Far too often, I feel that Metroid Other M was dumped on and unappreciated because it was unlike the Prime Games that people had come to love. While I can understand your disappointment, if you really loved the Primes and wanted one similar to it; you really need to appreciate what this game turned out to be, instead of moping and griping that it did not turn out the way that you had expected. Because of the response that Other M received, it could be a long time before we see another metroid. Worse yet, Metroid could die as a franchise. While I do not believe the latter probable, it is possible. Let's see why people complain about it. The first thing is the story. That there even is a story for metroid is, in my opinion, awesome. We finally get to see who Samus Aran really is; how she feels and thinks. It makes the whole game much more realistic when you see a human being who has feelings, when you see how she interacts with others, and when you see her shortcomings. In the other games, I have almost wondered if she was a robot! So even though people did not like the way the story played out, or the fact that she slips up, or is emotional at several key points of the story, they should appreciate that nintendo wanted to give us more than their run-of-the-mill puny story that starts at the beginning, and nothing really happens until the end. Secondly, some people have complained that the game relies too heavily on past enemies versus creating new enemies like they did in the prime series. Well, that's just it, the purpose of the Prime Series was to create new worlds and enemies. And give you a whole new feeling, somewhat trying to revive interest in Metroid. Once they had accomplished this, they wanted to take a step back and look back to the past--trying to show new people the enemies of yesteryear, and all that had been accomplished.
Naturally, the best place to do this would be between Super Metroid (after the fall of planet zebes) and Metroid Fusion (the fall of planet SR388)
In this way, they were able to look at what had been done already without going to the dead end of the series. Some people have said that the story completlely ignores the prime series, when Samus Aran says, "it was the first joint mission that I had been a part of since setting out to become a bounty hunter". Really, just because she said this, it does not mean that they sidestepped the prime series. In reality, Samus aran was not under command, nor was she working with other team members. Even if they had sidestepped the Prime series--this should be kept in mind. In metroid prime three you are piloting an improved ship from the federation that looks similar to the one she flew away from the BSL station in fusion. Why is this? Neither Super Metroid of fusion show this ship. They show the original. doesn't that mean that Prime ignore the later games? Okay, so in my opinion, either way this claim is invalid. Some have also complained about the worlds not being big or varied enough, and that the music was not original enough. Again, the games' purpose was to create a somewhat nonstalgic adventure while delivering a more intricate story than ever before. So, in my opinion, this game is awesome; and accomplished it's purpose. I'm not saying it was super creative, but it did good for what it was supposed to. Overall, I would give this game a 9.5. Sound and graphics both get a 10. Because the graphics of everything was just awesome--especially on the cutscense, or the grand finale for some of the bosses. The sound was awesome too. while the music was not original, it was good. And fit the purpose of the game. The story gets a 9, I would give it a ten but for the fact that they killed the entire team off except for Anthony. I feel that there really should have been a reconciliation between Adam and Samus, just to finish wrapping things up. While the game is not very deep--Depth gets a 7. You think you're going to fight metroids--then adam blows them up with his sacrifice. Then you think you're going back to fight Ridley--then you fight the Metroid Queen after finding Ridley practically mummified! The game takes some twists and turns--which is why I rate this department as high as I did. While, playing through on normal is not very difficult; if you take the time to find all the items in the game and get out of the ship, you will unlock hard mode. This part is deadly hard, in my opinion and gets a 10 for difficulty. You have to fight through the whole way through this game--except the last part with phantoon--with only 99 units of energy, 10 missiles, no e-refill tanks, and no charge acceleration. As tough as it was, I did manage to beat it! If it wasn't for hard mode, the game would get a 7 for addictiveness. But with hard mode, it just got spiked to 10! Overall, this game delivered fast paced action, combined with an interesting story--even if it did have flaws as people claimp--and overall modern, yet retro feel. I feel that it truly deserves the 9.5 rating that I gave it.