Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Despite a few tweaks and new features – motion controls, psychic powers, a nonlinear hub world, and the occasional side character – this is Metroid Prime through and through. It’s without a doubt the closest the series has ever felt to the original Metroid Prime, in terms of tone, gameplay, and quality. Time will tell where I place Metroid Prime 4 in the ranking of the overall series, but fresh off my first playthrough I feel comfortable putting it among the likes of Super Metroid and the original Metroid Prime. It’s the best Switch 2 title yet, and I have to imagine that fans of the series will find themselves captivated by Metroid Prime 4.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond proves that Nintendo did a good job returning the series to Retro Studios. And they, in turn, claim to know exactly what they're doing. Capture a bit of the magic of the past, borrow lessons from previous installments here and there, and—unfortunately—never add anything new worth mentioning. But just as Metroid is a relatively small series for Nintendo alone, a relatively "regular" Metroid Prime game is still a fantastic title.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a worthy successor to the classic first-person adventures of Samus Aran. The blend of shooter, puzzles, platforming, and exploration works well, although the core gameplay is somewhat linear. What most of the regular combat lacks in style, the superbly designed bosses more than make up for.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond took years to arrive, and what we get is a game that remembers the series’ strengths while trying to push into new territory. It may not be the series’ best, but it’s a worthy return—and a promising glimpse of where Metroid Prime can go next.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a stunning showcase for the Switch 2 and a consistently entertaining action-adventure game that delivers a polished experience, but dedicated fans may find it doesn’t live up to the wait and the series name attached to it. For steps taken forward in specs, production, and quality-of-life, there are others taken backward through strange quirks in story and gameplay. Despite its failure to meet the moment, however, it remains to be one of the most exciting games to grace the system so far, and a worthy addition to any Switch 2 library.

Almost exactly what fans didn’t want from a new Metroid Prime but while it is widely inconsistent the majority of the game is undeniably entertaining.

With that, a largely flat Metroid is further degraded, from disappointing to a little bit embarrassing. Nintendo games have tested our patience before, but rarely in so many ways at once, and not without a core brilliance that makes such transgressions forgivable. Whatever ideas swirled in your mind back in 2017, you can't have been dreaming of this. [Issue#419, p.100]

Really good game metroid prime 4 is I am grateful for retro studios for the hard work they did on this game it was real cool to play as samus again in first person shooter for the first time since metroid prime 3.

Not a bad game by any means, but it falls well short of its predecessors. Overall, it’s been quite a disappointment.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

for a game that's 100 cad (plus tax $114) and its only 10-15 hours of boring gameplay, this is one of the worst value. I'm a huge fan of the Metroid prime games its sad to see they haven't improved over Metroid prime on game cube that was released over 24 years ago (2002)

This game was a pain to get through. characters are written by chatgbt and story is awful. the game makes u go back into areas u have already been to multiple times just to go into 1 room and get an upgrade. the game is actually like 5 hours long if u take away all the BS stuff the game forces u to do. save ur money.