Wednesday, October 27, 2010

SciFi Failure

The linked article is an editorial from ign.com regarding the recent addition to the Metroid franchise, Metroid: Other M. While not personally a fan of the series, if the editorial bears any resemblance to the truth then this iteration represents a serious mis-step.Other M spends an inordinate amount of time tying the protagonist's character to her femininity, something that is out of step for a series that used the revealing of the character's gender as a surprise ending in one game.

I feel that this is relevant to our ongoing dialog about the role of female protagonists in Science Fiction. It is interesting that, in a period where women in genre writings are receiving the spotlight, a franchise with a strong female lead would take a step in the opposite direction. Apparently, the protagonist has access to all of the powers/armors she needs in the game from the start... but is unwilling to use them until the male romantic interest explicitly orders her to do so.

What do you all think?

1 comment:

John Harris said...

I must admit, I haven't played through the whole game (I have just seen one of my roommates play bits and pieces), but, as I understand it (and how he explained it to me), Samus (the female protagonist) didn't choose to not use her power but they were restricted by the government/organization she was working for. I got a gender-neutral vibe from the what I saw, but, again, I wasn't around for the whole thing.

Also, it has the worst voice-acting I've seen in a very long time.