Monday, March 7, 2011

Metroid: Other M with Salty Dogs

The Metroid franchise is one that I hold near and dear to my heart. Super Metroid may be my favorite game of all time, and every other entry in the series that I have encountered has seemed pretty damn good as well. At least until now. I don't want to write a rambling review of Metroid: Other M. I'm not here to critique games, and I haven't even come close to finishing this one. I'll try to reserve judgement in this post.

Metroid: Other M is the most recent Metroid game. It departs from the Metroid Prime formula to bring an odd mixture of fixed-perspective semi-side-scrolling action with first-person shooting, third-person exploration, and a slew of other hyphenated descriptors. The game also gives a voice, for the first time, to Samus, one of the most revered video game heroines of all time. Apparently the tough-as-nails, take-no-shit variety of heroine is played out. It turns out that Samus is actually an introspective and vaguely whiny hero. But I'm not here to criticize. I am here to drink, and the ballsy new angle of this new Metroid game makes me want to do just that. Given my attitude towards this game and the slim pickens I had in my fridge, I decided that what we needed here were some salty dogs.

I don't think that I'd ever made a true salty dog before tonight. I shook up some Seagram's gin (I'm a high roller) and grapefruit juice and dumped it over rocks in a salt-rimmed glass. For my second salty dog I used bitters, which added a little something. The drink is refreshing and somewhat light-hearted. It eased my pain a little bit while I played through Other M. When I would get to one of the various parts of the game where the camera suddenly snaps into first-person perspective and stay there while an inexplicably paralyzed Samus scans the room for about 5-10 minutes until she finds a painfully minute clue that helps to advance the so-far tiresome plot, the salty dog was there for me. Of course, many other boozes would have been adequate in this situation. I would like to give Metroid: Other M a fair shot, but I'm not sure my liver can take it.

4 comments:

  1. Natalie just started making us Salty Dogs. They are very nice. I feels like I could sit and watch you play that game with one.

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  2. Spoiler because I'm almost certain you won't finish Other M and you really shouldn't: The game ends with one of those fixed first person "find the clue" bits. That's the last boss. A "find the clue" bit, only you're constantly under attack and can't move. Deeply, incredibly upsetting.

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  3. Hot damn that sounds terrible! I'm glad I gave up so quickly.

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  4. I LOVED this game because it have Old-School Weapons. Also Steps Towards a Traditional Metroid Don't get me wrong, I loved Metroid Prime. Metroid: Other M was purchased from PIJ. Its pretty amazing for pre-order. I am really happy with this site. http://bit.ly/metroidfigma

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