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While Other M was still a decent game, scoring a 79 review average on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, it received criticism for its uneven difficulty, and especially for its groan-worthy story and voice acting. It was a daring mix of ideas, and not all of them worked. It was the first to feature melee combat, and the perspective was a mix of traditional 2D and Prime-like 3D. The project was spearheaded by Team Ninja, best known at the time for the Ninja Gaiden series, and as a result Other M was a very different kind of Metroid game. That all-killer, no-filler approach means a game that is merely pretty good, like Metroid: Other M, bottoms out the list. The Metroid series is incredibly small-just four main side-scrolling games and three first-person Metroid Prime games, along with a handful of remakes-and many of them are strong showcases of Nintendo's first-party prowess.
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