Today, I completed Metroid: Other M.
And, when I say 'completed', I mean the first run. Once the credits have rolled through, you're launched straight back into 'New Game Plus', in which you return to the Bottle Ship with all the weapons you gained during the first run, including the Power Bombs (received unannounced during the battle with the Metroid Queen) for a whole new - probably shorter - mission.
The battle with the game's (sorta) final boss is probably the most annoying of the lot and, frankly, I found most of the boss battles annoying as there's no real hint system, and the method for taking each one down is unique to that creature. Sure, there's much usage of Charge Shots for each one, but the use of bombs, missiles or super missles is never really explained beforehand and, for players like me, that means an awful lot of death and frustration, followed by a quick look at a walkthrough or a Let's Play to explain the correct method.
And, even then, my technique sucks. The Metroid Queen shoots out first one Metroid, then two, then three... and, unless you take out each wave quickly, you end up surrounded by six of the little bastards, each of whom can suddenly divebomb you and sap huge amounts of health before you can transform into Morph Ball mode and bomb them into letting you go.
But, still, the end of the first run is suitably epic (read: a long movie sequence), with a little bit of player-controlled action (read: an annoying first-person targetting sequence with no clear goal) in the middle.
I know there was a lot of controversy about Samus' first speaking role in a Metroid game, but I'm one of the supporters. There was a video, made by a fan, explaining how Other M does not, in fact, ruin the character of Samus because she was never 'stoic', she just didn't have any dialogue. While I would opine that the voice acting could have been... how I can put this?.. a little less narcoleptic, the character they created for Samus was very human and believable. The punk kid who felt like she had something to prove because she was the only girl in her team, and aliens killed her parents, grows to become a lone bounty-hunter after a disagreement with her CO/father figure. Meeting up with him on this mission again reminds her of everything they shared - good and bad. It's OK for this 'all-powerful space hero' to show some self-doubt, let alone outright fear in the face of the creature who killed her family... who wouldn't?
The title always puzzled me and, thankfully, it's explained very well at the end, but skip this paragraph if you're spoiler-averse: The game's intro presents a new perspective on the climactic battle between Samus and Mother Brain from one of the SNES Metroid games, and 'MB' becomes something of a recurring motif thereafter. The person in charge of the research on the Bottle Ship is Madeline Bergman, she creates and artificial intelligence to mimmic Mother Brain's telepathic control of the Metroids. This AI is called 'MB', and is eventually installed into an android, which takes the name 'Melissa Bergman'... hence becoming the 'other M' Bergman.
The final movie, before the credits rolled, almost made me shed a tear or two, with Samus giving a deliberately uncharacteristic thumbs-up "in case Adam was watching", followed by the appearance of a silhouette of her traditional thumbs-down, courtesy of former team-mate Anthony, made me think - just for a moment - that Adam Malkovich had somehow survived.
Then again, when 'New Game Plus' begins, Samus informs us that she's headed back to the Bottle Ship to rescue "something that can't be replaced"... And until I complete New Game Plus, I won't know what that is unless I watch a Let's Play of that...
So, anyway... that means I've now completed:
Another Code: R
Western Heroes (debatable - I still think it just crashed)
Muramasa: Demon Blade (Kisuke's story #1)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (first run, Lost Love ending)
Metroid: Other M (first run)
Which is pretty respectable... and also suggests that games have become easier over the years... I know the first two are actually aimed at kids (hell, the first even comes across like a reading course), and I played Muramasa in 'easy mode' (if there truly is such a thing in that game) but, bar one particularly challenging part, the Wii Silent Hill game is fairly easy to complete, though getting 100% would be tricky, and Other M, as previously mentioned, has some exceptionally tricky bosses which suddenly become quite easy when you know how to defeat them. Not completely easy... but easy enough...
If I remember correctly, all of those games except Western Heroes have a 'New Game Plus'... Muramasa has a completely different story, and Shattered Memories has 3 different 'standard' endings, but completing the game once unlocks the 'UFO' ending. It's always nice when there's a reason to return to a game, rather than just shelve it or trade it in.
In other news, I'm becoming typically terrified about my week of temping... even though I've worked there once before. I know it'll be fine once I get there, but I'm becoming a bundle of nerves in the lead-up.
Possibly a symptom of this was the nightmare I had last night, which played out like a Halloween sequel. Police were investigating a murder (or murders) and determined that the culprit was none other than Michael Myers... but they hadn't reckoned on the fact that he was living in the building they were using as the headquarters for their investigation... so, in typical fashion, the police officers were systematically (and brutally) murdered themselves. Don't remember too many other details... but it woke me up at around 6.30... though I had little trouble getting back to sleep afterward.
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