I got this on the Switch 1 so keep that in mind. Performance- The game looks stunning, a little longer but definitely reasonable loading times. Everything else ran pretty smooth, can’t complain too much.
I don’t really like how they marketed this because it’s like, oh guess what, you have to save a race like in Prime 2 on a planet called Viewros (what kind of name is that) and remember scanning? Yeah that’s back too. And Sylux is there, you know, the guy from Hunters and the end of Prime 3, he’s our new big bad and oh, how about a bike!
It just doesn’t explain the actual game super well, but really I think that first level tells you everything you need to know because it just clicked for me and they put out a ton of gameplay but I just didn’t want to spoil myself on it. I mean yeah, Sylux is the bad guy but he’s kind of just a rival at first, he’s there and he takes advantage of the situation and what he does BUILDS him into the big bad, it’s done very nicely. I was no longer worried that he was lesser of a villain than Dark Samus.
I wasn’t all too hyped for the psychic powers either because yeah, there needs to be something new and unique but I feel we could do a lot already as far as moving things, what is this going to add. Well it goes hand in hand with the story, the whole “chosen one” bit isn’t my cup of tea but if you frame it for just this planet for a dying race, of course they’re going to say that and give her these powers in order to do it.
And it’s not just she goes to this planet to save a dying race or anything, she’s commissioned by the Federation to help fight back against the Space Pirates at a specified location and this artifact just so happens to teleport her there, stranding herself, my guess is that they sent the artifact to find someone and bring them. And the Space Pirates, boy oh boy. I realized how genius it was to take Fusion and apply it to other creatures as well, so yeah, there are fused versions of them and Metroids!
(But- you’re mainly just fighting robots. Poo!)
Them saying it’s a reboot isn’t exactly comforting to me when I went and played all the games to prepare for this one, but you’re definitely going to understand and enjoy it way more having played the other ones. It does autosave now which is good but you still have the save stations.
And at least with the Switch 1 there are technically motion controls but it’s more in free aim mode when you try to lock on than anything Trilogy offered. I ended up not using this because I jump between just straight locking on and moving around too much so it didn’t always do what I wanted so once again handheld reined supreme once I experimented enough.
Elephant in the room- The talky guy. I’m someone who enjoyed Other M, maybe not for everything story or character wise but it’s a guilty pleasure of mine so to say “oh it’s not that bad” about this doesn’t resonate with a lot of people but no I won’t say that because they’re right. He’s introduced pretty early on. I actually wouldn’t mind if there were multiple sequences like his introduction where you save multiple Federation members from vicarious circumstances and then maybe lead them back because they’re just as stuck as you are. Maybe add some optional bosses into the mix.
He basically serves as the Navi, where he guides when you might be doing the wrong thing. For a Metroid game- that’s kind of unwelcome because the point is to explore and is where the reboot thing comes in, I guess to make it more accessible. He doesn’t wait nearly long enough for you to try anything, he more or less gives you the answer and has something to say about everything. Being able to take in lush environments is interrupted by his voice.
To be fair, he isn’t there ALL the time, he has a comm that he can chat you up but there will be points where he’s just delegated to a “Need help? Contact me.” sort of thing. Now, I need you to know that usually when I make these reviews, I write them WHILE I’m playing the game so when I said that I wanted multiple, I meant it in an entirely different way, I didn’t actually think there were multiple people that you try and save that define each area and are annoying all in their own way. So- idea- nice- delivery- no. That’s most of what holds me back from this game too.
I asked myself whether it could’ve been done without these characters and yeah, I like that Samus can’t do everything on her own, but I’d rather no attempt than a bad attempt with this.
And with him comes a lot more cutscene breaks, which are beautiful by the way so I can’t really complain, it does kind of show you everything though. Once I got most of the abilities, I went and did a collectible run (so my runtime for this game was longer than any of the others), backtracking to all the different areas again and I was running into stuff without being prompted, like new stuff that I hadn’t seen before, they were planned and apart of the story as a whole but it felt nice to actually explore and find something on my own rather than be nagged to go to a certain area then just progress through it. For once, I wasn’t being told what to do and became surprised.
Prime 4 explained the dying race better but Prime 2 showed it better, let’s put it that way. And it being open(er) world helped too because it’s divided, I no longer have to cut through one area to get to another, it’s just connected through a hub.
Now, I actually made a list for what I wanted from P4 so let’s see if it held up-
Movement was first on the list and really, the bike fulfills this. And, uh, did they know me? Because I’m basically living the Tron dream in 2025, lemme tell ya. And that’s about it that it took from my list. They made a side character an actual bounty hunter like I asked but that doesn’t help any gameplay, maybe he could’ve given you special quests aside from what the rest of the team wanted.
The music is popping, especially Sylux’s theme, ho boy! And speaking of, I’m a fan, he’s a good villain just not what they marketed. They made it seem like he’d have Metroids. And the whole game feels like a part 1 more or less to introduce that but it took this long between 3 and 4, how long will it take to make a 5 and 6? I hope that means they’re already planned but they introduce so much stuff only to put it on the back burner and make you wait. The whole thing ends with a cliffhanger of sorts but it feels like it cut out more than what was needed to make way for these would be sequels.
