Well that chatty NPC told me everything I needed to know about the game.
This desperately wants to be 'cool', but also 'family friendly'. That's why it's never going to be either one of those.

On the topic at hand…
I don’t like what they’ve done here, but I accept the excuse they’ve given. Doesn’t make it okay, but I do understand. I respect that they’ve committed to future reprints containing the full game on cartridge, however vague and confusing that will be for the customers.
Not the best response, but not the worst.

Missed Retro Drive, so I bought it cheap in South Africa yesterday. The North American shop didn't recognise that I bought it. Boo. (Just in case anyone else had the same idea, it doesn't work).

As a huge Metroid fan, I can honestly say I don't think I'll ever go back to Prime 4. I finished it 100% and for the most part, I was just bored.

The characters had no personality and I couldn't even attempt to care about any of them. The ending felt rushed whilst trying to be emotional and it fell harder than a miss-timed bomb jump.

The green energy grind to open the final area was pointless busy work that learned nothing from Wind Waker's triforce piece hunt.

The main pull of Metroid, solving puzzles and opening secret areas to find power-ups was so incredibly easy, coupled with the ability to just have them show on the map, it took away all challenge of the game.

The enemies and bosses were just as easy to kill with the standard beam that it rendered using anything else useless.

The open world served no purpose other than padding out the time to get to another area because the developers knew they couldn't connect these areas with any kind of cohesion.

The upgrades were boring, even Samus' suit was dull and the Legacy suit was just a recolour with nothing added to it or any kind of wow factor.

This game was stuck in development hell and even after development was restarted, it looks like they sat on it for 6 years before even thinking of what to do with it. The game was clearly unfinished, slapped together and sent out just to get it off of the release schedule.

It's not a "bad" game, but a terrible Metroid and Nintendo's most disappointing game for a long time. As sad as it to accept, I don't think we'll see Metroid again for a long, long time.

Lots of people arguing in bad faith on the side of the abusers as if it’s justified simply because they do it. Please show us on the doll where the publisher hit you.

And when you’re done with that, please tell me how Square-Enix can revoke my license to my physical copy of Chrono Trigger on SNES and make it unplayable. I see at least one person arguing this is possible.
Oh it’s only possible with newer, internet-connected devices? Well maybe we should strengthen up those consumer protection and first sale rights instead of shrugging our shoulders, doing nothing, and going “oh well, they had every right to do what they do.” That’s how we’re here today.

@EarthboundBenjy I agree it’s terrible that a game can disappear like that.

The key difference though, is that Warbirds wasn’t revoked from the physical cartridge, it was removed by an optional update that overwrote existing content. The cart still worked exactly as sold until that update was applied, and an unpatched version still preserved the game even if rolling back is difficult.

So to me this shows the risk comes from post-sale updates, not from physical ownership itself. If anything, it reinforces why people care about complete, offline-playable builds and get nervous about “physical” releases that require ongoing downloads such as Mortal Kombat 4.

I’m glad it was restored, but I agree it never should’ve been removable in the first place.

Well done Mario karts and Donkey Kong.
Well Metroid isn’t in same league purchasing power wise as the MK and DK
Also the game hardly got the big Nintendo AAA reviews and score.
I’m enjoying it though.

I'd say Don Bluth was a bigger inspiration.
Looks great but a bit uneven. This deserves some more polish!

@EarthboundBenjy yeah I remember that, I thought it was strange playing it after launch thinking could of sworn there was another lyxn game here last week only to discover it was removed and had to delete the update just to play it since when I first got I didn't play it when I was gonna try it they removed it.. as you said it's back now but man this is annoying.

What was the issue with Miitopia?

I'm not entirely sold on the art direction, especially considering the screenshot in the top left. I am a big cat lover and cat dad of four, so I might consider getting this if it's any good! 😸

Pretty glad I didn't buy this now, remember when capcom did the street fighter 30th anniversary collection it was all on the cartridge, if anything they should of delayed the physical version untill it's ready...all for a small n64 rom.

I picked up the Mario Galaxy bundle last week to go under the tree. That and Echoes of Wisdom will be my last Switch 1 games before I go Switch 2 in the spring.

@Pat_trick
Not sure how this affects the argument here, but I did want to mention - There is one precedent for an update patching out access to a game that I can think of.

the Atari 50 physical version includes the Lynx game Warbirds as part of the collection.
However the game was patched out of the collection in a software update. After this update, in order to play Warbirds, you had to somehow play unpatched, which Nintendo makes it very difficult to do if you have ever installed the update.

Warbirds was patched back in in a later patch. But the precedent is there.

I find it absolutely terrible that a whole game can just vanish from a compilation like that.

@Rattustheratt
When you get the super bomb, you can bomb those big rocks next to some crystals. The amount of crystals in those rocks, fills up the meter much faster 👍

I absolutely loved this game. I’m rather glad they didn’t translate it into Italian, as it encouraged me to play in dialect mode, which made the whole experience even more enjoyable. I did struggle with a few expressions here and there, but it was great fun overall. The humour is spot on, and the world is wonderfully imaginative.

@AG_Awesome @darkswabber
No motion control at all? This is crazy, I mean the nintendo crowd has had access to the Wii version for ages which still has the best motion aiming of any RE4 re-release. And they decide to just skip it?

Apparently 7/8/9 are supposed to get the feature but let's hope it will be well implemented because looking at R1/R2/5/6 it does not bode well.

Come on Capcom! Even Nintendo who is famous for never giving options for freaking anything, even them have an incredible set of options for MP4! I've fiddled around with it last time and it's just awesome the amount of personalization you have access to.

Surely i cannot be the only person who remembers or who played the Gameboy Terminator 2 game. the sidescrolling shooter version. very much like this it had different stages. God i hated the reporgramming puzzle, the truck chase in this looks lifted directly from the gameboy game and i do not mean that negatively either. That game was ***** hard and unforgiving. didn't even have any joy using my game genie on it.

Orbitals looked awsome until I realized that it was designed for co-op.

@Ooyah REmake is a different kind of experience, but I'd say it's just as good as a game as RE4.
RE4 is better to get into the series, though. The original RE is more... hardcore lol.
Both are fantastic, two of the best games ever made.

@SuppressorSteve I used to and still collect some media formats that aren't available on streaming

@Exerion76 I might be the only one, but I'd LOVE to see an spiritual sequel to Metroid Other M, but better done, of course. That game definitely had potential! It's a mix of 3D and 2D, and, if well done, it could take the series to another level (like Mario 3D World did).

@somnambulance I'm 3 keys in and loving it too. True, it's much more linear than MP1 but with my limited gaming time these days I actually don't mind. What I'm not looking forward to is the upcoming hunt for Green Energy I hear people talking about. I've been trying to find crystals everywhere I go but I've only hit about 25% so far (1st unlock in the Altar of Legacy).

@Novuscourvous maybe turn off your ad blocker I have seen a lot of ads for Metroid Prime 4, especially on tech sites.

@Moistnado same here. I seem to be one of the few people who enjoy the bike (although the desert could use a lot more content). The training bits reminded me of Extreme-G. In my answer to the Nintendo Survey this morning I asked them to consider making a spin-off bike racing/combat game á la Extreme-G! I can already imagine the outraged YouTubers if such a game got announced!

@WaveBoy the Ps4 and Switch versions of RE4 are a remaster of the Ps2 version. It does not support gyro.
5 and 6 are remasters of the ps3 versions, those support gyro because of Ps3’s sixaxis support.

I think although it’s to be expected, being number 15 at this time of year isn’t too bad, as it’s a very competitive time of year. Even at #15 I’d imagine its sales are still pretty substantial. I’d love to see it have some legs and still see it in the top 40 in the new year though.

After 8 year of waiting, I finally started playing Metroid Prime 4. I hope it gets better.

I got a feeling that we won't get a Prime 5, anytime soon 🤣
The game was okay, but not worth the wait.

Hope the next 3D Metroid, is in third person.
Though before that, we need another 2D game.

We'll be eating good next year! I've been excited for this game and between this and all other Capcom, Nintendo and Square-Enix releases, I can see my backlog exploding with great games!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on first place probably means:

There will still be MANY Switch 1 bundles under the Christmas trees this year!

Dang it... hopefully that cartridge revision eventually comes for anyone who wants it.

@John_Deacon

Even though it is digital game it comes packaged with the console so is considered a physical purchase.

Edit: I see others have already answered your query.

@WheresWaveRace Nintendo does sell well in the UK, but pretty much "casual" games, like Mario and Pokemon...
Actually, having a deep look at the chart, one could think only kids and casual gamers own the console over there... (I know it's not true, but it looks like it).
Metroid is about to go away at this pace, Hyrule Warriors is nowhere to be seen, games like Star Wars and Assassins Creed are selling much worse on the Switch 2 than on PS5 (despite being much more recent),...
That makes me hope Metroid is selling better in other places, to compensate this.

@JayJ Its the arcade game and not the n64. It was tricky to emulate. But this should of been in the cart if the ps5 version has it. Wonder if the limed run version has an updated card, doubt it tho

@BaldB3lper78 Probably because Nintendo has that information. I guess Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony would all have to agree to share it if we wanted that included.

In France Prime 4 is number 1 on week 2!

https://x.com/pierre485_/status/2000288827370516626

@somnambulance A lot of people are loving, but negativity has the tendency to drown out other views on the internet, so I imagine many would be turned off before giving it a shot. It's been nice on this site seeing how many have really been enjoying it, even if there are parts they are not a fan of.

I'm worried about sales since Nintendo barely marketed it

@John_Deacon The chart includes the bundle. They classify it as a physical purchase, just as they do Code In A Box games like Tony Hawks 3 and 4 which was included in these charts.

@Anti-Matter You always make me smile when it comes to Bluey etc and your enthusiasm for the IPs you love

Metroid Prime 4 is still number 1 on the Switch 2 eShop chart here though

Number 11 on Switch 1 eShop

@WheresWaveRace Yes, but where's Wave Race?