Metroid: Other M announced

Well... the Nintendo E3 press conference. I don't really know what to say. First of all, I'm disappointed (again) about the lack of Zelda Wii, I really hope, this game isn't taking them too long and there's a good reason, why they haven't showed us anything (again). I mean, on the conference they announced like four new Mario games, but not a single new Zelda game? Well, my hopes for a Virtual Handheld on the DSi was also disappointed, but at least not my hopes about a new Metroid game.

But what the hell? Team Ninja? I really like Team Ninja, I really do... for their animations of wiggling tits in Dead or Alive. Combine this with Metroid and you get a sexy Samus wrestling with Ridley. I'm not so sure, if this is the right way. For me the 3D Metroids were pretty much defined by the Metroid Prime Trilogy, now to change the gameplay, style, controls and obviously everything else again is a very radical move, or is it? But on the other hand it definitely looks better than a simple rip off like Super Mario Galaxy 2, it's something very new and hot for the franchise. So, let's wait for more information about this one. Storywise this game looks like the latest part of the series, while it shows us some of Samus' backstory, it has Adam Malkovich in it and we can see something, that resembles the final scene of Super Metroid. Well, I would say, it takes place after Fusion and shows us Samus' past with cinematics. I think, the only cutscene that took place in the actual events of the game was the last one with the blonde, pale girl in the ice station. One important question is now, how much exploration, puzzling and collecting items will become an important part of the game. All of this defines Metroid next to the action, while "Other M" looks right now like a fighting game with some beautiful cinematics. Actually, I'm worried, becaus it reminds me on the "Hardcore" trend of games on the XBox360 and PS3, which focus too much on cinematics, story and graphics, more like they're movies than a game. But I don't play a game for story or cinematics, I play games for gameplay and fun.

Update: A recent interview with the developers confirmed, that the game will take place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion and will explain what happened in this time, e.g. what happened to Adam Malkovich. So, the scene where Samus is fighting Mother Brain takes place at the beginning of the game. It's part of the R&D1 games' storyline and will show more of Samus' backstory. Also, exploration will still be an important part of the game despite the impression of the action oriented trailer and it definitely won't be just Ninja Gaiden with Metroid skins. With more than a hundred people working on this game, this will be the largest Metroid project so far. All members of the old Nintendo R&D1 team are working on this game, so they're alive and well, which is great news. They still have the idea of "Metroid Dread" in their mind, which might turn into a future project. So far so good!

But what happened to Retro Studios? It's as silent about them as about the Wii Zelda, we haven't heard anything about Retro for years now (well, except for the Metroid Prime Trilogy compilation), which makes me very curious, what their newest project will turn out to be. Obviously not a new Metroid game. That both the Wii Zelda and Retro's new project are kept secret, gives me still hopes, that they might be involved in the new Zelda game.

Links: 1Up Interview