpse apparently left by a Metroid in a cold area. And there's the idea that Metroids are completely invincible when not frozen is a {{Retcon}} (they can be killed by other means in most of the games) and even contradicts the ending of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' (and by extension, ''Other M''[='=]s opening cinematic), where a powerful Metroid was killed by Mother Brain without using ice of any kind. It ends up making Adam's fate look like something of a StupidSacrifice. |
| 376 | ** Lastly, ''Other M'' indicates that the method by which Metroids become Queen Metroids is genetic, and that some Metroids (including the baby) are just meant to grow into Queens. Except ''every'' Metroid in that particular game had its genes derived from the baby. Why aren't they ''all'' Queens? |
| 377 | * WallJump: The second game in the series, after ''Prime 2'', to explicitly tell the player that this is one of Samus' abilities. |
| 378 | * WeakBossStrongUnderlings: {{Invoked}} in the final confrontation with MB. The confrontation is designed to trick the player into fighting the endlessly regenerating Desbrachians she summons when you're actually supposed to just shoot MB, who goes down with one shot. Many a player won the fight by accident by just firing blindly all over. |
| 379 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The subplot involving [[spoiler:the Deleter]] is significant for a large portion of the game, but is [[AbortedArc effectively dropped]] after [[spoiler:he attacks MB. However, observant players will notice James's dead body laying in the same room where Samus left him, implying that he was the traitor. There is, however, no indication that Samus realizes this.]] |
| 380 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: [[spoiler:MB is a very interesting case. She was designed just to be a humanoid version of Mother Brain to interface with Metroids. However, after bonding with a baby Metroid, and getting the name Melissa Bergman from Madeline Bergman, [[DudeWheresMyRespect this caused her to develop self-awareness]] and, to Samus' reckoning, ''a soul.'' However, after Madeline does nothing to protect her from being taken away, she immediately loses said soul and goes on a rampage, which is very apparent in the final cutscenes where she talks in a CreepyMonotone and doesn't even attempt to hide her non-humanity.]] |
| 381 | * WhenSheSmiles: [[spoiler:Samus in the ending]]. |
| 382 | * TheWorfEffect: |
| 383 | ** You can tell that [[spoiler:the Queen Metroid]] isn't going to be a pushover when you see it [[spoiler:kill Ridley]]. |
| 384 | ** [[spoiler:Despite being set up as a major threat, the Deleter]] was killed offscreen by [[spoiler:Melissa]]. |
| 385 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Poor Lyle Smithsonian hates bugs. The first boss is a purple monster whose body is composed of millions of tiny beetles. He goes AxCrazy with his machine gun trying to get them away from him. |
| 386 | * WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Even Samus finds Melissa Bergman's backstory to be saddening.]] |
| 387 | * WondrousLadiesRoom: There are a couple times where Samus has to enter the lady's room, and it's a little fancy but nothing special. In both cases, you can't enter the ''men's'' room - one has collapsed and the other is just closed off. |
| 388 | * TheWormThatWalks: The first boss is a tall blob monster made out of millions of tiny insects. |
| 389 | * ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler:MB]], the cybernetic reincarnation of [[spoiler:Mother Brain]], who is incredibly easy to beat despite being built up to be quite threatening. Most players will kill her ''by accident'' while trying to desperately fend off [[spoiler:at-this-point-invincible [[DemonicSpiders Desbrachians]]]]. Downplayed in that [[GuideDangIt it isn't made clear exactly what you're meant to be doing]] in the fight anyway, so you could find yourself spending several minutes blasting away before you accidentally beat it or suddenly realize that [[spoiler:the Desbrachians are just there to distract you from aiming at MB herself, who is standing ''far'' in the background]]. |
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