Bridging Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, Other is, in Sakamoto’s own words, “The story of Samus as a young girl and reveals her relationship with Adam [Malkovich, her former commanding officer].” In this regard, Other M owes a great debt to another of his earlier 8-bit works. He points us towards Famicom Tantei Club, a text-based adventure he wrote and directed for the Famicom Disk System in 1988. Telling of detectives, serial killers and an alarming number of blue haircuts (if the box art is anything to go on), what it taught Sakamoto about suspense and human drama has played a big part in writing Other M. Sakamoto is the Agatha Christie of the sci-fi bounty hunter world.
