Rez said:
Exploring a world and discovering it's intricacies through environmental storytelling is, as far a I'm concerned, inarguably best told through first person view. Metroid transitioning into 3D in that way is and was ingenious.
Moving to first-person was a fantastic move, but I still feel the series is best served from an outer perspective, whether that be 2D or 3D or a hybrid of both.
Retro may have tried, but they definitely failed at bringing Samus' agility and speed into the third dimension. The pacing of the Prime series is much slower than any other Metroid game. Thankfully Retro's design of the game helped minimise the negative impact of this - particularly in their environment design and puzzles which are among the best in the entire series - but there's no doubt that her lack of mobility is a significant flaw.
Hopefully future Metroid games adopt a similar view point to Other M, or at least try to maintain the speed and agility that she shows in this game. Some may try to convince you otherwise, but a huge part of Metroid is flowing, speedy movement that is honed by mastering both your environment and the items you collect along the way. It's a huge reason why Metroid games are almost always fantastic towards the end.
It may very well turn out to not have the genius design of the Prime series - few games do - but there's no doubt that Other M is taking the series in a right direction in terms of it speed and structure in 3D. in this sense, is easily much more representative of the 2D games than the Prime series.
