Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

With Metroid Prime 4, it took me some time to get back into it. But now it's all I think about playing. My recommendation is to just go in for the experience. Go in knowing nothing, and maybe even skip everything in this review, or any other review. Mystery is Metroid's calling card. Your big adventure on the Switch is here.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a good game made worse by some really bad choices. It features annoying characters who ruin the isolated and haunting vibes that this latest sequel strives so hard to create, and forces Samus to drive across a boring desert over and over and over again for no good reason other than forcing you to do some extra busy work to extend Prime 4’s runtime to around 11 hours for most people.

Despite some pacing nitpicks, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is shaping up to be exactly what I want from this series. Modernized controls, slick UI, and stunning visuals ensure Samus' return to our screens isn't undersold. Combat is heavy and calculated, existing in a world that values wits over pure brute force. It may just be the best FPS game on the Nintendo Switch if it keeps this up.

Between all the failed experiments built to resuscitate a once-powerful series, there are sublime moments that keep pieces of its legacy sacred. You can gather hope in its remarkable level design, its evolved item-hunting, its genre-hopping action setpieces that thrill even when the companions can’t stop yapping through the tension. There is a future in Metroid Prime 4, so long as someone is brave enough to excavate the seed from the wreckage and replant it in healthier soil.

While its new steps in a fresh direction don’t quite pan out, there’s no denying this is a fitting next chapter for Samus’ first-person adventures. Here’s hoping we don’t need to wait another 18 years for another one.