@Henmii
Ya, the text actually says it includes both the NS1 and NS2 versions, placed as an informational disclaimer so people know the cart actually has both versions on cart and can play both versions depending which system you insert it in.
Lesson learned, right? Personally I really love digital- well, for several reasons but one of which is the insane transfer speeds. If you think NS2 carts are fast at 400 MB/s, try playing games running from micro SD express that run at 900 MB/s, or Switch 2 internal memory which is 2,100 MB/s. Compare that with NS1 cartridges which run at 60-90 MB/s, which to me is an exercise in frustration.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
So I just got through the Mines last night, and wow. I wasn't sure how it would be as I saw more than a few people saying it was a "slog" to get through and such.
I enjoyed it a lot though, and a pretty epic boss battle.
@eldersnake
Just wait. You've got several more fantastic boss battles ahead of you. Metroid Prime 4 dunks on the entire industry with its boss battles.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
@JaxonH That's encouraging. I've enjoyed most (if not all) the boss battles so far; some games at this point can get a little anti-climatic but it does feel like things are still just ramping up.
Man, idk… the mines are extremely tough. Literally had to retry multiple times in certain sections that had onslaughts of enemies bum rushing you and your team. There were too many, too often and save stations were far and few between. First time all game I was ready to drop the difficulty or chuck the controller. Those exploding enemies are pure rage bait.
@jaxonh thanks . I'll take a look at obstructions in the line of site. It's up on a shelf though. It's an inconsistent issue. I don't use them on many games so I haven't noticed this in any other game. I use the pro controller most of the time.
@NintendoByNature
How many energy tanks do you have? I had 9 extra tanks going in to the Great Mines. And use your Ice Beam on them to freeze them, then a few normal shots to finish them off. Freezing also stops them to maintain crowd control, and you can just use gyro to nail them with Ice Beam shots non stop, dont even bother with normal shots because once they unfreeze and you freeze again they'll die once thawed.
Even so, I died at least 3 times in the Great Mines before I even got to the boss. Absolutely abuse that Ice Shot and make sure gyro is activated under CAMERA, but disabled under CURSOR so when you lock on, controller movements don't throw your aim off due to the free aiming mechanic.
I didn't find the mines too bad in terms of the mobs, but like JaxonH I had farmed a whole heap of the available energy tanks beforehand which helped. But yeah Ice Beam is your friend.
For me it was a lot less punishing than say... the "Gauntlet" run section of the Phazon Mines in MP1 lol
I just gotta glaze for a while. I can't keep it bottled up.
For all the talk of not having much story, which even I myself said, this game had the best story of any Metroid game I've ever played, and to be perfectly honest, one of the best endings of any game I've played in recent memory.
Sometimes it's not about how much story there is, or how complex the narrative, it's about a simple, straightforward arc with compelling characters and events which tug on your emotions. It's highly effective and I freaking love it.
And let me say, that was THE most difficult final boss I've played in the series since Metroid Prime 2. I'm not counting 2D because Dread final boss was also insane. I beat him on my final life tank on the 3rd phase. Holding my breath in a contest of sheer determination, trading blows as we each had a sliver of life left, to see who would remain standing.
And the game absolutely sets up Prime 5. I'm 95% convinced of that leak that Nintendo signed off on 2 games. Cause there's no way they would have had such an emotional cliffhanger without a follow up in the works.
I don't care what insults people end up throwing my way for this opinion. I'm not gonna shy away from honesty to lobby goodwill from others. I think this is one of the best games I've ever played. I know not everyone will feel that way and that's perfectly fine. As long as you enjoyed it, I'm happy for you. But Prime 2 was and has been in my top 5 of all time. And this game just trounced all over it.
@JaxonH I think I have 8 life tanks at this point. Nonetheless, I managed to just finish the mines boss and holy cow, white knuckling the entire time. I know I left an energy in the ice belt that needed the upgraded grapple so I may go back for that. Just a lot of trekking to find where that was. Not sure how people are finishing this game in 10ish hrs, I’m pushing 12 and I’m sure I have at least 3-4 hrs left unless I’m mistaken. It’s starting to get fairly difficult in my eyes.
@NintendoByNature
It does get difficult. It's arguably as difficult as Prime 2, to be perfectly honest.
You'll definitely want to go back through the Ice Belt for that tank. I remember going back for that one. And you'll want to go back through Great Mines once more, and Flare Pool and Volt Forge for energy tanks and shot upgrades and missile upgrades, and you'll want to find and complete every shrine in Sol Valley to upgrade your beam weapons.
AND.
The Samus amiibo is good for one full health refill + extra energy tank shield every day. If you have 12 extra energy tanks and wait til you're on your last one, then use the amiibo, you essentially have 23.
Feels good though doesn't it? Now, get ready to enjoy some much needed relaxation back tracking to power up, then grab those mech parts and wrap up your crystals and shrines, then enjoy the most seriously awesome finales you'll experience this year.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
@JaxonH no doubt. I have to think where the spider ball can be used in those locations. Other than struggling in the mines, I’ve loved the game and can’t put it down. Definitely my favorite game Nintendo put out this year. Better than DK and MKW. I haven’t touched age of imprisonment or legends ZA yet though.
@NintendoByNature
Keep in mind there's psychic spiderball tracks that are invisible until you scan them. Those are hard to find. I stumbled upon one in Ice Belt at the very deepest point in the facility. But I also discovered a short cut from the snipers nest room that essentially takes you all the way down to floor 3, though I didn't discover it until I was going back up and it let me skip all 3 levels.
I thought I had scanned everything and found everything for the most part (I wasn't rigidly going for 100%), but I only scanned 89% and found 81% of items. Which was kind of surprising to me, actually. There must be some really well hidden stuff in this game. And how did I miss 11% scans? I mean, I think I missed a 3rd type scan of a boss here and there but overall I was expecting to see 98% scanned and like 97% items.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
As my avatar can tell, Metroid Prime has been one of my favourite series in gaming. It's the one that introduced me to the Metroid franchise, even though I was already alive and able to hold a controller when the series was created. I've played through the first episode a dozen times, including Remastered, and Echoes is my favourite of the first three entries. You can imagine how excruciating the wait was since MP4 was first announced, just like it was for some of you.
The first teasers had me hyped, the latter ones... not so much. I still couldn't imagine skipping this one, even though I thought the added name Beyond felt quite uninspired and the recent revelations about Samus riding a bike in the least Metroid-like setting (a desert under a bright blue sky) not that inviting... again, just like for some of you. So I wasn't even planning on buying it day one. I bought it day three instead, because I'm that strong-willed.
I'd give it a solid 7/10. Which is a good mark, honestly. It goes right there with the first three entries of the series. It could totally have been released in 2010 as the game is to me a direct sequel, gameplay-wise, of the original trilogy. You find the exact gameplay loop : find area, get area map, search area, defeat area boss, find way to different area, acquire new power from defeated new area boss, go back to first area with newly acquired power, rinse and repeat.
The settings, the atmosphere, the score, the enemies, the quests and the powers all feel quite the same as they did 20+ years ago (if you consider MP1) so I felt right at home scanning every single blade of grass I came across in Fury Green while enjoying the truly amazing vistas this 2025 game has to offer in addition to its early 21st-century predecessors.
Then I reached the infamous part where Samus has to take a motorcycle license and enjoy her first test-drive through Gerudo desert Sol Valley. And it all began to feel a little bit less compelling. Everything felt a bit more... beneath than beyond. The enemies I encountered in the first area return with a palette swap, others with an extra shield or move. There's another generator that needs reactivating in the next area too, so I get a bit of a déjà-vu. Samus gets power-ups that need installing by someone located in another area. That element of technical realism feels even weirder as magic Lamorn stuff happens here and there — 'psychic' equipment can appear out of thin air like rails, grapple nodes, platforms, etc — but that immensely advanced civilisation couldn't imagine a sort of fast travel service to transport Samus around the vastly disjointed world that is Viewros — but they will teleport her to another dimension whenever she finds a teleporter master key.
But I digress — you don't play Metroid Prime for its environmental consistency, though for example it just feels weird to have an ice field next to a scorched desert. It looks like the Hyrule map from Ocarina of Time (when game maps were designed that way due to memory shortage), as someone pointed out a few pages back ; and Vi-O-La is just a mechanical Ep-O-Na that helps you get around it quicker. You'd think a motorbike fits better in a science fiction oriented-game like Metroid than the Master Cycle in a fantasy world like Zelda, to me it kind of doesn't, surprisingly.
Nostalgia hits strongly though, in Green Fury and mostly in Ice Belt. The art direction is amazing and this is probably the area I had the most fun with. The lore you get from the scattered Lamorn recordings as you encounter all those life pods immediately brings back memories of the Phendrana Drifts research centre, building up to the place's infestation and devastation. A truly great mix of anticipation, discovery and action. Sadly, I didn't really find that in any other part of the game. I wish the last stretch would be a little more climatic (on top of the Chronos Tower), but most of the action is seen through cut scenes.
So as I watch the credits roll, I'm a bit conflicted. I couldn't play anything else for a week, and I really really want to start a new game+, but I also feel the devs were a bit lazy (or rushed?) as some parts of the game feel like they don't belong together, just like Sol Valley and the peripheral areas, or like Sylux and the game's story. It's a great game, it's a goodMetroid game, and nostalgia probably made my expectations higher than they should have been. But still, some choices made during development are questionable.
SPOILERS, still
My disappointments:
There is absolutely ZERO metroid in this Metroid game*. I mean... They are what brings the most tension in the MP games (referencing Phendrana Drifts Research Centre again). The menace of a galaxy-wide invasion is non-existent here. The grievers are a nice, sad creation but I feel they are way overused, as are the robots, in any form.
It's all too easy. I'm not particularly looking to be stuck in a game or die every minute, but I thought the puzzles were quite straightforward, and the game too eager to tell you what to do. Maybe the Hard mode in a new game+ would convince me. That last fight was quite a letdown too, in form and in challenge. But I guess the MP1 final fight will never be topped.
It's too short. I genuinely thought collecting the 5 keys was the first phase of the game, or at least that it would unlock a new area, and that the Sylux fight on the Chronos Tower was his first real appearance. Not his first and last*.
That idea to make the green crystal shards quest non-optional. Filler content.
The lack of area interconnectivity
The psychic powers are just classic powers, rebranded, except for a few additions (see "what I enjoyed"). But the Control Beam is a missed opportunity as you use it for just a few times, including the times you inadvertently activate it because you forget you're in scan mode.
(*) I still have to 100% the game and see the real ending, so I might still be nicely surprised.
What could have been better:
I wish Base Camp would get bigger and cosier as you make progress (it does but only so much). It could have been a nice subquest as Myles could craft four-poster beds, a jacuzzi or a karaoke bar out of the grey crystals found in the desert.
The chase down the mines. It could have been peak horror in the franchise, it was too short and unrealistic (enemies still won't open closed doors) and constantly interrupted by cutscenes about What's-their-face sacrificing themselves.
The music. It's great. But sometimes a bit unfitting. I'll go against the tide and say I really like the eerie drone in the desert. On the opposite, the Volt Forge score, however amazing, is way too epic for what's happening. There's this minimalistic thing about that early 2000s midi industrial soundtrack from the original MP games that I'm missing here.
Playing it made me want to play MP2 and 3 again but my GameCube and Wii have long been gone. Echoes and Corruption Remastered, when?
What I enjoyed:
It's a colour-by-numbers Metroid Prime game no matter what people (or I) say. I don't take for granted that we were given a sequel. I know I've expressed some guarded views but I'm really happy to have a new MP game to play as most sensations from the original games were intact.
The general level design.
Ice Belt labs is a great part of the game and going back is always cool.
Flinging the morphball around those magnetic floating spheres is also always cool.
The boss fights never disappoint in a MP game, and those here are worth playing the game.
Having the choice to display the unacquired items or not (via the scout bots) is a really cool idea. I just wish the power-ups still had that buzzing sound. If you can't see them, you can't know something is hidden.
Playing on Switch 1, and for someone who doesn't own a Switch 2 or a PS4 or a big TV with 7.1 speakers, the game is technically flawless.
@moevot138
The final boss gave me flashbacks to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes final boss, the Emperor Ing. It was ROUGH, and I love it 😀
The free aiming, I agree actually. But there's a fix. Activate gyro aiming under "CAMERA" but disable gyro under "CURSOR", then toggle free-aim to "Revised" so that when you're locked on, gyro can't throw you off target, but the right stick can be used for sub-targets.
The ONLY TIME this needs to be changed is Phase 2 of the Sylux boss battle, since that inter-dimensional tunnel fight is exclusively in free-aim mode, which without gyro is a serious pain. So for that phase I'd enable gyro under "CURSOR" then disable it again for phase 3.
And ya, I have no problem with those who didn't love it as much as I did (I think it's one of the best games I've played- I'd put it in my "Top 5 All-Time Favorite Games" list), but I do have a problem with some who are disingenuous. There were people claiming to have beaten it like 48 hrs after release, and using that as leverage to make their claims of it being "horrible" seem more credible. And there have been some who clearly aren't judging it fairly based on what it is, but rather this imaginary concept of what they think it should be, which I don't think is fair in any way. But if someone just says "hey, it was pretty good but I wish it didn't have Sol Valley" or "I liked the game but wasn't a fan of the other characters", or "The game was fun but I found it too linear for my liking", I take no issue with that.
So glad you enjoyed it like I did, though. It's truly one of the best experiences I've had with a video game in quite a while.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
I would grant that a game being "too short" is a valid complaint. However, saying something like "I beat it 48 hours later!" is deceptive at best. How long a game is should be measured in hours of play, not days of time, because that is what determines how long a game actually is. How many days, or weeks, or months, it takes to beat a game is primarily dependent on how much a person plays in an average day. If you beat a game in "48 hours!", because you played it 12+ hours each of those days? It does not make the game short, it simply means you played obsessively.
I don't think it's that different to the other Metroid Prime games in length. They're all in that 15-25 hours bracket, depending upon how keen you are to do absolutely everything or not.
It's more a case of quality time. The backtracking across the desert and crystal grinding feel rather like padding to me, but then again the earlier games will waste some of your time too with exploring dead ends and they've all got their late-game fetch quests.
As ever, it's just a bit of a divisive game, and mileage may vary. Those who aren't feeling that satisfied by it generally might find it rather short, but for those where it's scratching the Metroid Prime itch, it'll probably feel long enough.
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