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Metroid: Other M
If you are like me, you are patiently awaiting September. Mostly because of my birthday, but also, because the new Metroid M for the Wii is coming out September 3rd. And it wont be your usual Metroid experience.
One of the 1st female ass kicking video game superstars is making an amazing comeback. There is a whole hell of a lot you need to know about this game. So check out the trailer below. The trailer past the break. The features, and all the other game info. And try to hide your boner when your mom comes in. Playing as Samus, players will seamlessly switch between third-person and first-person gameplay for the first time in a Metroid game. Explore and fight in third-person by holding the Wii Remote sideways, and – at any time you choose – switch immediately to a first-person view through Samus’ eyes by simply pointing the Wii Remote at the screen.
This opens up all sorts of new possibilities for exploration and combat. Look through the eyes of Samus to search a room carefully for hidden objects, access vital information and lock on to enemies for precision attacks. Or remain in third-person view to take on swarms of enemies with Samus’ Beam weapon, aided by an auto-aim feature that makes gameplay in this perspective fast, furious – and utterly gripping!
In another series’ first, Samus is getting more physical in Metroid: Other M, with a range of melee attacks up the sleeves of her Power Suit. Jump on enemies to perform the powerful Overblast attack, use the 1 Button with precise timing to Counter-attack and finish off wounded enemies with a Lethal Strike. Other new moves include dodging enemy attacks with a well-timed Sensemove and performing a health-restoring Concentration move by holding the Wii Remote vertically and the A Button pressed. Then there’s the new weapon, the Diffusion Beam, which will scatter Charge Beams after impact and hit additional enemies.
Amidst all the new features, however, the development team have not forgotten what makes Metroid games so immersive and memorable: atmosphere, exploration and a truly great story. The game takes place on a single, giant Galactic Federation vessel – but this contains a huge variety of locations, each with different environments, unique flora, fauna and enemies.
The Biosphere, for example, is a gigantic greenhouse containing a jungle complete with waterfall, rainfall and countless tropical – and aggressive – creatures and plants. The Cryosphere, by contrast, is a cold, snowy environment where the temperature is so low that entrances are often blocked by ice. Or picture the Pyrosphere, an area filled with volcanoes and magma. Some areas here have such high temperatures that Samus’s health decreases if not equipped with the heat-resistent Varia Suit.
Exploring these hostile environments, you’ll find yourself drawn into a deeply personal story that finally tells Samus’ own tale, revealing her failings, her flaws and ultimately her motivation for being a Bounty Hunter.
The story begins immediately following the events of Super Metroid, when a baby Metroid gave its life to protect Samus. With voice acting in English language and more than one hour of beautifully rendered cut-scenes in total throughout the game, Metroid: Other M is not simply fun to play but also exciting to watch. The seamless switch from cut-scenes to gameplay and the smooth transition between third-person and first-person perspectives make this the most cinematic experience you’ll have had in a Metroid game.
This is a dramatic new direction for a legendary franchise and a bold new blend of cinematics, storytelling and stylish, no-holds-barred action. Charge up your Beam, arm your Bombs and get ready to scan your environment for a copy of Metroid: Other M when it launches across Europe for Wii on 3rd September 2010.
FEATURES:
* Metroid: Other M takes the best elements of 1st-person and 3rd-person gaming to create a seamless blend between gameplay, story-telling and dynamic cinematography, that feels like a movie the player can control. Players hold the Wii Remote™ controller sideways while navigating and battling in 3rd-person. However, at any moment, players can switch immediately to Wii Remote pointer controls to examine and explore the environments in 1st-person perspective.
* Metroid fans know more about Samus’ suits and weapons than they do about what drives her. That’s about to change. The story begins immediately following the events of Super Metroid, when a baby Metroid gave its life to protect Samus. With voice acting and a rich story, players learn the engaging backstory of Samus as she weaves through an action-packed adventure aboard the Bottle Ship, a decommissioned space facility. As she hurtles into this new adventure, Samus will encounter her first mentor and Commanding Officer of the Galactic Federation, Adam Malkovich.
* The development of Metroid: Other M is an exciting collaboration between Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto and Team Ninja. Sakamoto was the director of Super Metroid in 1994. Team Ninja is the renowned action developer of Ninja Gaiden. Metroid: Other M pairs Sakamoto’s expert level design and exploratory focus of the classic Metroid series with Team Ninja’s signature stylish, no-holds-barred action.
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Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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