For many Metroid fans, Metroid: Other M has been a great addition to the beloved series. Others may be disappointed in the game considering the changes made to Samus' character. But a smaller group of players may never even find out which side of the argument to take. This is because they won't be able to get to the end due to a serious game breaking bug.

This game-breaking bug can occur in Sector 3 around the time you start running into the Tusk Monster. At a certain point some players were running into a locked door that is never triggered to unlock. Samuel Claiborn of IGN noted in the game guide that he wrote:

"Note: If the door on the far side of the lava is locked, you may need to restart your game! It's a bug, apparently. Judging from our inbox lots of people are experiencing it. There is no known cure for this glitch, so make sure you make a copy of your save before the Desert Refinery area of Sector 3."

After some player research, it appears that this is a result of backtracking to save your game after fighting the Tusk Monster for the third time in Sector 3. So if you defeated this boss and went back to save instead of progressing ahead, you may have just ended your Other M playthrough. Once this door is stuck closed your only option is to hope and pray you have an older save, or if that is not available you'll have to start the game over.

IGN contacted Nintendo about this issue and got this response:

"The company is aware of the issue and that loading an older save, if available, or starting over is the only current solution available."

While this is not something you want to hear about in any game, it is possibly made worse by the fact that this is on the Wii. I can't recall Nintendo ever issuing a patch for an individual game, while almost every game you put in your Xbox 360 or PS3 needs at least a patch or two. I wonder if Nintendo has a system in place like the 360 or PS3 to patch individual games or if it would have to be a complete system firmware update. Either way, patch or firmware update, that will not help the large number of gamers who probably don't have their Wii's connected to the Internet.

So Ranters, have any of you ran into this problem? Nintendo usually has a high level of quality in their titles so is this anything to be concerned about or just a one time mistake?

Metroid: Other M is now available on the Wii developed by Nintendo and Team Ninja. Game Rant has reviewed Other M and gave it a 4 out 5.

Sources: Joystiq, IGN