I hate people.

[sandwichboy]

So, I was going to write this long ranty mcranterson post about how utterly vomit-inducingly bad and sexist and stupid and bad the latest Metroid game is, but...well, I'll just let Abbie Heppe of G4 TV explain.Nice job guys. Turn the shining beacon of unsexualized female badassery in videogames into a fucking whiny, mopey little insecure girl with

Comments

[sierralad]

Unsexualized?

SAMUS ARAN?

Are you fucking kidding me?

[sandwichboy]

Showed up in ONE metroid game, at the end, in a tense and claustrophobic fashion that was an interesting change of pace from "I shoot it till it's dead" Bikini Samus showed up once as an easter egg and never again. And that picture you're using as example is from super smash brothers brawl, which has nothing to do with the metroid games or their canon, unlike Other M. Metroid/Zero Mission: brief display of Samus as a woman in (at least in the zero mission half of the equation) a non-exploitative and sexist fashion. Metroid 2, Super Metroid, Fusion, Hunters, Prime/Echoes/Corruption: Silent, armoured engine of death. Which do YOU think is more indicitave of the character and how people think of her?

Also, you're completely sidestepping the other half of the argument, that they turned an established silent, solving-problems-with-a-missile-to-the-face badass character into Hannah-fucking-Montana. Bad voice acting be damned, THAT is the big fucking problem.

[sierralad]

No, no, no. You don't get to use the "it's not canon!" argument here. You've argued that SAMUS ARAN hasn't been sexed-up. What you've done here is completely dismiss facts in favour of supporting your own argument. She HAS been sexed up via Zero Suit (which marketed the hell out of to the point where you can buy a $250 statue of her in it), and the fact that Bikini Samus was an easter egg in THE FIRST FREAKING GAME completely negates any attempts at claiming Samus' "sexy side" hasn't been shown before. Hell, Samus' Wikipedia entry has a section on "sexuality", wherein she's been named a "hot game babe".

Another thing? I wasn't "sidestepping" the other part of the argument. I simply wasn't talking about it. You apparently decided that you needed to thrust Samus' characterization in a game you haven't played in my face as a way of "winning".

[joane]

Coming in knowing nothing about the games or the character but knowing something about critique... it's kind of a piss-poor review on its own merits. She may well have a good point (see above, re: no knowledge of the source material) but her review doesn't have enough structure or examples behind the loosely connected notes to prove it to me.

But then, comments on the internet usually = mad dickery, so I don't hold out any hope that the comments there are addressing the actual weaknesses in the article.

[strayfish]

Sometimes I really hate that websites have "comment" sections now...