Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Where all-time classic Metroid Prime was elegant, smart, and ahead of its time, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is mostly cheesy, silly, and outdated. I could summarise all my feelings with Retro Studios' latest work for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 just like that, but I have plenty more to vent about (and some things to praise) considering it's my favourite video game series.

But let me use the same comparison once more. Metroid Prime Remastered showed just two years ago how well the original format (the very first 3D adaptation of the Metroid formula) aged and still worked today as the so-called "first-person adventure". Okay, some things have evolved with the genre, but the core remains tight, rewarding, and beautiful. With MP4: Beyond, while the main mechanics work as well or even better, most of the designs added to it have been for the worse. This creates a very awkward situation where you're teleported back to the Gamecube era, but for the wrong reasons.

But let's get into specifics. Samus Aran looks and feels better than ever. Cleverly, Retro Studios didn't want to mess with the whole interface and the basic systems, therefore only tweaking and updating the aspects that could make use of modern technology and UX philosophy. The visor is fantastic, the whole UI seems intuitive and clear, the series' trademark 3D map has been slightly improved, and above all the controls feel spot on. No matter if you're scanning the surroundings, shooting at bots and creatures, or rolling as a Morph Ball, it's all there how you remembered it, and a notch better. Going from lock-on to manual aim is both good and needed, and to this end you can either use the sticks, the gyro controls, or the Mouse Mode (though I see this more for a desktop experience personally), and all have been implemented with gusto.

And I said "looks", too, which means you've never seen Metroid Prime like this. The game runs incredibly smooth, and I chose 60 fps over 120 fps because that's more than enough for the on-screen action as I wanted the extra detail. Let's keep in mind this is an upscaled/remastered version of a Nintendo Switch (1) game, where the majority will play at first, which becomes obvious when looking at the low poly count, the loading methods, or the open areas, but still leaves space for stunning encounters and beautiful vistas. I don't know if there will remain any intention to continue the Metroid Prime series with Retro Studios after this flawed entry and the development hell that came before it, but one of the very good news that comes with this game is that the technology is now more than ready to support new games on the Switch 2.

So, if it feels great and the tech is decent, where is the problem? Well, when I watched the several videos introducing the game until this point, I had several fears regarding the tone and the navigation mechanics. And I think many other fans felt the same. But I said to myself: I can take cheesy and silly, and even some emptiness, as long as the level design is there. As long as it gives me a nice Metroid Prime experience where there's mystery and labyrinths, and the sense that I got gradually smarter as Samus got more and more powerful.

But it's not there. Very sadly and unfortunately. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has serious problems of pacing, structure, and level design, and this results in just too many moments where you feel let down, underwhelmed, or outright bored. As per tradition, the game's world, in this case a portion of planet Viewros, is structured in different areas/biomes with their environmental peculiarities, but this time, instead of being organically interconnected by accesses in each area, the developers chose to go for an open-world hub. I don't know if it could have worked if designed according to modern standards, but what I do know is it's probably the biggest problem in this game, as it has been designed like the very first open worlds we saw... yeah, around the Gamecube era.

It's of course a desert, literally and figuratively. It's empty, its side activities or open world shenanigans feel archaic, and given the OG Switch hardware constraints, it looks ugly and poor, compared to the otherwise convincing biomes. And yes, you navigate it with Samus riding the Vi-O-La, which only helps to make things worse.

Because just when you're sold into the fantasy, MP4 is able to break it several times. When you are enjoying yourself in the lush, overgrown Fury Green area, our good friend Myles MacKenzie ruins the magic (more on him later). When you are digging the first proper zone, the Volt Forge, the Vi-O-La kills all the excitement. Because, even if it gives you doubts regarding its linear nature, the whole idea of the Forge being a damaged factory making these vehicles is honestly fresh, and the several mechanisms and chained manufacturing levels are cool and original enough to keep you going. But then all this interesting build up ends with the pretty embarrassing moment when you get the bike and you learn its 2000's controls in a horrid tutorial track.

From then on, you'll use the bike to explore the desert, which you're actually forced to at a certain point, collecting crystals and riding around the boring environment. In your 12-15 hours playtime depending on your completion rate, you'll be sitting on the bike in the desert alone for 2-3 hours, which absolutely drags you away from the little immersion you got in the biomes. As such, instead of connecting the different areas, it disconnects you from the game altogether, and I cannot fathom how this passed Nintendo's strict QA control.

By the way: You're told you can tackle biomes in any order, which I found promising and brave at first, but then you can't. Hence the other two main problems, as aforementioned, have to do with linearity/simplicity and hand-holding. The former, nobody wants, as proven by the also weak Metroid: Other M. The latter should always be optional.

While there are some recognisable Metroid traits in how the game teases you with a specific upgrade only to give you a completely different one, and I like that, the game progression is too ability-focused, meaning there's no intricate maps, or solutions, to figure out. And it also relies too much on collectibles and fetch quests for a genre that should be about exploration and discovery. Only towards the end, and only for optional secrets, will you feel that trademark satisfaction you got oftentimes exploring the main paths in the original trilogy.

And finally, the problem is not MacKenzie (Mac for us friends) and his The Witcher's bard-like writing; the problem is he gives you clues or the straight solution just when you were studying the situation, reflecting, and assessing your destination, more so because it'll be too long and boring of a ride to get it wrong. And when it's not Mac, it's the other Galactic Federation operatives you help out: it's not about the teenager sci-fi lines, it's about telling you too much, too early, too constantly.

As said I didn't care they went the cliché "clean alien" look of yesteryear, but the art direction is as unbalanced as the rest. Sometimes it looks cool in The Matrix's Machine City fashion, or like Star Wars: The Clone Wars' more religious episodes, but other times it looks like Wii's The Conduit. And I appreciate they give me bold strident colours instead of grey and brown space marines, but they played too safe with the concepts (hell, we even got ghosts in Super Metroid, or some crazy stuff in Metroid Dread). And the music! Such a characteristic aspect, yet Kenji Yamamoto sounds unrecognisable here, where some of the tracks are pretentious and overdone, and others are simply too muted or non-existent.

However, it has its moments, I have to admit. And its bunch of good ideas. I like the elemental ammo giving for many more upgrades to find around, and I love the whole cannon and the way it works, looks, and feels. And the grapple beam. I applauded some of the bosses; great visual and game design there, and there are some better sections where fun and fantasy are not interrupted, such as after Flare Pool, when you switch to Ice Belt, or midway through the Great Mines. Hell, the psychic colouring to old mechanics is okay. And there are a few cool secrets making me want to go for the 100% completion.

But that is the fan in me talking. Metroid Prime shouldn't be about impertinent comments spoiling your conclusions, uninspired level design with zero smart intricacy, or riding around agoraphobic desert areas with less soul than 1998's Hyrule Field on a loosely-controlled bike. Metroid Prime should be tight and about making you feel challenged in a smart way, both with world/puzzle design and combat. And the so-called Metroidvania genre has evolved just too much in 20 years to ignore the modern ways and to get backtracking wrong. With severe pacing issues in the first and third quarter, with frequent let-downs, and with a lukewarm ending, only fans like me will want to complete it, and even if there's some great talent involved here, the best news is that the technology is now ready to maintain more, and hopefully much better, games in the future.