I admit I’ve had severe doubts about Metroid: Other M since I heard it was being developed by Team Ninja. Even with the positive feedback after Nintendo’s summit a couple weeks ago, I was afraid that they’d try to change too much of what makes Metroid so great.
Now, no matter how Other M turns out, I will praise Team Ninja for convincing Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto to scrap his plans for making the title an on-rails shooter.
Kotaku reports that during his GDC session, Sakamoto recalled, "I thought Samus should move along a set path. That’s right. Samus would be moving along a rail, as long as the camera angle was capable of keeping up with the action."
When the Tecmo developers couldn’t persuade Sakamoto to incorporate the nunchuk into the control scheme, they reached a compromise in the form of the current controls.
"They understood my reason immediately. They proposed a full 3D map, where Samus could move to other points with the control pad. It was perfect."
Though I’m thankful Metroid: Other M has turned towards the series’ roots, it would have been interesting to monitor how another radical design departure for the series would have affected sales. After all, how many people didn’t believe a first-person Metroid game could be any good?