What is it about?
"Mapping Metroid" explains why the 2010 video game "Metroid: Other M" was controversial. The article argues that "Other M" did not consistently balance gameplay constraints with the narrative agency of the player-character, Samus Aran. It focuses especially on the history of the "Metroid" series and its groundbreaking use of in-game maps.
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Why is it important?
Studying how "Other M" creates meaning in virtual spaces, with its map-making and traditional narrative techniques from film and literature, helps design better games and understand how they fit in with aesthetic theories like postmodernism. Post-GamerGate, how female video game heroines are interpreted and how they relate to consumer reception remains important.
Perspectives
This started out in 2012 as an extension of the theory of "imperative storytelling" that I introduced in my article "Unraveling Braid: Puzzle Games and Storytelling in the Imperative Mood." It spent over three years in press at Games and Culture! Although there has been a new Metroid game ("Federation Force") released since this was first published online, it doesn't star Samus Aran – so at least for the purposes of "Mapping Metroid", it doesn't count!
Dr. Luke Arnott
Western University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mapping Metroid: Narrative, Space, and Other M, Games and Culture, April 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1555412015580016.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Mapping Metroid: Narrative, Space, and Other M
Pre-publication version of Mapping Metroid, with illustrations.
Metroid: Other M Flashback Cutscene
Cutscene from "Metroid: Other M" that is analyzed in "Mapping Metroid."
Metroid: Other M
Wikipedia page for "Metroid: Other M."
Unraveling Braid: Puzzle Games and Storytelling in the Imperative Mood
The article that precedes "Mapping Metroid" and introduces the concept of imperative storytelling.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
