8bit-Man

I always thought it was strange the original version lacked multiplayers options.

So it turns out they just want to sell it separately. Sigh.

No surprise. Nintendo became so expensive, it’s not “Christmas gift” material anymore as it used to be.

Not a fan of the large rosters filled with nonsensical characters, like all the baby versions. Seems like quantity matters most than quality these days.

NintendoLife - Just a quick usability suggestion: with seven voting options for a simple question, the poll feels a bit convoluted. Some options are very similar, which makes it unnecessary complicated to interpret the actual results.

Solutions get shoved down your throat before you even get the chance to think for yourself. Dialogues felt like teenage Marvel pulp.

Nintendo apparently doesn’t know how to handle adult oriented games anymore.

My expectation: remakes, remakes, remakes…

Feel sad for Metroid, but unfortunately the poor sales are deserved. Hopefully it will be a wake-up call for Nintendo to stop shoehorning in open world slop in every franchise.

Keep pushing things gamers don’t like. See how this “time saver” will turn out for you.

For me it’s all about experiencing that wonderful next-gen feeling for the first time. It was a magical moment on many Nintendo platforms. But on Switch 2, it felt simply as a continuation, not as a leap forward. Mario Kart World didn’t exactly push the envelope, and all the ports weren’t really exciting either.

The game feels plagued by many development concessions. The desert is definitely the worst offender, but I can understand it’s hard to change that during development hell.

Too bad they didn’t fix all the other issues though.

@spiderman0616 Whether the general public is aware of these practices or not is irrelevant. That awareness doesn’t make them acceptable. True fans do notice, or the “obsessive online”, as you call them.

We all like Nintendo, but they are ultimately a business, and that sometimes comes with decisions that are not in consumers best interest. We don’t have to be apologetic for that.

Nintendo became the Apple of the video game industry. They’ve started to incorporate heavy monetization practices everywhere, just because they can.

Think of Amiibo paywalls, withholding content from DK Bananza to sell it as DLC few weeks later, overpricing Mario Kart World without any justification, dropping the golden points, ditching the “Selects” line, not bundling Switch Welcome Tour with the system, ridiculous peripheral prices, the Game-Key Card nonsense… The list goes on and on. No surprise people are starting to perceive them as “greedy”.

Nintendo seemed really keen on adding open world slop to their franchises this year. I hope this trend won’t continue in 2026.

There have been quite a few amazing games in 2025.

But Metroid Prime turning out so mediocre does leave a big stain on this gaming year. A heartbreaking fall from grace from one of our most beloved franchises.

I still feel scammed for paying 90 bucks for the physical copy of Mario Kart World.

Absurdly overpriced and totally not worth it.

Great. So do they also hear our “passionate response” about wanting it as a proper physical release, and not a GKC?

Very unfortunate the latest game was a Game-Key Card on Switch 2. The series deserved more love than a half-baked release like that.

Silksong. It was definitely worth the long wait. (Something which, unfortunately, I can’t say about Metroid Prime 4).

Bananza and Air Riders were also fun games that deserve a mention, though not quite GOTY-worthy.

Great news! It’s definitely not going to change the habits of all greedy publishers, but I hope it will still increase the amount of physical releases.

About time. The GKC fiasco is one of the biggest mistakes in Nintendo’s history. Normally they’re too stubborn to change course, but I guess this situation got so messy they can’t ignore it any longer.

@KayFiOS Dismissing others with immature remarks like “you clearly haven’t played it” just because you disagree isn’t a meaningful way to engage in a discussion. It just comes across as trolling or overly defensive fan behavior. When you participate in a comment section, it’s worth accepting that not everyone will share your perspective. Resorting to insults adds nothing to the conversation. Just some constructive advice to you.

@KayFiOS You’re free to ignore the game’s flaws if you want, but writing off criticism by accusing people of not having played it is really immature behavior.

A poorly written character that completely breaks immersion. The developers seem seriously out of touch for thinking he would be a good addition to the game.

This is really a nasty move! I’m glad I didn’t pre-order it yet and I’ll be skipping it now.

I’m honestly baffled how popular the Avatar movies are. I really don’t see any standout qualities in them.

Hopefully the lackluster reception and disappointing sales of Prime 4 send a message, because the game is definitely not up to standards. Retro failed miserably to recapture the magic.

The best possible experience? So not a Game-Key then?

Sad to see Mario Kart World take home an award. Now Nintendo feels rewarded for putting out a half-baked product at an absurd price point.

The open world really had no place in Metroid. I fear Nintendo is going to shoehorn the open world gimmick in every franchise now.

Completely deserved. Worst money I spent this year.

It should’ve been a free packed in title 100%. Makes no sense to sell this standalone. It just gives off a bad, greedy impression.

@RiasGremory Even for large games it’s possible to accommodate a complete physical release, if they truly wanted to.

In the past they would simply put the game on multiple discs if it wouldn’t fit. Same could easily be done with cards. They are just too expensive for anyone to want to go that way…

@Automated_Unit_4937 Well yes, that is exactly the issue, isn’t it? It puts the burden of storage completely on the consumer, even for those that don’t want to get them from the e-Shop.

Storage really is a big issue on Switch 2. A sneaky hidden cost made worse by the flood of Game-Keys.

Wish we would just get proper physical releases again.

It worries me that on a brand new system there are already so many games that are not running as you would expect them to…

I would’ve picked up Octopath if it weren’t a Game-Key on Switch 2. Now I’ll skip it. More time for other games I guess.

Feel sorry for Octopath, but it’s a Game-Key after all. I wonder when publishers are finally going to start realize that it hurts sales.

5.5/10

It’s painfully clear the game spent a long time in development hell.

Gone is the series beloved sense of isolation, suspense and discovery. It feels like Marvel pulp aimed at teens.

The desert is such a bad idea. Why does everything need to be an open world? It adds nothing to Metroid gameplay, it’s completely empty, traversing it is just waste of time.

The NPCs are truly annoying, they ruin the complete immersion. Such cringy dialogues...

And what’s with all the hand holding? Can’t we discover things on our own anymore?

Truly heartbreaking after waiting nearly two decades.

Feels like they’ve been running things on auto pilot for the past few years. Most games they put out are “good”, but not excellent. I haven’t been amazed by a Nintendo game in a long time.

They’re definitely better when operating from the underdog position.

5/10

Technically the console does the bare minimum for a successor. It doesn’t feel future proof for long.

Unfortunately it’s unsuitable for handheld gaming since it’s way too big and has a poor battery life.

The Game Key situation is truly horrible.

As for the games, prices gone up, quality went down. Especially Mario Kart and Metroid are very disappointing. Open world game design is quite the plague.

I’m 6 hours in and almost all new ideas they came up with feel like a miss. I’m not surprised it ranks substantially lower than the original trilogy.

Very disappointing to see Metroid Prime 4 ending up so low.

Really a shame that they insist on shoehorning open world design into every franchise these days.

For Switch 1 it looks really impressive.

For Switch 2 I expected a bit more, to be completely honest. But it’s a cross-platform release, so perhaps that held things back a bit.

Sigh. Just, don’t. The industry needs something better than the constant rehashing of old games, no matter how good the original was.

Nice score!

Too bad it’s a Game Key, which means an instant pass!

Nice score. But Game Key = No Buy. 🤷‍♂️

I’m still getting it, but my expectations are very low. From what I’ve seen and heard so far they didn’t handle the Metroid formula very well. Truly a shame for a game I’ve been looking forward to for decades.

Open world gameplay starts to feel more and more like a lazy development choice and an excuse to justify higher prices, because the game is “bigger”. A sad trend indeed...

Sad to see it couldn’t live up to its legacy. Introducing open world gameplay and a bunch of side characters did seem like an unwise direction for a game series that’s beloved for its isolated, claustrophobic vibe.

I remember when Prime 1 dropped, it wasn’t just a great-looking game, it was the best-looking game on any system, full stop.

Kinda sad that we may never be able to say that about a Nintendo release again.

Auch. It’s struggling to pass the 80 score on Metacritic. Pretty disappointing for this series! Seems like the fears were actually warranted, unfortunately…