Samus Aran, the gun-wielding bounty hunter, is a somewhat underrated Nintendo heroine. You don't see her as often as Princess Zelda, although that character is usually a damsel in distress rather than a playable protagonist.
Nevertheless, Metroid The games that Samus plays in have a reputation for being more mature than Nintendo's other kid-oriented franchises – sci-fi adventure games with an atmospheric, often claustrophobic atmosphere of exploring strange alien worlds.
And yet early previews Metroid Prime 4: Beyond worried some fans. Journalists wrote that this is a piece of the game they played at the pre-event featured a chatty, bumbling friend named Miles. VGC's Andy Robinson was “slightly taken aback” by the player guide and the supporting comic character for “removing any traces of atmosphere or tension with his comedic jokes and exclamations.”
The full game, which will take most players around 15 hours to complete, thankfully isn't a permanent sounding board for characters like Miles. When it works Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a great new addition to the series that captures all the elements that long-time fans love.
But for every impressive level design or exhilarating boss fight, it tries and fails at something new, leaving us with some of the most frustrating or frustrating moments in the series' history.
Almost a decade in development
First Metroid Prime was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 – and was praised for bringing the feel of older 2D games into 3D, rather than turning it into a game similar to many first-person shooters of the time.
Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, but reportedly had problems during development, including being completely relaunched. After years of lack of information, which ended with the release of a trailer in January 2024, the game is due to release this week on Switch and Switch 2.
WATCH | Metroid Prime 4 trailer:
Outside begins with Samus responding to a distress call from a base under attack by space pirates. After a brief encounter with a menacing figure named Sylux, Samus is caught in an anomaly that transports her to an unknown alien planet.
Like almost everyone Metroid In the games before this, most of her battle suit's weapons and abilities are disabled, and she begins a new quest to regain her powers while figuring out where she is and how to get home.
Let's get back to basics…
Metroid Prime 4 basically follows in the footsteps of its predecessors – and this is good, since the first Basic it's a timeless classic.
As Samus, you'll explore strange alien biomes on a planet called Viuros. You'll have to battle hostile flora and fauna, as well as fearsome combat robots, with Samus' arm-mounted energy cannon.
But it's not all running and gunning: you'll spend most of your time using Samus' scanning visor, documenting the lifeforms, architecture and structures of Vyuros left behind by its seemingly long-extinct inhabitants.
True to tradition, you'll visit locations multiple times, gaining abilities that allow you to explore new nooks and crannies.
For example, doors with a heat-sensitive lock will only open after you purchase a firearm; for inaccessible ledges you will need a grappling hook to jump over the crack, and so on.
New psychic abilities add to the challenge of Rube Goldberg-like puzzles, requiring you to fire energy projectiles through obstacles to hit targets or, unlike previous games, hold onto pulsating energy bombs before throwing them at distant switches or enemy weak spots.
…for the most part
Other supplements work worse, and sometimes much worse.
Miles McKenzie is just one of the assistantsis full of characters you'll meet from the Galactic Federation (people mostly from the background of the series). Most of them are likable, although they are generic tropes – a gruff sergeant, a quiet sniper, and a large robot with vaguely human features.similar.
Most interesting may be Nora Armstrong, a rookie soldier who is also a longtime fan of Samus. She makes for some fun interactions, though Samus' status as a mostly mute protagonist pushes the limits of believability when her allies are so chatty this time around.
By the end of the game, the player may develop some attachment to the team. But despite the brief glimpses of character development, it's not enough to make them truly memorable.
A huge open world desert separates the main locations of the game. Samus has a cool new motorcycle that you can race through the sand, but the landscape is mostly featureless and boring. The more time you spend, the worse it looks compared to the luxuriously detailed and detailed open world of recent games. Zelda games.
Perhaps most disappointingly, the game insists on using the Switch 2's new controls for some difficult enemy encounters. Some boss battles require you to hit very specific weak spots, which can be made easier by turning the right JoyCon on its side to use it like a computer mouse.
It's not a bad idea, and the controls make aiming faster and more accurate. But controllers are uncomfortable holding this position for long, and are only really needed in the most difficult situations. It's better to use a Pro controller, but you'll still likely have to switch to the JoyCon at the worst possible times.
After almost ten years of work and, as one might imagine, many different abandoned or half-realized new ideas or features, it's a miracle that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was finished first.
Fans of the series will be able to find among the strange options what made the previous installments classics that lie at the heart of the game. But newbies interested in what makes Samus tick will be better off giving it a try. Metroid Prime Remastered, Metroid Dread – or even Super Metroidavailable in the Super Nintendo retro library on Switch – before.
