Players will be able to watch the story's cutscenes in a two-hour movie-like presentation.
Metroid: Other M will boast a lengthy film as a special feature when it hits stores on August 31.
The film, unlocked after the game's completion, features all of the game's cut scenes and a few pre-recorded sections of gameplay in a two-hour presentation split up into DVD-like chapters. The pre-recorded gameplay uses sample play data as a way of giving the player hints, functioning like something of an attract mode, according to Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto, the father of the series.
"We placed just as much weight on enjoying the story as we did on the action aspects of this game, but it's hard to fully communicate a storyline in a video game with just one playthrough," said Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi in an interview with Famitsu (translated by 1UP.com). "At the same time, though, it's asking a lot of players to beat the game twice to get it all, so that's where the idea for that mode came from."
The emphasis on story is also leading the game to feature a more uniform presentation. "We're making this game so there's no obvious seam between the cutscenes and action parts, ensuring the player isn't cut off from the scene and can get into the story," Sakamoto said.
Hayashi and Sakamoto also commented on some of the worrisome aspects of the game. Apparently the amount of hidden items will be the same as in other Metroid games, and he expects players to find around 30 percent in a normal playthrough.
The controls also came up, and he gave insight as to how the idea for Wii Remote-only controls that gave 'the latest in gameplay with the simplest of controls' came about.
"We had decided how many buttons to use from the planning stages, and I think Team Ninja went through a lot of trial-and-error with the controls, getting them right without increasing the number of buttons," Sakamoto said.
Metroid: Other M is hitting North America on August 31, Japan on September 2, and Europe on September 3.
