Nintendo: “so that’s all the game boy advance games coming to NSO Expansion Pack, time for the last smaller news for the day”

“yeah that was cool I guess”

Nintendo: “Metroid Prime is fully remastered for the Switch by the way and we’re shadow dropping it later today.”

“yeah that was HUH”

A ship descends on rocky crusted earth.
Alien, yet familiar excitement;
A world I have dreamt to explore preserved.
Nostalgia, though not mine, still existent,
Somehow shapes me - I acquiesce and bend.
Intensely immersed; Samus' view as mine,
Pounding drums smash my ears as I begin;
I completely fucking love Metroid Prime.

Through lava and ice, water, steel, and dirt,
Freedom and exploration - heaven sent.
Boss fights were fun, though some of them sure hurt;
the Omega Pirate, I do resent,
Power Missiles to the face said "get bent."
Definitely was humbled by the mines,
but in adversity, I stayed content -
I completely fucking love Metroid Prime.

In ranking Metroids, I'd put Prime in first.
Though I love Dread and its gameplay augments,
Exploration and atmosphere are worth
More to me by far, one-hundred percent.
I'm glad that I got to experience,
Finally after waiting so much time.
Reputation deserved and I'm content.
I completely fucking love Metroid Prime.

Prime 2 and 3 - continue the ascent,
Remaster them both, so I can spend time
Writing more poems, reviews to be penned -
I completely fucking love Metroid Prime.

It's good to be playing new games again [Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space...]

2002's Metroid Prime was my introduction to both the Metroid series and the search-action genre it spawned, and as far as first impressions go, I can't fathom it going much worse. I had such an unpleasant time with the game that I convinced myself I just didn't like the genre as a whole and cordoned myself off from it for nearly two decades. However, after playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night back in 2019, I finally found the motivation to sit down and run through the classic 2D Metroids, and I thought they were pretty damn good.

I think it's important to reappraise things. After all, people grow and tastes change. I thought I hated Metroid, but now I am one of the initiated, immersed in Samus Aran's struggles and excited to get lost in strange, alien worlds with her. With the announcement of Metroid Prime Remastered, I thought "Holy shit they're charging 40$ for this, huh?" and went back to picking lint out of my belly button between rounds of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai. About two weeks later I saw actual footage from the game and realized it was a more substantive overhaul than I initially thought, and I shifted my thought process to "you know, there's no better time to replay this game than now." So I promptly bought a site-to-store copy from Wal-Mart which was cancelled because they ran out of stock, then I drove over to Gamestop and they were also out of stock, then I called the other Wal-Mart in town and they were out of stock, and then I went to Target and they had precisely one copy left which I bought for full price along with a Spectra Pro Controller because I refuse to ever play another game with those dogshit Joycons ever again and oh my god finally... Metroid Prime. It's been a long road.

Metroid Prime's opening aboard the space pirate's research station is one of the most iconic sequences from gaming's sixth generation. Every beat was immediately recognizable, as comforting and familiar as visiting a childhood home. Even the ensuing two hours on Tallon IV are remarkably smooth, with near perfect pacing and excellent level design that subtly guides the player onto the game's critical path, acclimating them to Samus' ever-expanding kit of suit upgrades in a way that is deliberate yet never overstated. Needless to say, I found a good groove with Metroid Prime early on and started to question what negatives I ever saw in it to begin with.

Having finished the game only a couple weeks prior, my friend Larry Davis has been pontificating to me about how bad Prime is. Worse than Other M, even! I disagree with that because not a single minute of Other M is good, and I've encouraged him to go through the arduous process of whipping a Wii out and refamiliarizing himself with that nightmare, but his greater point that Metroid Prime is a game that only becomes more agonizing the further you progress is one that I agree with 100%. The Phendrana research facility was my personal turning point, and the area that I feel highlights a shift in Metroid Prime's rhythm that is for the worst and which persists until the credits roll.

Backtracking is a pillar of this series, and it is not something I have an issue with inherently, but the way it manifests in Prime feels like it exists to pad time. Upon gaining the thermal visor, you must trudge your way back out of the research facility and march a considerable distance across the map to find your next objective, with little changing along the way other than a few rooms now have the lights off. Whereas the opening two hours has very fluid and naturalistic pathing that doesn't tread on your agency, the remainder of Prime sees you zig-zagging between distant locations with very little sense of where or why. It's like someone at Retro threw a dart at a map to determine where your next upgrade is, with even less consideration given to making the run there enjoyable.

Making things even more tedious is the fact that most areas are designed around specific one-time combat encounters and events. What was once a thrilling set piece is now a hassle that far more encourages you to simply zip past enemies and carry on, assuming you even can as a considerable amount intentionally create bottlenecks to force you into a fight. Unfortunately, combat feels patently underwhelming. Enemies are incredibly spongy and derivative, and the only real strategic element late in the game entails switching to the correct color-coded beam to take out elemental-infused rehashes of previously fought pirates and Metroids. Fun fun fun fun.

Metroid Prime Remastered does make a number of improvements over the original game, at least. The most obvious is in appearance. This might be the best-looking game I've played on the Switch. Environments feel much moodier and more atmospheric, and I really love the soft lighting of locations like the Chozo Ruins. Metroid Prime has always had good art direction, but the increased fidelity really helps it shine. I can only imagine how much better this would look on current hardware, but it's impressive for a game that's a generation behind. That said, I have heard from at least one friend who is far, faaar more familiar with Metroid than I am that the filters for the various visors are straight fucked. He claims the thermal visor made him physically ill, and although I did not have quite that severe of a reaction to it, the processing going on for the thermal and X-ray visors is so intrusive that they rob them of their functionality.

Controls are improved as well, though with a couple important caveats. By default, the game now has dual stick support, allowing you to play Prime like a normal first-person game. To be fair, in 2002 this sort of control scheme had yet to be codified, and I can only think of two games off the top of my head that supported it: Quake 2 for the PS1 and Timesplitters, I believe, although if you wanna stretch it, GoldenEye technically did if you wanted to do some real freak shit and whip out a second controller. (Correction: Halo: Combat Evolved predates Prime by a full year, and I consistently forget this.) However, you can tell that Prime was not built around this more free-wheelin' control method given how targeting still seems to be the most efficient way to approach enemy encounters, though having total control over the camera otherwise makes exploring Tallon IV feel more immersive. On the other hand, I do have some beef with how combo-weapons are mapped. You have to charge your weapon and tap the missile fire button, which requires you to awkwardly paw the controller with your middle finger on the trigger and index on the bumper. This is opposed to, for example, just having it set to charge a combo-weapon by holding the bumper itself. It's archaic and unnecessary and dampens its utility in a fight, which - in all fairness - is probably the point.

By hour four of ten in this game that has no business being longer than five, I started to think about how Metroid Prime is so clearly a game made by an outside studio, not because I have that knowledge in my head already but because that's how it feels. There's a reverence for the material, but a lack of understanding on what makes Metroid feel good that can only be communicated through its shortcomings, and the way it fumbles crucial elements like the routing of its critical path. Playing this again 21 years later has not given me an appreciation for Metroid Prime outside of the quality of life and graphical improvements the remaster has made. It has only reminded me of why I steered clear of the series and genre for such a long time after. Two stars for being Metroid Prime plus an additional half star for looking purdy.

We eat the sacred cow and together we burn.

Metroid Prime Remastered was exactly what I expected. They took a classic masterpiece and made it beautiful, added a lot of detail, and gave major quality of life improvements (mainly the dual stick controls) and made a masterpiece even better.

Talon IV is more beautiful but the atmosphere is still very much the same. An obviously dying yet beautiful planet filled with mystery. Metroid is the greatest franchise of all time when it comes to atmosphere and the graphical improvements did not hurt the charm and wonder of the originals feel but it did manage to even improve upon it.

I would definitely play this game on the normal setting and not casual. I always play games on normal or harder but since I had already played this and mainly just wanted to experience the world in its new paint I chose casual mode which basically made Samus indestructible. Enemies do very little damage which led to no challenge at all. So even if you are like me and just re exploring this wonderful game keep the difficulty where it should be.

I hope with this game selling well, Nintendo pumping up fusion on the switch, and Dread doing so well that Nintendo will begin giving Metroid the respect that quite frankly it deserves.

okay i have now completed a 100% playthrough of this bad boy and i gotta say: nintendo greenlit a remaster that's GOOD? it plays better than the original?? runs better? looks amazing? did someone do this behind their back or on a computer not connected to their servers. that is the only explanation for this being leaps and bounds better than the anemic 3D All-Stars. Metroid got a better remaster than MARIO, that's insane. Prime was one of the best looking games on the Gamecube and is now one of the best looking games on the Switch.

The actual game is preserved Metroid Prime goodness, you even have the original control scheme as an option along with customizations to tailor it to your playstyle. You can unlock the beautiful Metroid Prime concept art, listen to the kickass OST, and even adjust the helmet effects that define Metroid Prime if you're a sicko.

This is one of the most lovingly crafted remasters ever, that recaptures everything that made Prime so awe-inspiring, but plays so beautifully they honestly could just drop the "remastered" from the title and convince someone this game is brand-new entirely.

I've loved Metroid Prime since it first blew my mind on my cousin's TV in 2002. It has always been an incredible exploration-focused game, and the shadow drop during this February's Direct was HYPE. I had been holding off on revisiting Prime ever since those Metroid Prime Trilogy rumors started in like 2020, so I was beyond ready for this release.

After having considered this a masterpiece for a couple decades, I'm happy to say that it mostly holds up! What's even better is that every change in this remaster is for the better; Gyro is a huge improvement, alternate control schemes all work well, and the re-done textures make this one of the most beautiful games on the Switch.

I didn't want to score/review it right after finishing (I beat the game a week and a half ago) because I wanted to sit with it for a bit. It's still a killer game, but I don't think it quite sits amongst my all-time favorites anymore. The ending really did drag a bit more than I realized. I'd heard people complain about the backtracking in Prime for 20 years, but it never really bothered me until now. Going back and forth for Artifacts and the last few Missile Expansions really kills the momentum right before the finale, and ultimately holds this back from a perfect score. I'd compare it to the Triforce quest at the end of Wind Waker, but I actually kind of like that. Anyhow, there was no way I wasn't going to 100% this game, just like I do with every Metroid title (except the first one), it's just a shame that going back through the world for all the last items wasn't as enjoyable as the other Metroid games. I'd largely say that it's because elevators between regions felt more remote than in other games. I've never actually finished Echoes or Corruption, so I'm hoping that's handled a bit better in the sequels. (How long do I wait to see if they're getting Switch ports before I just play them on my Wii U??)

Anyhow, none of that stops Metroid Prime from being an incredible game. It may not completely stack up against my teenage memories, but it still cannot be overstated how incredible the atmosphere of Metroid Prime is. What a rad world to get lost in. Phenomenal game.

Metroid Prime is magnificent, it's everything I always wanted in a Metroid 3D game: atmospheric, immersive, with a world that's really interesting to explore and most importantly, that kept that magic that makes Super Metroid such a unique game even today and one of my favorites.

I'm really glad this more than being a First Person Shooter adapted to be a Metroid game, it's really a Metroid game adapted to the first person view, both sound similar, but they are actually very different. Everything is translated in a perfect way. Varied abilities that allow you to advance through the world, exploration, puzzles, good soundtrack, and a detailed and well built world with a variety of biomes. I just love it.

Metroid Prime makes some changes in the structure of the world to adapt it to the first person view, since now the environments are very closed compared to how they are in 2D games, you may wonder why I mention something like this, I say this because it was a design decision that allows a higher level of detail and therefore, immersion by putting us closer to the environment. It's amazing how much attention to detail there is in the game, things like the UI actually being information from Samus' visor showing data relevant to her, or things like looking up when it rains makes the drops drip onto Samus' visor and cannon. Additionally, something that complements this experience too well and adds an extra layer of depth to the world is that the visor can switch to scanner mode, which allows you to analyze things like elements in the environment or enemies, using the scanner greatly enriches the world we explore by giving us background and information about what surrounds us. The scanner mode is a main mechanic of the game, so be psyched to read. In short, all of the above mentioned helps to build an excellent setting and atmosphere, which although we know it is a fictional world, will certainly make this game more memorable by making us think that what is happening really has a meaning and a purpose beyond being just mechanics and obstacles in a video game.

However, Metroid Prime is not perfect, as there are some things that could have possibly been better. For example, I sometimes felt that the backtracking was excessive at times. Another example of something that could have been better is at the end, where the game asks you to find 12 Chozo Artifacts in order to access the last area. It's an idea that I really like, going through the map that you already explored to try to find hidden objects, the bad thing is that some artifacts are too hidden, so it will probably be wise to resort to a guide to be able to get a couple of these. Another thing is that the map never shows you which places have an unobtained item yet, something that 2D games do by marking a circle on the map when there is a secret item and replacing it with a dot when there is nothing left to get, I would have liked something to indicate that in this game. Lastly, there is a big plot hole regarding the origin of the final boss, which although it doesn't ruin the story at all or anything like that, it's still a small detail that stands out especially since the whole story, backstory and world details were so well thought out, I'm surprised they missed this flaw in the story.

All in all, the aforementioned problems, to me, only amount to a minuscule error in the grand scheme of things, as this game is really very well constructed. Anyway, Metroid Prime is simply a very good game, I won't dwell any further on the details I like about this game, as I think a lot of the magic of these games is discovering them without knowing much about them. Maybe it can be a bit overwhelming at first as the 3D map can be very weird or the button scheme with how you change beam type or visor type can be confusing, but once you get used to it, it's easy to appreciate and enjoy this game.

Conclusion
This game has made me fall in love with the Metroid world all over again, the same way Super Metroid did when I was a kid. One of the best games I have ever played.

i enjoyed metroid prime, although i find it less polished as a gameplay experience than its 2d counterparts, with a lot of parts having me question whether or not someone actually made sure it was fun before shipping the game out. having to constantly switch to different beams during combat with this control scheme or arbitrarily for random doors is annoying (seriously, why are any of the doors that arent the progression gates not just power beam doors??), any room with more than 2 metroids in it is an excercise in tedium, and i don't have a single nice thing to say about the morph ball or its implementation, the world (especially in the remaster) while beautiful, is very generic feeling in a way that doesn't feel very alien to me, and the chozo ghosts and artifact hunt are such an annoying way to pad out length. not a bad game at all, but a lot of it just isnt as fun as the 2d games to me, and i don't think i'd call it a masterpiece like so many people seem willing to

Before now (of the Prime games) I’d only ever played Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Prime Hunters. Is that a crime against humanity? I don’t really care, because this was worth the wait.

Metroid Prime Remastered is a brilliant (and I don’t use this word lightly) masterpiece, both as a remaster and just as a game. It plays perfectly; I went for twin-stick controls with a little bit of supplemental gyro to fine-tune my aim, and it made every second of gameplay a pleasure. Somehow it’s also the best looking game on the Nintendo Switch while still running at a smooth 60fps.

In basically every sense except narrative, Metroid Prime is a translation of Super Metroid into 3D, putting the Metroid in Metroidvania with its looping structure and upgrade-centric gameplay. in true Nintendo fashion, they nailed the move to 3D on their first try.

Something surprising to me about converting Metroid into 3D is that the entire game is essentially one massive Zelda dungeon. The layout and puzzles require thought and attention, but aren’t obtuse or confusing. I actually found the infamous backtracking refreshing, as I‘m the type of player who wants to run back through to get everything anyway.

Metroid Prime Remastered is of those games I wanted to be playing whenever I wasn’t. Echoes, Corruption, and Metroid Prime 4 can’t come soon enough.

This remaster gave me the chance to play Metroid Prime for the first time, and it was awesome.

Retro Studios and Iron Galaxy did a great job remastering the game within the budgetary and developmental constraints I imagine they were under. While it unfortunately didn't fix many issues that were present in the original (which I will talk more about later), the scope of the project was probably not big enough to account for them, and that's fine honestly. Their job was to graphically update the game from the ground up while adding a few bells and whistles, and from that perspective they knocked it out of the park. Having the game's definitive version, which this is, available on Switch now is all I really needed.

Graphically, the game looks excellent and runs flawlessly. I don't quite agree with people that say it's the best looking game on the console, but it is very much up there for me too. The reworked models, textures, lightning, particle effects all come together to make a game that already looked great on Gamecube look way better, which is high praise. The game also runs at 60 fps and consistently runs at that, which is kind of mindblowing when the graphical quality of the game is also so good.

However, what I think is the remaster's greatest feature is the variety of control customization that the game provides. All control schemes from previous versions of the game came back, as well as two new ones in the form of dual stick and hybrid controls. I played through the game twice, and chose classic controls on my first playthrough. I found them super weird at first and had a really tough time getting used to performing even the simplest of actions because it played like nothing I had ever played before. Despite this, it didn't really take too long for me to get used to them, and I found them very effective when I did. Moving with tank controls and then having to hold another button to stay still for more accurate aim sounds annoying, but they struck a very good middle ground with it. They pretty much had to when designing the game with the Gamecube controller's limitations in mind back then. They work great, even now, as much as they threw me off at first.

I then tried the hybrid controls on my second playthrough, and I found them to be even better. I love them, honestly. They work nearly the same as the classic controls, but have gyro integrated into them. When you press the same button as you did with the classic controls to stay still and aim, you instead use gyro to do so. Beyond just being more precise, this change also frees up the left analog stick. Since this stick isn't needed to aim anymore, you can freely move around with it and aim without coming to a stop. The degree of control this provides feels amazing, and improves the pace of the game because if you're skilled enough, you can keep moving while shooting precisely a lot of the time.

This control scheme alone makes this the definitive version of the game in my book. I can't go back now after trying it (though I do want to try the remaining control schemes on future replays of the game to experiment with them). The fact that not only did they bring back both control options that people have different preferences on, but also added two new ones (one of which I think is the best) speaks volumes to how good of a remaster it is. It's not something we often see with Nintendo games in general, but having this degree of options should be standard.

Lastly, the remaster adds concept art and character models, both from the original version and the remaster, as well as a music player. These can be viewed in the extras section in the main menu. I always love seeing extras like these in games, because in the case of concept art especially, it's as close as we get to learning about the inner workings of game development. As much as it frustrates me that we get so little on that front, I take as much as I can get and it serves as a great feature in this game.

As for the game itself, I don't quite believe it's the peak of what Metroid can offer, but it comes very close. While Super and Dread are tied for my favorite Metroid games, Prime comes in third place for now (though there's many in the series that I still have yet to play). It is still a really great game that provides the same kind of satisfaction and engagement that Metroid games always do for me.

The game is structured much the same as most other Metroid games, kind of like a huge labyrinth. The game funnels you down a specific path at the start and removes most of your abilities after introducing them to you in the Frigate Orpheon. The possibilities then begin expanding when you keep getting upgrades and earn new ones, little by little. The name of the game is exploring the whole world with the appropriate abilities to open the way forward and to earn collectibles that make you stronger. It's a gameplay loop that has always been effective in these games and continues to be here.

Where this game differs from previous Metroid games (beyond the obvious dimensional shift) mainly involves combat and storytelling. To address the combat system first, I honestly think it's the strongest in the series. An issue I have with combat systems in other games comes from the inclusion of the screw attack. I understand that getting empowered to the extent that you can obliterate everything is supposed to be satisfaying, and it is, but it also breaks the combat into pieces.

In the case of Super and Samus Returns it's not too bad because either the rest of the combat is very simple (like in Super) or the Screw Attack is better balanced around your other options (like in Samus Returns). Hot take: I believe the combat in Dread suffers the most from this and becomes very uninteresting the more you progress. The game initially gives you many different combat options that are well balanced, but as soon as the Screw Attack shows up, none of that matters anymore.

Prime doesn't suffer from this at all because it doesn't have a Screw Attack. No combat option really overshadows another one because they each have strengths and weaknesses, and different enemies encourage or force you to use different tools. The way missiles were handled is also great. In other games, your overall missile count can become irrelevant when you get stronger tools, but this game sidesteps that issue by providing upgrades that deal more damage but drain the hell out of your missile count, adding more depth to your options. In essence, the combat is all about fighting enemies one-on-one and dodging their attacks while choosing the best weapon for the job. It's awesome.

As for it's storytelling, Metroid Prime has some of the best that I've ever seen in a game. The game doesn't explicitly tell you anything that happens, and you have to figure it all out on your own by using your Scan Visor and picking up on context clues. This game tells you it's story implicitly, and does so from two different perspectives (those of the Chozo and the Space Pirates). Reading logs provides great characterization for both. They convey the Chozo's simultaneous care of nature and serious dedication to their role in the universe, as well as their humongous pride in themselves. They also highlight how awful and depraved the Space Pirates are and the degree to which they cross the line with their experiments. None of this is done through cutscenes or dialogue. The extent to which this game crafts it's story and worldbuilding this way is top of the line.

As much as I love this game, a few big issues weigh down the experience for me to the extent that it's not quite one of my favorites. For one, the structure in which mandatory upgrades are placed can be extremely annoying. The game at times makes you travel a long way to get an item, and then makes you backtrack all the way back to where you were to open up a path without much in the way of change. Backtracking is an essential element of these games, but Prime unfortunately handles it poorly and can be a slog because of it.

It doesn't help that the map flat out sucks. Even though it signals which doors can be openned with which beams, that's about it. Absolutely no information is conveyed regarding which items or upgrades you have and haven't picked up. This becomes an absolute pain when you attempt to go for 100%. I tried to do so but couldn't because I was missing a single missile expansion without a clue of where it was, and the game provides no signifiers to indicate this. I hate it.

Even with that said, Metroid Prime is a great achievement of a game, especially for the time in which it came out, but it's still well designed even when compared to today's standards. It says a lot that I had no prior experience with it and I still think this. Metroid good.

Nintendo seems to love surprising me with Metroid at the most unexpected times! Similarly to when I cried when Dread was announced, I was probably the loudest I’ve ever been during a direct when this got shown off, and even more so when the announcer just came out and said “Later Today”. Metroid is thriving and I could not be happier. With this and Dread coming out within the past 2 years, and with a version of every single 2D Metroid soon to be playable on the Switch and the other 2 Prime games and Zero Mission likely to come, I’ve never been more excited for the future of a series. Anyway, about Prime, every time I play this game it keeps getting better and better, especially this time thanks in no small part to the amazing work that was done for this remaster. The remastered visuals are gorgeous, while keeping the original feeling of the gamecube original, and the new control choices (ESPECIALLY Dual Stick) bring a convenience with controlling Samus that makes this already extremely good-feeling game to play feel better than ever before. Shoutout to the color assist and other accessibility options, as a colorblind person it makes me so happy to feel that I’m being cared about thru these options. I’m so so ecstatic that Metroid is back, and it really does feel like it’s here to stay this time!!

Metroid Prime Remastered, a huge bombshell announcement that got shadow dropped during the Nintendo Direct no less. As a gargantuan Metroid fan, especially for the first Metroid Prime game, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the news and knew immediately that I had to play it.

I've played the original Metroid Prime close to thirty or so times now, so I'd like to think I have a pretty decent grasp on what this game should feel, play, and sound like. Metroid Prime Remastered hits it out of the park and refines the experience to such a high degree, I know for sure this is the definitive and most enjoyable experience I've had playing Metroid Prime 1.

With a plethora of control options, including legacy options for both Prime Trilogy and original Gamecube version, the one issue I had with the original is erased. I opted for dual stick controls as that's my preference for most First-Person Shooters, and the difference it made was substantial. Accuracy is increased, general control of movement and positioning is much better, and platforming feels super polished and easy to perform compared to the original. Granted these were all issues fixed in the trilogy version, but did force you to use motion controls, Daul Stick controls feels more comfortable for me personally, so I'm praising the Remaster for it anyways.

Visually stunning. For a long time I held Luigi's Mansion 3 in high regard to graphical fidelity and detail, until I played this. Environments are breathtaking, the entire game was rebuilt from the ground up, with tons of new small aesthetics, brilliant lighting effects, and other smaller details that added up to make me feel the most immersed I've ever felt playing a Metroid game, and that's saying something. Tallon Overworld in particular blew me away as I traversed it, I couldn't even believe how good it looked for the Switch, while maintaining a stupendous sixty frames per second without a single dip below that for the entire game from what I experienced.

For as much as I loved this game, I find myself hoping Metroid Prime 2 and 3 receive remasters of this caliber, because I couldn't even begin to fathom how they would look in this style, all I know is, I want to see it, and badly. Here's hoping this game is a sign for that, as well as a first look of Prime 4, my standards for which have soared thanks to this game.

I absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend this remaster for any hardcore fan like myself. Especially recommend this to newcomers as it fixes any potential jank or flaws from the original that might've turned a lot of people off initially, please try this for yourself. I normally don't recommend or advocate for remasters or remakes, but this to me is the new standard going forward, as you can tell a lot of love, attention, and care was put into this to truly lift the experience to a whole new level, and it succeeded with flying colors. You owe it to yourself to experience this, and for $40 no less, a very fair price for a remaster in my opinion. Physical copies are extremely hard to come by as of now, so I recommend getting it digitally, however you might get lucky like me and find a copy somewhere, but it's unlikely as of making this review.

Metroid Prime é um dos melhores jogos da série e Metroid Prime Remastered melhora ainda mais, de longe o melhor remaster que já joguei, no começo eu estava com medo de ser algo parecido com o Skyward Sword HD, ou seja, só um Port com texturas em HD com preço de 60$ que obviamente não vale o preço e que seria melhor eu ter baixado no Dolphin, mas felizmente esse não é o caso, é tão bem feito que eu diria que é um remake !

É muito bom ver que a Nintendo está prestando atenção na franquia Metroid nesses últimos anos.

The perfect remaster to probably my favorite game of all time. As someone who's played this countless times on gamecube, this remaster absolutely hits it out of the park. All the visual changes are intelligent and stick close to the feel of the original. I often forgot I was even playing the remaster and felt like I was just playing Prime, it's that well done. This is the best looking game on the switch and maintains a rock solid 60 fps just like the original does. There's all these subtle new visual effects that add to the immersion. I wasn't disappointed with a single enemy redesign or any of samus' armors, they were all updated well and look better than they do in the original.

My only complaints visually are how they changed the doors to be a solid color. This wouldn't be a problem but you can see the outlines to where the solid textured are supposed to be and thats a little distracting. The changes to the thermal visor are a bit overdone and it was straining until I got used to it. I get what they are going for but I'm assuming there are some people who are gonna have a worse time looking at it. The only other omissions from the gamecube version are the sequence breaking tricks (though I expected that to be gone) and the ntsc chozo lore which I feel is better. The new lore is fine and conveys the story well, but it feels a bit less heartfelt and creatively written than the original lore. Though this was also changed in the prime trilogy version.

What really cements this as the definitive way to play is the different control schemes. You got original gamecube controls (and you can use a gamecube controller, but you might have to rebind a couple of buttons), you have a modern fps control scheme which I don't like but I am assuming a lot of newcomers are gonna enjoy it, you have the pointer controls straight out of the wii version which are fantastically implemented, then you have my personal favorite which is the hybrid control scheme. The hybrid control scheme uses the original gamecube controls, but when you press the aim button you use the gyroscope to aim and Samus can move around while doing so. I recommend the hybrid aiming be the first one you can check out as I feel it's the best the game has ever controlled. A great feature is how you can change the control scheme on the fly. The game is also more helpful conveying your item and log book percentage. your health bar has x's on top to indicate how many energy tanks you don't have, and you can always see the total missiles you have below the missile counter. I'm not sure if I'm right on this so take it with a grain of salt, but I think you don't have to get all the log entries on your first run, there's an overall number in the extras menu that goes up. I really love the original gamecube version of this game and will always go back to it. I also think that if you can, the original is worth playing. That being said I feel this is the definitive way to play the game and probably the best remaster I've ever played.

I've been keeping this game in my backlog for years now and the year I choose to play it, it gets a Nintendo Switch Remaster! Perfect timing! I had an absolute blast with this game. Story was great, gameplay was super fun and satisfying, great bosses, great puzzles and amazing level designs. I've only played two other Metroid titles before this (Samus Returns and Dread) and this is without doubt the best of the 3 I've played. There's just something so satisfying and fitting about a first person Metroid game, being in Samus' helmet really makes a HUGE difference for these games. I really hope they Remaster 2 & 3 while we wait for Metroid Prime 4... As I'm sure we'll have a lot of time to work with...

Look, I don't need to write a long review telling you why Metroid Prime is a masterpiece. Its arguably the best Metroid ever made (tho I'm more partial to Super Metroid myself) with its incredible exploration, puzzles, first person combat, soundtrack, and world. So instead, let me just express how great of a remaster this is.

This game is one of, if not THE best looking game on the Switch. The amount of work that was done here is incredibly impressive. You can look at some of the screenshots online that compare the GC original to this game for yourself to see how great Retro did here with the visuals. Not only that, but Prime Remastered also added dual stick controls, while also letting players choose from the game's original control scheme and even the motion controls from Prime Trilogy on the Wii. This, plus a plethora of extras that you can unlock, make playing through Metroid Prime again such a joy.

Metroid Prime Remastered was without a doubt made to spark up hype for Metroid Prime 4. I hope that Prime 2 & 3 will be joining Metroid Prime with their own remasters of this quality, but only time will tell. I would not be surprised if Nintendo and Retro Studios are getting ready for some Prime 4 reveals later this year, if this release is anything to go on.

If you haven't played Metroid Prime before, get this game ASAP. If you have played it before, I'd say the visual overhaul and great new controls make this worth a repurchase. Especially because this remaster is only $40, in a rare Nintendo W for pricing. Metroid Prime has always been a must-play game, and Prime Remastered is the best version of it to date.

After finishing the game I honestly had that feeling where I’m slightly disappointed but rather than blaming the game I just pulled the “well I guess I just didn’t get it”.
After a week of having the game stew in my memories I feel confident when I say that I liked Metroid Prime….untill I didn’t. I’m sorry if that comes off as really youtube thumbnail clickbait but that’s just how I honestly feel.

For the first 4 to 5 hours of the game I wouldn’t honestly give this game a 10/10; I mean that genuinely. From the amazing opening to the extremely well done first area; everything felt well put together, and the atmosphere was just so well put together and everything from the long list of log entries and visual storytelling felt properly placed and all with a purpose behind them. If there is one thing I will say without a shadow of a doubt is that the game nails it’s atmosphere and does a good job transitioning the series into 3D, everything else thought just starts to decorate as time goes on.

Around the second boss I honestly started dreading the idea of backtracking in this map because unlike past Metroid games the map here honestly felt very haphazardly slept together. It felt like they made the maps with a linear progression first in mind and then placed an entrance and exit near the beginning and end of the map, all the while each room feels structured in a way where combat is required for everything you re-enter a room since enemies respawn every time and some of them can range from being one hit kills or time wasting bullet sponges, so when I had to backtrack to find an upgrade or an item I missed I had to slowly go back through these combat corridors and it got old very fast.
Speaking of that topic the actual combat is honestly really mid. Combat in a Metroid game is honestly the last thing I would care about since the whole game is usually structured around exploration, but here it feels a little reversed so I guess I have to talk about the combat now.
For starters your movement is heavily stunted compared to previous games. Now there's nothing wrong with that and I honestly don’t think you could bring over every aspect of the game’s movement over so I can’t really criticize it too much, but when the combat system also doesn't take into consideration how you’re gonna move around enemies in these combat sections it’s kinda frustrating. Your blaster shots don’t feel like they have impact with any of the enemies your fighting and the only viable way to take most enemies down with a charge shot seems to have this weird bit of delay to it making it more frustrating to deal with, and I don’t know if it was just a me thing or not but no matter how many upgrades I acquired I never felt like I was getting stronger like how I normally felt with older Metroid games; it just felt like I started the same as I ended only know I have a slightly bigger health bar and can’t be hurt by poisonous mushrooms. (again idk if it’s just a me thing but that’s what it felt like).
I think most of these feelings started to really set in around the Phazon Mines area. The whole area felt like one big long series of combat corridors with some of the most bullet sponge enemies in the game along with very little exploration or puzzles to break up the monotony.
I don’t know if they were strapped for time or something but it genuinely felt like they gave up around that section, and then the game just dropped any pretenses of trying to string the player along naturally and just said “ok so to progress you need to find a new item that’s either close or on the other end of the map, ok bye.”. I honestly wanted to stop playing around that point because like I said before, backtracking in this game is a boring slog and I deeply don’t like it. But I still did it and beat the boss of the area, and then the artifact hunt began; I’m not gonna go into details about it so I’ll just say the whole experience was a mix of frustration and the immense look up a walkthrough on YouTube.

By the last cutscene I honestly felt numb. I don’t hate this game hell I might sound really harsh in this but I’m only so harsh because I had pretty high expectations going in, and by the end the only thought going through my mind was “Really? This is the Metroid game that fans are ride or die for? Super and Fusion clear this game by a country mile. What the hell are people talking about?” and honestly I still don’t know. I could chalk it up to this game being many people's first Metroid game (although if it was mine I’d probably never touch this series again.) Or I could take what a friend once said where it’s some copium induced GameCube nostalgia taking hold of a loud minority of people that influence the public's perspective of the game, but even then I just don’t know. Maybe I’m being an asshole for even speculating on why people would even like this game but I’m honestly confused, I could throw as much rationalizations into this as I wanted but at the end of the day I didn’t like it and many other people did so I guess it’s just me being a negative nancy again.

Last year I played through all of the 2D Metroid games (Metroid Zero Mission and Samus Returns instead of the original games), which was a good amount of fun. After finishing them I wanted to play through the 3D games in the series, but I had no good way of doing so. I was understandably hyped when Metroid Prime Remastered was announced at a Nintendo Direct earlier this year and was instantly excited to finally see how this series translated to the first-person perspective.

Right from the very get go I was impressed by what the game had to offer. The graphical overhaul from the original game was extremely well done and made this 20-year-old game feel brand new. The sound design was good throughout too, with a strong (albeit a bit repetitive) soundtrack, and sound effects that worked well for the game world. The game's controls also worked better than I had anticipated they would. The gyro aiming was an appreciated addition and the ability to lock onto enemies with the press of a button made the combat considerably more satisfying than it would have been otherwise. Samus's movement was also very fluid which made exploring the world a lot of fun. Lastly, I felt there was a good variety of weapons and gadgets to unlock too. It was always exciting to add something new to my arsenal, especially when it allowed me to reach previously unreachable locations in the game's expansive landscape.

I liked a lot about Metroid Prime Remastered, but it wasn't without its faults. The biggest annoyance to me was the lack of any brightness settings. I played this entirely in handheld mode, primarily in public places, which caused a decent amount of glare on the screen. As many of the game's environments were very dark it often became difficult to traverse the world, even leading to a small handful of deaths because of it (for example, I fell into a pit with toxic water and was unable to find a low ledge to jump up to due to how dark the area was). This wasn't game breaking by any means, but it certainly hampered my overall enjoyment. I also felt that the game's combat was so-so at best, and it became rather tiresome after a few hours. I eventually started to avoid battles whenever possible as I felt there was no real reason to see them through to completion. Some sort of XP system or other reason to defeat enemies would have alleviated this issue, in my opinion.

Overall, I had a good time with Metroid Prime Remastered. The graphics were great, the sound design was solid, the world exploration was a lot of fun, and the controls worked perfectly. The lack of brightness settings and the mostly hollow combat lessened my enjoyment a bit, but I still really enjoyed my time with it as a whole, and it was great to finally play one of the 3D Metroid games. I will definitely be checking out the sequels once they are released.