Metroid Prime fans have certainly had the opportunity to practice their patience. Announced shortly after the launch of the Switch, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond won’t ultimately arrive until after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, a wait of over eight years. That said, the game does exist, it is coming this year, and, in fact, I recently got to play it at a Nintendo Switch 2 preview event (you can check out my general impressions of the hardware here).
So, is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond locked in or does it manage to miss its target after all this time? Roll on for my early impressions…
The Metroid Prime 4: Beyond demo on offer at the Nintendo Switch 2 event was relatively brief, essentially consisting of the game’s intro and its first boss battle. The demo opens with Samus touching down in the middle of a pitched battle between the Federation Force and those pesky Space Pirates on the remote planet of Tenmaar. For this section of the game, the usual lonely tone of Metroid games is cast aside in favor of lots of action and general activity, as a larger conflict unfolds all around you.
It should be mentioned, that Nintendo’s main goal with this Metroid Prime 4 demo was seemingly to show off the game’s various control schemes, most notably its new mouse controls. On that front, the news is mostly positive – the mouse aiming felt very responsive, and as I noted in my general overview of the Switch 2, playing with the Joy-Con flipped on its edge feels surprisingly comfortable.
It does feel like some further refinement of Metroid Prime 4’s mouse controls would be warranted though. The game still required the use of some of the right Joy-Con's face buttons for functions like entering the Morph Ball, which means awkwardly picking up the Joy-Con to push a button, before putting it back down to use its mouse functionality again. Perhaps I'll get used to this with more play, but a control scheme that entirely eliminates the use of the face buttons on the Joy-Con you're using as a mouse would be appreciated.
As for what I actually played using those mouse controls, it was basically a straightforward FPS sequence. Blasting away felt good, with lock-on still being available for those who really aren’t good at shooters, but none of it felt particularly innovative. The Space Pirate AI was very simple, with battles essentially feeling like a shooting gallery, complete with occasional “gotcha” moments where a seemingly dead enemy pops up and fires at you. Some simple Morph Ball and scanning sequences didn't really add much to the experience. The climatic boss battle was very much of the "strafe around the baddie and aim at the obvious weak spots" variety.
Of course, I realize I just played the introduction to the game. The platforming, exploration, and puzzle solving the Metroid Prime series is known for is almost certainly coming later, which will hopefully add a level of depth to the gameplay. That said, it is interesting that this is how Nintendo chose to show off Metroid Prime 4 for the first time, and I do wonder if shooting will be more of a core focus this time around.
On the visual front, Metroid Prime 4 largely looks like an early-PS4-era shooter in terms of model and environmental complexity, although one that’s much more technically polished than anything that came out back then. Environments looked nice and sharp and the demo I was playing was running at a full 120fps. After a generation of Switch games that often didn’t even consistently hit 30fps, the fluidity on display was certainly impressive and refreshing. Retro Studios’ legacy of wringing maximum performance out of Nintendo hardware continues apace.
Current Thoughts on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Based on my early hands-on, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond probably won’t change how most fans feel about the series. It’s more of a good thing that we haven’t got a fresh dose of in a long time, and make no mistake, this is going to be the most playable, technically-sound version of Metroid Prime to date. A few easily-tweakable issues aside, the mouse controls work, and 120fps on a Nintendo console is a real thing that’s actually happening. I still have a lot more I need to play, but it seems like Metroid Prime fans have a rewarding bounty coming their way.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will launch on Switch and Switch 2 sometime in 2025. Look for more Wccftech coverage of the game closer to launch.
