There are few games in history that have made as big an impact as Metroid. Since I got a hold of Super Metroid for the SNES, I have been glued to the exploits of the legendary bounty hunter Samus Aran and all the trimmings that come with them. Last year, the release of Metroid Prime Remastered brought the “Doom version” of Metroid from the GameCube era to the Nintendo Switch, adding a level of polish the title had not seen since its 2002 GameCube debut. The remastered version also renewed interest in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and anticipation for the still-unreleased fourth first-person installment reached a boiling point.
So, when I was offered a chance to get behind the visor of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond early, I enlisted with the Galactic Federation right away. Although my time with Metroid Prime 4 was brief, it was beyond my expectations. Samus Aran has stepped back into the first-person genre like pulling on a favourite pair of boots, as if she never left.
Sliding back into the driver’s seat in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is like throwing on an old baseball mitt. Although it has been nearly 20 years since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, the feel of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is undeniable. It is great to be back.
As I jumped in, there were other worries, like being thrown directly into a skirmish in the name of the Galactic Federation. The mission is to secure an artifact before enemy forces led by Sylux do. For the uninitiated, Sylux is also a bounty hunter, introduced in Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo DS, and he made a brief appearance at the end of Metroid Prime 3. Sylux hates the Galactic Federation, and Samus by extension. His motives are unknown, but given his allegiance, we are going to assume he is bad.
“Although my time with Metroid Prime 4 was brief, it was beyond my expectations.”
Like many other Metroid titles, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond starts the player off with a fully powered Samus Aran, complete with missiles, Morph Ball abilities and a working Charge Beam. For such heavy-looking armour, Samus can fly through the air with double jumps and evasive dashes, cutting through enemies with the full force of the Varia Suit. As I advanced through the first stage, it was clear Retro Studios took special care in making Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feel like it belongs to the Prime series. Prime 4 feels like an enhancement of the previous trilogy, with smooth frame-to-frame gameplay on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Unlike the 2D Metroid titles, Prime is known for using Samus’s visor to scan and determine weaknesses, and it makes a welcome return here. Retro Studios built a kind of Google search inside Samus’s visor, and when you scan a tougher enemy, the visor often gives a hint about what to do next, whether it is for an encounter or a puzzle. The visor is Samus’s most effective tool. In Metroid Prime, Samus thinks smarter, not harder.
After dispatching enemies, followed by an angry boss, on the way to the artifact, I was taken to the first major area of the game, Fury Green. In Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Samus must collect teleporter keys to advance her mission, and one of them sits in Fury Green’s Garden of Remembrance, shown by a detailed 3D map. My mission was to get from point A, where I was standing, to the Garden of Remembrance, point B, and getting there is the journey.
This return to tried-and-true Metroid gameplay is a call back home, and although you know the destination, the journey is what counts. Retro Studios delivers a serious trek in Beyond, and they have proven they still have it when it comes to strong level design. Fury Green is filled with lush greenery and familiar flora and fauna enemies trying to eradicate our bounty hunter.
Samus controls like a dream. Her footsteps feel weighted and deliberate, jumping has an infectious whoosh, and Arm Cannon blasts sound furious. The sound design team led by Scott Petersen did superb work bringing Phazon to life in Prime 3, and they go even further in Fury Green for Metroid Prime 4. Every sound effect fills the area with life, and the visual presentation on the Nintendo Switch 2 matches that energy.
“Metroid Prime 4: Beyond invites long-time players to use whatever setup they prefer, and the mouse controls work well, even if I am lousy with them.”
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond takes advantage of the many input options on the Switch 2 and allows players to use mouse controls for Samus. For fans of Wii-style motion controls, you can detach both Joy-Con 2 units and play Prime 4 as if it were released in 2007, and of course, the Pro Controller and other standard schemes work as well. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond invites long-time players to use whatever setup they prefer, and the mouse controls work well, even if I am lousy with them.
As I continued, I realized Samus had lost all her abilities upon entering Fury Green, even the Charge Beam. This is due to the third eye implanted on her helmet by an alien race known as the Lamorn. Samus has finally embraced her role as the chosen one and received psychic abilities through this purple blessing. These alien remembrances drop lore and explain why Metroid Prime 4: Beyond gives Samus purpose on her mission. While this gifted third eye grants her new psychic abilities, it also strips her weaponry, so like nearly every other Metroid title, Samus starts the game as a blank slate.
During my adventure in Fury Green, I came across another Galactic Federation member in need of rescuing. This was an engineer named MacKenzie, and he is as poor a shot as a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: Episode IV. While Samus usually operates alone throughout the Metroid series, she has received help before, and in Fury Green, MacKenzie fills that role. He also helps break up the sense of isolation. Lamorn remembrances are neat, but they work more like taskmasters than a person-like ally.
It has been confirmed: Samus Aran is a psychic type. By entering the visor screen, Samus can deploy psychic abilities to solve roadblocks and open doors in Fury Green. She can mentally manipulate sliding door functions, make floating platforms appear and control drifting spheres of psychic energy to solve puzzles. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond sometimes feels like a Legend of Zelda title because of the inventive puzzles in each biome, and it is better for it. After a few simple introductory puzzles that act as a crash course, Beyond tosses you into the deep end.
Fury Green gave me access to several returning abilities from the start. I could fire missiles and enter Morph Ball state, but new abilities were also implanted through Samus’s extra eye. She can now fire a new shot type called the psychic beam and drop a new bomb type called the psychic bomb.
Guiding the beam feels a lot like controlling the Golden Scarab in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Samus can steer it in any direction. The psychic bomb lets Samus pull off high jumps while in Morph Ball, much like in previous titles, but it can also be moved by her psychic abilities. With just two new powers, Retro Studios gives players a playground to explore and takes off the training wheels at the right time.
“Metroid Prime 4: Beyond respects the player’s intelligence and gives you just enough to push through without extra help, and solving each puzzle feels great.”
Sharing more about the psychic beam or Morph Ball psychic bombs would spoil some early puzzles, so I will hold back and let players figure them out. But Prime 4’s best tool, Samus’s scan visor, always delivers results, and its hints stay vague enough to keep discovery intact. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond respects the player’s intelligence and gives you just enough to push through without extra help, and solving each puzzle feels great.
Entering the Garden of Remembrance, I faced the first skill test in Metroid Prime 4. A large boss named Carvex tried to end my journey before it began. Carvex has several stages, true to a classic Metroid Prime boss fight, and using the same ethos found across the series, Samus must use every tool at her disposal to overcome the enormous health bar stretched across the top of the UI. After a frantic exchange of vine-jumping and heavy Arm Cannon fire, Carvex sank back into the mud, and I felt pure triumph.
I’m in awe of what I played in my brief time with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. With so many reports of troubled development and a restart from scratch, it seemed like it could have lost a step, but those fears are gone. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond returns Prime to where it belongs: in players’ hands with a new adventure. Samus Aran controls beautifully, even with all the available control schemes. Prime 4 goes beyond with new weaponry and a fresh narrative not seen in Metroid before, while keeping the series’ signature tone and offering excellent sound and level design in Fury Green.
While I may have been skeptical before, thanks to delays and rough development reports, my hands-on session with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond felt like Samus never left Prime. My time with Prime 4 was brief, but it crushed my expectations, and so far it feels like a promising step forward for a long-dormant franchise. Although Prime 4 releases on December 4, it still can’t come soon enough.
