METROID PRIME REMASTERED (SWITCH)

Metroid Prime shouldn’t have worked. It was the first 3D Metroid game, and a follow-up to Super Metroid, one of the most celebrated games on the SNES, which had (and still has) a passionate fanbase. While I was too young to have been one of the elite Metroid fans at the time of the game’s announcement, I definitely would have been skeptical upon seeing the game’s first trailers. Nintendo had handed the license over to Retro Studios, a Texan studio that didn’t have a single game to their name yet, and whose only major gaming connections were that they had alumni from Iguana Entertainment (responsible for Turok and several mascot platformers) on their personnel. But perhaps most damning of all was that the game was going to be a first-person action adventure with FPS elements, which was a dramatic leap from the 2D search-action platformers that the franchise helped pioneer. Even worse, in the years since the game’s release, multiple former staff members on the game have spoken out about the stressful environment the game was created in, featuring bitter rivalries, a CEO who was ousted from the studio for hosting porn on the company’s servers, the infamous “upending the tea table” moments that producer Shigeru Miyamoto is known for, and grueling crunch conditions that would have caused an uproar if they were known about, especially and rightfully so at the time I’m writing this, in 2024.

But against all odds, the game didn’t just ship in a playable state - it was a masterpiece. Even now, 20 years after the game’s debut, it’s still one of the most widely acclaimed games of all time, regularly topping lists of games you need to play before you die. The game was eventually re-released for the Wii with motion controls in a compilation with the other two games in the trilogy, but that was more than a decade ago in 2009, and fans had been clamoring for a Switch port for years. When Metroid Prime 4 restarted development at Retro Studios in 2019, the rumors that the previous three games were going to be ported to the latest Nintendo console hit a staggering high, with just about every high-profile leaker claiming they were in the works. Yet, year after year, there was nothing but radio silence. In 2023, however, fans were rewarded with not just a surprise drop of the Metroid Prime, but a remastered version, that truthfully barely qualifies as a remaster - it’s essentially a remake, featuring brand new models and massively better graphics without touching the core gameplay, as well as all the features you would typically expect from a project like this, such as various control schemes to choose from and unlockable concept art and music.

The wait was worth it, because this is now the definitive way to play one of the greatest games of all time.

Metroid games usually follow a “search-action” formula, often referred to as the genre “metroidvania”, due to how formative the franchise has been in its creation. Metroidvanias, unlike other action adventure games that typically avoid forcing the player to backtrack, instead revolve around that very mechanic. As you explore the world, you will often come across areas you can’t access yet, whether it’s a ledge that’s too high for you to jump to, a tunnel too small for you to walk through, or a door that requires a weapon you don’t have to open it. Players are expected to keep track of where these roadblocks are, so that later in the game, when they come across the upgrade required to pass them, they know they can return there to progress further. Of course, this could become boring fast, but Metroid games are the cream of the crop, and they reward the player well. The sense of satisfaction you get upon finding a new path or upgrade by experimenting with your abilities, and the power you feel as you demolish early-game enemies that you used to struggle with, can be unparalleled. The games encourage your curiosity, often having a percentage on your menu that keeps track of how many items you’ve collected, and there’s not many gaming moments that are more thrilling than successfully navigating and conquering the environment. Oftentimes, it can feel like the very world around you is a puzzle that you must solve, and while there are the occasional head-scratching “What do I do now?” moments, upon discovering the correct solution(s), the accomplishment you feel is well worth it.

Despite moving the series to a first-person perspective, Metroid Prime’s gameplay massively succeeds on this end, thanks to some really smart design choices. Like Super Metroid, the game starts with a tutorial level where Samus intercepts a distress call sent by a spaceship, runs into her archnemesis Ridley, and escapes from the exploding ship during a tense (but lenient) timed escape sequence. But Metroid Prime differs in that Samus starts this tutorial with a plethora of upgrades, such as missiles, the morph ball, and the grapple beam, which the game helpfully teaches you how to use with on screen prompts. However, in her escape, her suit is damaged, and she loses all these techniques, following Ridley to the planet Tallon IV with only her vanilla power beam to her name. Being given all these cool tools, then having them taken away from you, is a great incentive to keep playing to find them once again. You now already have an idea of what upgrades you might need to progress further, already knowing how they work, which makes the player feel confident they can find them and keep moving forward.

It also emphasizes how vulnerable Samus is on this hostile alien planet, as she’s stripped away to just the bare minimum to defend herself. Metroid games have always excelled at creating a sense of intense dread in the player, and it’s no different here. The atmosphere on Tallon IV is tense and foreboding, and you’re cautious of what’s behind every corner, although your curiosity outweighs your anxiety. The music is fantastic, featuring reprises of popular songs from Super Metroid, with Magmoor Caverns rendition of Ridley’s Hideout being a true highlight. One of the best design choices the game made was making the HUD diegetic - it’s Samus’s visor. Your health bar, ammunition counter, minimap, radar, what weapons you currently have equipped - that’s exactly what Samus is seeing, too. That alone is pretty cool, but this game takes it a step further, in that the environment can also mess with your visor. Electric shocks can make the screen go fuzzy, steam fogs the glass, and rain will splatter against it. It’s a brilliant touch, and really immerses you in the world.

One of the unique things about Metroid Prime is that the story is, for all intents and purposes, completely optional. The PAL and Japanese releases of the game had a few voiceovers added, which you can toggle on or off here, but even with those, there’s very little, if any dialogue. Outside of mandatory cutscenes and the objectives you’re given to collect the Artifacts, you can play the entire game without realizing what you’re even doing by obtaining all the macguffins. Yet, the game has some very rich lore. By using the scan visor, the only other tool at Samus’s disposal when you land on Tallon IV, you can scan objects, creatures, and computers, which gradually fill in the sad history of the planet. While some players may detest this approach, I loved it, as it feels very fitting for the Metroid universe. You will never meet another living being on your adventure that can communicate with you; you are, quite literally, entirely alone in your quest to hunt down Ridley. And this is when Metroid is at its best; when it makes the player feel isolated and outnumbered. There’s a reason why Metroid: Other M and the first leg of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption had mixed receptions for putting Samus on a team. It really diminishes the mood of the franchise, and by Metroid: Other M going for a story-heavy approach, complete with backstory that was at total odds with the heroine we know, it created the widely agreed upon lowest point in the game’s history. So, no, you don’t need to worry about plot at all if you don’t want to; but if you do want to, there’s a lot to uncover here, with some really fascinating tidbits strewn across the map. I would be remiss to not point out that the plot does have some holes in it; in fact, the first NA release of the game had vastly different lore, and was rewritten for later regions in the hopes of filling those holes in (but instead, they just made new ones). My advice is to not think too hard about it, because truthfully, it won’t impact your experience at all.

It’s time to get into the meat of the game, though - is it actually fun to play? Yes, extremely. Two of my biggest worries with any type of first-person game is if it will make me motion sick, or if the platforming will be unsatisfying. Thankfully, the regular combat visor did not make me motion sick (don’t worry, I’ll get back to this one later), and the platforming is largely very smooth. There were a couple instances where I missed a jump, forcing me to climb back up to the top of a tower again, but those instances were the result of my own button presses, and not the game’s physics feeling awkward. It’s pretty easy to tell if you can make a jump with your current moveset, which avoids a lot of frustration. The combat, while not the primary focus of the game, is also well done. There are three different control schemes to choose from here, so I’m sure there’s one that will resonate most with you. You have the ability to lock on to targets, so precise aiming isn’t much of an issue, and if you’re having trouble damaging an enemy, scanning them can usually reveal their weaknesses. When you roll into a morph ball, it shifts to a third-person view (for obvious reasons), and this also controls well. You won’t have to rely too much on precise bomb jumps here, so you can breathe out a sigh of relief if, like me, you’ve always struggled with the technique. Some rooms feature puzzles, which aren’t too tricky, but I still found them to be rewarding. If you ever get stuck, again, scanning your environment is one of the best bets.

The bosses are creative and challenging, nearly all of them requiring you to use a newly acquired ability to vanquish them, and you feel like you’ve really mastered the upgrade upon their defeat. But in all honesty, I think the most tense and climactic fights actually aren’t boss fights at all, but instead the handfuls of gauntlets the game will throw your way. The first, one that is frequently named one of the greatest moments in the franchise, is when you obtain the thermal visor in the space pirate research lab… and then the lights go out. You then have to rely on this new visor to fight back against your invisible enemies, all while also dealing with Metroids who have broken free of their containment… and no, you don’t have an ice beam at this point in the game, unless you’re intentionally doing some tricky sequence breaking. It’s a hectic, nerve-wracking run from room to room back to the save station, and one of the most exhilarating moments I’ve had in gaming. I won’t spoil the other major one, that happens very late in the game, but rest assured that it will be the biggest test of your skills in the game up until that point, and the payoff is immense.

And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the upgraded graphics here are gorgeous. I played the majority of the game in handheld mode, and I didn’t notice any lag or shift in quality in the graphics. It’s truly incredible how they managed to get this game looking so beautiful, and running so well. The upgrades to a lot of the enemies - such as two early bosses, parasite queen and Flaahgra - are spectacular. Creatures look a lot more menacing, and the environments are lush. There are a couple of nitpicks people online have pointed out - for example, the doors don’t look the same as they did in the original game, with many people theorizing that they set the alpha for a layer to the wrong level. Do I truly care about that? No, truthfully, I don’t. What I do take issue with, however, is that the remaster does not credit the team behind the original game, simply saying “based on the work of Metroid Prime development staff.” This is unacceptable, as every person who worked on the original game deserves to be credited here, and most remasters do credit the original staff. It’s especially detestable considering it’s now common knowledge how terribly the original team suffered while making this game, and to see them waved away as a “credit to whoever made this” caption leaves an awful taste in my mouth. I don’t know if they’ve ever addressed this, but I had been hoping it would be patched in a later upgrade, but… no dice. It’s shameful.

As much as I think Metroid Prime Remastered is the closest we may get to a perfect game, there are some criticisms I think it’s worth mentioning! In my book, the sign of truly loving something is being able to step back and see what could have been improved, and how it worked in spite of that. Firstly, and this is a very minor complaint, I wish that you could add symbols to the map, to remind you to come back to a specific room upon getting an upgrade. This wasn’t a huge detriment to me, as I keep detailed notes whenever I play a game of this nature, but it would be a nice quality of life feature. Another tiny complaint, which will only really apply to speedrunners, is that they’ve patched out some of the glitches in earlier releases, most notably space jump early. This won’t impact any casual player, but I personally find it a bit disappointing when studios remove exploits used in speedruns. If you have sensitive eyes like me, the motion blur added to the thermal visor might hurt your eyes if used for too long, or even give you headaches or motion sickness. Lastly, towards the tail end of the game, I feel that the design falters a bit. There’s a room you need to cross that doesn’t give you any indicator what upgrade you’d need to progress further, and it is not at all an upgrade you would expect to work here. There’s also, depending on how you go about here, a possibility you’ll get the upgrade, figure out what to do and clear said room, then immediately hit another roadblock in the room right after it, forcing you to again return to a previous area. This wasn’t anything more than a mild annoyance to me, but I can see it aggravating other players. The only other thing I can point at here is one that was very much a limitation due to time constraints with the original game, in that Magmoor Caverns has no bosses, which is a little sad. It’s such a cool area, and I wish it wasn’t mainly used as shortcuts to other regions.

With all that said, Metroid Prime is one of the greatest games ever released, and this remastered edition is the definitive way to play it. If you have any interest in metroidvanias or adventure games, you owe it to yourself to give this game a go. It’s something that must be experienced to see how truly remarkable it is. While the Prime sequels are (mostly) great, they never managed to surpass the high that this first entry hit. Time will tell if Metroid Prime 4 will finally dethrone this game from its throne, but even if it does, this game will remain a must-play.

Final Rating: 10/10