Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review for Nintendo Switch 2

I’ve been waiting nearly 18 years for Metroid Prime 4 to be released, and finally that day is here. Sure, Nintendo didn’t announce the game until 2017, but after finishing Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii back in 2007, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that we’d get another entry in the first-person exploration franchise that was so beloved by many Metroid fans. However, Nintendo had other plans, shifting developer Retro Studios over to a Donkey Kong Country revival and placing their hope on Tecmo Koei and Team Ninja’s ability to breathe new life into Metroid with the 2010 release of Metroid: Other M.

Unfortunately, we all know how that went. From there the main series seemingly went dormant for nearly 6 years, and even then 2016 brought us more of a spin-off than a mainline Metroid game with Federation Force. 2017 is where we started to see a little light at the end of the tunnel, with both the release of the Metroid 2 remake dubbed Metroid: Samus Returns, and the official announcement from Nintendo that Metroid Prime 4 was in development.

Granted, it still took 8 years for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to actually see release. Its tumultuous development cycle saw developer Bandai Namco exit the game in 2019, with original Metroid Prime developers Retro Studios taking over. Nintendo stated that development was restarting at this point, which implied that much of the work done by Bandai Namco was being scrapped, in turn elongating the development period of the game. After 2019 Nintendo went radio silent on Metroid Prime 4, to the point that a lot of people, myself included, weren’t entirely convinced it was ever going to see release. Thankfully, Nintendo did finally unveil Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in an official capacity with actual gameplay in 2024, promising that the game would release in 2025.

Having now spent roughly 3 weeks or so playing the game after launch, I’ve gotta say, I’m a little underwhelmed. I know there’s a part of me that likely built up some unrealistic expectations going into the game, considering how long the wait has been between Prime 3 and 4, and all the development hiccups along the way. But even as I put that aside the more I advanced through the story and explored the new world of Viewros, I really found myself perplexed by some of the design decisions in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and once I rolled credits on it, I felt like it was unlikely I’d revisit the game again any time soon.

Still, there are things I enjoy here. Controlling Samus in first person feels as good in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond as it ever has in any of the subsequent games in the series. Movement, jumping, platforming, shooting, and boost balling around was still a lot of fun, and handles really well. The optional motion controls for aiming certainly help with boss battles, and while I didn’t use much of the new “mouse” joy-con controls, it also felt like a pretty good way to play the game provided you’ve got a good, sturdy flat surface to try it out on. I don’t think that Retro Studios has missed a step in how great controlling Samus feels here, which was great to see.

Likewise, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a really great looking game. I played via the Switch 2 edition of the game, and either on the big-screen or in handheld mode I thought the game looked gorgeous. It’s easily one of the best looking Switch 2 titles so far, and the performance throughout the game was rock solid. The starting environment of Fury Green is often breathtaking, and it’s a great kicking off point to really showcase what the Switch 2 can be capable of.

Unfortunately, it’s the rest of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond that I have issues with. The biggest letdown here is the sense of exploration, which feels missing throughout large stretches of the game. It appears fairly obvious that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was a little influenced by Nintendo’s other attempts at open-world style adventures, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the 5 major zones you can explore are broken up by a large desert map that Samus can move freely around. It serves as the primary mechanic for the new motorcycle-like mechanic called Vi-O-La. This equipment is something you’ll obtain early on, and in certain areas of the game you can summon Vi-O-La out of thin air, with Samus jumping on board and cruising away, allowing you to traverse a lot of ground very quickly.

While on Vi-O-La Samus has basic driving abilities, like a boost function and some very basic weaponry at her disposal. Unfortunately, outside of using Vi-O-La to get from point A to point B, there’s not much else to do with it. The desert map that serves as the overworld in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is pretty empty, outside of some optional shrines that offer very short and basic puzzles that you can knock out if you want to obtain optional upgrades for your various elemental weapons. These shrines often require you to have a certain elemental weapon unlocked in order to get into the shrine as well, so early on you might see a few of these shrines as you drive around the desert, but you won’t be able to do much with them until later in the game.

Outside of the shrines, the desert also has a few locations that contain other basic power-ups, like missile expansions or energy tanks. The only other noteworthy aspect of the desert is the mech part locations, which isn’t something that you’ll even be able to engage with until the end of the game. So, unfortunately, driving around the desert feels largely pointless, with very little to see or do. Even the occasional bit of combat you’ll run into in the desert is quickly repetitive and becomes more of an annoying impediment when you’re trying to get to the next objective than something you’d really want to engage with.

The main zones you’ll explore are likewise devoid of any real sense of exploration. A lot of rooms offer just one pathway out, with long stretches of nothing noteworthy to scan or find then a bunch of monitors or other miscellaneous objects. The zones don’t feel connected in any major way, there’s no shortcuts to be found from one zone to the next, and the world in general just feels empty to me. The more of the game I played, the less excited I became to unlock new areas with my suit upgrades, and the idea of revisiting a zone to collect an errant missile upgrade became less and less appealing to me.

Overall, I think there is fun to be had with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but the lack of meaningful exploration and the meandering desert stretches from one zone to the next really drag down what should have been an amazing return to form for the series. How much of this came from the prior development issues the game faced I’m not sure, but something about Prime 4 feels really disjointed and not nearly as polished as the original trilogy. I hope Nintendo does give the Prime series another chance, maybe this time without all the starts and stops that Prime 4’s development had, which will ideally give us the next-gen Metroid Prime game I was hoping this one would be.

Note: Nintendo provided us with a Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Switch code for review purposes.