It’s difficult to believe, but it has been the better part of two decades since the last new Metroid Prime. The third game, Corruption, hit the Wii back in 2007. The good news for those who have been eagerly waiting for more Prime is that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond certainly appears to be a confident expression of that. It’s more Prime. In that, it’ll give you what you want. On the other hand, I’ve come away from a hands-on session concerned that it has also fundamentally misunderstood part of Metroid’s appeal.
Unpacking all of that is messy, so let’s start with the fundamentals. Those are more pleasing – across a one-hour play session I got to see Metroid Prime 4’s dramatic and cinematic opening, plus what is plainly the game’s first proper world, or dungeon, or whatever you want to call it. The old Prime terminology doesn’t feel to strictly fit Prime 4 thanks to some structural changes – which we’ll get into later.
The start of the game is very familiar, with Samus on a Federation military base when Space Pirates invade. The pirates are after some powerful ancient macguffin on the base, and Samus of course jumps into action to assist the federation soldiers in the fight. The second segment I play initially places Samus alone in a strange location – though we don’t actually know where or even when this is. We’re tasked with weaving through the halls of what appears to be some long-forgotten temple or the like, solving puzzles and doing battle with deadly flora and fauna to clear a path.
So far, so Metroid Prime. You’re able to scan everything from enemies to plant life and ceremonial statues to learn more about where you are. New for this game are Samus’ psychic and telekinetic abilities, represented by a snazzy new purple vizor and streaks of purple light channeled through her iconic suit. This is bequeathed to her by a mysterious, near-extinct new alien race who refer to her as the chosen one – and these new abilities provide a suite of new combat and puzzle-solving skills.
It all runs well, by the way – at least on Switch 2, where this demo was played. The Switch 1 version remains a complete unknown, and if Pokemon Z-A is anything to go by, Nintendo likely won’t show it off before release. But on Switch 2, Performance Mode is 1080p and 120fps – silky. On handheld, 120fps is retained but the resolution gets bumped down to 720p, which looks fine on Switch 2’s screen. Quality Mode, meanwhile, offers 4K 60fps play – or 1080p 60fps in handheld mode. The visual and general presentational uplift this game has had since the Switch 2 reveal event, where it was last playable, is significant. It looks great.
Then there’s the mouse controls. While you can play Metroid Prime 4 in a variety of different control setups, making use of things like gyroscopic tilting and such – or indeed just play it on a controller with a scheme that resembles the GameCube Prime controls – it’s difficult to not think mouse is the way to play. Playing a Nintendo game at 120 frames per second with a mouse feels like you should be looking over your shoulder to check Nintendo’s lawyers aren’t approaching – and yet here it is, properly supported. Legal.
I have some slight misgivings about the mouse in places, but it’s mostly about the hardware; the dull ache that the claw-grip required for the Joy-Con mouse causes over long and intense firefights, the sensitivity level, et cetera. I’ll be curious if this game works with a standard USB mouse, as if it is that could be a further game-changer. I’m also curious about the process of this game’s development, though it being Nintendo, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know. Several of the telekinetic mechanics, for instance, feel ‘built’ for mouse, but as a cross-generational game it seems unlikely that stuff was built with Switch 2’s new control method in mind. A happy accident, then.
Attribution
Okay. “It’s about to get real nerdy in here.” I’m talking about this article… but I’m also quoting someone – one Specialist Myles Mackenzie, a supporting character in Prime 4. Because, yes… Samus is surrounded by people in this game.
This is where we get into my fears about Metroid Prime 4 somewhat missing the point of the Metroid franchise – the joy of Samus, as a lone wolf in a hostile world. Metroid has always feasted on that atmosphere. It permeates every aspect of the series, from the 2D depths of Brinstar to Prime’s narrative being largely delivered by optional and missable object scanning. But I suspect in Prime 4, Samus is going to be on the receiving end of a lot of one-sided conversations.
When you first meet Myles, he’s yapping to himself. “You’re alone, on a planet, with no hope of survival. But, you’re also not sitting next to Phil anymore in that cubicle. So… win?” He’s a bespectacled engineering nerd, not the most hardened of Federation soldiers. He dangles off things and hollers for help. He screeches and runs for cover when enemies appear. Oh, yeah – he follows you around.
After you rescue Myles, a good deal of Metroid’s atmospheric isolation is sapped away. The first time you transform into Samus’ iconic ball form in front of him, he has a quip about it. When we approach a disabled mech, he introduces Samus to it. “You know her,” he says to the inanimate object. “She’s famous!” Myles also becomes a gameplay signpost. He warns as you approach a body of water where enemies lurk below the surface ready to pounce, for instance. As I deliberately walk past a save point without using it, he calls out from behind me.
“Samus, there’s something interesting over there. Are you sure we don’t need to use that?“
Attribution
I feel my soul leave my body. I contemplate putting a Samus-sized arm cannon to my temple. One can dismiss this as nitpicking, or anal-retentive, and fair enough. I get it. But for me, the presence of this annoying, chatty git pierces the ambient wonder of this ancient temple Samus is exploring. One of Prime’s greatest strengths, its atmospheric prowess, is punctured. His bleating adds nothing to combat encounters. He drops a bunch of exposition in cutscenes, I suppose. Samus doesn’t ever talk back, which just makes her seem like a mute weirdo.
The question is how much of the game is like this. But I do have my fears, to be honest. Whenever Myles is with the player, his name appears in the upper-left of the UI alongside a spanner symbol – which presumably represents the fact he’s an engineer. I can imagine other names and icons up there, with different roles presumably having a different utility in the world.
Then there’s the narrative. In the opening, that ancient artifact everyone is fighting over goes haywire and explodes like some sort of temporal bomb. A wave of white energy engulfs not just Samus, but the entire area around the base for what appears to be miles. When this light touches Samus, she ends up transposed to a different location. Myles, too. One has to assume that all of the Federation Soldiers, equipment, and even Space Pirates at the base all suffered the same fate. I can imagine that this game’s structure will involve encountering a range of Federation troops in different locations across this strange world ‘Beyond’ the white void. In a sense, this is much like Master Chief running into Marines as he traverses Halo. The difference is the irreverent chatterings of silly marines was part of the texture and appeal of those campaigns – it feels the antithesis of what has made Metroid great in the past.
Attribution
Past the intro, Prime 4’s structure appears to be the Prime standard of hopping from world-to-world – though based on this limited hands-on, I reckon Samus’ ship is probably out of the picture. Instead, I get the impression the motorcycle functions a bit like Epona, and the desert we’ve seen in screenshots is like Hyrule or Termina Field – a vast landscape connecting more specific biomes and ‘dungeon’-like environments, one of which I played in the demo. I didn’t get hands-on with the bike, though.
Much remains to be seen in the final release, then. It’s weird to say after all of this complaining, but I am still eager to play more. I enjoyed the puzzles, the shooting, and very much appreciated the game’s control options and visual flair. A huge amount of trepidation about Metroid’s usually glorious atmosphere being wrecked now runs through that anticipation, though, like lettering through a stick of seaside rock.
After battling a ferocious boss that required fiddly but canny use of an all-new gadget I’d only just acquired, I can finally leave the temple with the item Samus needed to retrieve in hand.
“Be careful, Samus. You won’t have me there to watch your back,” calls out the totally-useless-in-combat Mackenzie as I make for the door. I only hope that’s the rule, and not the exception.