Uh-oh: Metroid: Other M soundtrack is bad

So Metroid: Other M got mixed reviews, but it still looks like a hugely fun game to play. I personally haven't played it yet, but as soon as it released I rushed online to check out the next awesome Metroid soundtrack. Except there was no awesome Metroid soundtrack. It was more like a bunch of ambient sounds strung together. Almost every track had no recognizable melody to it save for the few that were ripped from previous Metroid games. In short, it's almost as if the composer was so afraid or screwing up that he reused some old Metroid tunes and didn't do anything specific for the rest of it. So it looks like we'll have to wait for the next Metroid game to get a decent new soundtrack. Shame, because the Prime series was brilliant musically.



So about a week or so before the game's release, Nintendo put out this great trailer with some great accompanying music:

So this got me pretty pumped and put my initial soundtrack fears to rest. Then I heard it. This track is not on there. There is nothing like this on there. Let's have a look at the fail, shall we?

Here's the main theme:

So that's not so much as the Metroid jingle over and over with some strings, echos, and percussion. But that's forgivable I guess because, except for the Prime series, that's pretty much been the menu music of all Metroid games. A little dull, but nothing too disappointing yet.

This next one plays during mission briefings, and results screens. It's a remixed version of part of the Super Metroid screen. Except that it's about 30 seconds long and loops for 3.5 minutes.


But this was reassuring!


But you listen to the combat and stage music and it just doesn't remind you of Metroid. I've gotten everything from survival horror to epic RPG to Arkham Asylum, but only these small nods to previous games reminded me I was listening to a Metroid soundtrack.

Here's an example of a track that plays during a boss battle:


They all sound fairly similar to that except when they sound like this:

If I didn't know that was Metroid, I'd definitely mistake if for something else. Sounds a bit like and epic RPG boss battle. This too.

As for stage music, this is one of the best tracks because it at least as some sort of tune to it at some point:


Then there's this whatever it is:


But then I found this which is probably the best original track:


This reminded me of Arkham Asylum, minus the space synth:


While most tracks are simply unmemorable, there are a few that are just wretched. Like really bad. This, for example, is probably the worst track I've ever heard in any game ever:

Sounds like it was thrown together in GarageBand and poorly looped.

This is pretty damn irritating as well:


Then there's a few that had potential perhaps if they were arranged differently:




And finally, something that caught me completely off guard:

So I was thinking in the beginning, "Yeah, Metroid!" Then I was transported to Disneyland. Wtf.

So, yeah, Other M's soundtrack is all over the place. It's a bunch of things, but it's not really Metroid. The majority of it is ambient sound (which you can find on Youtube- I didn't waste your time with it here) and the rest is kind of a weird Dead Space meets RPG suspense nonsense. In short, I don't like it. Nintendo and/or Team Ninja really screwed up with the choice of composer on this one. They had a full orchestra and the potential to do amazing things and the result is less than satisfying.