Now where were we?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/73696/metroid-prime-4-beyond-switch-n-switch-2-review
What do you do when it has been nearly two decades since the last numbered game in your series? Do you up the ante and position it as something that has been building for all that time? When the main character first walks on screen do you hold for applause? Do you completely reinvent it for a modern audience? Or do you simply brush off the dust, stretch a little, and calmly ask “now then, where were we?”
In the period immediately following the events of Metroid Prime: Federation Force, the mysterious hunter known as Sylux has taken over leadership of the Space Pirates and a contingent of metroids (technically mochtroids). Federation bases are coming under attack as he searches for an artifact from an unknown ancient civilization. It is here that we join Samus, who confronts Sylux before being warped away by the artifact to a distant world. Buildings, gear, and personnel from the Federation base are pulled in with her.
Like previous Metroid Prime games, Metroid Prime 4 strives to strike a balance between classic Metroid gameplay, and progression that at times feels more akin to pre-Breath of the Wild 3D Zelda. Taking notes from some of the more often cited criticisms of Metroid Prime 3, it presents an entirely unified map and removes the option for fast travel, requiring you to backtrack through the map as you gain access to new areas via different abilities. The structure of the map, spidering out from a central hub area calls to mind the structure of Metroid Fusion. Like Fusion and previous entries in the Prime subseries, you will rarely be left wondering where to go. Your map nearly always has a marker on it and the challenge instead is found in thoroughly exploring along the way for upgrades and lore, solving puzzles, and engaging in combat. In contrast to many of those contemporary reviews of Metroid Prime 3, I would prefer that Metroid Prime 4 provide you with some fast travel options. I don’t have any issue with revisiting any of the environments. That’s just Metroid. Even the large central desert environment offers some unique gameplay and optional side areas. But, because you’ll often need to return to your base camp to install new abilities the trek back and forth can get annoying.
One key element of the Prime series, and one that has been continuously aped by other games ever since, is the scan visor. Every enemy has a detailed scan available full of lore. Much of the best storytelling is handled through details gleaned by scanning random bits of the environment. From the writings of this world’s long dead civilization, to incidental scene details, Metroid Prime 4 proves that Retro remains the king of this style of storytelling. That being said, it isn’t quite perfect. Back in Metroid Prime 3, color coding was added to scannable objects to make it clear what was a random scene detail, which was something that would be tracked in your logbook (necessary for 100% completion), and what was an object that could be interacted with. Metroid Prime 4 highlights interactable objects in yellow but everything else is the same color of green. This can make filling up your logbook a bit of a hassle as you check random scene geometry or even different sections of bosses for unique scans. Bosses are handled particularly oddly as you are able to get their main scan again after defeating them if you missed it during the fight, but you’re not able to get their secondary scans (usually for their limbs, weapons, or spawns). It is an inconsistency in how the game views missable, one-time scans.
Metroid Prime 4 is the best looking first-party title to be released thus far on the Switch 2. Given that it is more-or-less a Switch title running at a higher resolution and framerate, this is both a compliment to Retro and an indictment on the rest of Nintendo’s first-party output. While I have no doubt the Switch 2 could produce an even better-looking Metroid Prime game, within the context of this being a Switch game much more so than a Switch 2 game, the output here is remarkable. Performance is essentially flawless, even when set to run at 120 frames-per-second. My one critique here (and this likely comes back to its original platform) is that many secondary elements such as particle effects, are animated at 30 frames-per-second. The gap between 60 and 30 is significantly less noticeable than the gap from 120 to 30, where these animations can be quite jarring. I also noticed some issues in certain cutscenes where the camera or certain character animations were tied to a lower frame rate. It is a nitpick but when dealing with performance this good, nitpicks are really all there is.
Much has been made of the addition of a small cast of Galactic Federation soldiers who Samus encounters on her quest. While the characters themselves feel very much in line with Tanabe’s efforts to expand on the Galactic Federation in Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Prime: Federation Force, there was concern that they would take away from a feeling of isolation or that their writing would come up short. Ultimately, I found that I had the opposite reaction. Because you’ll be alone for 99% of the game, the rare instance in which you encounter another human character feels like an exciting event. As it turns out, isolation is a lot more noticeable when you have a basis for comparison. Your limited excursions with each character generally bring with them one-off mechanics that help to add variety to gameplay in each area of the map. I wound up getting pretty attached to each of them and would spend extra time in base camp making sure I hadn’t missed any optional dialogue.
But the visuals, the fantastic soundtrack, the surprisingly endearing cast, and the richly built world, all serve to bring you back into the unique feeling of Metroid Prime. These games are known for presenting dense worlds full of narrative detail, landscapes that inspire a sense of awe, and soundscapes that are at once thrilling and haunting. There is nothing quite like a Metroid Prime game. Sometimes they’re puzzle games, but the next moment you’ll turn the corner and find yourself in a horror game. One moment you’re alone digging through ancient ruins, and the next you’re embroiled in first person combat. Each game may add its own mechanics and narrative spins, but they all carry that core Metroid Prime identity. Some are quiet journeys through abandoned and remote locations; others carry the grand scale of galactic war against the Space Pirates. Metroid Prime 4 manages to land somewhere in the middle. It never hits the narrative scale of Metroid Prime 3, but does place a greater focus on narrative than Metroid Prime or Metroid Prime 2.
In the eighteen years since Metroid Prime 3, a lot has changed in the world of game design and the world of Metroid. Over in the parallel world of Yoshio Sakamoto’s 2D Metroid series, Metroid Dread has made waves as a glorious return for classic Metroid. The Legend of Zelda, which was in many ways a sibling series to Metroid in terms of design, has become an open-world sandbox and reignited the series. But amidst that backdrop of reinvention and revitalization, Kensuke Tanabe and his team at Retro just seem interested in making Metroid Prime 4. A game that picks up its game design right where it left it in Metroid Prime 3, and its story right from where it left off in Metroid Prime: Federation Force. For that reason, Metroid Prime 4 feels like a world we never left, like I had simply missed another Metroid Prime game that came out a couple years after Metroid Prime 3. It can be difficult to describe how comforting it was to simply go back and have another adventure without the need to reinvent. It's not that Metroid Prime 4 is exactly like any of the other Metroid Primes. Honestly, taken individually none of them are all that similar. Rather, Metroid Prime 4 just feels like another one. It doesn’t expect you to point and clap when Samus walks on screen. Metroid Prime 4 presents a world in which Samus never left.
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