Well, it's looking like the Haloid war will never end on this blog, and especially not considering that Other M and Reach will most likely end up in a showdown sometime in the video game playoffs of 2010(which Reach will probably steamroll thanks to the failures at Team Ninja), so I thought it was appropriate to take time to look at what each series does well, and why neither has to necessarily be "so much bettarz111!" than the other.

What Halo does better than Metroid:

Story: Halo takes the time to have Master Chief/Noble Six/whoever's the main character interact with people and makes sure that people really understand what's going on. Since Super Metroid in 1994, there really hasn't been a Metroid game that's done that, thanks to all the scan stuff in the Prime series. Other M is an exception, but the story got so horribly murdered at the end of the game that I'm not even going to discuss that. Halo has a much better story than Metroid.

Multiplayer: This should be an obvious, because most Metroid games don't even try at multiplayer, which is a bit of a disappointment: I think a Metroid co-op would be very do-able/awesome. Hunters had a decent multiplayer, but it was nowhere near the level of Halo multiplayer. To put it into perspective, it takes me less time to get a game on Halo CE demo for Mac than it does on SSBB wi-fi. That's how awesome the Halo multiplayer has been.

Interesting Allies: Something that every Metroid game has really lacked is a go-to number 2 guy. Sure, Samus is awesome and all, but what about when you need someone else to fill in a story gap? They've tried several times with people like Adam Malkovich and Anthony Higgs, but none of them have really been all that inspirational(although I really never expected anyone to tell Ridley that he has no style). Halo has had tons of characters on the UNSC's side that have been completely loved by fans(Sgt. Johnson, Noble Team, ODST squad in ODST, both Keyes, Thel 'Vadam, etc.)

And now for what Metroid does better than Halo:

Gameplay: Yeah, I'm gonna get ripped for this, but think about it: What is Halo? It's a regular shooter wrapped around an epic story. In a Metroid game, there's fighting, there's exploring, there's item-acquasitioning(not a word but I dun care), there's boss battling, etc. The Metroid gameplay in and of itself is so much more complex than Halo's, and that for me is a giant plus, cause I don't feel like I'm being goaded on where to go every second.

Interesting Equipment: Did I mention items? The equipment you get in Metroid is at least a dozen times cooler than that of Halo(which sorta ruins any chance it had at a multiplayer but oh well). Even Master Chief wishes he could turn into a tiny ball and roll around. My personal favorite is the Screw Attack, which has it's own website named after it, and completely owns everything it touches(except in Prime 3 where Dark Samus owns it). To me, after 5 games of the same old rocket launcher, it's time to move on.

Interesting Antagonists: Oddly enough, for all of the awesome allies you get in Halo, you never really get a great antagonist. Gravemind was kinda pathetic to me, especially his speech to Chief and Arbiter in Halo 2(as one reviewer wrote: "I was rolling my eyeballs so hard I got motion sickness from seeing the inside of my skull). Metroid has had dozens of awesome enemies, from Ridley, to Dark Samus, to Mother Brain, etc. etc.

So there. There's proof neither game is perfect, but really good at the same time. One thing I think they are both roughly equal in is music, although Halo still has yet to have a Metal band.

-MT