I rented Other M, and played through the whole thing.
It's the only Metroid game that I actually like. And it's the only Metroid game I played more than 10 minutes of. There's a lot more action compared to previous ones. And it's genuinely challenging.
Though, one thing I thought was stupid was there would be certain moments where you would be forced into first person mode. During these moments, you can't progress unless you focus on one specific spot. And when I say specific, I mean SPECIFIC. You have to point your cursor EXACTLY on ONE LITTLE AREA and keep it there for a couple of seconds. If you don't, it doesn't register. But the problem is they don't even give you a clue at what you're supposed to look at.
The first of these moments, I spent a good 2 or 3 minutes trying to figure out what I was supposed to move the cursor on. I thought I had to find an enemy, but somehow, I accidentally focused on the logo of the ship. (Yes, that's what you had to look at.) NOW I could move on in the game. Seriously, what the hell?
But other than that, the gameplay was good.
Also, the story was pretty good. (Lots of crazy twists, I like that.) But Samus giving monologues during every freakin' scene was really lame. I'm not familiar with Metroid mythos, so I don't know if the story contradicted other games, but it was entertaining.