Metroid Other M & Super mario Galaxy 2 Hands On

Metroid Other M its like the End of All Metroid series before Metroid Prime


Our demo begins with a brief CG cinematic where the camera pans to the depths of space to find a person--bounty hunter Samus Aran--curled in the fetal position (like the scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey). After uttering the question, "Why am I still alive?" Samus awakens to find herself in the ending sequence of Super Metroid. An appropriately disgusting and angry Mother Brain stomps around as the baby Metroid (that originally appeared in Metroid II) holds Samus above ground within its maw. Just seconds before Mother Brain releases a devastating beam of energy from her massive eyeball, the baby Metroid drops Samus and takes the brunt of the blast. Its gooey remains drip down onto Samus as she readies her arm cannon and says, "It's time to go." Mother Brain is defeated.
In the following scene, Samus (shown in her Zero Suit form) awakens in a quarantine room and later remarks that she constantly dreams about her confrontation with Mother Brain, as well as the fate of the baby Metroid. In fact, a large part of developing and growing Samus as a character for Metroid: Other M seemingly stems from the loss of the baby Metroid to the extent that it's a focal point of her remaining monologue in the introduction--a suggestion of her growing motherly instincts, perhaps?
As the scene ends, Samus transforms back into her Varia suit and the tutorial begins. In it, we learn about some of her basic movements and abilities--most of which are controlled by holding the Wii Remote sideways so the layout resembles the NES controller setup. The action in Metroid: Other M takes place in 3D space from a third-person perspective, so Samus can move around much as she did in Metroid Prime by using the D pad. You can fire her arm cannon using the button 1 (button 2 performs jumps) and hold it down to perform a stronger, charged shot. By throwing a few enemies at us, the tutorial revealed that there's seemingly no manual way to target enemies, so where you shoot is a combination of where you're facing and which enemy has priority over another for the auto-aiming system. Samus also has some evasive skills--by pressing left or right on the D pad just before a projectile hits, she quickly leaps to the left or right. Lastly, changing into the morph ball is as simple as pressing A on the Wii Remote, and like previous games, Samus can plant regular or superbombs while in this state. Also of note, you can recharge missiles by simply holding the Wii Remote vertically and simultaneously holding down the B button (a similar functions works for recharging health when it gets dangerously low, but it doesn't appear to refill all of your health).

The tutorial also included a section explaining Samus's search mode, which should be immediately familiar to fans of Metroid Prime. By pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, the camera automatically transitions to a first-person, in-the-visor mode that lets you look around by holding the B button. Not only can you use this mode to investigate your surroundings, but you can also use it to lock onto and combat enemies either by using Samus's default arm cannon attack or her missiles. It's worth pointing out that when you search a room and happen to come across a special item (such as an energy tank or missile capacity upgrades), it will be marked on the map shown at the top-right portion of the screen.

With the tutorial over, we got another cutscene where a quarantine officer tells Samus to head to a meeting where news that Mother Brain has been defeated and Planet Zebes has been completely destroyed is met with a round of cheering from others in the room. Time passes and we fast forward to a scene with Samus sitting inside her ship when she suddenly receives what she refers to as a, "baby's cry," which is an SOS coming from a distant part of the galaxy. She eventually reaches the source of the SOS and what appears to be a derelict space station called the Bottle Ship, where the main portion of our gameplay session took place.

Upon arrival, we're told to take a look around using Samus's search mode--a quick inspection of the area reveals that a Galactic Federation Army ship is also docked. We take a few minutes to run and jump around (to test out the controls a little more when the camera's in a side-scrolling perspective) before going through the first door on the ship. Inside, Samus encounters the Galactic Federation group that arrived at the station earlier as it tried to get through a seemingly impenetrable door. As luck would have it, a member of this crew is none other than Adam Malkovich--Samus's former commanding officer in the Galactic Federation Army (and later, the AI construct from Metroid Fusion) before she took up the reigns of a freelance bounty hunter. Samus briefly references tension that exists between the two of them because of her previous career choices, but it's something that will more than likely expand further as the game progresses.
After helping the team get through the door via a missile from Samus's weapon, the team moves forward and Samus is left behind to make her way to the control room on her own. Along the way, we encounter some of the familiar, weaker enemies of Metroid's past, such as zoomers and skree. We take out these enemies using Samus's regular attack and continue to explore before coming upon an empty bathroom area. Normally, such a room wouldn't be a big deal, but it is in this case because we get a glimpse of a new perspective that places that camera closely behind Samus (similar to the camera perspective found in the Resident Evil 4 and 5) and forces her to walk at a slower pace. Whether this camera perspective has any kind of significance over just accommodating the tight space remains to be seen, but it was quite a surprise when we came upon it for the first time.

We continue to go from room to room, putting Samus's acrobatic abilities to good use as she wall jumps and clings to ledges before pulling herself up to make her way to the control room where she meets up with the rest of the Galactic Federation crew, as well as the first boss encounter. This giant, purple monster flings its tentacles about, making it difficult to find enough time to jump into the first-person mode and take shots at its eye using missiles. When we do get a solid shot in, the Galactic Federation soldiers manage to freeze parts of its limbs, which you then have to target and fire upon with missiles in first person. After doing this a few times, the creature is defeated. Adam takes up a position in the main portion of the control room where he tells the rest of his crew to infiltrate other parts of the ship and asks Samus to restore power to the system management area. This requires a bit of backtracking to an earlier part of the level (where we get some more time to snoop around for extra items, some of which can only be accessed via the morph ball), but it only takes a few minutes before we find the designated area, clear out the enemies that were preventing power from reaching other parts of the ship, and head back to the control room where the demo ends.
At this point, Metroid: Other M seems to succeed in creating a new type of Metroid experience, but it's really hard to explain just how different it feels until you get your hands on it. The mixture of old Metroid and Metroid Prime elements seems like it's not an amazing fit initially, but as time goes on, changing from third to first person feels more natural. We'll have more on Metroid: Other M before its release on June 27.

Otro video de Super Mario Galaxy 2, porque viene el 23 de mayo en America del Norte y estoy contento!!



We decided to check out the area that was presented earlier in the day, where we were able to use the drill and dig instantly from one side of the large planetary dirt mound to the next. The controls are the same as in the original Super Mario Galaxy, and they're tight, responsive, and easy to master once you get back into the swing of things. Using the remote, you can point and collect star bits as you bounce over goombas to make your way to the star at the end of the stage. The drill can be found on the ground. By shaking the remote, you'll pick it up over your head, and you simply shake again to plow through anything that doesn't have a metallic surface. We eventually made our way to the boss fight, which wasn't as hard as it looked, given that this particular planet could be navigated only on a 2D plane--so it was like walking on the outside of an onion ring. The robotic creature with two metallic legs stomped around a bit and sent a few power drills our way but then left its underbelly exposed just long enough for us to come up (or down?) from the other side to give it a good kick in its sensitive areas.
In the trailer we saw earlier, there was an image of a giant snakelike space dragon, which we got a chance to face during our hands-on session. This creature, known as Gobblegut, was sent after us by Bowser Jr., and it looped around the planet with its large maw aimed at Mario. It eventually burrowed into the ground and out the other end, weaving and twisting to conveniently block our line of sight. But by staying out of this monster's mouth and hovering around the area where it had dug itself in, we were able to hit the vulnerable areas along its body until it finally backed off.
Before taking charge of Yoshi, we played through a 2D platforming level where the traditional laws of gravity did not apply. By keeping an eye on the blue and red arrows, we could determine which way gravity was working in that particular area and time, but there were portions of the level where it would switch on us, so we had to anticipate the change to avoid landing on some hazardous terrain. Another world we explored was composed of floating platforms made up of traditional Super Mario Bros. bricks, pipes, coin blocks, and jumbo-sized enemies. Just because a flying goomba is 10 times your size doesn't mean that you can't do a spin attack to knock the beast on its head. If you loved Giant Land in Super Mario Bros. 3, you're going to love this level.

Keep running, don't look back.

Since we saw what Yoshi could do with the blimp earlier in the day (basically balloon up and float), we decided to see what would happen to him if he ate a dash pepper. If you point at an object onscreen and press the B button, Yoshi's unnaturally long tongue will wrap around almost anything and swallow it. We're assuming that the dash pepper was extra spicy, because Yoshi immediately turned red and began to run at full speed. Controlling him is tricky while he's in this state, because he's ultrasensitive to your motions. Running into a wall will knock him back and slow him down, and the way the levels are designed, you need to get to the top of a ramp or the end of a long stretch of platforms before the effects of the pepper wear off. It took us multiple tries to get through some of the trickier areas, because he can easily run up the side of a wall, but if you brush against any wall or take a turn too early, you're going to take a tumble. It's incredibly fun to guide Yoshi as he darts up a long ramp, but it'll take a few mistakes before you know what to expect and can breeze by without any mishaps.
Even though it seems like our green friend can inhale everything, bullet bills don't seem to be a part of Yoshi's diet. What he can do, though, is keep a bullet in his mouth temporarily and then spit it out to help you wipe out enemies or break things--like glass--that may be blocking your path. If Yoshi gets separated from you at any time and goes off a ledge, he'll reappear in a nearby nest so you don't have to risk falling off a platform to get him back. Another one of Yoshi's talents is the ability to use his tongue to latch on to daisies, which can then propel you to higher ground like a swinging monkey.

Explore a variety of cool new environments.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is what you would expect from a sequel, with more of the same mechanics but new content as well to encourage you to explore this unique universe full of familiar faces and new bizarre creatures. The varied environments are a blast to go through, and the animations look really good at this point, so we can't wait to play more of the game as soon as we can get our own build. What's also exciting is that Nintendo has announced that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be coming May 23. Be sure to keep checking back for more updates as soon as they become available.