Metroid: Other M

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Other M)
"Any objections, lady?"
—Adam Malkovich

The second original Metroid game for the Wii, the first being Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, followed by its Compilation Rerelease Metroid Prime Trilogy. Developed by Project M — which includes team members from Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive fame), Nintendo SPD Production Group 1, and D-Rockets — the game is a third person action-adventure game that combines both 2D and 3D platforming. As an homage to the mechanics of the original Metroid as well as Super Metroid, the game is substantially different from the Prime trilogy.

Set after the events of Super Metroid but before those of Metroid Fusion, Other M finds our heroine Samus Aran resting on a Galactic Federation ship, convalescent after her battle against Mother Brain. Shortly after leaving, she picks up a Distress Call from a dormant bottle ship and sets out to investigate. Once there, she reunites with familiar faces from her days on the Federation Army: Anthony Higgs and her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. Following an attack from an alien being, the three split up to discover the nature of the strange threat.

Not to be confused with Project M.

Tropes used in Metroid: Other M include:
  • Action Commands: Samus's dodge-roll maneuver. In some cases it even becomes literally Press X to Not Die.
  • Action Girl: Samus, of course.
  • Aesop Amnesia: In spite of the trouble the Galactic Federation had with Metroids, Space Pirates, and Mother Brain, replicas are deliberately made of all three (with an accidental Ridley clone to rub salt on the wound).
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: MB sure didn't end up quite like her creators intended.
  • Alliteration Seriously Sophisticated Security System
  • Anticlimax: Are you pumped to charge into Sector Zero and kill some Metroids? Too bad. Adam steals it. Are you ready to find out who the Deleter is, and bring him to justice? Too bad. MB steals that one. Are you looking forward to a potentially awesome final battle with MB? Too bad. See Anticlimax Boss below.
    • Want to defeat Ridley once and for all and avenge Anthony's death? Too bad. The Metroid Queen steals it.
  • Anticlimax Boss: The fight against MB ends when you try to shoot her, instead of the monsters you're fighting. Many people finish this battle by accident.
  • Arc Words: Take a shot every time you hear the word "Baby."
  • A Taste of Power: You get to use Samus' Missiles, Bombs, and Power Bombs in the training section at the game's start, then are told you can't use them unless Adam says so once the game kicks off.
    • Although this is played straight in the case of power bombs, you merely need to get to the first boss before bombs and missiles are unlocked again.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Many of the bosses.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Samus and Anthony in one of the trailers and this artwork [dead link].
  • Badass: Anthony and Adam.
  • Bag of Spilling / New Powers as the Plot Demands: Double Subversion. Samus retains all her upgrades from Super Metroid, but she needs Adam's authorization to use them. In practice, it works the same way; you still need to reach certain points to use certain abilities.
    • Oddly though, Samus arbitrarily decides to impose these restrictions on herself before ever officially teaming up with Adam.
  • Beauty Mark: Sakamoto always intended for Samus to have one, but this is the first time we see it (it's on the side of her chin).
  • BFG: What Anthony Higgs has on his back.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Samus does this a few times over the course of the game. Anthony does a less action-packed but still awesome one in the end.
  • Bigger Bad: Queen Metroid and Phantoon.
  • Bittersweet Ending
  • Black Dude Dies First: Inverted. Anthony is the only survivor of Adam's squad.
  • Bonus Boss: Phantoon, again.
  • Book Ends: Samus being referred to as an outsider, by Adam at the beginning, and by the Federation officer at the end.
    • The opening cinematic shows Samus' fight with Mother Brain in Super Metroid. MB, an AI based on Mother Brain, is the last antagonist you face in the main story.
  • Boss Rush: Sort of. In the epilogue, the corridor leading up to Phantoon features most of the minibosses you've fought throughout the game, including two Rhedogians.
  • Break the Cutie: MB/Melissa is a cutie who gets very, very broken, and ends up very dangerous as a result.
  • Brown Note: Little Birdie's cry seems to throw tougher enemies into a frenzy.
  • Call Back: The sheer volume of call backs to classic Metroid games (and in a couple cases, a Call Forward) will stun any long-time Metroid fan.
  • Call Forward: Being the prequel to Metroid Fusion, there are a number of plot points in Fusion that are set up in this game, such as Nightmare, That One Boss in Fusion, being a boss here (with his body mysteriously vanishing after the main storyline ends. Also, the frozen husk of Ridley in Fusion is given a backstory here as the Metroid Queen sucks Ridley dry.
  • Camera Screw: The fixed viewpoint camera when you're in the third-person mode can be quite off-putting for people who are used to the generally very good camera controls in Nintendo's main franchise games. Fortunately this usually isn't too obnoxious in actual gameplay, but it can lead to some annoying moments when you get ambushed by enemies lurking just off-camera, or in some cases behind the scenery.
  • Captain Obvious: Samus. Much of her dialogue has her restating what she'd just been told or by stating something that the player had just seen.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Power Bombs. Adam forbids Samus from using them outright at the beginning of the game, citing their extreme destructive power. You can't use them until the very end of the game, but it's oh-so-satisfying to vaporize the Queen Metroid with them.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The "Concentration" mechanic, but it can only be used in a Near-Death Experience, so it doubles as a Press X to Not Die.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: Meta-Example. The Killer Rabbit throughout the game is actually a regenerating Ridley. You never fight him in this stage-he fully recovers and goes back to being a space dragon-but he's somewhat less scary, Death Glare aside.
  • Combat Wedges: Samus' Zero Suit.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: At first averted, but later played straight. In the infamous Sector 3 runthrough, Samus doesn't activate her Varia suit, and takes constant damage as a result. Later, when Samus saves Anthony, he doesn't seem to have any ill effects from being around the hot lava, though it is possible that the G-Fed army suits are very good at protecting from the elements. This is also in play when the miniboss you just fought suffers no ill effects from diving straight into the lava.
  • Continuity Nod: The fate of Ridley in Other M, sets up his appearance in the next game in the timeline, Fusion.
    • Similarly, Nightmare makes an early appearance, and its disembodied head remains on the ground after killing it. It's gone when Samus returns to the ship after the credits.
    • The final boss in the main story is the Queen Metroid from Metroid II. You even finish it off in a similar but even more awesome way.
  • Covered in Gunge: Blasting an enemy in the first person view sometimes results in the guts splattering on the viewscreen. Also, though it didn't show in-game, apparently Samus spent the last portion of the preceding game covered in the guts of the infant Metroid and Ridley, from which each was later cloned.
  • Cutscene: One hour's worth, and all replayable in theater mode when you beat the game.
    • Theater mode even adds sections of gameplay between the cutscenes, effectively making it The Movie of The Game.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Played with. MB, at first, was just an artificial intelligence shaped like a human. After bonding with Metroids and Madeline Bergman, she gained self-awareness and emotions, effectively becoming "human". After feeling abandoned, said emotions go flying out the window and she decides to take revenge on "the humans".
  • Darker and Edgier: Not by much because it's a dark series, but the fact that a soldier is killing his own teammates in order to hide a government conspiracy, and thus makes it hard to trust ANYBODY pushes it in this direction. It's a situation that would have most people paranoid.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: If you die and continue, you'll usually respawn a few rooms away from where you died with as much health/missiles as you reached the checkpoint with. Considering how hard it is to regain health in this game, this is quite a blessing.
    • In Boss Battles (not counting mini-bosses) you only respawn back at the beginning of that fight, and even then, it's only at the beginning of the section where you died (if you die while inside the Metroid Queen, you just respawn and get eaten again right away, so you get as many chances of nuking the Metroid Queen as you'd like).
  • Death Glare: The Killer Rabbit mentioned below gives Samus an epic one when you first meet it. Given who he is, it would be Out of Character to do anything less.
  • Died Happily Ever After: Melissa/MB, Adam, and Samus' fallen teammates all appear as clouds of glittering gold space dust as she flies away from the Bottle Ship, suggesting that they have found peace.
  • Disney Death: Anthony Higgs
  • Doomed by Canon: Fusion, which takes place after this game, dictates that Adam must die in a Heroic Sacrifice and that Ridley must end up a frozen husk.
  • Dramatic Irony: The Galactic Federation had Samus destroy the Metroids because the Space Pirates intended to mass produce them and use them as bio-weapons. In this game and Fusion Samus find out that...the Galactic Federation intended to mass produce Metroids AND Space Pirates and use them as bio-weapons.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Deleter, to the point that his identity is never explicitly revealed.
    • Although it's easy to piece it together from the clues.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Phantoon. In Super Metroid, he's a bit taller than Samus, maybe three times as wide. In this game, he's the size of a mid-size space craft, spawns disembodied hands and shoots swirling portal vortex things at you. And according to the concept art, that "mid-sized space craft" sized head sits atop a vaguely humanoid body about as big as any of the starships in the Metroid universe; it's just all you can see in the visible dimension is his head.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower:
    • The Screw Attack may well be even more lethal than ever before.
    • The Power Bomb, which is only usable during the battle with the Metroid Queen and the epilogue would also apply.
  • Everything's Better with Rainbows: Samus' Overblast and Lethal Blows are punctuated with very pretty rainbows.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: The famed Screw attack.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Ridley. Metroid Queen. FIGHT! Metroid Queen wins. Flawless Victory.
    • Also, there are several hints that James is the Deleter. He's killed by MB.
  • Fan Service: There's only a couple ass-shots in the game, but boy howdy.
  • Feed It a Bomb: You finish off the Queen Metroid by letting her swallow you and laying a Power Bomb in her stomach.
  • Fetal Position Rebirth: Samus, during the opening cinematic of the game.
  • Fingerless Gloves: Samus' military uniform.
  • Flash Back: The intro depicts the ending of Super Metroid.
  • Flunky Boss: The Queen Metroid.
  • For Want of a Nail: Consider what would happen later in the game if you don't rescue Anthony Higgs. It certainly wouldn't be pretty.
  • Four-Star Badass: General Adam Malkovich is the person Samus respects (or is intimidated by) the most in the game. But you have to be badass to do what he did at the end of the game; he could very well be the only human capable of killing Samus, judging from when he shot her, causing her to lose her power suit and most of her stamina. And this was only ONE shot!.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Fusion mentions several times about how Adam sacrifices his life at some time in the past to save Samus. As a prequel to Fusion, most of the fandom inevitably assumed that event would be shown in this game.
  • Force Field Door: Hilariously averted! Admit it, if you're a Metroid veteran, you tried to shoot the door to make it open!
  • Foreshadowing: There's a reason that scientist at the beginning of the game seems like a total douche.
    • James Pierce is the Communications man of the squad and he was trained by the Federation Central Information Agency, aka the CIA. As the game progresses, a mysterious traitor starts killing off members of the squad...
      • This may also explain why radio communications were severed throughout the entire story; perhaps James, a communications specialist, was carrying a device jamming radio signals.
    • If you listen closely to the song that plays when Samus is attacked by the "Mysterious Creature" in the Biosphere Test Area, you can hear hints of Ridley's theme.
  • Freudian Excuse: Those who defend Samus' emotional problems point to her backstory: her biological parents mercilessly killed in front of her (and the monster that killed them keeps coming back), her adopted Chozo parents disappeared, she had a falling out of some kind with father figure number three, and the baby Metroid she had some kind of maternal feelings for was just horribly killed protecting her.
    • Not to mention the fact that she is now under the command of said third father figure, so she's feeling a little uneasy (If you had a large fight with your parents and haven't patched things up, you'd feel pretty awkward around them too.) This can be seen as the largest contributing factor as she mentions that she feels a lot calmer when Adam dies. Although this could also be the fact that they "technically" patched things up.
  • Jump Scare: At the Exam Center part of the game, there's a room with six doors. You hear a strange monotonous beeping noise as you walk through the room. Five of these have nothing in them. However, the third door has what appears to be the lifeless corpse of a Zebesian; the camera immediately cuts to a close-up of it as it falls toward Samus. Even she jumps.
  • Freeze Ray: Samus always has one, that's not unusual. But you didn't expect the Army to have them as a secondary weapon.
    • Given the fact that the Galactic Federation is supposed to have access to Chozo tech it isn't all that surprising.
  • Gag Sub: Metroid: Other M - The reMovie which, among other things, has Samus monologuing about whether she should order baby-back ribs after her training exercise, and the authorization mechanic is explained away as Samus doing a low% run just to piss off Adam.
  • Game Breaking Bug: Several people have reported an issue where a door in Sector 3 (that you have to go through) will not open, no matter what you do. Nintendo had to accept mail-ins for cards with save files. They claim the cause of the bug is picking up the Ice Beam, going into the following room, killing all the enemies to open that room's next door, and then immediately backtracking into the Ice Beam room before continuing on into the room you just opened at least once. Prior to this, the fandom assumed the bug had to do with the Rhedogian boss (going back down the lift after beating the boss the first time and then saving, or going back and saving after the third fight with it).
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: According to this Iwata Asks interview, a large focus during development was averting this. For example, in cutscenes, Samus retains her current health and missile count and even views things the same as the player does in first-person mode. She does still pull off some kick-ass moves the player can't do, however.
    • Played mostly straight with the "Concentration" mechanic. Samus actually uses it once in a cutscene, but the maneuver itself is never justified in-story, and is instead explained in various manga released years previously.
  • Genre Blindness: Adam sends Samus to a lava area without authorizing her Varia Suit (a suit that protects Samus from deadly heat and convection). Hardened Metroid players will automatically know that's virtually suicide. Only partially justified as, until the appropriate boss fight, he wouldn't expect her to do lengthy combat in that area.
  • Genre Savvy: Unlike the example with the Killer Rabbit, Samus knows (at least now) that, no matter how cute the baby Metroid is, it must die. Not that she gets to kill it.
  • Ghost Ship: The setting.
  • Giant Space Ghost From Nowhere: The bonus boss Phantoon.
    • The Rhedogian mini-boss that comes out of nowhere, shoots missiles and Eye Beams, and can apparently survive the high temperatures of lava.
  • Glass Cannon/Fragile Speedster: Samus tends to feel like this in comparison to other games in the series. It doesn't take many hits to wear down her shields, but adds the dodge mechanic to balance it out.
    • This is also true for most bosses, who usually don't take many hits to go down, but can kill Samus with just a few of their own.
    • Samus becomes the trope even more in Hard mode, where her energy is always at 99, making dodging attacks extremely crucial for survival.
  • Government Conspiracy: Everything that happened in the Bottle Ship was the work of a rogue faction in the Federation.
  • Gravity Master: Nightmare
  • Gravity Screw: The rooms leading up to Nightmare.
  • Guide Dang It: Thankfully averted for the most part, with the Pixel Hunt exceptions as noted below.
    • Using a Power Bomb to finish off the Queen Metroid. There is no indication they've been activated.
    • Locking on to a grapple point when you need to save Anthony. If you were the observant type you may have checked it on one previous trip through the room and not thought to check it again as you know you don't have the grapple beam and there is no indication that the game wants you to lock on to the grapple point. The "lock on to get the upgrade needed" thing was also never used before now and is only used once more after this. The second time, the game does tell you it wants you to lock on to something in first-person mode.
  • Healing Checkpoint: Save stations double as replenishing stations.
  • Heartbeat Soundtrack: Used extensively in the opening cutscene, and also used when Samus falls into lava.
  • Heroic BSOD: Samus, upon confronting a very much alive Ridley. This is probably the most controversial part of the entire game, as she had faced him multiple times before without breaking down. Bring it up at your own risk. She also happens to be going through a less severe one involving the death of the baby Metroid from Super throughout this game. Again, touchy subject.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Adam, as implied back in Fusion. He sacrifices his life in order to destroy the Bottle Ship's Metroid hatchery.
    • Anthony's apparent death. While it turned out to be a Disney Death, it did save Samus' life.
  • Holding Back the Phlebotinum
  • Hollywood Chameleons: The chameleonlike Ghalmanians. Could possibly be handwaved as futuristic technology, though.
  • Hot Shoujo Father Figure: Either Adam rose through the Army's ranks with unreal speed or he's aged very gracefully.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: One explanation for Adam shooting Samus in the back, and the reason he let his brother die, and why he went into Sector Zero alone, committing his heroic sacrifice.

Samus: "He would understand that some must live and some must die... He knew what it meant. He made that sacrifice once."

  • Informed Ability: Adam is described as being "a father figure", and yet none of the scenes shown in-game support this statement.
  • Inner Monologue: A large portion of Samus' lines are this.
  • In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: Samus is able to adjust the opaqueness of her visor. It's solid yellow-green by default, but she makes it transparent whenever she's talking to people.
  • Interface Screw: When you are under the effects of Nightmare's gravity limitations, everything seems blurry and the sound seems to be softened a little.
  • Ironic Echo: Anthony's thumbs-down in the ending.
    • "Any objections, Adam?"
  • Joker Immunity: Not just Clone!Ridley, but some of the other enemies in the game just won't stay down.
  • Killer Rabbit: The bunny chicken thing nicknamed "Choogle" by the fans. Poor Lyle probably didn't even see it coming. To make it worse, it is actually two growth phases away from becoming Ridley himself.
  • Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: The Federation Troopers use machine guns. Zig Zagged with Anthony's BFG Energy Weapon and the ice guns that appear to be a standard-issue secondary weapon for all Fed troops. They use them almost as much as their SMGs. Unfortunately, these machine guns are shown to be pretty ineffective against the creatures on the Bottle Ship.
  • Last Chance Hit Point: Any attack that reduces Samus to zero energy instead leaves her Life Meter flickering between 0 and 1, and she can take one more hit before a Game Over. She can get killed in one attack if multiple hits are involved and she's reduced to zero mid-way in the attack (for example: if Samus gets grabbed, slammed into the floor and then thrown across the ground, she'll be dead if the first hit knocks her down to her Last Chance Hit Point).
    • In Hard Mode, there is no last chance. Good luck with the Metroid Queen's flame attack.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The very first thing you see is a cutscene showing the events of the end of Super Metroid.
  • Le Parkour: It's a Metroid game.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: Averted. In a Metroid game!! Crazy huh? Not that you didn't have to escape an exploding Bottle Ship in the epilogue, if you didn't the game would be Ruined FOREVER!
  • Low-Level Run: By beating the game and getting One Hundred Percent Completion, you unlock this mode. No expansions, no addons except the ones given and acquired, and double the attack power of enemies.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Rhedogian does this. After you beat it the last time, you get the Seeker Missiles.
  • Mauve Shirt: Adam's entire squad, save Anthony.
  • Meaningful Echo: "No objections, right, Lady?"
    • Also, Samus's "thumbs-down" in the above scene.
  • Minimalist Run: What Hard mode basically is; all item expansions (missles, energy, etc.) are removed.
  • Misblamed: A majority of people direct their complaints towards Team Ninja when in reality, the majority of the design, plot, and gameplay decisions were made by Yoshio Sakamoto, otherwise known as one of the Co-Creators of the original Metroid, and director for Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Zero Mission. This includes the use of only the Wiimote sideways and a greater focus on story. Not to mention the scenario writing.
  • The Mole: Also known as "The Deleter."
  • Mood Whiplash: Twice at the end of the Playable Epilogue. One moment, Samus is in an intense fight with Phantoon, the next, Samus finds what she was looking for, the quiet "reminiscing" music is playing -- only for the moment to be abruptly interrupted by the self-destruct starting up.
  • The Movie: In a manner of speaking. After you beat the game, you basically unlock the ability to watch the entire game as a movie, with pre-recorded segments of gameplay between cutscenes. It even has a title when you decide to watch the whole thing: Metroid: Other M: The Movie.
  • Mythology Gag: One of Ridley's attacks has him slamming Samus against the wall and dragging her across it, much like his first appearance in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
  • Narrating the Obvious: Samus does this a lot in the game. Sometimes repeating what another character just said in monologue form so she can state her opinion on the subject or give a deeper analysis of the actions of another character, usually Adam.
  • Never Found the Body: Misawa. Justified in that he was dumped in magma, though.
  • Nice Hat: Adam's hat has become a minor meme in itself among the Metroid Community.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Oh, Ridley. You had Samus right where you wanted her. If you had just ignored the other one and finished Samus first, you could have won. But no, you had to go and kill Anthony first, snapping The Hunter out of her Heroic BSOD and opening yourself to a world of hurt.
  • Nintendo Hard: This is basically Ninja Gaiden wrapped around a Metroid game. It'll take you a few tries to defeat some of the earlier enemies as you learn the combat mechanics, and even then, this game requires a lot more skill and attention than the other Metroid games.
    • A minimum powerup run would be incredibly hellish, and this is exactly what Hard Mode is. You're limited to 99 energy, and you're limited to 10 (rechargeable) missiles and a slowly charging charge beam, as all the expansion tanks are removed.
  • Nobody Poops: Still played straight as in previous games, but more noticeable in that there are a pair of restrooms aboard the station. A tad odd that there are only two? Considering at least two parts of the ship require gear for extreme heat or cold, you can forgive them for assuming your protective suit handles that as well.
    • If you look carefully, you'll notice that there are no toilets in the bathrooms, just stalls. Of course, the one stall you can open may have simply had its toilet removed and inexplicably replaced with an Accel Charge.
  • Nonstandard Game Over: Occurs if you let a certain boss kill Anthony before you use the just authorized Grapple Beam to get to him. Fortunately, he can't die during the actual boss fight.
    • There's one scene where Samus has to jump up a broken elevator shaft while enemies chase her. She has to make the elevator crash down on the enemies to dispatch them, but the elevator has just as good a chance of killing Samus as well.
  • Oddball in the Series: Aside from being the only 3D game that is not first-person, it's also the game with the most emphasis on plot and cutscenes, as well as the first to feature Samus' melee abilities outside of the non-canon Super Smash Bros..
  • Oh Crap: Ridley has one when he tries to recover from his battle with Samus and notices Queen Metroid is coming right for him.
  • One-Hit Kill: On Hard mode. Due to the player being stuck at 99 energy max, some enemy attacks halfway to near the end of the game will inflict damage more than a whole Energy Tank's worth and since there's no Last Chance Hit Point mechanic in Hard mode, Game Over.
  • One Hundred Percent Completion: Unlocks hard mode. Or rather, harder mode.
  • The Other Darrin: Samus is on her 3rd voice actor.
  • Permanently Missable Content: At one point in Sector 2, there is an area with a Missile Tank, which is behind a pillar. Unless you have a guide, chances are you'll miss it. Wouldn't be so bad except that the area suddenly succumbs to an avalanche after you solve the puzzle. This avalanche covers the entire area and you can never go back and get the items you missed, even after you beat the game.
  • Personal Space Invader: A couple of foes are like this, either trying to latch on to you or ram you, but where there's Metroids, there's only one thing to expect.
  • Pixel Hunt: Many of the forced first person segments fall into this. Others go straight into Guide Dang It territory.
  • Playable Epilogue: After the credits roll, you can explore the ship, and try to reach 100%.
  • Porn Stache: James Pierce.
  • Powered Armor: Samus, definitely; the Army, maybe, maybe not.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Mother! Time to go..."
  • Press X to Die: It's possible to crush yourself under a broken elevator early in the game.
  • Press X to Not Die: When you're going through a tunnel in sector 3, the dragon worm...thing will smash through the tunnel. If you don't jump or sense-move out of the way, you will be killed by it.
  • Psycho Strings: Nightmare's battle theme has some flute/chorus in the beginning that serves a similar purpose.
  • Recurring Boss/Cowardly Boss: One miniboss appears four times, retreating after all but the last battle. Then he appears twice more, in the epilogue. Ridley tried to be this, but the Queen Metroid had other plans.
  • Redshirt Army: Surprisingly inverted Most of the named soldiers die, we see none of the nameless ones die.
    • Played straight with regular enemies.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Invoked by Anthony Higgs, despite this being his first ever appearance. See Memetic Mutation.
  • Retcon: A minor one, but still interesting to note. Samus describes Adam as "the only father-figure I ever had". This ignores Samus' backstory with Old Bird and the Chozo in general as her foster family. Again, touchy subject.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The scientist that directs the game's tutorial. He turns out to be the reason Metroids exist again.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the fight with Ridley, he's so scared of Samus he flies face-first through a wall trying to get away. See also "Oh Crap" above.
  • Ship Sinking: Because I was so young when I lost both of my parents, there's no question that I saw Adam as a father figure. Ouch.
    • Many people have interpreted this as this game's version of Samus having an Electra Complex. A surprisingly large number of people both old and new fans still refer to Adam as being "Samus's ex boyfriend," even in reviews.
    • It's worth noting that the game makes subtle hints that Samus may or may not have been in a relationship with Adam's younger brother, Ian. Especially when it's not-quite-as-subtly hinted that his death is the reason she left the GF and became a bounty hunter
  • Shout-Out:
    • Quite a few Alien references as well, as per tradition:
      • One's of Lyle's lines near the beginning is "They're coming outta the walls!"
      • The only time Samus faces the Deleter, he attacks her and MB, using what appears to be some sort of construction vehicle (a load lifter), which just happens to have a close resemblance to the one Ripley uses at the beginning of Aliens, and at the end to fight the Alien Queen.
    • The title screen opens to a refreshing piano melody overlooking a starry backdrop, Like the first Metroid game.
    • The naked fetal Samus at the beginning almost seems designed to evoke memories of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Samus, unsurprisingly, but what makes this particular time unique is that the cutscene that shows Samus in the army features the original power suit with the triangular shoulder pads. Samus now sports the shoulders without the Varia function on. Of course this can be explained by the fact that it is a now Varia function not a suit. The Varia suit is now an upgraded power suit with Varia and gravity functions.
  • Show, Don't Tell: Averted in the scene where Adam dies. Samus is told that the Metroids in Sector Zero are unfreezable, but we never see them, thanks to Adam's Heroic Sacrifice. The only two times that we do see them, they are freezable, for a different reason the second time than the first.
    • Played painfully straight elsewhere, however.
  • Shown Their Work: The Heroic BSOD scene is a very accurate depiction of PTSD, despite being a very touchy subject. (Warning: article contains spoilers.)
  • Slow Electricity: When you're reaching for Sector Zero, the lights begin to turn on this way.
  • Story to Gameplay Ratio: Two hours of the about ten hour game is cutscenes, and once you've beaten it, you have the option of watching it as if it were a movie (with the gameplay segments as videos.)
  • Space Pirates: Samus technically scattered them all, but through cloning, and using MB, an artificial human version of Mother Brain as a method of control, the Galactic Federation intends to use them as Super Soldiers. The plan goes to hell, of course, and damn near causes the resurrection of the very enemies they spent years to destroy.
  • Space Marines: Averted, Adam and his squad are from the Federation Army which explains the different armor design from the Prime Series. Still, Platoon 07 is just as Badass if not more so than the Marines. Too bad they had a Mole
  • Something Only They Would Say: "Any objections, lady?" Back in Fusion, it was Samus' sign that the AI was Adam; in Other M its use in the trailer was the first tip-off to the fans that it was a Metroid title.
    • And Anthony is the only person who calls her "Princess." That's the tip-off that he survived in the ending.
  • Start of Darkness: MB's general development, but somewhat diverted due to not becoming... you know. Fits nicely with the layout of how she Used to Be a Sweet Kid, but suddenly turned evil. It doesn't exactly fit with From Nobody to Nightmare since she was Experimented on with the close intent of many other Mad Scientists. Compare What Measure Is a Non-Human? below.
  • Suddenly Voiced: Samus has had grunts in the Prime series and brief taunts in Super Smash Bros.. Brawl, but this is the first time she speaks full lines and engages in dialogue and monologue (Well, first time that isn't Dummied Out).
    • Note that this isn't her first time actually talking. She talked and even did monologues in Fusion.
  • Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The room just before Ridley has an Accel Charge "and" an Energy Tank, both of which are blatantly easy to reach. Not at all suspicious.
    • This is a running theme in just about every Metroid game. When you find a save point after going a long time without one, saving (and healing) is a really good idea.
  • Taking You with Me: One of the rarer enemies jettisons a worm-like inner body from its exoskeleton when close to death. The new creature's only method of attack is wrapping around Samus and blowing up.
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: Samus speaks in a very monotone voice and often uses this.
  • The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: At the beginning of the game, new upgrades receive either an inventory screen blurb, an appropriate dialog, or both, regardless of whether they're obtained or authorized. Trying to use them before they're unlocked, in the case of chargeable weapons, simply prevents the charge meter from completely filling, restricting you to the lesser weapon. At times, Samus will self-authorize, such as with the Space Jump/Screw Attack, but with the same indications; however, while fighting Queen Metroid, a later stage in the fight requires you to use the Power Bomb to survive - however, the usual indication that this weapon is available for use doesn't come until after the ending credits!
  • Took a Level in Badass: You cannot deny that Phantoon is MUCH harder this time around. He's also at least five times larger.
    • In previous games, Zoomers simply strolled along a set path, only bumping into Samus by accident. In Other M, they actively attack Samus.
    • Samus each time she gets one of her top weapons. The Screw Attack can one-shot many of the tougher regular enemies Samus faces, like the Zebesians. The Power Bomb can one-shot every non-boss enemy, including the Rhedogians (the flying anomalocaris-like creatures).
  • Transformation Sequence: When Samus first puts on her power suit.
  • Translation Convention: It's more than obvious (if you're playing the Japanese version) that everyone are speaking English but translated to Japanese for the players' benefit. Even in the Japanese voice acting, many characters (Samus included) uses lots of English loanwords that could be translated without problems like baby, princess, lady, etc.
  • Trigger Happy: Lyle kills a bug Deader Than Dead, and continues to pump lead after it exploded!
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: After the destruction of Sector Zero, the access corridor starts to break off, leading to explosive decompression. While you're escaping, you see several Zebesians trying to cling on for dear life in the corridor—if you so wish you can help speed them to their demise by shooting them, which causes them to lose their grip and fly off into space.
  • Voice Acting: The second game in the series to use it, after Prime 3. Prime had it in the form of grunts and such. Prime 2 had some full voice acting. Prime 3 used it heavily, and Other M finally made Samus speak audibly.
  • Voodoo Shark: The Authorization system was intended to make more sense than the series's typical Bag of Spilling Once an Episode. Instead, every review notes the justification of possible harm to allies as a reason Samus can't use purely defensive or exploration based upgrades makes less sense.
  • Wall Jump: The second game in the series, after Prime 2, to explicitly tell the player that this is one of Samus' abilities.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Sort of. The subplot involving the Deleter is significant for a large portion of the game, but is effectively dropped after he attacks MB. However, observant players will notice James's dead body laying in the same room where Samus left him, implying that he was the traitor. There is, however, no indication that Samus realizes this.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: MB in a very interesting case. She was designed just to be a humanoid version of Mother Brain to interface with Metroids. However, after bonding with a baby Metroid, and getting the name Melissa Bergman from Madeline Bergman, this caused her to develop self-awareness and, to Samus' reckoning, a soul. However, after Madeline does nothing to protect her from being taken away, she immediately loses said soul and goes on a rampage, which is very apparent in the final cutscenes where she talks in a Creepy Monotone and doesn't even attempt to hide her non-humanity.
  • When She Smiles: Samus in the ending.
  • The Worf Effect: You can tell that the Queen Metroid isn't going to be a pushover when you see it kill Ridley.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Poor Lyle Smithsonian hates bugs. Guess what has seemingly invaded the Bottle Ship?
  • The Worm That Walks: The first boss.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Did you really think Nightmare was down for the count?
    • Also, in the Extended Gameplay, did you really think it would be a Metroid game without a self-destruct countdown?
  • Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Anthony Higgs plasma gun, it fires a plasma beam just like Samus arm cannon but it takes a long time to charge compared to Samus plasma beam and does the same damage as the plasma beam at full charge.
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