Behind Samus’ balcony, facing the player, is an expanse of otherworldly architecture and fluorescent flora, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond It feels like something completely different and yet incredibly familiar. The arm cannon-toting bounty hunter feels best on the Switch 2 (it’s also available on the original Switch), not least because of the handheld’s unique hardware touches. But it’s the beauty and detail that will trump any hardware, and metroid prime 4 Looks like we have the right ingredients to drop something truly remarkable.
Nintendo invited me to play through some of these metroid prime 4and I came away wondering what it means that this is Nintendo’s last first-party title to launch before the end of the year.
There have been a lot of worthwhile first-party games coming to the Switch 2 this year, like Donkey Kong BananzaAlthough none has seemed more consequential than Metroid Prime 4: BeyondWhich is launching on 4th December. This is a game that was long promised for the original Switch, but is now being used to show off what the Switch 2 is technically capable of. Ahead The Switch 2 promises to hit 60 fps at 4K resolution when docked. Sure, Nintendo’s sequel is still selling like hotcakes on the Switch, but it’s one of the first games to show how new titles can use novel mouse modes to enhance the first-person game experience on the console.
The game remembers what made the series so different on Nintendo’s older hardware. The final mainline entry in the Retro Studios series, Metroid Prime 3: CorruptionIs older than 18 years. metroid: fear The original was a solid entry in the franchise on the Switch, but Prime games regularly represent the best of what Nintendo’s hardware is all about, from the GameCube to the Wii. Nintendo announced prime 4 The game came out back in 2017, and it took the entire original Switch lifecycle before it finally arrived in a month’s time.
metroid prime 4 Remember atmosphere is king
In my nearly 2-hour demo with the game, I paused frequently, opened my scanning visor, and read short entries on every minute environmental detail I could find. Sure, this will provide little information about the enemies you encounter, but the game is more than willing to share information about a line of marching ants hiding in the hollow of a fallen tree. This is the kind of game that delves into the details and inspires you to explore. like before metroid prime On the GameCube in 2002 (and more recently, the excellent remaster), the player will occasionally see Samus’s eyes reflected in her visor, reminding you that you’re not some outside character puppeteering this bounty hunter during her travels; You live in this world. You are as much a part of the ecosystem as every giant “sacred tree” or grasshopper fungus that sows explosive domesticated seeds.
Right from the main menu, the game’s music was a highlight. I repeatedly asked Nintendo if the original trilogy’s composer, Kenji Yamamoto (who also composed the music for it). super metroid on the SNES), was included, although the company declined to say. The ethereal tones are interspersed with a mix of mechanical and organic sounds, much like the creatures now occupying the dilapidated structures of a long-dead civilization.
It’s the environment that inspires MetroidMore so than any boss or set piece that sticks in our collective memory. The fourth title in the series feels like this, although the game may not feel as lonely as the first two titles. About halfway through moving from room to room, I met Miles McKenzie, a stranded Galactic Federation engineer. He’s the kind of bumbling, slapstick character that I was afraid at first would become a whining sound in your ears, ruining any sense of distance. After a few minutes of tagging along with him, I didn’t really mind him. He’ll join you in battle and will need healing if he goes down, but he didn’t seem to be in the way. I just hope that he doesn’t become a regular presence throughout the adventure and that Samus gets some alone time.
Get ready for Mental Samus
Samus may have become a little too accustomed to the alien elements attacking her form. In metroid fusionSamus was infected with an alien parasite that completely altered her DNA. In Metroid Prime 3: CorruptionSamus again becomes infected with the caustic substance Phazon, and she spends the rest of the game trying to stop its spread. At least, this time, the heroine of the series isn’t getting her body tampered with by some foreign pathogen or mutant substance. Oh, the old parasitic Metroids (floating brain bags with two pincers for legs) are somehow involved in the mess, but at the beginning of the game it’s not clear how.
After a small battle against Space Pirates during an invasion of the Galactic Federation’s Citadel, Samus becomes embroiled in a conflict over a strange alien artifact. Events – as they do – go awry, and Samus is transported to Vyros, an alien planet in an unknown part of the galaxy. A nearly extinct alien race, the Lamorn, gift Samus the ability to harness the ancient psychic abilities of their species with the hopes that she can remember their culture and spread it throughout the known universe. The bounty hunter must use his new abilities to carry out Lamorn’s wishes and stop the machinations of an old enemy, fellow bounty hunter Silux (you’ll recognize that big, blue villain if you play). metroid prime hunters on Nintendo DS).
General Metroid In the games, Samus loses most of her abilities after the first level and gradually regains them throughout the game. However, the twist this time is that Samus also gains many psychic powers. The first is tied to his scanning visor (named the Psychic Visor), which allows him to selectively open doors and manipulate orbs of psychic energy, called “psychic motes”. The latter powers enable him to fire a psychic beam that slows down time, allowing players to control its trajectory. I got a chance to test it out against the area boss, a Metroid-infected plant creature that had tentacles that you had to destroy by guiding your psychic beam around the area.
Old Metroid The formula was alive and well in the new title, although my brief demo focused on the opening level which was a series of mostly linear hallways with little space to explore. I didn’t get a chance to try out any gameplay of Samus’s new whip, a motorcycle named Wee-o-la (and I’ll die over the hill believing that’s a good name for a two-wheeled ride). I hope the game opens up its areas and lets me explore on my own time.
A game with almost too many control options
Original metroid prime was a game made for a different era of consoles. Retro Studios worked to make the original GameCube controller feel as if the lack of two full analog sticks was not a limitation. The 2002 classic used a lock-on mechanic to help you find targets, then tried to structure levels so players wouldn’t walk into lava as their vision followed their enemy’s movements. It was workable, although the design was complicated Metroid Prime 2: Echoes‘More claustrophobic corridors. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption The formula was enhanced thanks to the Wii’s motion controls. The game involved more pointing and shooting, and while it felt intuitive, it came at the sacrifice of its predecessor’s open-level design.
Compared to other entries in the series, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond It has a smorgasbord of control options. The default style uses your Joy-Con 2 or Switch 2 Pro controller (or any other compatible controller with gyro controls) in a standard console shooter setup, where the right stick controls your aiming. You still have the ability to lock on to enemies, but you now have more precise precision to place the reticle on enemies with the help of the gyro or the Switch 2’s mouse controls. In the early levels of the game, the final boss creature will shield glowing weak points with its shield arms, requiring you to aim with a little more precision.
Ahead It feels more awkward if you try and treat it like a traditional first-person shooter. My demo was running at 60 fps on a 4K TV with “Quality” settings. Nintendo representatives told me that if I switch it to “Performance” mode for 1080p resolution and 120 fps, then massage the sensitivity, it can feel like a regular mouse-based game, like I’m playing on a PC. Heck, Nintendo even let me play on a large, Metroid-branded mousepad (they told me repeatedly it wasn’t coming to retail, unfortunately). It’s clear that the game wants you to use the age-old lock-on system anyway, and most players will gravitate towards the simplicity.
This brings us to the second major control scheme, and it’s somehow even more awkward than the first. Your cannon can rotate freely, rather than being fixed in place on the screen, as if you were standing with your head still and waving the gun in front of your face. If you bring your reticle to the edge of the screen, you will start rotating. The whole scheme utilizes the controller’s gyros in an almost Wii-like style.
This control scheme is similar to hardcore military first-person shooters. red orchestra 2 And Rising Storm 2: VietnamAnd when I told this to Nintendo, they apparently had never heard of those games. This is a plan that takes a lot of time to get used to, and I didn’t have time to sit there and fiddle with it over and over again when I figured out the best way to use it.
There’s a lot more to see in this game, and Nintendo has kept a lot of the cool details. The Switch 2 needed a game to show other developers how they could incorporate mouse controls for first-person games. it worked quite well metroid prime 4 This makes me hopeful for the remaining lifecycle of the Switch 2. Even more, I hope metroid prime May return in style to take its place among Nintendo’s extraordinary series.