page_title: Metroid: Other M
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Metroid: Other M / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Yoshio Sakamoto at the Game Developers Conference in 2010 (third day), speaking at "From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare: different approaches for different audiences". Lossless crop of original photograph.
context_page_description: Metroid: Other M is an action-adventure video game developed by Team Ninja and Nintendo SPD and published by Nintendo for the Wii in 2010. It is part of the Metroid series, and takes place between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. The player controls intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran, who investigates a derelict space station with a Galactic Federation platoon, including her former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich.
  Longtime Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto approached Team Ninja to develop Other M, while animation studio D-Rockets handled the cutscenes. The development team employed a simple control scheme to make the game appealing to modern players, and gave significant focus on plot and characterization, with extensive cinematics and voice acting. Other M is played from a third-person perspective using only the Wii Remote, and focuses on exploration and combat. It introduces melee attacks which can only be executed when an enemy's health is reduced.
  Metroid: Other M received generally positive reviews from critics who praised its gameplay, music, graphics and atmosphere, although heavy criticism was directed at its plot and Samus's characterization.
context_section_description: Metroid: Other M was developed by "Project M", a team of over 100 people that includes staff from Nintendo, Team Ninja, and D-Rockets, with production lasting for three years. When the Wii console was released, Nintendo producer and chief Metroid designer Yoshio Sakamoto decided to create a new Metroid game for it, but opted to work with an outside company, as his usual development team did not have a knowledge to produce a 3D game. Sakamoto eventually approached Yosuke Hayashi of Team Ninja to discuss the incorporation of the flashy engine used for Ninja Gaiden (2004) into a new engine to encompass his new vision of a 3D Metroid game. Sakamoto served as producer and scenario designer, and main design was done by three designers from previous 2D Metroid games—Metroid Fusion (2002) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004). Team Ninja took charge of the programming and 3D modeling, and D-Rockets handled the CG cutscenes. Hayashi described the work on the game as "a great honour" since he was a fan of the series, and stated Team Ninja tried to include as many creatures seen in previous games as possible.
  While Retro Studios tried to create "the ultimate first-person experience" with the Metroid Prime series, Sakamoto's approach with gameplay was different, particularly for the story Other M intended to tell. Sakamoto's intent was to create a game with "controls as simple as those of a NES game", so it would appeal to modern players. Team Ninja agreed with that approach, as they felt control schemes with excessive buttons were possibly turning players off the action genre, and tried to make the game employ only the Wii Remote, without resorting to the Nunchuk. The development team also tried to use the simpler controls to provide flashy action, with varied special attacks that would need few button inputs to be executed. Sakamoto focused on 2D-like gameplay because he considered it more "comfortable" for audiences, particularly during shifts from gameplay to cutscenes, as he thought 2D "[doesn't] have the same distractions when you want to give them story sequences". While the developers felt no need to integrate everything from the Prime series as they were games with different concepts, a few of the elements that "made those games unique" were implemented into Other M, such as the "immersive sight" of the first-person mode. When questioned if Other M would be too similar to Ninja Gaiden, Hayashi responded that while the new game will feature heavy action-based sequences, there will still be the exploration-based sequences characteristic of other Metroid games. Sakamoto said that Other M's story progression was in the same manner as Metroid Fusion, and stated that the collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja is "unlike anything that's ever been done at Nintendo; it's more than just a collaborative effort — it's one group working toward a common goal".
  Before Other M's development, Sakamoto did not think too much about "what kind of person Samus Aran was and how she thinks and her personality", particularly because the games tried to depict Samus as a mysterious person. Sakamoto and Team Ninja put much focus on backstory in the game to present Samus as an "appealing human character", something important for future installments, as players would get further interest in Samus' adventures. Hayashi said that one of the development team's goals was to have the player "connect with Samus as the story and action develops". Sakamoto also said the game would "bring everyone up to the same level of understanding in the Metroid universe", and would not only introduce the series to new players but also create new challenges for fans. The chronological setting between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion was chosen because Sakamoto considered the period "so critical that without addressing it, we wouldn't be able to make new games that show Samus' adventures that take place after the events of Metroid Fusion".
  D-Rockets, a company specialized in CG animation for video games and commercials, was brought into the project for its in-game cinematic
caption: Metroid series designer Yoshio Sakamoto, pictured at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
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