The world might never know exactly what Bandai Namco was cooking up with Metroid Prime 4, but when Nintendo restarted development a couple of years after its 2017 reveal, instead with series regular Retro Studios at the helm, it was a little concerning. Metroid is a series in which extended droughts between releases are commonplace, but it had already been ten years following Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at this point, so to hear things weren’t progressing smoothly left an impression that there was uncertainty at what to do with the franchise.
Retro Studios is a very different company to the one that oversaw Samus Aran’s stellar jump to 3D on GameCube – a game that got a gorgeous revamp in the form of Metroid Prime Remastered on Nintendo Switch and served as a reminder that this newest entry has a lot to live up to – so it would be wise to temper expectations. That said, this is Metroid, and with 18 years since the last first-person adventure, excitement is high for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It has taken a whole console generation to come out, but Samus’ next mission is here at last, released on both the original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
No matter how many years go by, a good old distress signal will always be a series staple. At least it keeps Samus in a job. True to the opening of any Metroid game, she responds to a call from a Galactic Federation Research Facility, under attack by Space Pirates led by Sylux, someone many fans will be familiar with. Outside of his first appearance in Metroid Prime Hunters, Sylux has been hinted at as a future antagonist for the best part of two decades, sneaking into ending scenes in Metroid Prime 3 and Federation Force.
The teases and Sylux’s less-than-interesting design have diminished the anticipation of his eventual major comeback, where his emergence in Metroid Prime 4 will shock no one. Despite knowing that he is likely going to act as a Dark Samus copy in the sense that multiple battles will need to be fought against him, it is surprising how little is seen of him throughout this adventure. Regardless, Sylux is the one pulling the strings here, having used Metroid fusion (heh) to mutate and control his army.
Following a few voiced dialogue-heavy segments that catch off-guard, and in a brief shootout with the galaxy’s best bounty hunter, an artifact under protection by the Galactic Federation goes haywire, and within minutes Samus is transported to an unknown planet. She soon learns that this is Viewros, the homeworld of a race known as the Lamorn.
Although now extinct, their records show that they await their saviour, with hologram messages believing Samus to be their Chosen One and granting her psychic abilities. At the last surviving Lamorn’s request, Samus accepts the mission to obtain the Memory Fruit, hoping to pass on the memories of the once thriving species across new worlds. Five keys will unlock the Master Teleporter that ensures Samus can leave Viewros, protected by guardians inhabiting the planet.
It is familiar territory for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond now. Samus is alone in foreign lands, having lost her abilities following the blast, and it’s time to explore. It is Metroid Prime just as any series regular remembers it; the edges of Samus’ helmet bordering the screen, the ability to switch to Morph Ball in third-person view, unlimited beam ammo that can be fired and charged up. Stepping into the Power Suit once more, it is like a day didn’t go by since Metroid Prime 3 concluded.
If the settings menu wasn’t inspected in the opening moments, now is the time to delve into it. Praise be, there are all sorts of volume sliders for music, voices and sound effects – and yes, these do need highlighting given the rarity of them in Nintendo games. Mario Kart World’s recent addition of a music volume toggle that only allows for two pre-set choices is overshadowed by the options presented here.
Difficulty can be switched mid-game between easy and normal (although lowering the challenge will affect end-game rewards), but hard mode is unfortunately locked until normal is completed. There may be an argument that being forced to play through on normal will allow players to adapt for the second go around, but it would have been preferred to have hard mode freely selectable from the start, particularly with some gallery rewards tied to the completion of it.
Fully customisable button configurations are a joy to see, especially since muscle memory will kick in for Prime lovers following some changes here (the scan visor now defaults to the X button, with the d-pad selecting between elemental shots acquired later), while all sorts of sensitivity options exist for mouse and gyro controls, which all perform very well. It is hard to break away from the tried-and-tested dual-stick setup, though, and some may struggle with handling certain segments with the motion controls.
The big one is the graphics setting, which allows for two choices. In this Nintendo Switch 2 version, if running on a 4K TV, the quality option will offer incredible clarity while presenting the game at 60 frames per second. Alternatively, the performance mode will push out 120fps while lowering the resolution to 1080p.
Personally, it was impossible not to stick to the latter option for most of the adventure, as not only does Beyond look fantastic even at 1080p, sitting up there as one of Nintendo’s finest to date, but the experience of playing at such a smooth frame rate makes it difficult to play any other way. With 60fps being more than what most Nintendo Switch owners have been used to over the years, though, it would be understandable for players to go the quality route and opt for maximum resolution.
Handheld gameplay is impressive at 120fps under the performance setting, but it takes a little hit in the visuals department, dropping to 720p. Although 1080p is guaranteed if opting for the highest graphics quality on the portable screen, frame rates will be cut in half – which is far from terrible, although the difference may not be worth it. Stick to the performance setting for the best experience.
Before long, Samus finds herself in the luscious and wild jungle of the aptly named Fury Green region, and everything feels like this has the makings of a Metroid great. That opening scenario with chatty soldiers was a prelude to what comes next, though, as it wasn’t just Samus that was teleported to Viewros; a bunch of Galactic Federation combatants got caught up in the shockwave and now find themselves spread across the planet. When Myles MacKenzie is introduced, chatting to himself humorously as he comes to terms with being stranded, a feeling of dread sweeps over as the fear of what Metroid Prime 4: Beyond may turn into enters the mind.
Despite the trepidation, Myles offers a bout of comic relief from the get-go, becoming a likeable character as he follows closely behind Samus, before setting up a base of operations in the middle of Fury Green. Metroid games are traditionally lonesome affairs, but as long as the soldiers don’t play too big of a part, things will be okay, right? Myles can stay in this little room and Samus can handle the rest in peace.
Well, not quite. In a strange twist on the Metroid formula, Beyond presents a semi-open world that connects the various zones of Viewros. The desert of Sol Valley is an expanse with very little going on, but is vast enough that traversing it on foot would take a long time. Fixing a problem that didn’t need to exist in the first place is the introduction of another out-of-sorts element: a motorbike.
Once Samus blasts through one too many annoying robots in the electrified towers of Volt Forge, she is gifted a sleek new biker-like suit that attunes her to Vi-O-La, a two-wheeled hog capable of bursting over the dusty dunes. During the bike’s tutorial segments that come in the shape of circuits that could easily slot into some sort of Mario Kart and F-Zero crossover, it’s hard not to think, “Just what is going on here?”.
Back on the sands to test out Samus’ slick new ride, it doesn’t take long before Myles is in her ear with tips on what to do next. Suggesting she check out any of the marked locations on the map, players would be forgiven for thinking these keys can be acquired in any order. That’s not the case, however. Once the very originally named Ice Belt was ventured into, it was only a short while before a brick wall was hit that required an unacquired fire shot to progress.
Returning to the overworld to go check out another location, Myles was immediately on the case, automatically marking the destination Samus needs to go in the southeast. Things start to get more worrying here, as the decision is made to check out the settings to see if there is a way to turn Myles’ hints and chatter off. There isn’t. Even Metroid Prime had the option to switch off objective indicators.
Advancing through the game, veteran fans will start to pull their hair out at Myles’ insistence that he reminds them where to go and what to do next on too many occasions. The pressure to keep pushing players to advance the quest is a baffling one for a series that has thrived on Samus being left up to her own devices to figure things out on her own and explore at her leisure. There is nothing wrong with providing help – in fact, this critic encourages games to include as much help as possible for all types of players – but it shouldn’t be enforced. There are so many options in the menu for this game, but nothing at all to turn off something that goes against the core of a Metroid title.
An emphasis on talkative secondary characters and biking over an open world; these are almost as alien to Metroid as the planet Samus finds herself on – and yet, despite the frustrations, it’s not all bad.
Each Federation soldier that is met has a personality trait that is charmingly corny, but they still demand the attention of the player in each scene, for there is one thing in common between all of them: their respect for Samus Aran. Every introduction is an interesting one, whether it is a soldier gasping in awe at the presence of the famed bounty hunter, or the amusingly giddy Nora Armstrong – the only other female in the group – swooning over the stoic Samus.
There is an attempt here to solidify Samus’ reputation, making it clear that she is admired galaxywide by just about all except the Space Pirates, and this emphasis on cutscenes is one such way to get that message across instead of through the scanning of data logs, which, let’s face it, doesn’t have broad appeal. It isn’t as if Metroid has shied away from voiced dialogue before, but it hasn’t always hit the right notes, so this may be Nintendo’s attempt at going at it again to try and expand the player base, despite the negative reception to this kind of thing in Metroid Prime 3 and Other M.
The reliance on character interactions only serves to highlight two shortcomings, however. Outside of their initial scenes, the exceptionally high-quality faces of each soldier are hidden behind visors for the remainder of the game, making it harder to connect with them despite the solid (if cheesily written) voice acting and appealing personalities. It would have made sense for them to take off their helmets once they are at the base camp, which serves as a safe spot and place of rest for the Federation members. Alas, it is regrettable that such good designs go unseen almost permanently.
The other issue is Samus’ complete lack of spoken dialogue in situations where it would befit her to say something. Yes, her silence bolsters her presence and makes for a handful of humorous situations, but in a game where Samus is surrounded by communicative characters, a few words would have made awkward interactions far less so. It is jarring to go from one extreme (Other M) to another, so meeting halfway may have been the better option. Indeed, there are a couple of occasions in Beyond where the opportunity was there to make for more impactful moments if Samus opened her mouth. Metroid Dread already established how powerful her limited words can be, so it is unfortunate to not double down on that in this latest entry.
There are still the makings of a good game here; it just doesn’t constitute a top Metroid game. When Samus is going at it solo and exploring Metroid Prime-like areas that check off the environmental boxes (icy area, fiery area, mines, etc), navigating platforms and picking up missile and energy expansions, and battling tough enemies that require a lot of firepower and well-timed dodging, all while a very vocal and atmospheric Prime-like soundtrack blasts out, the questionable parts begin to fade away.
Unfortunately, even when Beyond is doing things well, it is still doing them worse than previous Prime titles. For too many periods outside the pointlessness of the open desert, Samus is following linear paths, there are rarely any thought-provoking puzzles, enemy variety is severely lacking, and bosses are quite uninspiring (although there are one or two good ones). Lore details are left unexplored, with Metroid fusion barely delved into, while Sylux is just an all-around poor character that it is hoped doesn’t return in future instalments.
Activated with the scan visor (in which an awful whirring sound plays that drowns out the music and makes scanning an even more repetitive task), Samus’ psychic abilities don’t amount to much more than grabbing a few orbs and throwing them into sockets, manipulating platforms to raise and turn them, or revealing hidden platforms to jump on.
In fact, apart from the more prominently used mind-controlling features such as one that allows a switch to be pulled down to open doors, some of the abilities are almost completely forgotten about for the best part of the adventure – until you get stumped on a puzzle and randomly remember that it is possible to lay a psychic bomb in Morph Ball that can then be chucked into a slot.
Even the slightly more utilised Charged Shot, in which Samus can fire off a shot that can then be controlled through the air to hit its intended target (usually an out-of-reach switch) will go overlooked if not pushed into a situation that requires it. Otherwise, psychic abilities are just new names for Samus’ older skills, except even these (grapple, spider ball) go relatively underutilised.
Outside of the unlockable harder difficulty, Metroid Prime 4 isn’t an overly challenging game. A couple of bosses will put up a good fight, but most experienced players shouldn’t have too many headaches. What will require aspirin is the need to collect green energy crystals that are scattered all over Sol Valley. Samus is required to deposit a certain amount in order to obtain the Memory Fruit, making it necessary to drive around and smash into crystals on the dunes to advance the final parts of the game. Quite why this kind of grind across a barren wasteland is imposed in a Metroid game is anyone’s guess.
That’s kind of the takeaway from playing Metroid Prime 4, really. Are the additional characters entertaining in their own way? Sure. Is flooring it across the desert on a badass-looking motorcycle enjoyable? Well, when not having to clumsily throw projectiles at irritating foes, definitely. It’s just that much of what has been created here feels unnecessary, poorly executed, and doesn’t enhance the game in any discernible way.
Beyond retreads a lot of what has come before for better or worse, but in trying to craft its own identity by shoving in modern open-world elements and constantly telling players where to go and what to do, it sacrifices what it means to be a Metroid game. It doesn’t help that level design and puzzle elements are lacking in the classic Retro Studios quality, making the calls for Metroid Prime 2 and 3 remasters louder than ever.
There is respect for the developers for trying something new, and what can only be best described as an attempt to coerce those that have traditionally overlooked the series into giving Metroid Prime 4 a go, but it comes at a cost. An open world enhanced The Legend of Zelda, and it can enhance Metroid – but this isn’t how to do it. Let’s just hope this isn’t where it ends for first-person Metroid (but is hopefully the end of Sylux).
Some final further vexes… While they can be considered minor add-ons, DLC that includes a radio to listen to different tunes when driving across Sol Valley, as well as motorcycle skins, are locked behind amiibo figures (yes, they are still doing that). You’re looking at some of the most expensive DLC in existence for features that should be in-game unlockables.
Saving after beating the game will also overwrite your file and a new game will need to be played that doesn’t carry over logbook scans or anything else. Allowing for more than three save files and the postgame save to be placed in another slot seem like obvious things to do. Make sure to copy your current file before progressing past the point of no return if you plan to search for more collectibles after defeating the final boss – or be ready to start all over again.
