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There's a lot I want to tell you about the 45-minute demo of Metroid: Other M that I played today, but I know what everyone is wondering and will just get it out of the way: The game is really impressive; it's really fun; it's totally Metroid. It was only the beginning sequences of the game, but if everything Nintendo and Team Ninja have managed to deliver in this short span holds up for the entirety of the game, it's going to be really good. (Also: This is in no way a re-skinned Ninja Gaiden -- just making sure that's said.)

My demo began with the game's opening cinematic, which is fully CGI and recounts the ending of Super Metroid, to which Other M serves as a direct sequel. It sees Samus in a showdown with Mother Brain (realized by Team Ninja as a mammoth bipedal monstrosity with one huge eye) before the bounty hunter awakes in a medical bay wearing her Zero Suit. It's narrated entirely by Samus (as promised, Other M is the first time we hear her voice -- and it's, well, just all right) and leads directly into a tutorial disguised as a "diagnostic" of her armor and recollection of how to kick ass.