Mmm.

From what I've seen, that is pretty much what you're getting here. Personally I got enough 2D Metroid with Zero Mission and Fusion.

Nonetheless, I learned from Metroid Prime that whatever Nintendo wants to do with the series, they should. This looks like a refreshing, cinematic take, something the series has somewhat lacked.

Ya know, if Bayonetta hadn't already been Bayonetta, I would completely agree with you.

Ok, cut it out, dude.

I was wondering where this thread was...

This strikes me as moving Metroid in the entirely wrong direction. It is like the developers are approaching this series like they want to fix Metroid, but to me there really isn't anything to be fixed. I can see maybe changing the combat but all the story stuff is just pointless and counter to everything that has gone before.

Thanks but no thanks.

She does too have soft sides. At least 2 that I can think of, but you could probably get 4 out of that.

Anything that starts with the Team Ninja logo gets my attention.

Fragile? Seriously?

That's exactly what I thought too. Regardless of how bad ass she is, she must show weakness to be appealing.

I love the opening intro to Super Metroid. She explained what happened and the rest was left to the player. In the Prime series, the story was revealed by translating the Chozo Lore and hacking into the Space Pirate's systems. I've always liked her ability to get sh*t done because she was a flippin' wave a destruction wherever she went. Now she needs fragility? *head desk*

Aha! You nailed it. I was sort of skirting around the edges there.... I was uncomfortable with the whole idea, but I could only mock it without really understanding why I was mocking it, and that observation brings it into focus.

I don't want to lust after Samus Aran, and I especially don't want to lust after a weak Samus Aran. Rather, I want to be Samus Aran. Her gender is irrelevant, and that was the entire strength of the character.

This is fascinating.

You do remember that the character of Samus Aran was created in Japan, right? And you realize that her portrayal in those "American" games -- where Miyamoto and Sakamoto hovered over almost everything that Retro Studios did, mind you -- is virtually identical to Samus's sparse characterization in the first three Metroid games, right?

I agree that the character direction that's being hinted in this trailer is unflattering; I feel like Malor and Mystic nailed it with their comments, just as Lara Crigger did in one of her GWJ columns from way back.

But I just can't get past the irony of applying a negative stereotype to a culture in the very same thread where you decry reductive stereotyping of another kind. It makes the entire argument almost seem disingenuous.

Well, the woman with the huge gun that shoots everything to little pieces is pretty rare in western stories, but people seem to think it's awesome anyway.

No, actually, that wasn't my intent at all. Let me try this again.

My point was to illustrate that there seemed to be some willingness in some of the comments to blame this stereotyping on "anime crap" or to state that this kind of stereotype is a problem, especially when it's coming from "Japan." This struck me as being especially ironic, given that the subject of the thread - Samus Aran - was originally created by Japanese developers.

If people want to call out Team Ninja or Tecmo for their past behavior (as you did in your opening post), I can buy into that argument; their track record for this kind of characterization sucks, to put it bluntly. Expanding that approach as some larger statement about anime or Japan, however, seemed overly dismissive and reductive, in my opinion.

People also need to keep in mind that Team Ninja will be doing and they aren't directing the game. They are doing the production work but the planning is done by the GBA Metroid teams.

I dislike anime, that doesn't mean I have to dislike everything about Japanese games/culture/whatever. I fully understand these franchises were created in Japan but that doesn't mean they have to go anime.

Agreed. Now if this were a Certis/Elysium fanfic, that'd be another matter.