I'm not expecting anything resembling Metroid though. I just want to play a fun action game. I think it will work out with those expectations.
If you're expecting any of the same polish, balance, and skill of Ninja Gaiden, you won't find it in Other M.
I don't think it's a good game gameplay-wise. It's not the worst, of course, and it'll get you from point A to point B, but there are countless problems with it, far divorced from the Metroid name, that I feel make it a subpar action game.
Your mileage may vary, but here's just a few of the gameplay problems I experienced:
1) lack of nunchuck support. Ironic that a team called "Team Ninja" was denied permission to use the nunchuck peripheral and robbing the game of analog control. Moving a character in 3D space with a D-pad is never an ideal solution.
2) Auto-aim. Unlike previous Metroid games, Samus does all the heavy lifting for the player and will automatically shoot at whatever is around, whether they're even on the screen yet for you to see or not. Don't worry; you can safely mash the fire button and she'll aim at everything automatically. Aiming is for chumps.
3) "Concentration" mechanic. Don't worry about those silly old missile tank expansions. Why bother when you can just "concentrate" hard enough and will an infinite supply of missiles back into your armory? Sure, those missile tank expansions are there, but they're really just a formality. Oh, and get ready for battle plans where you intentionally waste some ammo so you can activate your "concentration" mechanic to get more, because wasting supplies and ammo is encouraged in this game.
4) Pixel hunts. You want to ground the pacing of an action game to a standstill? How about a game of Where's Waldo every hour or so? Don't worry if you can't find that one single pixel you need to stare at to move the game along. Relax, grab a cold one, and look over every last single blurry texture you can.
5) Forced slow-walking sections. Oh, the pixel hunts didn't interrupt the flow of the game enough? Well, how about some atmospheric slow-walking sections where Samus walks forward with the grace and speed of a narcoleptic snail? And don't expect any big payoffs for these tension-builders either. More often then not, they serve no purpose. My favorite is the one where you slowly walk down a hallway, trigger a cutscene, and then the game puts you back at the start of the hall and you have to slow walk the exact same path all over again!
6) Invincible Dodging. So the dodge button is the D-pad. The move button is the D-pad. When you dodge, you're invincible.... Well, it's not like I wanted a challenge from this game anyway.
7) Unskippable cutscenes. So you don't care about the story and just want to play the game? Well, TOO BAD. The cutscenes are mandatory and unskippable, so sit down for the next 5-to-10 minutes and let Samus dully monologue about her tender heart or about plot points everyone has already covered multiple times. For best results, try and skip anyway every time she states the obvious.
8) First-person missiles. A mandatory part of the game that only requires you to reorient the entire controller in your hand and point it at the screen, hopefully looking where you want her to look, but more often having to spend extra time reorienting yourself after that to look at the threat shooting lasers at your face. But don't worry, you can't actually MOVE when you're in first-person. Sure, you can dodge out of the way, but that takes you out first-person mode, forcing you to do the process all over again. It totally doesn't get tedious fast, I assure you.
9) Linearity. Sure, you know that door right behind you has a health upgrade, but the game will lock the doors behind you for no reason whatsoever. Don't even think about trying to explore until after the game is over. You will march forward, from point A to point B, without questioning or thinking. Forward, never backward. That obviously helpful health upgrade will have to wait until after the credits.
10) Invisible walls. Hurray! You can explore a tad!... kinda. That is unless you run into one of many invisible walls that, for some reason known only to God, stop you mid-air or hinder you mid-jump. Sure, it looks like you should easily go there, but you're wrong. Stop trying to explore and get back to the hallway.
11) QTEs. Yes, God of War's cinematic scourge is alive and well in Other M, but it's actually not so bad. I mean, Samus can spend five seconds delivering a wickedly cool kill-animation! And again! And again! Over... and over... and over... and over... So enjoy those canned animations that reward you for not falling asleep.
12) Game-ending bugs. I'm serious. Never backtrack. I tried it. It broke the entire game. I really mean this. NEVER backtrack to a save station after a boss. I don't care if it seems logical. Move forward. Only forward. Always forward.
13) Authorization mechanic. Sure, previous games, or even other games in general, reward you by letting you earn new abilities and unlock new special skills and abilities. Well, Other M isn't like those action games. She already HAS everything!... she just refuses to use it. Yes, even defensive gear and life-saving equipment. So you never "earn" anything. You just wait for some other guy you barely know to shrug his shoulders and admit you've suffered enough, so you can turn your heat shields on now so you don't burn alive.
14) Level design. I hope you like fire, ice, and forest levels. Sure, those have been the most generic Super Mario-esque levels since the dawn of mankind, but outside of sterile gray walls, that's all this game has got.
15) Game info. So you might think the game will actually TELL you when your abilities are permitted, right? ... ha, you poor, innocent, naive fool. The final boss can only be defeated by an ability you don't even know you have. Don't worry; the game will tell you you have this ability AFTER you beat it though.
And... that's the gameplay of Other M. At the very least, it's... functional, I guess. Barely.