After many long, silent years, “Metroid” fans have finally received the sequel they were promised nearly a decade ago–”Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” is here. The game’s development was quite the saga: initially announced in 2017 at E3, then rebooted in 2019 after Nintendo dropped Bandai Namco in favor of Retro Studios, followed by a five-year radio silence until June 2024 when Beyond was unveiled and given a release date of December 4, 2025. The question is unavoidable: was the wait worth it?
My feelings toward “Beyond” are complicated. While some aspects are impressively realized, others are bafflingly poor. Longtime fans may be disappointed to hear that this title abandons the “purist” metroidvania structure–seamless, labyrinthian level design, as opposed to segmented levels seen in other platformers or adventure games–in favor of something closer to a 3D “The Legend of Zelda” game: self-contained dungeons connected by a hub world. While I mourn the change, I do think the dungeons are legitimately well-designed. The heart of “Metroid”–the puzzles, the backtracking, the upgrade hunting–is present beneath the altered body. Visually, the game makes the Nintendo Switch 2 the best Nintendo has ever looked, even if it still lags behind Sony and Microsoft in terms of graphical capabilities.
Unfortunately, two design choices are so utterly abysmal that they eclipse the game’s strengths. The first is the open-world hub area. “Beyond’s” dungeons are placed across a desert expanse; it is a barren, liminal void with no atmosphere or purpose. It does not feel like “Metroid.” Frankly, it does not even feel like level design. It feels like a tech test that somehow made it through production. Coming from Retro Studios, creators of the original trilogy, this hub world is shockingly undercooked.
The second blunder is the narrative. “Metroid’s” storytelling has always thrived through the feeling of isolation–environmental logs, decaying corridors, implied terror. The film “Alien” is a good comparison. This new entry, however, introduces more dialogue and a cast of NPC companions that feel copied and pasted from a mid-tier Disney+ MCU spinoff. They tell bad jokes. They over-explain. They dissolve the loneliness that defines the “Metroid” horror and replace it with annoying banter. I do not demand literary excellence from “Metroid,” but I do expect restraint.
If all this reads like the bitter ramblings of an elder who misses 2002, then I will accept the title of curmudgeon. I do believe there is fun to be had in this game. I would still recommend it to fans of the series, but at $70, it becomes difficult to endorse when better, cheaper “Metroid” experiences already exist.
