Topic: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Prime 4 has the same kind of problems facing it as Halo Infinite. Highly anticipated game that was announced a few years too early and still has no gameplay yet, some people want the gameplay to evolve while others want to gameplay to be the same as it was in the classic trilogy (Halo 1-3/Prime 1-3).

I think what happens with Halo Infinite may be an interesting insight into how Prime 4 will turn out.

@Bolt_Strike Has there been some mention of the game, lately?

@Ninfan Nothing significant, no, just random mentions of the development. Nothing really seemed to prompt Arlo to make that video, I guess he just felt like talking about it.

@DarthNocturnal Never really played Doom Eternal but hearing the word "gauntlet" makes it sound unappetizing. Gauntlets tend to be linear slogs with almost nothing but enemies, and IMO that doesn't fit Metroid super well since they're almost pure combat and not really fun to explore. I always hate when they make the later game areas more gauntlet-esque like Maridia or Phazon Mines or Pirate Homeworld. Speaking of that, can we not have an area like that at the end of the game? I'm sick of them flanderizing the exploration to make the later game areas feel more challenging.

@DarthNocturnal It's not so much that those areas were hard, as much as they were boring. You just go through a linear string of rooms fighting enemies until you reach the next powerup. No real exploring or figuring out where to go, it's just go to the next room and fight more enemies.

Those sound like the gates from Astral Chain. Which I guess is kind of close to what I'm suggesting, except there's no real need to teleport you to a different area. Just go to the area and there's one or more enemies waiting for you.

@Grumblevolcano Forgot to respond to this one.

Yeah, trying to figure out how much to change can be tricky business, because they can easily change too much (Federation Force, Sticker Star) or too little (NSMB). But again, the most well received changes tend to be the ones that make the series more ambitious and widely appealing while sticking with the series' roots. This is why BotW and Mario Odyssey were so insanely successful. If Prime 4 is just a by the numbers Prime game, it'll probably mildly disappoint and sell just okay like other Prime games. A decade and a half since the last Prime game, with a console capable of so much more than the Wii, and they can't modernize the gameplay? That is a surefire way to keep Prime as a relatively low selling series that isn't worth Nintendo's time.

I wonder if the alleged Metroid Prime Trilogy port got delayed because of 4 as they want the controls to mirror MP4 as close as possible so it’s a seamless transition between the two?

With 4 being scrapped completely they are now waiting for it to get to the stage where they know what button does what in the final game.

Doubt it. They just didn't want to release it till 4 was closer to coming out. The last thing they wanted was to release it then 3 years later 4 comes out and people forgot about it. I also doubt it gets anything more done to it over what they did to it on the Wii U. Was it even 1080p?

@Spoony_Tech the Wii U version wasn’t a port, it was a digital version of the Wii game played in Wii mode.

Some work will have to be done as it was only playable with the Wii Remote which isn’t available on the Switch.

@jump I'm probably thinking too simplistically, but what would need to be different in terms of wiimote/joycon? I'm thinking of games I've played used gyro on one joycon for shooting, and it feels quite the same.

@HobbitGamer The Wii was more like a mouse pointer than gyro, the Wii Remotes had an optical sensor and a sensor bar so it's not as easy as just mapping the buttons.

@jump It's not that difficult. Just remap the controls to stick controls and gyro controls.

It's only Prime 3 that required motion controls right? Or did Prime Trilogy force them all to have motion controls?

I can’t believe I didn’t see this thread until now! I’ll definitely be coming back here every now and then to see it.

@Dezzy All games were motion controls only, if you wanted to play Prime 1 and 2 with normal controls you had to play the GC versions so pretty much similar setup as Twilight Princess.

The GameCube and Wii games don't differ that much visually, so in terms of remastering them it wouldn't make a difference. But meh, give me Prime 4. They can keep their overpriced trilogy.

@Grumblevolcano

Well that seems kinda dumb. I guess they wanted the trilogy to feel like it was consistent.

Well I sure hope they offer a regular controls option on the Switch. There are very few games where I like using motion controls.

Just had a thought after reading the latest article about another industry heavyweight being hired by Retro Studios for MP4...What if this team is not just for MP4? If this team is as good as it looks on paper and you could keep them together, could we see them begin work on MP5 as soon as MP4 is finished?

Could this represent a major investment in the franchise and the start of a series of Metroid Prime 3D Games?

@MarioBrickLayer Retro have not created a game in 6 years. They need to be hiring people so they can get something out at long last. ;p

It's far too early to worry about MP5.

@Octane

For real.

All I want now is a gameplay trailer proving Prime 4 actually exists.