Opinion: When It Comes To Metroid's Future, Familiar Is Better

I think Prime 4 simply got caught in the web of “everything must be open world” craze. And it just doesn’t lend itself to that style. It was clearly in development hell and suffered for it. I imagine Nintendo won’t shelve the franchise soon, but they must be smarter with it. Remaking Samus Returns at the end of the 3ds lifecycle…then giving us a full sequel to fusion in Dread 19 years later is just bad management. At this point, they’re re-introducing the franchise, not creating any momentum or catching us older fans.

I have tried over the decades to be a fan of Metroid, it truly has it all, but something is just missing for me.

@JimmyFleck ehhh... I would argue (and I'm sure many would back me up on this) that both the 3DS Samus Returns and Dread are two of the biggest franchise boosters for the fanbase and casuals. I don't even like Metroid and I was swept up in the hype for both of those titles, all of my friends who are longtime Metroid fans were going kookoo for them.

Experimentation and growth is what brought prime about (and fresh perspectives but Nintendo could have told Retro no but didn’t) as well as updates to the formula like dread. I think Metroid has a cycle similar to the Zelda cycle but it takes longer because there are less games.

People don’t want more of the same because most games that iterate lose sales each new game or garner grumbles from the audience that said they wanted this in the first place. (see new super mario bros series or even megaman (mainline series))

I agree that 2D is where the franchise is most consistent. As different as Dread was, I wouldn’t mind if the franchise did what Castlevania did for years: put a different spin on the typical 2D exploration while having the core of the gameplay be very similar. Castlevania did that Symphony of the night gameplay for many years, which kept the franchise fresh (until they ran that gameplay style into the ground)

@somnambulance totally agree. Dread was so good I had like 100 hours in it.

I quite agree. Call me old-fashioned, but for me, Metroid Prime 4 is a bit of a massive let-down. I’m not suggesting it’s a poorly made game as such, but it simply doesn't feel like proper Metroid. Frankly, it has far more in common with Half-Life or Quake 4.

One has to wonder what a Metroid game is actually supposed to feel like. To my mind, it should mirror the experience of watching an Alien film, albeit with a healthy dose of arcade action. You ought to feel thoroughly trapped in an isolated, unknown environment, with something or someone relentlessly hunting you down. Metroid Dread captures this atmospheric dread perfectly, just as Super Metroid and Fusion did before it. In my honest opinion, if you dislike Metroid Dread, you never really cared for the franchise in the first place.

Granted, this feeling wasn't quite as overwhelming in the original Metroid Prime, but it was certainly there; one always felt the weight of that claustrophobic setting.

Metroid Prime 4, however, misses the mark entirely. This motorbike business feels thoroughly out of place, whilst these sprawling, cavernous deserts have absolutely nothing to do with the series. If I want to play Zelda—and heaven knows I do—I'll just play Zelda. I certainly don’t require a Metroid-branded imitation of it.

The thing is Prime 1 is great - not just "for the time" - it's still great now. Peculiar that three sequels and over two decades later they haven't managed to recapture the magic.

@SirLink
As you state, Metroid is supposed to feel exactly like an Alien film. Trapped and isolated. This is the DNA of the franchise as it was.

Metroid Prime 4 is my GOTY 2025, on my top 3 Metroid games list and Myles MacKenzie is a cool nerd.

Prime 4 and Dread are both fine games and the backlash over them is smelly.

Dying to see a Prime game that’s pitched from the current incarnation of Retro from the start rather than a game cobbled together from a concept that was never their’s to begin with. I just can’t imagine that an open world would have been a priority if they’d had their say from the start.

If anything Prime 4 was not the time for experimenting anyway. We only got 3 games and it had been 10 years when 4 was announced- a relatively safe sequel was all the series really needed. In the end I’m still glad we got 4, I enjoyed it for what it is but some baffling decisions held it back.

I feel sorry for Retro Studios because they were basically given a pile of horse sh*t from Bandai and were told to fix it. I’m sure they had to spent most of their time getting Samus‘ controls right and only had little time for the rest. Because that is what we got: a game that feels like a Prime game but somehow placed in a bad universe.
If Retro get the chance to do a sequel I‘m sure they would nail it.

Prime 2 by the way is the series‘ peak for me.

@HugoGED And that’s perfectly okay!

I think a major issue with Metroid Prime 4 is that everything new they tried was ultimately a half measure.

They wanted a greater emphasis on the narrative, but Samus is silent at every single interaction she has with anyone, making her look socially inept and preventing her from having any sort of interesting characterization (I think Hornet in Silksong is a good model for the direction they should have gone with Samus). The Federation Troops don't add much to the story either, mostly just existing to provide escort missions and wisecracks. It feels like they wanted to go for a narrative direction, but were to scared to have it detract from the typical Metroid experience, ironically triggering that detraction by creating what is the worst of both worlds. If they want the story to be good, they need to actually commit to it.

Likewise, they wanted to have an open environment to capture the feeling of Breath of the Wild, but they once again failed to commit to it. It's just a big, ugly dunefield with nothing to do besides grind out Green Crystals (real creative with the naming there, by the way). Myles will say you can go anywhere you want, as if the game would have similar freedom to BOTW, but you can't, you can go as far as the entrance to each location before you have to go find the correct chip. If they want a good open environment, they need to have actual things to do in it and give the player some actual freedom.

Breath of the Wild worked because the devs held nothing back when trying to innovate, even if it upset some old school Zelda purists. They knew what direction they wanted to go with and committed to it. For the next Metroid Prime, they need to decide if they want to be faithful or revolutionary and commit to that.

Kirby has entered the chat

Sometimes, the best thing a franchise can do is to not change.

@batmanbud2 What about the jump to 3D Kirby with Forgotten Land, which has been highly praised? That was a big change, and it came at a time when Star Allies was drawing questions of the 2D Kirby formula starting to become stale.

Metroid Dread was some of the best Metroid I have ever played.

Metroid Prime 4 was some of the worst Metroid I have ever played.

I massively resent the fact that we all missed out on a third Donkey Kong Returns game and received the most AI looking designed game of all time.

Switch has been so successful that overall, it's hard to complain isn't it. Well, I tell you something for nothing - Switch's success has massively papered over the cracks at Retro Studios. Terrible decision to give them MP4 and not to give us what would have been, based on Tropical Freeze's utter brilliance, one of the greatest platformers of all time.

I cannot convey fully my resentment at MP4 being such a dreadful game. It was like Halo from 20 years ago - but made really badly. Actually embarrassing. Retro Studios should just go. I suspect their DK success is too long ago now for them to recapture too.

@UpsideDownRowlet The narrative choices in Prime 4 were my biggest annoyance with the game by far and Samus not speaking was the worst part. It’s like they looked at the response to Other M and their takeaway was that nobody wants her to talk. That was never the case, it’s the things she said and the way she was characterized in that game that didn’t work. They had a chance to show how it should be done but didn’t want to take the risk and in turn gave her an even worse portrayal than the one in Other M.

A lot of the story/presentation stuff I imagine can be shouldered on Retro. The open world etc. was all leftover from Namco’s vision so I can’t blame Retro too much for how that came together considering it was a bad idea that they weren’t in on from the start.

I’m probably one of the few metroidvania-loving people who just didn’t click with Hollow Knight. But it may be because I really did not find its artstyle or bug-filled setting appealing.

Whilst I enjoyed Metroid Prime 4 enough, it did feel like the spirit of a Metroidvania was only there in short bursts. The original Metroid Prime had the feel of a metroidvania yet in a 3D package and remains the series zenith IMHO.

I continue to have a desire to replay Dread, yet am continuously pushed back by the EMMI sections. Their unpredictable movements, your inability to truly escape from them once they are nearby and the grossly unfair counter-window made the sections feel like a hardcore survival horror game, a game genre I feel has no place in Metroid. All it needed to be was slightly more forgiving and would have been fine.

I mean I get it. Prime 4 was ultimately disappointing. From an artistic standpoint I think it’s one of the best game’s in years. And I’d nominate it for having the best baked lighting of any game ever made. But it just didn’t scratch that Prime itch many of us were waiting for (some from 2007 or people like me from 2004 since the last one I played was Echoes).

I do think that had it been entirely Retro’s baby from day 1 they would have done a better job with it. But the development hell under Bandai initially forced Retro to build on the carcass since Nintendo wanted them to reuse as much as they could. And unfortunately, that carcass doesn’t seem to have been worth reviving.

@larryisaman

Yeah that was really awkward. Considering how many ex Bungie devs Retro picked up over the years I wish they would have treated Samus speaking the same way the Bungie Halos treated the Master Chief speaking. Like he talks but he’s not a chatty nanny. He’s very mission focused. But he speaks to other characters about important matters and will even crack a dry wisecrack once in a blue moon. I think that would have worked well for Samus, since John always felt kind of like what a male Samus was anyway.

@nocdaes

AI looking? Oh sir I disagree with that. That’s the one part of Prime 4 that I felt actually worked well. The art design of the biomes was stellar in the game. The only exception was the great desert but I mean what could they have done with that anyway?

Open world could have worked even for a Metroidvania. I actually enjoyed the bike and desert, I thought it all had a memorable “feel” to it. The problem was that the “levels” on the edges of the desert and underground were just so basic and linear.

I'd not blame Nintendo if they abandoned Metroid purely because its core fanbase seems impossible to please. Prime 4 seems to be a decent entry in the franchise, though it couldn't live up to an eight-year marketing window. Everyone seems to have theior own very specific idea of what Metroid is, and it's clear from the past two entries that though not every idea is a hit, they still understand what the fans want and are allergic to making any dangerously out-of-step mistreads. They can be trusted to take risks. I just hope that they're not risks aimed at selling Switches by trying to make the series more like a Western AAA game.

Innovation for the sake of it is often overrated. As is pandering to some vague "wider audience". Nintendo's biggest strength to me has always been finding a middle ground between safe and innovative. Taking familiar games, done in familiar ways yet adding creative new features that change up how they work. ALBW is a brilliant example of this, of how one new gimmick can take literally the same game and turn it on its head. Sometimes all you need is the one new idea.

And Metroid has been a real victim of this problem. Other M had new ideas, but it kept doing them in the worst way possible. And Federation Force and the worst parts of Prime 4 are not new ideas as much as just half-baked versions of tired ideas from elsewhere. There's potentially an audience for a co-op Metroid Prime or an open world Metroid Prime ft. bike game, but there isn't one for a mediocre version of those ideas, which is what we got. (Federation Force is mid even in multiplayer, it was not nearly as good a co-op experience as Triforce Heroes the year prior, sorry)

Even Dread is a victim of this. Despite being one of the most acclaimed games this decade, its only sold (or at least Nintendo's never updated us in 4 years) 3 million units. And I think it would've sold way more if Metroid had momentum as a franchise at all in the past 15 years or if there was a large audience for full priced 2D Metroids and/or Nintendo ever did a serious discount for it.

People should look at Soulsbourne and Monster Hunter as perfect examples of how to turn niche games into massive franchises, that's the long term success that Metroid needs and deserves.

For that matter look at DMC5, still selling huge numbers because being made cheaper was better for it than having it be full priced until the heat death of the universe.

I'm not the biggest Metroid fan despite metroidvanias being one of my favorite genres. The games generally end up feeling very sterile and linear compared to most of the ones they've inspired. Though since there are so many other options, I don't really mind if the series just keeps being something that's not quite for me.

On the other hand, I'm still mourning the death of the standard Zelda formula while the rest of you have continued celebrating it for the last decade, so maybe you all deserve to suffer as I have suffered.

"change" is one of those things which isnt inherently bad or good and can vastly depend on the context, some franchises feel like they can stagnate over time and could use either doing something fresh or maybe giving them time to rest, wheres other franchises offer something which you cant really get elsewhere, even as someone who doesnt really play much of the series i do feel like the metroid prime games have a distinct vibe and was under the impression that some of that "vibe" was lost with some of the additions prime 4 brought to the table (open world, NPCs etc)

Also it can depend on HOW the change is done, sometimes it can risk changing aspects which are part of what drew people to a franchise in the first place or what makes it unique (again the "vibe" thing) its a tough balancing act.

A third thing would be that "fans" in general arent a monolith. Taking feedback to heart is good and all, even encouraged, but trying to parse a singular "consensus" out of such a huge amount of people with diverse opinions is an impossible task, and can end up with the end product feeling messy without a clear "vision" from the devs and artists. so again its a balance. (though the act of groups being treated as a single entity is one of my pet peeves of internet discussion since it feels like it strips the personal aspect out of discussion)

Naturally none of this is some kind of gospel either, im just one person mentioning how i feel, but i do feel like just how people are diverse which makes people interesting, having a variety of approaches to game development is what makes games interesting.

I think I disgree with this opinion. Let Nintendo cook and keep bringing new hooks to Metroid. They do it for all their other franchises. Metroid Prime 4 was amazing. It saddens me when folk jut have in their heads how something should be. It's LIMITING! And Nintendo take pride in not being limited in game design. And much like some of their consoles, not everyone's cup of tea. But they keep doing things differently.

@mutenroshi I was definitely one of those fans. Got the Switch OLED when it launched along side it so it could look the best it could on the go. That being said, Samus Returns was released after the Switch in 2017, and most had moved on to Switch games and passed on late arriving 3ds games. Keeping in mind the only other Metroid game on 3ds was Federation Force. Dread’s launch felt like a true introduction to modern gamers. It being the best selling of the series speaks volumes to how Nintendo should handle it going forward, but we’re already almost 5 years from its launch.

The thing about Nintendo that a lot of Nintendo fans don't realize: They absolutely HATE to make the same game twice. Oh they'll do remakes. They LOVE those. But when a game has a new mainline entry, they are extremely reluctant to make it a carbon copy of the last game. They'll do it, when it makes $en$e, but even then, they'll usually add a new mechanic, or tweak the formula, or do SOMETHING so that their sequels don't feel like just more levels of the last game.

Look how long fans have been clamoring for Nintendo to just release something exactly like Paper Mario, or Super Metroid, or Link to the Past. They pretty much refuse. They've moved on and they want us to, too.

It's admirable, because it means no quick cash-ins, but it's also frustrating, because sometimes they hit the magic formula and then refuse to use it again without messing with the recipe.

Bring back the “other M” style! I liked flipping between 2d/3d. A large 2d map where you zoom in to a Prime style helmet for targeted shooting, boss fights, some puzzles etc. or maybe a resident evil style game where you can pick FPS or 3rd person view. They offer great examples of how you can experience a game in multiple play styles.

I think what Prime 4 needed was for the green crystal showers to unearth lots of shrines in the desert (more than there was in the final game) and you fill up the green crystal meter by finding the crystals solely inside the shrines rather than having most of the crystals randomly scattered throughout the desert.

Also, the ending needed changing. The first phase of the final boss was obnoxious in a Halo 5 Warden Eternal kind of way meanwhile the cutscene after the final boss is defeated really felt off.

Despite those problems, Prime 4 was still a fun game though.

Agree and disagree here… I would love for that classic, 2D Metroid experience to be a mainstay for Nintendo. That said, how about they let some new developers ( ::cough:: Evil Empire ::cough:: ) take a crack at that classic formula. Toy with different visual styles, maybe, but let’s take that classic formula and inject some fresh creativity.

On the other side of the coin, I would love to see Metroid also go in a more mature, survival horror direction. Take Resident Evil 4 or Alien Isolation as inspiration, and try something new. Would love to see a dark, third-person (or first-person) survival horror Metroid. Tonally, the series is primed (ha) for this genre.

So classic, yes, but also let’s not be afraid of trying new things. But only if those new things are truly intentional and come from developer passion and creativity, and not just being tacked on to fit the game into whatever mold corporate big wigs think is selling right now…

@somnambulance Spot on.

Dread was great, I just replayed it on Hard last Month. Soooo good

Prime 4, I actually really enjoyed, not sure where I would put on my Prime rankings. But it was good and was great to be back behind the visor. Most people's complaints didn't really have effect on me, likely do to my play style.

I NEED Metroid 6 from Mercury Steam

They gotta do something with Samus, give us a little more there. I'm not sure what, but she needs something. Making her look a little more like a bounty hunter and a little less like a pin-up girl might be a good start. This whole narrative that every female video game character needs to look like Kim Kardashian is absurd and weird.

Or maybe give us another character altogether? Maybe Samus is looking to retire so she's training a replacement? Give us something new, please.

2D has a future but 3D Metroid I have no hope for the Prime series, facts are facts Nintendo has ended franchises that dont sell well

Do whatever you want, just don't make a ***** game.

Maybe listen to the little voice in the back of your head that tells you multiple hours of collecting garbage in a barren open world while Marvel McChungus screams in your ear is the worst possible implementation of the ideas you're trying to experiment with.

Hard pass on Dread.
Rather play Metroid Pinball.

The crystal-collecting and overworld, should've never been included in Prime 4. I actually liked the extra characters, but then again, Metroid is known for its isolation. Metroid is historically known as an introvert-skewed type of game, so perhaps it wouldn't hurt for the next game to play up to the series' strengths a bit more next time.

I am wondering if MP5 will happen, and if so, what will they do with the story after MP4's ending?

I could make an entire list of things I hated in Metroid Prime 4 that nobody would read, and NPCs are far from the worst problem. I don't think Retro studio is able to make a good Metroid anymore.

I'm far more interested in a Dread sequel, Metroid Dread 2: Dreader. Or a Metroid x Castlevania crossover... They could call it CastleMetroid and name an entirely new genre after the game! I'm getting off tracks.

Prime 3 for Wii is my favourite Metroid and one of my favourite games of all time. The Wii remote & Nunchuck controls were revolutionary(VR-like controls on your big CRT TV in 2008), and i loved it's more grandos, epic, nintendo-feeling less isolated vibe and atmosphere, just the comradary between you and the once uninfected bounty hunters, loved the soundtrack, that sequence where you fight against Ridley as you're soaring down that endless tunnel. it was an easy 10/10 for me, minus the underwhelming final boss design, dark Samus aside. For me, it was leaps and bounds better than Prime 1.

I finished Prime on Cube when it first came out, and i honestly felt mixed with it. Hated the controls(Stick aiming never did it for in first person outside of Golden Eye 007's multiplayer, and I never liked mouse controls either with DOOM 1&2, Wolfenstein etc, there was too much scanning, and i found the environments a lot less interesting. Murky, descolated, almost depressing. Just didn't vibe with me at all.

Prime 3 & Super Metroid are the two i love the most. Still need to play through Fusion & Zero Mission. Can't get into Dread(Clinical presentation, visuals aren't up to snuff, enemy designs are bland, cutscenes are ameture etc, even though it does control like a dream.)

Also beat Metroid NES years ago which i enjoyed but it feels pointless now to even go back to once Super M paved the way in 94'. As everybody knows Metroid NES's achillies heel is the lack of a map, just like with Metroid II(GB), which i also completed. But that one was less interesting and far more difficult to nagivate through thanks to the black & White visuals which made it so much harder to differentiate each environment from the next.

You need to bust out some crayola's and some paper and make your own map as you gradually trudge through both. But in all honestly, i wouldn't bother with either at this point. They're too prehistoric.

I hear Zero Mission is just a by the numbers 'easier' Super Metroid Wanna-be, albeit more polished. But Fusion, Fusion is more unique, linear in structure and it just seems to stand out a lot more. Also going to check out Prime 4 at some point, but the motercycle hub dessert bloat looks god awful, and there won't be any wow factor, since first person VR has now existed since 2016. lol

In the 2000s I really loved Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission and Halo so I naturally imagined Halo 2 as a type of Metroid type game. Felt that play style suited Samus in a way, like the upgrades in Halo Infinite essentially was like leveling up a Samus suit from any of her games. I don't think it needs to be like Alien exactly given she leans into the power fantasy style game horror is typically not. This is of course just my own personal opinion and preference. 2D is great, not sure how much more they can evolve it but Hollow Knight and Silk Song show there's plenty to be done still in 2D.

Lets start with a simple fact that people don't like change. But that change is something Nintendo does best.
On hardware the changes of successes (DS, Wii, Switch) and failures (Virtual Boy, Wii U) are clear.

Focusing on the Metroid series.
Metroid Prime 1 has arguably the biggest change, the daring choice to make it first person. Before release there were a lot of critics that Nintendo was going to ruin the franchise.

Metroid Other M also introduced big changes introducing a third person perspective, and combat focus on parry/counters, and a heavy narration.

Obvious Metroid Prime 1 was a great success, and Other M wasn't. But both where build on their predecessors and changed/added something to the formula.

The parry mechanic improved in Returns and Refined in Dread might have originated in Other M. The SA-X chase scenes have clearly inspired the Emmi zones.

So while Prime 4 wasn't the game I hoped it would be. It introduced changes which might be improved upon in the future.

But like everyone I don't like change, but I also don't want to do the same thing over and over again. In the end the only way I get to experience the wonder as I played Metroid Prime 1 and Zelda Breath of the Wild is to trust Nintendo in their decisions.

So yes change it up, but please look at the heart of the series.
@Nintendo make a new Metroid and I will Buy it.

One thing I massively disagree with? The psionic powers in Prime 4 were a perfect fit to make that game unique. I don't see them as any more wonky than the light/dark powers in echoes or the phazon powers in corruption. And some stuff was genuinely improved (the psychic spider ball, the bomb manipulation abilities and puzzles), even if stuff like the psychic shot or psychic boots don't need to return.

I enjoyed Prime 4. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Is it my favourite Metroid? Definitely not.

But I don't regret buying and experiencing it. It is what it is. A victim of massive expectations and development hell that somehow still turned out to be enjoyable in its own, flawed right. Kind of like the Jurassic Park 3 of the franchise.

I really enjoyed Prime 4 and didn’t mind the bike sections but agree if there was no open world part and more on foot I’d have preferred it.

Some things don’t need changing for changes sake especially after we’d waited so long for a new game of this style.

MAKE A PROPER REMAKE OF FEDERATION FORCE , CALL IT METROID : FEDERATION FORCE AND FOCUS ON SINGLE PLAYER , NINTENDO !!!

Is Prime 4 flawed? Yes.
Did I enjoy it as much as Prime 1, and mostly for the same reasons (which make it easily top 5 favorite games ever material for me)? Absolutely. It has one of my favorite (mini)boss fights of the series with that wolf pack.
If anything, I thought Prime 4 was like Prime 1 with a different plot since you have more or less the same areas: a ruins/sacred area, a lava mountain, a frozen lab. Volt Forge, I'd say it's more like Sanctuary Fortress, at least aesthetically.
Not only the areas, but also the same beams: Fire, Ice and Electric.

I get it, people didn't like how Prime 4 turned out, and there are some things that I'd change like Samus talking to the Federation guys, at least to reply but not to engage in conversations. I honestly like the Federation guys. Fight me.

A lot of people say she should've left them to die when she found them, but that would've been one of the most out-of-character moments ever for her.

With that said, I'm not gonna give it blind praise, but I'm also not gonna ignore what it did right, especially on the graphics and music department.

I would like a remake of Metroid Prime Hunters

"The slick, silent isolation Metroid fans live for was replaced with an appeal to the AAA gamer audience"

The amount of wrong in this sentence is just wild. On several levels

Yes and no. A lot of this “opinion” is quite misguided. Metroid is niche, always has been. Keeping it familiar is a must, sure, but trying to appeal to a wider audience is also a must, if they intend to make Metroid a bigger franchise. There’s got to be balance.

Keep the tried and true, but experiment with more spinoffs I say. And for the love of all things Nintendo, remaster Prime 2 & 3, remake Hunters and Federation Force and make Prime game with online multiplayer versus modes. And personally I wanna see more of the Federation.

Metroid has a great fandom it’s one of the most influential franchises ever . There are countless indie games that have a great amount of success due to Metroid franchise . Not as many influential games like it . It’ll always have an appeal. Zelda is Nintendos darling there was a few Zelda games that broke formula and weren’t received great . Metroid 4 not pleasing every one doesn’t mean they won’t come back strong . They should have released Samus returns and Metroid 2 before Metroid 4 came out to gather more fans . It’s not Nintendo fault it’s whoever is running the franchise. They missed a fantastic opportunity after the Metroid remaster then announced part 4 . They had 3 games they could have bare bones remastered to get more hype and they didn’t . That’s on MercurySteam and the Metroid producers though . Should have did a double pack of Samus returns 3ds and dread plus the other two Metroid games and there’s a leak saying a Metroid game is about to be announced

This is true of everything... Until you get bored or someone who knows better comes along.

If this was true all the time, BoTW would be a horrible game. But in reality, it's the best game ever.

Metroid Prime 4 is the BotW and TotK of the franchise …. And that is not a compliment

And those two games with their open world slop trend have ruined TWO franchises by now

My view is that the Metroid series falls behind other “vanias” in the department of lore and world building. Dread was great, but felt barebones to me with almost no story threads to get along the way or discover through exploration. HK & Silksong excel in not only combat, movement, and exploration, but also in the worlds they present, where you are motivated to explore not only for self-empowerment but also to meet characters and learn more about Hollownest and Pharloom.
Metroid Fusion came closer to this than any other, and it remains my favorite Metroid game. But I think the fans tend to look down on its plot-driven progression.

@larryisaman totally agree about Sammy’s talking and the overcorrection from Other M. In Dread they show her standing in elevators or trains in a way that exactly mirrors her monologue scenes in Fusion, but then nothing happens and it feels lacking and kind of old-fashioned. Her one line in Dread was a highlight of that game and I think having more of her thoughts and words would have taken that game to a higher level. Storyline and lore build connection with the player.

I agree with the sentiment and disagree with the experience when it comes to Metroid Prime 4. It was completely familiar to the previous games in the series, and was exactly the sequel I wanted. More of the same with a new ability or two, some fascinating new settings, and an interesting narrative. Exhibit the psychic abilities and bike, the likes of Volt Forge, and the psychic alien race. I didn't want some open world monstrosity that some people wished for in their ironic view that MP4 was too familiar despite excessive changes. At least not part of the Prime series.

The complaints that supposedly made MP4 so different, I still don't understand. The meltdowns over the computer characters in the preview proved ridiculous once the full game was experienced. There was barely any involvement from them. While this site thankfully used a different person for the review following the frenzied preview and produced a fair review, most others didn't, so could never suppress their biases for the review, much less apologise for a ridiculous exaggeration. Digital Foundary approached MP4 completely fresh and consequently made the fairest review.

I don't even understand statements like "slick, silent isolation Metroid fans live for was replaced with an appeal to the AAA gamer audience." First, what AAA audience? What does that even mean? Nintendo notoriously make games for wide appeal anyway. Second, I firmly found MP4 to be completely isolating. You were, physically, isolated for easily 95% of the time. As for those computer characters, guess what? They were isolated with you too. You all were! We already knew that Samus worked for the Galactic Federation, so I found it a nice revelation that she doesn't always work alone. She is part of a team! That MP4 explored that in its narrative was very interesting, and I would like to see this involvement and history expanded further.

The only part in agreement was those desert bike sections. As I understand, they were a legacy of an original open world plan for the game. At most, they were a unnecessary remnant, not a significant issue that undermined the rest of the game.

Yes, games in a series should stay faithful. To me, Metroid Prime 4 fundamentally did. It felt like a Prime game immediately from the prologue to my first steps in the main game, and right to the end. I think this editorial would work much better by using Zelda BOTW and TOTK as the examples. They had a far greater digression, and I even read a comment the other day that Nintendo hasn't made a Zelda game that actually plays like a Zelda game in over a decade. Of course, those games are almost unanimously adored. Therefore, is the gripe here really against experimentation with Metroid or simply another dig at Metroid Prime 4 for a few peripheral decisions made? Zelda showed that experimentation with the formula can work. Let's not forget, the Metroid Prime series is the greatest Metroid experiment of them all.

@-wc- If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with 2.5D games?

I need a 3rd person Metroid.

I genuinely have no real interest in Prime 4. Can live without it. Between the open world dreck and those NPCs I know I’ll hate it. I felt like if Returnal was a Metroidvania rather than a roguelike then it would be a perfect game so I’d quite like something along those lines. Make the environments even denser and use the beefier tech to push things like interactive and adaptive environments. The beauty of Metroid is in the design of each single room. An open world destroys that by enabling lazy design and forgettable areas. Bring back individually designed rooms in an interconnected world.

I dunno, man, I have played every Metroid game except for Dread and Prime 4 (just too much backlog in recent years, but I'll get to them!!). I think every Metroid game has offered something great. The changes and the traditions are all welcome!!

Prime Hunters is the only game I truly disliked, but even that had some good ideas. I actually love Other M, though I know that's a minority opinion. So, I don't think any sweeping philosophical changes need to happen behind the scenes. I'm not even sure this article suggests .... anything? lol

So, yea, keep doing what you're doing, Nintendo!

~~~See you next mission!!~~~

Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime both fell for the same mistake, just to greatly different degrees. They both tried to hold the players hands too much.

The developers of Dread at least had enough understanding of what was special about the franchise to do this subtly. Environmental and level design clues would gently nudge the players in the right direction - so it was much harder to get lost and need to back-track than it was in most older Metroid games. Hollow Knight on the other-hand, went the opposite direction creating a huge maze like environment like Metroidvania games of yesteryear, but bigger and with really tight modern controls. It then outsold Metroid Prime by a large margin.

Instead of learning a lesson from these experiences, the developers of Metroid Prime 4 decided to anger fans of the Metroidvania genre by having craptastic NPC dialogue literally tell you where you should go next, not just verbally once, but multiple times and with regular reminders - and just to really break your immersion and to cram it down your throat that this game is not about exploration - the game would force open the map, point to the exact location you should go to next and zoom in on it.

With this hamfisted approach the magic of the franchise was gone. No longer were you Samus, isolated in a desolate environment using your wits and fighting skills to figure out a path back to getting off the planet alive - you're just another mindless shooter getting instructions barked in your ear with the occasional simple puzzle to solve.

@somnambulance exactly.. haha. Those future nerds are the best

@HalBailman "The meltdowns over the computer characters in the preview proved ridiculous once the full game was experienced. There was barely any involvement from them. "

Umm what?

Myles would literally call Samus and give her instructions on what to do next every time the game might otherwise force the player to think for three seconds. It was lazy expositional dialogue used to hide poor world design - and it utterly broke the immersion.

Truly a "Prime" example of how much developers have dumbed down mainstream titles.

3D Metroid is not that great. 2D Metroid is legendary. I dare someone to say 3D Metroid is better than 2D. And as always, I say it as much as I can, METROID DREAD IS THE GREATEST 2D GAME OF ALL TIME. PERIOD. Mario? Nope. Castlevania? Nope. Mega Man? Sorry. And I am a super fan of each franchise. Adventure Island is close, though....Master Higgins! Where Are You?!

@Itsumishi Those hints were always in the series (most people didn't care to switch them off or know to switch them off). That they came from a known character rather than a random intercom or beeps on a map changes nothing. To me (I repeat, TO ME, so please don't start a ridiculous argument as I'm detecting from your hostile tone), there was very little involvement, and that is in regard to total influence. Easily 95% of the time nothing was heard or seen of them. It was classic Metroid Prime to its core of exploring, learning and fighting. I actually spent 2 hours getting out of Volt Forge. So much for instructions. One specific instruction, reminding me about the psychic shot upgrade that I acquired earlier, was invaluable. Otherwise, I'm helpless about activating the object and would resort to external help. That's good game design.
TO ME, no immersion was broken either. In fact, I appreciated the assistance as part of the narrative. The immersion, especially as feeling part of a greater force as per the narrative, was enhanced.
TO ME, primarily because of the focus in the preview, this issue was a complete meltdown over barely anything. MP4 was very linear to the series.

@HugoGED Same here! Metroid Prime 4 was my game of the year. Of course, I'm a Metroid fanatic, so was bound to love it as long as the formula remained the same, which it essentially did. I didn't care one iota about the computer character involvement. It was so minor, and some of it provided fascinating insight to the Galactic Federation. The bike sections in the desert were unnecessary, not that they, like the computer characters, were anywhere near the intrusion that is portrayed.

@axelhander Yes, I sense an ulterior motive with the backlash, especially to MP4. It's one thing not to not like elements. It's another to go full meltdown over it, and even hold a grudge! It smells of the hostility I read against Nintendo and the Switch 2 in general, as though Nintendo hasn't delivered these people the exact game they wanted or their preferred games (eg: new Zelda or Mario) in lieu of experimenting with DK Bonanza and creating Switch 2 Editions of older games.

@Chocobo_Shepherd Fascinating comment! I think you hit on something that I've long detected when reading comments.
There's primarily two camps of people that played Metroid Prime 4:
1) Those that approached it with an open mind.
2) Those that wanted to hate it from the start.
Wait! There's tree camps:
3) Those that never played it and are just hating on it and Nintendo based on the unhinged meltdowns from the preview.

Focusing on the first two camps, it explains why one group doesn't understand the fuss and other group is visceral in their critique.

@Ganon821 I agree. 2D Metroid is superior to 3D! I love 3D as well. My top 5 Metroid games are a mix, with Super Metroid at one. Then Prime, Fusion, MP4 and Dread. My only minor criticism with Dread were the EMMI encounters. Zero Mission and Samus Returns are my next two favourites. All of this top 7 I regard as quintessential Metroid games and priority games to play.

@nocdaes Are you uninformed? Retro was given a concept from Bandai Namco and basically told by Nintendo to make it work.

The concept wasn't theirs to begin with, they were just made to try to make Nintendo sinking money into Bamco initially worth something.

@UpsideDownRowlet yeah that's my biggest complain. As an examples, I also like Other M A LOT because it leaned 100% in what it wanted to be.

Prime 4 at that point should have just kept the original plans probably, it would have been a very different kind of Metroid, but at least it would have been some kind of experience worth by itself.
Now it feels like something else trying to cosplay as a Metroid Prime.

@Ryan_Gaur - So, basically, what you're really saying is "Man, Prime 4 was a pretty disappointing game, huh? Must be because they tried changing the formula." to which I have to say: not really. Having played a few hours, from what I can tell, the game seems to have simply fallen foul of the common curse of a "troubled development", the most glaring symptom (and the part of the game that gets the most flak outside of Miles) is the desert "hub" area. To me, the whole area feels like a placeholder that just never got replaced with a "finished product", and because it's so large, it drags the experience down by a fair bit. So, if Retro get another chance, and they are able to make a Prime 5 without the problems that plagued development of 4, there stands a good chance it'll turn out a fair bit better, whether they decide to experiment or not.

@dystome - You sure? I've played Prime 1 relatively recently, and while it's still fun (and nostalgic) to play, a lot of the individual rooms do seem a little too small (understandable given the time, but still...).

@larryisaman - "If anything Prime 4 was not the time for experimenting anyway. We only got 3 games and it had been 10 years when 4 was announced- a relatively safe sequel was all the series really needed."
Depends on how you look at it. Does the long stretch of time mean a safe sequel was allowable, or did it necessitate something fresh to jump-start the (sub)franchise?
Another thing is that, to be fair, a lot of Prime 4 was safe. In fact, some of the reviewers noted (and I kinda agree) that part of the problem is that it was too samey, so, if anything, the problem was more in that Bandai tried to change too much, and Retro too little (while also not doing enough to fix/integrate the changes Bandai made).

@OrtadragoonX - Theoretically, there are two things they could've done with the desert: Either add plenty of explorable ruins, and/or add an underground section to explore. Either way, if you have an area that size, you need to make it worth exploring, rather than (from what I've played so far) just be a big empty desert with practically nothing distinguishable (I mean, people often call Assassin Creed worlds "empty" but I think even Origins had more going on than this area does).

@nessisonett - An open world destroys that by enabling lazy design and forgettable areas. Bring back individually designed rooms in an interconnected world.
Aren't the best open worlds like that though? At the very least, I'm pretty sure there isn't anything saying you can't have varied, unique environments in an open world map, as long as you can find ways to connect them seamlessly.

@Ganon821 - 3D Metroid is better than 2D (sorry, but it's true ).

@-wc- Agree. I understand that lots of people adore Dread, and good for them; but for me, it became boring and repetitive - fetch this thingy, now go way over there and fetch that thingy… A beautiful game, but overwrought and lacking the environmental wonder that drew me into other games in the series.

Give us a Metroid Prime Hunters 2 and a new 2.5D installment

That was pleasure to read, thanks! Sharing your opinion, BTW

In space, nobody can hear you scream at Myles to shut the hell up because you are a silent protagonist which is probably for the best given Other M’s reception.

@mutenroshi buy yourself a GameCube and Metroid Prime and you’ll be just fine 😉 Worked for me back in the day 🎉

@HugoGED lol!! I feel you as 3 hours in and I’m enjoying Prime 4 via Switch 2 handheld 👍🏻

PItfall Lost Expedition is my favourite metroidvania. It blended mundane explorer gear and fun moves. It may not be graphically interesting, but it's secrets and more as bad as some are I don't care how far the remaining ones are across the map. I still 100%ed it and the bad Native games, was worse with it on the Wii version but PS2 I 100%ed it and glad I did.

With Metroid it's the personality/gameplay. Sure Metroid works better as a well Metroid style game for level design and abilities but I think Federation Force while a more multiplayer first game.

I was totally ok with it's more particular missions & being linear. Weapons and more however yeah I don't know.

I mean I hate platformers (any budget it's dev mentality I hate towards the genre these days) with bland missions, I just do.

Using the mechanics well for them, vehicles, etc. that old games did not so much modern ones (varies).

I'm ok with but I still care for platforming, that doesn't happen much as people want characters and worlds. I want gameplay, it doesn't happen.

Metroid being more isolated I think yes works, mechanics that are fun. Not lively and having NPCs being an annoyance.

Metroid works as an alien horror approach with the world speaking for itself, Research notes if people want some context besides visuals and fun weapons/abilities, well done level design.

Not a telling people things all the time to make it fit another style of game.

Another Code to me was the same. I get it with the remake but why have the awkward motion controls 1st puzzle and the rest being the fair same puzzles or new ones because oh the DS and Wii games had gimmicks in them that wouldn't translate or they didn't care. They wanted a puzzle/adventure story game about her story in both games and I get that but even still. It felt too much like a generic 3rd person action adventure game just well more adventure and no action as it's not the goal.

Even combining both was dumb, but oh the game would be short but a game select menu, oh can't go back and get collectibles missed, come on. Sigh.

The scaling was off but that didn't make it bad.

Most shooters are so generic Federation Force was more fun because of how particular it was.

Most shooters mechanically are super boring these days, multiplayer, RPGs and more. With bland movesets.

Borderlands offering a grapple, wow how amazing, never seen that before. Snore.

Splatoon is good but even Raiders isn't impressing me either.

Alice Madness Returns, Singularity, Fracture, Inversion and more are my go to games currently of old games with fun mechanics. Army of Two was fair but still kind of standard just with fair co-op mechanics.

Metroid works for exploration, upgrades, abilities, secrets, etc.

But if they have fair settings, fair exploration sure.

Not always oh the Galactic Federation either.

Just linear exploration with a few paths, fun abilities and weapons. I'd be ok with that.

Ratchet does it well just not in the last few entries, the but early ones were great for gadgets, other NPCs for puzzle solving and weapon creativity.

Zelda same but BOTW/TOTK have their cool ideas but I found the world very eh. Getting a chest was 'fun to get' but not the same fun as a platformer with the collectibles being more worth my time. Not generic items inside like an RPG as the reward.

Part 2:
I'd not be ok with a Metroid open world at all though. Too much focus on the world, the abilities wouldn't be used well, I know the series does have them, but Retro have shown they can do things but over time the linear with Corruption jumping planets, Federation Force and Prime 4 showed how they expanded in good and bad ways.

Dread I couldn't even play it was so restrictive I hated it. So my purchase was more to support the series then anything. Prime 1 I enjoyed. 2 didn't play much of. 3 I barely got through the beginning at all. Prime 4 in a way too, but I'm pacing out my playthrough just not in the same Singularity/Alice Madness Return way. Prime 4 is ok.

Retro goes between sometimes Nintendo focused pull ideas from random testing, and western design that's lazy and copies others. It annoys me so much.

I can play other games too but I'm not actively wanting copying from them. I'm using it for random ideas pulling. Sigh.

I play all genres.

I don't just go oh a bike is cool for marketing and a weak use of it in the game itself. Or wasted open ended areas for no reason, what scale, who cares. Give it worth in the level design.

It's like when a Mario 3D game uses power ups, sometimes they are really good and sometimes they are just for enemies and it varies. 2D Mario games can use them for secrets but usually are for enemies and I find them not as fun. 3D Mario makes the use of them worth it more.

@FullMetalWesker Agreed, more to it underground or above ground not just 'it's a desert so empty space'. Many games have used desert settings with or without ruins and had enough to do in them.

My favourite open worlds (barely any XD) are those with mechanics purposes used a lot in general missions or side missions or flexible navigation in them to move around the map, many fail at this and are too 'generic human or animal'. Sunset Overdrive, Gravity Rush, Infamous Second Son. The side missions, tower defence, challenges, all were fun for me.

Biomutant could have done this with animals via the character creator or picked up animals traits across the game, but nope just make it an apocalypse setting and not use wings, a glider, and more in creative ways. Items or traits from animals is a good navigation balance. Can't swim use a Jet Ski, or a water creature trait. But that's too much dev time who would make something creative like that. Sigh. Pathetic. Had that idea in my mind since I played it.

Most animals in games nowadays are just 'animals' or animals that are human like, so basically not even as creative as animal platformers of the 90s/2000s anymore. Just bland and 'easy to understand' nowadays. It's just sad. Context for them is hit and miss.

Echoes of the End is linear but had fun PS2 era mechanics. It's a game I'd play over and over compared to God of War 2018/Ragnarok, even Knack 1 and 2, no joke.

Most others are just bland missions with mechanics that were just the generic, bland reasoning and not fun. Boring story telling. But that's just me. I find 99% of open worlds boring.

Bland characters, bland worlds, story and worlds that are easy to understand.

Uncharted had fair pacing, if it was open world I'd be bored. Tomb Raider 2013+ trilogy had fair weapons for combat and navigation, or puzzles. That's why I like 2013 and was fine replaying it for Switch 1. I didn't play as much of Rise and haven't played Shadow (got the series on PS4 Shadow, Xbox One Rise and 360 2013), but it made the weapons and level design worth it for me.

That just gets lost on a lot of games.

Outposts in open worlds, where are the challenges for more rewards? Or just for fun? Ratchet games have arenas with more challenges then an open world outposts has repetitive waves, enemy layouts and the most bland design uses of buildings I've ever seen for gameplay. Wow how realistic, not gamey and that's why they are boring. I'd replay Sunset Overdrive tower defence or Ratchet arenas over and over again because their challenges are so good of uses for weapons, enemy type, mode factors for timers, sleeping gas for basically life stealing I guess to put it, weapon restrictions and more.

Part 2:
Racing games with challenges or modes/event requirements do this, but it's so rare now.

Gran Turismo has it with side events, Forza used to have it with bowling, other racing disciplines and got rid of them. GTI Club has races, hot potato and others. It didn't have many but it was fun too.

Most games are so bland these days. Dumbed down to be easy to understand and the basics. Can you tell I play old games and search for mechanics and level design and modes? Because I clearly am talking about them a lot for a reason.

Racing games are just tracks and locations to drive in with whatever car brands, forget car builders with custom parts (sure engine swaps but even still), forget other modes, forget fictional tracks, just bland stuff, wow how boring and easy to develop.

Wow Gear Club Unlimited 3 having highway or stamina mode. What is this Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2010 Wii and Gran Turismo 6 fuel lifting challenges. XD I'm glad it's a thing but I mean, come on. Onrush had fair modes for it's many racers on the track but that game flopped.

The same recycled events. Burnout Paradise has more fun events and it came out in 2008, even Midnight Club I went this is it? Wow. It has personality but the events were bland and boring.

It's why I wasn't sure how Crazy Taxi's new game would fair. I forget my ideas for it but even still. I'd come up with something and it being random ideas. Not recycled bland missions I've seen before.

Spiderman 2018 I enjoyed 2 side missions, yes 2, the ground pound one the only one in the game that requires a skill to be used for it and the laser grid one, the one where they reused the Ratchet 2016 lasers from the last level and put them above the city in Spiderman 2018. That or the task master missions.

I know I know very video gamey but that's why I like them. Not boring context, boring mechanics, bland outposts with the most bland waves of enemies, nothing of challenges or abilities or rewards worth my time at all. Regardless of the stealth not as good as other games that fixed that.

I play Indie platformers and go wow bland missions in them, nostalgia focus from well known games, sigh, I'll play the niche forgotten ones at least they were more compete even if forgotten and have more personality.

While I play a Spyro or Banjo and go I need these abilities or mechanics used this way, vehicles, etc. in other games.

Indies don't have the budget, mentality or interest in that so they make bland levels, bland missions and I just go, why should I care. Oh it's a family friendly game sure, but that's not good enough. They put personality but it lacks in the point of the genre for gameplay. Platformers weren't just family friendly.

They can be violent or parodies even but apparently to most people they skip the gameplay and make it rather basic for other goals. They end up as action adventure games not platformers. The stats of enemies and collectibles sure but the platforming is so bland, the missions, bland, mechanics, bland.

Part 3:
Metroid games have fair abilities, fair reasons to look for secrets, fair reasons to open doors, go here and there depends how far the next region is.

Pitfall Lost Expeditiuon is not perfect but for a between Prime 1 and 2 game and the last console entry and a rough game that it is, it is a game I've replayed a lot as much as people would Pikmin 1 many times or the Ratchet PS2 games due to how well designed and fun or godo the mechanics are utilised between general exploration, secrets (not perfect in some areas) and fits the theme well of random things as explorer gear for opening areas, combat and the shop for abilities for secrets or easier combat options.

Even Coded Arms to me is a more fun roguelike then modern ones and it's primitive locations are so clear in level design. That's a gone Konami IP even.

It's like if I compared Outrun 2, GTI Club, Juiced 2 and Onrush (a modern game example) or Inertial Drift even (Indie game) to other arcade racers with the most bland events/modes yet these games have so many that make me go wow, these are fun, varied of rules, scoring and uses for cars or whatever framing they wanted to. That's just rare nowadays. Stuntman Hollywood I hope is good for framing it's gameplay as not much as it is with it's licenses it wants to use to get it to sell compared to prior entries.

I really liked Prime 4 but I'm not sure if it's a game I will ever replay. Missing one scan on my initial playtrough is annoying but not nearly enough to try again. Otherwise I pretty much saw everything the game has to offer. And I liked everything, even the desert and the bike. It's baffling why they didn't add a couple of oasis' and maybe bodies of water or something but it was cool. I think people will be more forgiving towards the game in the future but the game was a let-down for many and I can understand that, even if I personally don't fully agree with them.

I don't know what's the state of affairs at Retro right now. The Remaster of Prime they did, albeit doing it in several years, was a top notch remaster, i would say a top 5 remaster/remake from this whole gen, even considering other platforms. It's a shame Nintendo didn't publicized it more. That been said here's the thing about retro and Austin Texas more broadly: Sony just recently closed down Blue Point Studios, which was founded by ex Retro guys. Dunno about jobs and positions, but if i were Nintendo, i would welcome any talent and invest in any senior in Austin. Retro is a corner stone of Nintendo, and has been stripped of DK and Prime. Invest on talent and people Nintendo, i'm sure they can figure something out on a smaller scale while the next Dread-like from MercurySteam comes out.

Say what you will about Prime 4 (I regret buying it digitally since I don't intend on replaying it for a long time), but I absolutely respect the amount of time and effort that went into optimizing the game to look so fantastic on the Switch 1 while remaining a buttery smooth 60fps.

Not that it excuses the rather lackluster gameplay of Prime 4- I'm more a gameplay than visuals guy- but I can't imagine making the game look the way it did was easy so I commend the effort they put in this time around.

I really REALLY hope Nintendo doesn't fall into the trap of chasing visuals and fideltiy because it's simply going to cause game costs and dev times to balloon. They have no shortage of visually appealing games on the Switch, Wii U and even the Wii, so I hope they continue with the gameplay over visuals development style they have going on.

@SirLink You can feel lonely and isolated in a desert, even while riding an imaginery bike. This whole hate towards the "open world" (lol even that terms is not fitting) is so blown out of proportion.

Tbh I have not finished the game yet, but the desert hasn't bothered me much if at all so far.

@samurro fair play, mate, but just to be clear: I don't have a single bone of hatred for open world games. I absolutely love BOTW, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk.

But that’s exactly the thing, isn’t it? Those are brilliant action-adventures or RPGs. Metroid, on the other hand, is a proper Metroidvania. Its whole magic is built on claustrophobic level design, tight mazes, and that lovely feeling of being completely trapped.

I see what you mean about the desert and how a massive empty space can still feel lonely, but mind you, trading those tense, narrow corridors for cavernous dunes and a motorbike just loses the plot a bit for me. It waters down the exact identity that makes Metroid stand out from every other generic shooter out there.

@Yoshi3 Said literally Nobody.

@Vivianeat But why? The 1st person is what makes Prime so special and immersive. Genuinely asking what 3rd Person brings to the table?

@SuntannedDuck2 for the love of god, nodobody is going to read this.

‘ those times where you’re trapped in a room gnawing at a puzzle’. I don’t recall that happening once in Prime 4?

This article is dumb I'm sorry. Metroid needs to change not stay stagnant. Prime 4 refused to change much of anything and look how that turned out! (Doesn't help the few new things weren't good)

Metroid needs to experiment and expand it's gameplay. It needs to delve more into storytelling without losing sight of the gameplay part of it. Oh and it definitely needs to leave Ridley behind and never ever again bring him back.

@Luigia I own both, just doesn't do it for me, but I can recognize that it is a gorgeous, well-made game.

@mutenroshi fair comment and know what you mean. Game on 👾🥷

@FullMetalWesker I agree that a lot of Prime 4 was safe but really they didn’t play it safe enough IMO. The risks they took like a more open world and a greater focus on narrative were so half baked that they should have never bothered to begin with if they weren’t up to delivering on them. Their time would have been better spent on connecting the world in a more natural way like the first Prime and making it more interesting to explore rather than a large hub that connects to a series of corridors in each unique location. Also instead of focusing on a narrative that went nowhere with NPCs that were largely forgettable I’d honestly have rather had just a retread of a fallen civilization that you learn about in scans over what they ultimately went for.

Sure they would have been criticized for not doing much new but when development had to restart they would have been better off scaling back the ambition and just made something fan pleasing. Instead they ended up with something that failed to attract new people and turned off a lot of existing fans which I think is a worse result than getting a higher quality game overall that didn’t do much to push the series forwards.

A soft reboot to get Retro back into the swing of making Prime games again should have been the goal with more ambitious ideas saved for future games. Hopefully Prime 4 still ends up being a stepping stone to a much better realized game- I think Retro deserve the chance.

I still say no one asked for a new Metroid Prime, and the number of years in production seemed to have sealed its fate.

This isn't about Metroid's future it is just a repackaged critique of prime 4, of which we have had many. Prime 4 was borked, we know. It was not the game the title suggested, just like this article.

I didn't like Prime 4 nearly as much as the other games in the series, but I still loved it. For me, the visuals and atmosphere were damned near second to none. That is one of the reasons I go to the Prime games.
I wish they had just made it a solo adventure though, no doubt.

@larryisaman - The problem with that is you're assuming they could have. The consensus from what I've been reading is that a lot of the problems with this game come from Retro being saddled with stuff from when Bandai Namco were working on it, that they weren't able to get rid of. More importantly, it seems that a lot of the more problematic ideas came from producer Kensuke Tanabe, who was involved with the production in both phases.
With these factors in mind, that they were able to make a game that feels as familiar as they did seems to suggest this "scaling back the ambition and just made something fan pleasing." was exactly the approach they took, it just manifested as damage control, fixing a half-made experiment that they were unable to completely drop.

That said, I'm also not entirely sure the problem could have been fixed by simply "playing it completely safe". After all, Prime 4 as it released got as much criticism for being too samey as it did for being too different, and even some of the more familiar stuff was apparently not implemented as well (the writing for the scan logs for example). In other words, you can have the right formula, but that alone doesn't guarantee a new game will be just as successful (Personally, I'd argue strong direction is a bigger contributor to whether a game succeeds or not, and is the biggest element missing from this game, so if they can fix that problem going forward, it won't really matter whether they take risks or not).

Finally, I'd also like to point out that they already technically released your idea of a "completely, 100% safe Metroid game" with Prime Remastered, which I'd argue does that job better (I mean, if you're going to make a new Prime game that's basically just Prime 1 again, you might as well just....remake Prime 1).

On a personal level, I agree. I would be very happy if they reduced the budget by 90% to match the expected low sales and just gave us cool worlds to explore. (I like Metroid II - I don't need expensive visuals.) But from Nintendo's perspective that's leaving money on the table. There is a lot that's ridiculously cool about Metroid, and people are so turned away that they never find out.

It's really easy to see why Hollow Knight is a phenomenon but Metroid collects dust on store shelves, and it's all about appearance. Samus looks like a clunky, malevolent robot. Seriously, look at her design and try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn't know the series. Does this look like a relatable human character to you? If they redesign the character to look recognizable but not have a helmet in breathable atmospheres, immediately the series will look less off-putting.

And I'm sorry, but you do need other characters because you do need a story to hook the mainstream and it can't just be "look at this dead planet, it was really lively once, no really". They've gotten some mileage out of computer characters, but Samus talking to a computer doesn't look from the outside like a story to be invested in. Hollow Knight has characters that people love. Why can't Metroid? Just don't make them obnoxious or disruptive or hand-holdy. Let the player explore freely, and let the characters be there. What's the problem?

Third, they should change the name of the series to "Samus". Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 37 million copies and every player knows Samus by name. They don't know what a "Metroid" is, and if you explain to them that it's a floating amoeba-jellyfish, they will not be impressed. Remake all the games but rename them "Samus: Zero Mission", "Samus Returns", "Samus: Metroid Prime", etc., make the helmet something you can toggle on or off (off by default) and already it will sell better.

Fourth, give the woman wings. She was raised by bird people. Have it unwrap from her "shoulder balls" the way the morph ball unwraps. I don't know exactly how this fits into the platforming but I know it would look cool as hell.

Fifth, I think there is so much room to shake up the gameplay and have it be recognizably Metroid. How about giving it a fixed, isometric camera angle? It would give it a vibe that's halfway between the 2D and 3D games, and allow them 3D worlds but with the 2D games' focus on verticality - shooting while jumping to get the right height to hit. The reason to do this is not just that the existing formulas have been played out - it's that even if you haven't played Metroid before, it looks old. The 2D games look like generic action platformers from the '90s, the 3D games look like generic FPSs from the '00s. Make it look like something new and people will pay attention.

So no, I don't think they can get anywhere just doing the same thing over and over to endlessly decreasing sales. If it's going to last another 40 years it needs to be rethought from the ground up.

That's nice.
We want Prime 2&3 HD ports, Samus Returns HD port, and Prime 5 along with Metroid 6. Possibly a Prime Hunters remake now that Sylux is everywhere.
Get at it Nintendo!

@buxner Is this the result of a GPT prompt in the likes of "give me the worst possible takes one could have on this article and make it sound like I truly believe them"?

@Vivianeat plenty of 3rd person Metroid to choose from. Most of the games are.

@samurro Ha! No, I'm 100% serious. Nintendo wants Metroid to sell in the eight digits and be a movie franchise and a toy brand and a section of the theme park. What I'm describing is how they can get from A to B.

Out of curiosity, do you disagree that these ideas would have more mainstream appeal? Or do you, like this article, think it should stay exactly as the tiny fanbase (which for the record, I am firmly a part of) already likes, and the mainstream can butt out?

Super Metroid can definitely use a remake with access to the original game after beating the main game. Just like zero mission (or was it fusion) with the original metroid. A possible remaster of Metroid 2: Return of Samus for the 3DS released on Switch 2

@buxner Your comparison with Hollow Knight and Samus is awkward. The popularity difference has nothing to with any of this.

@samurro Then what is your explanation for the discrepancy in popularity between games that mechanically are very similar? I say it's because Hollow Knight looks like a game filled with cute characters and an intriguing story whereas Metroid looks like a game where a robot fights alien monsters with no story at all. What is your theory?

What is the story of Hollow Knight? I never played it but I doubt it had any impact on its success. Also nobody who appreciates cute characters will appreciate anything Hollow Knight has to offer. (?) Its a pretty demanding game and old school in nature.

Number 1 difference stems from the fact that Hollow Knight is dead cheap. And by word of mouth it got critically acclaims from everywhere.

Why Metroid nowadays is not as popular as it could be is a complex topic but has almost zero overlap with any arguments you brought up so far.

Sure, Hollow Knight is cheap. But Metroid is a series that's been going since 1986, and all the 2D entries put together have sold less (< 13 million) than the first Hollow Knight (> 15 million). If they'd priced Metroid Prime 4 at $20 (which of course they can't do with the budget), it wouldn't have sold anywhere near Hollow Knight numbers. Look at a screenshot or trailer for Hollow Knight. The warrior is really cute. You see him interacting with cute characters. There are all sorts of interesting settings and scenes he gets put in. If the average person sees it and Metroid and doesn't know anything about either, they will go with Hollow Knight based on the vibes and they will avoid Metroid because there's nothing enticing there.

(The reason I'm bringing up Hollow Knight is of course that it owes much of its design to Metroid. Other Metroidvanias that have sold better than any Metroid game ever: Blasphemous and both Ori games.)

Ori is brilliant and a gem. Didnt play the second part yet. I doubt Blasphemous was that successful though?

5 million copies, compared to Metroid Dread's 3.