i played through all of the 2d metroids in relatively close succession, but aside from a couple small attempts at playing this game on the gamecube when i was too young to understand what was going on i had never really given metroid prime a shot. i couldn't really tell you why, maybe i wanted to wait until prime 4 had a more solid release date so i wasn't waiting in agony like the rest of the metroid prime fans, but then nintendo did the evilest thing i think they've ever done... make the perfect remaster for a phenomenal game to get me so incredibly invested it hurts.

this game was such a fucking joy to play. i don't know if a game has ever truly nailed atmosphere as hard as this game (that i've played) on top of such an incredibly well designed and thought out world. this usually isn't such a talking point for me but i was so incredibly invested in the world, helped by nothing short of a legendary ost and sound design. everything is so carefully planned out and it all flows together really well. i found myself worried/a little annoyed at the lack of fast travel, and while i think that's still a problem the world being so well designed and connected never made me feel lost and especially by late game item clean up i felt like it was never a slog to get somewhere with all the shortcuts i unlocked. another aspect of being so invested is how fucking gorgeous this game is. i know it holds up shockingly well on gamecube too but this remaster took it to a whole new level. every area is so distinct and pretty. it may not be ps5 level realistic but the art style makes it absolutely stand the test of time and is all around an amazing looking game.

gameplay is solid, i'm not the biggest FPS guy (sorry nintendo i know u technically classify it as "first person adventure") but shooting felt great with the new dual stick controls, and the lock-on feature being as good as it is. platforming mostly felt good but movement and stuff didn't really stand out as anything other than serviceable. that's obviously fine and not why you're here, you're here for the world and how much fun it is to explore but i felt like i should mention that. the morph ball on the other hand is a blast to roll around in, the physics are super fun and going up halfpipes to find secrets was always a joy, i wanted to be the morph ball as much as possible! the upgrades are all solid and feel exciting to find. each new weapon especially was satisfying, none more than the plasma beam. god damn did getting this thing feel GREAT. absolutely melts standard enemies and can kill enemies previously only effected by missles. it was so satisfying going on the late game item clean up just tearing through everything. that's exactly what metroid is about to me and this game nailed it. i realize it'd pretty much break the game and i honestly have no clue how it'd be incorporated but i do kinda wish we got a screw attack lol.

the only slight negatives i have is that overall the bosses felt kinda weak. none of them were BAD, the final 2 especially had some alright ideas/sick songs but none of them stood out as truly spectacular. that's something dread did phenomenally that this one falls a bit short on, there wasn't a ton of spectacle to the bosses and they were pretty easy with pretty simple attack patterns. again, i wouldn't call any of them bad so it didn't hinder the experience much but it also didn't elevate it too much either. the other complaint i have is the game, especially early on is pretty back tracky without giving you much direction. considering how limited you are in where you can go it's a lot of mindless wandering until you eventually find the thing you have to do. later in the game i started getting these map pop ups, not sure what caused them... probably time spent not progressing the game or just because the map got bigger so they wanted to give a bit of direction and those helped a lot. but it was still a little rough early game.

it is fucking baffling to me that there was a point in time where i thought i didn't like the metroid series. i happened to give the metroid 2 remake a shot at that nintendo world championship thing nintendo was doing in best buys around america and while i was waiting for the mario odyssey demo i thought "ok why not" and thank god i did because it's one of my all time favorite franchises now. this game fucking ruled, i really hope 2 and 3 eventually get this same treatment but regardless i'll go back and play them because this was wonderful. i still think dread takes my spot as favorite metroid just because the control is so fun and those bosses are fucking phenomenal, but this game is a very solid second. so glad to have finally played it.

Metroid Prime is an incredible achievement. The similarities of Zelda and Metroid's structures meant Retro Studios had the ability to copy a lot of Ocarina of Time's homework, but Metroid utilises 3D space far more than Zelda ever has. Samus is fundamentally a platforming hero, who spends most of her time jumping and shooting. In Zelda, verticality is so rarely an aspect of traversal that there's not even a proper jump button. Prime opts to further explore the geometry with use of multiple visors that change what Samus can see and interact with. There's always the possibility that you're missing something if you don't explore all your options at any given time.

The new Switch Remaster of Metroid Prime has been met with sweeping positivity. Press outlets doubling down on their decades-old commitments to Prime being one of the best games ever made and dishing out 10/10s left, right and centre. Competing to see who can show it the most deference, like the audience at Star Wars Celebration. Look, that's fine. I'm quick to dismiss valid criticism of my favourites as if my identity is at risk, too. Call Dig Dug crap and I'll bite your head off. I'm just a little weary of seeing these nostalgic appraisals plastered onto an Accolades Trailer. There's aspects of Prime that I hope Retro have reconsidered as they move forward with 4.

Prime is so excited about being a 3D Metroid. It revels in it. Its puzzles frequently hide solutions in unsuspecting walls and crevices, far away from the glowing doors and luminescent 2002 enemies. Sometimes puzzles rely on you remembering that one of your abilities that you gained two hours ago and haven't had a use for since, has some crucial secondary function. That's an issue with its open design. It doesn't necessarily teach its lessons in a way that the player can immediately understand and adopt.

I originally played most of Prime when I got my GameCube around 2003 and eventually completed it via the Wii's Metroid Prime Trilogy release. The Switch release was my second full playthrough, but I still came up against situations I remember getting stuck at years ago. The Super Missiles that don't work with the only gun you've had to use for the last two hours. The dead electrical points that you have to fire a Wave Beam at. Points of progression that hinge on you remembering a door you left locked on the other side of the map. I could have previously assumed it was my fault that these parts caused me trouble, but the fact that I can approach this game multiple times over several years and still come up against the same roadblocks makes me think that the game could have presented this stuff a little better.

Then there's the sacred loneliness. You don't want to mess with that. It's crucial that Samus is alone. But see if I'm stuck in a Zelda game? It's quite nice that I can talk to an NPC who might give me an idea on where I ought to be going. In Prime, you're sometimes going over the same familiar territory, just begging for the game to get bored with you and alert you to a hidden room on the map. There's no deliberate way to get these hints. You just have to waste time until they happen, and sometimes the game thinks you've already been given enough help, and won't alert you no matter how long you backtrack. Sometimes, you're quite happy backtracking and looking for hidden upgrades, but the game will still nag you with some new revelation on your map. Maybe making these tips something you could access if and when you wanted would be preferable.

I don't like to throw around the word "dated", but there's aspects of Prime that just wouldn't be in there if it had been designed for the current market. Every release of the game after the initial one has addressed the stiffness of its controls and the lock-on system, but the game depends on their use. Whether you're pointing with a Wii Remote or using gyro with a Pro Controller, enemy hitboxes are directly tied to their lock-on points, and if you attempt to take a shot without using that, it's likely that it won't count. Even if the lock-on point isn't attached to the enemy's character model. The weakpoints on the underwater tentacle creatures are pretty bad for this, and you often have to shoot somewhere near them to make contact. You'll just have to use the lock-on system for combat, even if the other way feels better to you.

The 3D puzzles often feel rudimentary. It's obvious that the developers haven't played Portal yet. Points where Metroid Prime frustrate, underwhelm or obfuscate a solution that should feel instinctive are too frequent. Some rely on achieving enough momentum, rolling the Morph Ball back and forth on a halfpipe. Sometimes you need to get Big Air off the lip to reach a higher platform. It doesn't feel deliberate. It feels like you're pushing the game's systems to its limits and sequence breaking, but it's the intended solution. It's perhaps why so many of Metroid Prime's biggest fans have transitioned so naturally into speedrunning. I don't think it reflects great design, though.

The artifact quest is a part of the game that gets a lot of criticism. It's kind of overblown, but I understand. Before the final stretch of the game, Samus is tasked with searching the whole map for 12 artifacts. Many see it as padding for padding's sake. Lots of games use large maps that you can fully explore at any point, but you never had to follow a series of clues to find hidden trinkets scattered throughout Vice City's most unassuming alleyways before Sonny Forelli would recognise your right to a duel. It's something I found frustrating when I previously played the game, but I've gained some appreciation for it now. It's Samus making fuller use of all her abilities, and that includes the map. A last farewell to Tallon IV, and a last opportunity to stumble upon upgrades you missed. The hints give you just enough information to determine where you need to go and what you need to do. There's no modern day conveniences like a user-determined waypoint marker, and the artifact hints are buried quite deeply within a submenu on the pause menu. It's the kind of unintuitive design that Grezzo would have addressed in a Zelda remake, but Metroid Prime Remastered hasn't been approached with the same kind of intention. It's the old game, but the controls and visuals are better. You're buying the 21 year-old experience.

Retro Studios naturally imbued Metroid with more of a western sci-fi atmosphere, and it's something I have a kind of uneasy relationship with. Samus herself doesn't feel so much like a tokusatsu hero, but an astronaut doing her job. A grown up. Her animation and design often comes off as joyless and bored - I kind of like that. It's like the deeply un-special working class interplanetary miners of gritty, frightening 70s sci-fi. I do miss the spark she has in Dread though. The incredible energy she displays in the big fights, and the unfazed sarcasm as she points her arm cannon at Kraid. I really like thinking Samus is cool, and getting excited to see how she takes on some mad new threat. In Prime, she often comes off as just some lady (even if all the Chozo lore and the spoken-word intro prop her up as some fabled galactic saviour). I'd hope Prime 4 can balance out a dour atmosphere with a Samus Aran who totally fucking rules.

I'm sorry to level so much criticism at Prime. It really is a fantastic game, and I love it. There's few games as deeply engrossing and exciting. It's its own world. When all the wheels are turning and you're just eating up all the ambience and creativity, it's like little else. I just don't want the developers to think they've totally nailed it already and uncritically apply its design philosophy to Metroid Prime 4. There are aspects that ought to be reworked if Metroid is going to have a future alongside Mario and Zelda. I can see the younger crowd looking at the Metacritic rating, buying into it, and then abandoning all hope of ever liking the series when faced against its 2002 nonsense. Mind you, they all seemed to get into Demon's Souls just fine, so what do I know.

A great remaster of an absolute classic.

Metroid Prime is one of the greatest Gamecube games and one of the best games of that generation. It’s great to see it get a quality remaster for old fans to revisit it and so new players can jump in easily. They did an excellent job with this remaster by taking an already good looking game that was still holding up well after all this time and making it look beautiful. The game works perfectly too. They also added new control options without getting rid of the old controls. One thing to keep in mind though is this is a Gamecube game so it was made within the limitations of that time and hardware. Not that it really matters as I still enjoyed this more than the majority of current games but it’s still worth remembering when going into Metroid Prime remastered.

Metroid Prime is one of those games that can be hard to put down after starting it. The exploration is so satisfying and enjoyable. Every time you find a new ability it triggers your memory of all the things you went past that can now be reached/unlocked. The exploration is also elevated so much by the atmosphere, beautiful visuals and great soundtrack. The environments are a joy to become familiar with and all the small details, like reflections and moisture on the visor, add so much. Combat is good with a variety of great looking enemies to dispatch. There is also a good variety of weapons at your disposal, once unlocked, that you are regularly forced to switch between. Things really work well when faced with a small number of different creatures. There are some puzzles to solve too and the developers trusted players to pay attention to the environment and use the tools available. There is plenty of scanning to do and lore to discover which adds another layer of depth to the experience.

Metroid Prime does have some things to nitpick though. First of all I think the design could be a little tighter or the locations more interconnected to reduce backtracking slightly. It is also on the smaller/shorter side and could have benefited from one more location. I think most first time players will probably finish it in around 11 to 13 hours. On top of this, while it is definitely worth revisiting, it doesn’t have a lot of immediate replayability. You could try for 100% or do a different difficulty but Metroid Prime could be a one weekend game for many people. It does lack a little in challenge and the enemy AI could be better. Another thing is that some of the bosses don’t take quite enough damage which means the fight drags on a tad too long. However none of this brings down the whole experience too much.

Metroid Prime is a beautiful, fantastic game with very minor faults and this is a really well done remaster. I hope Metroid Prime 2 can get the same remaster treatment soon too. Metroid Prime Remastered is a must own Switch game. If you’ve never played this before then go grab yourself copy, this is one of the greats.

9.3/10

Don't really have much to say. It's Metroid Prime only it looks better and it plays better thanks to the various control options. Just a straight up better version of an already great game.

If anything, it's a sign that Prime 4 is in good hands. I just hope that Retro adopts the checkpoint system that Samus Returns and Dread introduced, because Phazon Mines is still obnoxious as hell to go through with the save points being so far away from each other. Also fuck the Omega Pirate and fuck Fission Metroids, that is all.

Metroid Prime has precisely the atmosphere and terror that I want to expect from a Metroid game, this time amplified incredibly by merely being a first person shooter. I loved wandering into new areas and seeing all the new environments behind every elevator, especially Phendrana i fucking love ice worlds
There's something about seeing through the perspective of Samus herself, instead of the usual camera behind the fourth wall, that makes everything feel that much more real, and it gives the player so much more space to maneuver around in during combat as well.

I mighta gotten lost several times, but I would soon realize that a good amount of those times were just me being a dumbass. Phazon Mines were still ridiculous, though. I can live without every room being filled with like 6 space pirates.

Every boss was fun to learn, every area was pretty to look at, kinda shockingly so for the Switch, I liked this one a lot. I didn't really have all too many gripes with the backtracking, weirdly enough. Obviously it can get sorta tedious walking through the same rooms so many times, but it never got to me outside of phazon mines :(

74% completion in 17h 34m, looking forward to the next 2 Prime games but I'm probably still playing Dread next.

I still kind of prefer Echoes over the original Prime, but man this is a near perfect remaster of an already great game. There are a few odd downgrades like how the flying pirates don't explode like the used to or how your beam weapons don't act like a light source anymore. Some of the visor effects like the steam or the reflection of Samus's face look a little weird, too, but basically everything else looks great. A lot of things were kind of redesigned or changed, but it feels more like the art team was trying to fully realize the designs/concepts for enemies and areas in a way that they just couldn't do in 2002. The control options and being able to mix gyro controls in with basically any other style are both great, since it means you can make the game play like the GC original, the Trilogy release, a modern shooter, or even kind of like Federation Force. The extras like the music player and model viewer are neat, too, but those don't really add to the game in any meaningful way. I still liked spinning around the turrets and making the lights on them turn red, though.

I know this is basically just me talking about how the game looks pretty, but that's really all there is to say about the remaster specifically. It's Metroid Prime but it looks nicer. The original still holds up visually thanks to its fantastic art direction, but this is probably one of the best looking games on the Switch. It might even be the best looking Switch game, but that's a bit more subjective.

Originally, my plan for this review was gonna be making some lame joke and giving the game 5 stars, 'cause at this point I got few to add to the conversation and I didn't want to sound too reiterative... but fuck it. This has become one of my favourites games of all time, so let's give it the respect it deserves.

The Metroid Prime series has always evaded me, it wasn't a matter that I wasn't interested in the games, in fact I'm a huge 2D Metroid fan and had always heard great things about the Prime trilogy, but I never got the chance to get any of the games for the Wii and I never had a Wii U, so my only interaction with the series was playing Prime Hunters on my cousin's DS when I was a kid... and now, Metroid Prime Remastered arrives for the switch, and sufices to say that I bought it as soon as I could, and now here we are.

I wanna start talking about the visuals, since the visual upgrade is whats meant to sell the game to a lot of people, as already practically everyone has said, they are outstandind, especially for the hardware. This is the best Remaster I've played in my entire life in visuals alone, its a huge upgrade, and makes every enviroment, area and enemy feel alive, anf it amounts to a game that seems like it has an entire living world inside of it, and keep in mind, the gamecube original already looked good for the time, but this? This is just incredible. Plus, the new options and the dual stick control scheme make this a really easy game to pick up, with so many ways to play it that everyone can control it at its own like (tho for me the dual stick controls are the best by far).

But those are the changes implemented today, in the year 2023, so the question is, do the mechanichs and design from a game released in 2002 hold u- yes, of course they do.

There are a lot of games that show their age in design alone, Metroid Prime is not one of them. Talon IV is, alongside with places like Hallownest and the Lands-Between , one of the most vibrant and alive world I've seen in any form of media; all of the areas, from the beautiful yet haunting Phendrana, to the agonizing and opressive Phazon Mines, are unique from one another, yet all of them are incredibly well designed and have masterful visual story-telling, anf everything realated to the space pirates blends incredibly well story wise and gives some amazing set pieces. Every enemy and even plants have descriptions, which just adds to the feeling of this being a foreing planet with its own fauna, affected by the influence of the Space Pirates or by the Chozo that inhabitated the planet long ago. Its just amazing and honestly plain surprising that they managed to pull all of this, considering this was the first game of the team at the time and to this day much experienced teams still struggle to pull out this kind of thing.

Gameplay wise, the way Samus moves just feels right, the movement is way slower than its 2D counterpart, but it feel perfect for the 3D enviroment and all of the abilities, visors and beams add both to the way you approach the combat as well as exploration, in fact some upgrades make you travererse more easily the world without the use of violence wich works very well for the themes of the game.

Samus becomes more armed and destructive as the games progresses, but this destruction is only really used against the Pirates and the Great poison that has taken the whole planet like a virus. There's a clear message about imperialism and the perversion that intelling minds can have over the nature, and the contrast between the Chozo and its architechture that seemingly blends with the areas and the metallic and devouring Pirates and the horror of the Phazon its just... perfect, it tells a story both visually and with gameplay, something that all games should strive for.

The game isn't perfect, some boss fights can be a little slow paced the first time around (tho some of them are amazing, especially the final boss, and all of them work very well with the story and messages of the game, and the build up for the major fight is incredible); its true that some of the Chozo artifacts can be a pain to find, even tho some of the were a blast to look out for, to me at least; and honestly, backtracking sometimes could be a little to time-consuming and tedious, and I really belive this game would have benefited greatly with some form of fast-travel.

Not even these otherwise minor nitpicks stain what otherwise has become for me one of the crown achievements of the whole industry, it's not my favourite game, but dam does it come close, its just outstanding. I understand that for some the Metroidvania genre can be a little heavy at times, but trust me, this deserves all of time you can put into it, it's truly a work of art.

This thing lives or dies by its atmosphere, so it's a good thing it's one of the most well realized, enthralling, and no-this-isn't-a-buzzword genuinely immersive games ever made. The effects the environment can have on the visor... how hasn't every first person game been copying this.

I have some quibbles ranging from minor to somewhat major, the bosses could use work, I wish more movement options unlocked ala 2D Metroid's screw attack or speed booster to make backtracking later feel more rewarding and less occasionally obnoxious, combat in general could have done with some punching up etc but the actual act of just going through this incredible world renders a lot of that moot. Yamamoto's OST is incredible. I really hope that Retro finally shipping something again and seeing the positive reception its gotten gives them the confidence to really deliver in the home stretch of Prime 4.

I was not a fan of the forced backtracking for the Chozo artifacts, but Metroid Prime is a classic for many reasons. There is nothing I can say about it without being redundant, so I’ll just say this is the definitive way to experience it. The graphics are incredible while also staying true to the original atmosphere. A game looking this amazing on Switch without framerate issues didn’t seem possible, yet here we are. The Spring Ball and flexible control options were great additions, but I wish you could remap individual buttons in-game. I might be alone in this, but mapping the shoot button to A instead of Y makes no sense, as you will be shooting very often and will have to uncomfortably twist your thumb or use a claw grip to hit A and B at the same time for shooting and jumping simultaneously. This was the first Switch game I felt compelled to remap my Joy-Cons in the main menu.

Don’t let that deter you from buying this though. Metroid Prime Remastered is a must-have for your Switch, especially if you never played the original.

This remaster is what finally made me click with Prime. The dual stick, less mashy controls made it immensely more comfortable to play and I couldn't stop until I finished it. Now it's maybe the most immersive thing I've ever played. The HUD is used so creatively to simulate a real high tech space suit and there's countless realistic visual touches. The planet feels truly alive and its atmosphere can be peaceful, tense, downright sinister. This is the best Metroid OST I've come across since Super - I would put them on the same tier with how perfectly they create the mood (and how much they bang). With the redone graphics I felt like I'd been fully absorbed into its world. The usual progression system and platforming in 3D space is incredibly satisfying, the majority of areas are well crafted and the morph ball in particular is completely transformed as a mechanic. It's insane they got it this right on the first try. When it comes to exploration, puzzles and environmental storytelling this is as good as it gets.

Sadly I can't say the same about the gunplay, which I found to be mediocre at best and an absolute mess at worst. There are a few standout boss fights but 1 on 1 gunfights are just not good at all. As it was originally designed for the GC controller and combat isn't the main focus, I could ignore this for the first half. But in the later areas it's like they really wanted you to notice how weak it is. Phazon Mines forces you to fight an entire gauntlet of strong enemies with no save stations for a long period of time, and you basically just exploit the poor AI to get through or tank a lot of damage. Ghost enemies appear all over the world map at the end to bring more annoyance.

Prime was yet another victim of Nintendo's GameCube era crunching. Exactly like Wind Waker you have to do a big collectathon to get to the final boss (and pad out the play time with backtracking) and there's a tiny area that seems like it was cut down due to time constraints (Impact Crater). Thankfully these downsides weren't enough to ruin my experience but it could be very frustrating at times, and the perfect gameplay flow was spoiled. I so wish they had taken this opportunity to make some changes but I guess it is JUST a "remaster" at the end of the day...

In short don't think of this as some FPS classic - if you're here purely for shooting you won't be satisfied. It's adventure / Metroidvania first and foremost and it's one of the best in those genres.

This game didn’t even need a remake. If you look on any “Top *** games of all time” it will be there. But thank God they finally pulled the trigger in this. It’s unbelievable. Most of the nitpicks with the original, mainly the graphics and controls” and completely revamped for the better.

This is one of the best looking games on the entire platform, allowing you to rediscover this world we all fell in love with years ago. It’s breathtaking. I was constantly spamming the capture button on my pro controller, and looking at comparisons online.

But the star of the show in my opinion is the dual stick controls. My only complaint for the OG was the clunky control system, even if it was pretty impress for gamecube standards. The transition was flawless and the game feels so damn good to play.

It was already a masterpiece, but this remaster catapulted MP into the perfect game category. I really hope that Nintendo continues to show Metroid the love it has been getting lately, and hopefully we can look forward to Prime 2 and 3 getting the same treatment soon.

This game reminds me of batman arkham asylum because she gets new items and that opens up old areas that were locked off. It's a really cool game with awesome atmosphere and an interesting story despite the fact no one says a word. The puzzles were fun, the zones were cool, the music was really great and the progression was easy as pie. There are so many items and upgrades but it always feels intuitive, every new thing is an extension of the old thing. You're never blindsided, nothing feels tacked on, and you never forget about any of your tools. HOWEVER. The combat and first person platforming were two weak points. They're both serviceable, even fun, but later in the game when the enemies come at you in sevens and they're all bullet spongey it can be tough. Especially since theres a lot of knockback and, also, later in the game, platforming sections can go vertically for hundreds of thousands of centimeters. "Hey elk you have some problems with later in the game don't you?" well Reader (heh, can I call you reader?) you'd be right. Metroid prime has a bad endgame. Like an atrocity on par with xen. But Xen is just a bad part that you instantly go into, metroid's slow descent is like a pot of boiling water and you're the frog. Colour coded rock paper scissors enemies that are immune to your other bullets that come in pairs of 5 and can replicate at will, so theres 3 or 4 of them and each can only be damaged by one of your blaster types and changing your blaster type you gotta hold x and then hit the d-pad and then try to lock on but the lock on is finnicky especially near a grappling point because that will take priority. Another victim of being a videogame on controller. Another case of console exclusive game being worse due to the fact that it's stuck on and had to have been designed around four buttons and two sticks. Imagine if u could change ur blasters with 1-2-3-4 and aim with a mouse? bro. Even if u could aim freely, there's easy bosses with 2 or 3 moves where you just wait for their weak state so you can do damage, but hold on though. I don't care about the last hour or three. CUS this game is really cool and good. So i'll give it a 4.5

Ok now it's time for the elkmane personal journal hour.
fanbase: Finally!
thank you elksters. Hm... what to talk about.. I know. What's the best Rihanna album? I know everyone's mind immediately goes to Anti and honestly I get it. Loud is also a fan favourite (im guessing? I don't really interact with the rihanna fanbase or any other rihanna fans) I'd like to throw talk that talk into the ring. Cockiness is one of my fav riri songs, i'd put it up there with love on the brain (i know i know, basic pick) What do u guys think? Email me.

- Elkmane

Glad I got around to playing this classic. This was my first metroid game. It’s undeniable what this game did for Metroid and its history. Incredible soundtrack & atmosphere, with some great bosses and power ups to collect. Only seeing Samus with the morph ball and arm canon so I was pleasantly surprised with all of the power ups in this. Theres a great story and lore by using the scanner visor. A lot of the enemies have cool designs. Some of the bosses are a bit boring though in my opinion (hive mecha, Sheegoth, Thardus). While others are great like Flaahgra, Meta Ridley, and Metroid Prime. The end game is where the game is a lot more lackluster and tedious with the backtracking. I think it would be a lot more beneficial to not have to collect the artifacts. Overall, an amazing game I enjoyed a lot

I have a lot to say about this supposed "masterpiece". Buckle up.

I'm glad to have finally played Metroid Prime all the way through, as I've tried many times to finally get through this one over the years. But after having played, the rave reviews this remaster is getting here and on other sites has me thinking most people who played this fall into one of two categories: they are telling Nintendo it's okay to barely lift a finger and they'll buy whatever they shit out as rose-tinted nostalgia goggles reassure them it's amazing, or the Nintendo Switch is so currently starved for big releases that Switch owners will gladly settle and applaud for whatever crumbs they can get. If you gave this game 5 stars, neither option is good, but I'll let you pick your poison.

The high ratings people are giving this is nothing short of lunacy. Let's start with the fact that this is a remaster: outside of textures, lighting effects, and better dual joystick support (that the original should have had to begin with), what was done here? Some new concept art for you to unlock? Very cool. I like the idea of unlocking things as you progress, but these are all pretty lousy. I went and checked them out after completion and felt zero sense of reward: a picture of Samus, wow. (Also, why does the game stop and save after you look at these?) I don't think they added any obvious quality of life improvements the game was begging for. You cannot switch between lock-on targets, this feels like it should have been added, and the 3D map (which is painfully uninformative) has the joysticks reversed as I assume the original did. This should have been changed in the remaster. The thermal visor is painfully nauseating with a thick motion blur and feels like Samus is using a janky prototype, not future tech. But hey, Samus' face looks better in the visor reflection now, at least she no longer looks like a ghost staring back at you.

Let's talk about those brand-spanking-new visuals. They're good, but for what year? Is this an Xbox 360 release? Breath of the Wild really set a bar that Nintendo could never hit again, it seems, and now I'm almost worried for Tears of the Kingdom. The FOV is still cramped as hell and obviously cannot be changed. I highly recommend going into the options and disabling Samus' visor to help give you some much-needed breathing room. The Bombu, basically just four floating orbs, are still just that, but actually manage to be somewhat creepy as they advance on you. Never say Nintendo can't do a lot with a little, as "little" is what was done here, after all. The original is so old it can now legally drink in the States yet still looks pretty good, if you ask me.

Audio is either forgettable or bad. Nintendo sure does love making extremely annoying "low health" warnings in every game they can throw one in. Fortunately, you're only likely to hear this one early on as the game gives you an absurd amount of health quickly. The music is lifeless and sometimes feels like it's actively trying to bother you. The combat song gives you a brief window before this annoying wail/siren noise comes on repeatedly, actually incentivizing you to be expedient in your fighting so you don't have to experience that blare. I think with half an hour in GarageBand I could make more enjoyable short tunes and I'm not exaggerating.

But most important: the gameplay. Guess what? It isn't good. Very quickly you'll learn average enemies pose almost no threat and should just be avoided entirely if you're not in that room for something. They aren't even worth locking on and firing once, that's seriously a waste of time here. Traversing? It's a pretty negative experience. Every zone feels like a slightly-varied environmental chore to get through, but ultimately you'll just be running and jumping through them recklessly and being okay with suffering the slight damage if it means you get to the end door faster. There's no reason to stop and take in any scenery, none of it looks very good anyways, just get on with it.

Why are you traversing so much? Well it's a Metroid game, so that comes with the territory, but the entire point of this game is "Find the Twelve Artifacts" (and this is at least six too many). With the change to first person, maybe incessant platforming and traversal was a bad choice, since you can barely see anything with the low FOV. Samus no longer feels like an acrobat in space but rather like a Pacific Rim Jaeger with only one pilot at the wheel. She's sluggish and maybe hungover, but she's tasked with walking all over the damn map for "Artifacts" that are basically just keys. The whole plot of this game is finding keys and getting equipment to help you get those keys. Very exciting stuff. Have fun switching cannon types to open doors over and over again.

The boss fights are all pretty easy and forgettable, usually you overuse whatever ability was just unlocked. The final boss battles are tedious, especially the last one with you swapping visors and just jumping to avoid a single, repetitive attack. You're never in any danger unless this is your first ever video game, as again, you'll have more health than you know what to do with. There is a Hard mode, but it's only playable after completion, and I wish I got to try that initially as Standard had me asleep at the wheel. The titular metroids? First time they grab you it's spooky, every other time it's fucking annoying. They exist just bother you while you're jumping around trying to get the next Artifact. They don't even hurt very much, you'll just sigh as you learn to drop into the Morph Ball and bomb it off so you can get back to finding the next ke-- amazing Artifact.

In my opinion, the best gameplay stretch here wasn't a boss or even combat at all, but a Spider Ball section where you're finally feeling on edge because you can fall a great distance into a pit of lava if you mess up even a little bit. It was the most engaged I ever felt in the game and helped me realize just how shitty everything else was that Metroid Prime had tossed my way.

Metroid Prime was never a very good game and its remaster was a sad cash grab during a bone-dry stretch in the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle. I cannot see someone playing this remaster without the nostalgia for the original and honestly saying they had fun with the series of chores. This feels like a fan project, not a game that helped sell a whole console. The switch to first person was not a good choice for the Metroid games and I cannot believe they made two more in this series (with a fourth on the way). After the success of this remaster, I'm guessing those'll be coming soon, too, and I will definitely be ignoring them. If you want to play a good Metroid game, play the best one: Metroid Fusion. Metroid: Zero Mission is also good stuff. If you don't want to download a GameBoy emulator or they're "too old" for you, then play Metroid Dread. That's a good game. This is not.

If there is one thing I can say that Metroid Prime has in spades, it's atmosphere. The music, sounds, and environment design do remind me of other sci-fi shooters of the time, such as Halo or Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando. The metroidvania formula was adapted sufficiently to a 3D FPS, but not without some caveats.

First off, far be it from me to complain about backtracking in a Metroid game, but it gets a bit tedious in the back half here. Samus doesn't feel even half as quick as she does in the 2D titles, and the later game power-ups do not do enough to make up for that. Lots of little animations (switching beam types, morph ball transformations, etc.) just feel slightly too long as well. I liked the scanning feature in theory, but again it always felt a little bit too long and ultimately came at the cost of shoving the overall plot of the game into text logs.

All that being said, the ability to freely switch between each beam type was a cool idea and each one maintained relevancy throughout. The level design is as impeccable as always with each area being interconnected in (usually) convenient ways once you've got the necessary abilities. There's good enemy variety, and a couple of cool bosses too.

Having only played Prime 3 (and mostly forgotten it since), Prime didn't quite blow me away as much as I was hoping. It's solid, and I still want to finally play 2 when Nintendo finally decides to port it; just wish everything was a little bit quicker.

I beat this game twice (once on casual, and again on hard)



I gotta play more games in this franchise man

As a game, Metroid Prime's conception isn't celebrated nearly enough. Nintendo taking a chance on their first in-house western development studio with a trusted IP and that team making it a first-person shooter—a genre both Nintendo and Retro were relatively new to—and on top of all this, is it actually working?

It's a move that's still paying off today, as fans are just as excited to see it remastered as they were to play it on release. It's no wonder, either. Despite being made by a new studio, MP has all the hallmarks of a great Nintendo game—innovation, creativity, and most of all, fun. Despite what skepticism might have surrounded this game pre-release, while playing it, it's a natural fit for the Metroid universe and gameplay style.

The Metroid formula translates perfectly to first-person, with all the same moves and weapons from prior games being adapted to suit the new perspective. It doesn't just feel like an FPS that's been 'Nintendoified', but rather a shooter that can easily stand tall with other giants of the genre such as Half-Life, DOOM, and Halo. Combat feels great, and there's a steady flow of new armaments and abilities to keep things fresh. From the depth of the controller settings, which give you completely different control schemes to play around with, and the excellent enemy variety throughout, it's clear there's never a wasted step in its design.

While I didn't personally play the original release on GameCube, I can at least attest that the remaster is smooth as butter to play, at a rock-solid 60 and with excellent camera controls. While it is indeed labeled as a 'remaster' here, it's honestly somewhere between that and a remake. The gameplay is fundamentally the same, yes, but the graphics and designs have received such a dramatic upgrade that it never stops being impressively stunning to look at.

Really, what lets the air out of it a bit is how Metroid Prime is structured. Like I said, for the most part, it follows the usual 'metroidvania' template beautifully; however, in order to finish the game, you must collect all of the artifacts, which, unless you were keeping tabs on them on your way to other objectives, is going to be a bit of a trek. Quite a lot of backtracking can ensue, and it does start to seem like tedious busywork. That being said, since the fundamental gameplay is so enjoyable and the bosses are all interesting, it stops it from being a total slog.

Overall, Metroid Prime Remastered does not disappoint. It really is as good as Metroid fans have been saying it is since it came out and if you're a fan of Metroid games and haven't checked it out, there really is no better way to play it.

8.5/10