When I was a kid, Metroid Prime was the game that made me love video games. It made me understand what this medium could really be. When the Trilogy release came out for the Wii, I began a tradition of playing all three games every year. This continued until the release of the Nintendo Switch, where I put my Wii and Wii U down for good and vowed to return to the games only when Nintendo released them for the new platform. It took a long while, but in 2023 it finally happened, and Prime was better than I remembered. We're still waiting on the other two, but for now, I can see no reason not to resume the tradition with this incredible remaster. For the first time, in at least 7 full playthroughs of Metroid Prime, I put the game on Hard Mode. I figured it would be annoying and spongey, but that it would be an interesting new way to experience the game. I also went with the classic Gamecube control scheme this time, playing the game as it was meant to be played for the first time in almost 20 years.

I am beyond thrilled to report that Metroid Prime not only holds up, it holds up better than it ever has. Really, I think this was the most I've ever enjoyed Metroid Prime. As I've gotten older, and as I've experienced many many more video games and watched video essays and GDC talks, even worked on designing my own video games, I've become much more intimately familiar with game design as an art. The way a game guides you, the way a game paces itself, plays upon your expectations, challenges the skillsets you've been taught. It really cannot be overstated how unbelievably well designed Metroid Prime is. Its map is tighter than it seems, and it dots its objectives so smartly the player doesn't even realize how good the trick is. The illusion of an open confusing map, when in reality the player is almost always being led to the right place without even knowing it. It's really something else. This gets stretched quite a bit in the endgame, as now the entire map is yours to explore. The endgame gauntlet as you descend through the Phazon Mines to get the Power Bombs, then climb back out in order to get the Grapple Hook, X-Ray Visor, and Plasma Beam... they really send you back across pretty much the entire map. I've seen complaints about the backtracking, specifically about how every area doesn't connect to every area, causing a longer than desired detour in order to venture to some of the more out of the way destinations. Hell, I even picked some of those same nits myself when I last played the game. My eyes are open now, though. The game sends you all that way so you can pick up the Artifacts, grab all the collectibles, visit those final rooms in Chozo Ruins and Phendrana Drifts that you couldn't yet reach. I knew this during my last playthrough of course, it's a pretty obvious move. But somehow I didn't fully grasp the genius of it - how subtly and smartly these necessary powerup destinations cross paths with the Artifacts you need. By the time I got back to the Mines with all the abilities I needed to take on the Omega Pirate, I had already picked up every Artifact besides the one you need the Phazon Suit for - an Artifact handily located on your trip back up through the Mine, ripe for the picking. The game design is perfect. Just perfect.

Just as notable as the game design (and the incredible soundtrack, sound design, visuals both in 2002 and 2024, etc) is how obviously influential the game has clearly been, and how its effects still ripple through the industry to this day. Exploring this abandoned civilization, only getting to read vague descriptions as lore and otherwise using the world design and environmental cues of this decaying world to tell a story. That's all an apt description of Metroid Prime, but it's also an equally apt description of Dark Souls and the many games that would follow in its wake. I'm not arguing that Metroid Prime was the chief inspiration for Dark Souls - it's more likely that Ocarina of Time was more significant - but it certainly stood out to me on this playthrough just how many cues modern games take from Metroid Prime's storytelling. Little things like all the doors in Tallon IV having been installed by the Space Pirates, with the different beam doors correlating to 'Security Clearance Levels' for their troops. The whole 'Metroid Prime' thing itself famously falls apart under intense scrutiny, but I'm willing to ignore that in the face of how much the game gets right here, especially for 2002. When games were only just beginning to excel at telling stories with sound and visuals over text descriptions, Metroid Prime wordlessly manages to combine both to build an untouchable atmosphere and create a unique game world codex all its own.

Please port the other two games Nintendo I am begging you. Shocking as this sounds after this review, the last time I played the Trilogy back in 2016 I considered Metroid Prime my least favorite of the three games. I'm fiending for a chance to see how the others stack up. Let me at 'em.

It’s a good game, for sure.
But there are some enemies that annoys me so much that I want to quit the game.
I also think it’s a little too hard to find your own way and progress. I also don’t like how the story is told by the scan.
Despite those things that I don’t like there are so many things that I love. The scenarios are awesome, the suits and weapons are AMAZING, the mood of every “world” is fantastic and the bosses are well designed.
The graphics are PERFECT. It is a hell of a remaster