One thing stood out to me while I was attending the Nintendo Media Summit this past week: Metroid: Other M sure has a lot of talky talky. That isn't so much a problem for a video game -- it's just a little unusual for a classic Nintendo franchise, especially one that used to star a silent protagonist.

But yes, you'll hear a lot of talking in Other M, which is due out June 27 for the Wii. Samus Aran talking to other characters. Other characters talking to each other. Samus talking in her head. Talking everywhere. It's all a part of the developer's goal to humanize this robotic personality.

We sat down with Nintendo of America's localization producer Nate Bihldorff to learn more about this more realistic Samus, why they wouldn't give the same treatment to Link or Mario, and whether we'll see our star in a wii bikini. (You do know who's developing this game, don't you?)

Bitmob:  Why Samus? Relatively few Nintendo characters are made to be "real." You don't hear Link talking about Ganondorf or Mario wondering what Bowser is up to...yet you hear Samus talking about the Mother Brain, Ridley....

Nate Bihldorff: I don't think it's a matter of the folks at NCL [Nintendo Co., Ltd., the Japanese headquarters] going into a room, looking at a dartboard of all their major properties and saying, "That one! That's the one we're going to grow!"

It's more that there's always been in [Super Metroid director Yoshio] Sakamoto-san's head a big story and a big background for Samus. You can take a look at some of the manga, which isn't necessarily related to the games, but there's clearly more story to Samus than has ever been shown in the games.

I think it's very appropriate in this case. I think Samus, more than anyone else, is someone whose story we've always wondered about, whereas, for various reasons, you don't really wonder about Mario's past all that much. And with Link, there have been so many Links over the years, you can get lost looking at all those.

Samus has been the same for years -- and sort of the same behind the wall for all those years. You haven't really gotten a chance to get a glimpse of what her backstory is. Everyone knows she was orphaned as a child, but we don't really know all that much about her other than her parents were killed by space pirates.

There's clearly a lot of motivation to her character that's been the same throughout the series.  But it's never been something that's been explored in-depth because it wasn't something that really advanced the gameplay. And now that it can actually be explored, it's great -- it's nice to get that view into her world. It doesn't seem disjointed at all. I like hearing her talk.

Bitmob: How is the team going about building Samus' background and relationships with all these other characters?

NB: The beauty of it is, most of it has been laid out long before this game, especially in Sakamoto-san's head. Clearly the foundation here bridges all the games that came before it -- the story of the big Metroid hatching in Metroid 2, and that continued into the story in Super Metroid where it gives its life to Samus....

This game starts with a flashback to that scene, which is clearly a really important moment in Samus' life. The fact that this baby died for her and she'll never see it again -- from the opening cinematic, you see that this weighs heavy on her heart.

You also saw that, with these soldiers, she has a history with all of them from her time in the Galactic Federation, under the command of [Commanding Officer Adam] Malkovich -- who, if you remember from Metroid Fusion, is the guy who was uploaded into the computer.

The backstory between her and Adam was probably written -- or at least roughed out in Sakamoto-san's head -- around when Fusion came out. That game only touched on their history, but you actually got a lot of meaty story out of those cutscenes. You only got hints, but you got the sense that, a.) They were close and had a unique relationship, and b.) Something dramatic happened and there was some fiction there.

There clearly was a lot of backstory there that was laid out in the creator's head that was only touched upon in Fusion. A lot of those things are really being drawn together for Other M.

And of course with the medium of storytelling that we can do with the Wii, being able to delve into it with full voice acting and cinemas, I think we're just finally seeing all the threads come together for the first cinematic Metroid.

Bitmob: Why don't you take this humanizing of Samus even further? From what we've played so far, she's still pretty stoic and introverted. It's not like players can really make a connection with her. Is this intentional? Maybe just baby steps in terms of developing her character?

NB: Well, I would hold off judgment on that until you've played the whole game because it's an interesting mix. You have the monologue sections and then the real-time sections where she's actually interacting with people, like with the [Federation] soldiers on the ship.

I think the monologue sections show the Samus that we all know, which is this sort of very reserved, totally cool, not-ruffled-by-anything Samus. This comes through in her voice, which is very matter of fact, "here's what happened"...not necessarily emotion.

Once you get into the meat of the game and see some of the scenes play out, you'll see that type of monologue is only part of the story.

Bitmob: Do you think players will have that connection with Samus by the end of the game?

NB: Oh, absolutely. The developers have done a great job with this story, and there are a lot of things that will come at you unexpectedly. You will see Samus like you've never seen her before, and it will show a lot of depth to her character.

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