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 genuine classic, one of Nintendo’s best in a storied and (until recently) forgotten series that rarely has a miss. This version of the game is—finally—the definitive way to play it, bringing enhanced visuals, impeccable anti-aliasing, unflinching 60 FPS, and a (I think new) small hint system.

I would normally recommend using Dolphin to emulate this flawed masterpiece, but now I recommend spending the cash and giving this version the time of day instead.

Though I call it a genuine masterpiece, it’s not without issues, perhaps personal gripes. I think it’s easy to get to stuck, like all Metroid games, but this one has 12 artifacts to collect that are way too well hidden and easy to miss as you progress, forcing you to backtrack more than usual. It unfortunately NEEDS a guide to finish, if only for the artifacts required to beat the game.

Also, like Half-Life 1, the final area sucks but is thankfully very, very short; fighting Fission Metroids is a pain the fucking ass, too.

But, despite these gripes, I was enthralled once again from beginning to end, beating in in a matter of days without putting it down. The atmosphere and presentation are off the charts, and the combat is very satisfying, one of my favorites in the classic 3D adventure realm. This and the recent Metroid Dread have solidified this as my de-facto favorite Nintendo franchise.

Bring on 2 and 3!

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.

First time beating this. Really excellent remaster/remake. Looks excellent, runs excellent, and has great QOL improvements such as a hint system, dual stick controls, and the ability to remove Samus' helmet. If you want to play MP1, this is the best way to do it.

I really liked the game as well. Really fun blend of action, platforming, shooting, and puzzling. I see why this is some folks' favorite game; there's a certain brilliance to it slowly becoming a 3D, Mario 64-ass Metroid game. Super fun boss fights that hold up now also.

4 stars for me because I lost 20-30 minutes of progress a few times dying between save points that are a little too spread out. I also felt the fully manual backtracking was a bit much for me and turned a 6 hour game into a 12 hour one, and a few of the late puzzles were fairly obtuse (I looked up 2-3 of the artifacts).

Still, I had a really good time and look forward to playing the next two. Remakes like this should be rewarded.

One of the all time great video games is somehow made even better with this loving remaster. Metroid Prime in 2002 was often referred to as a game that felt plucked out of the future, and that hypothesis has been proven correct by this remaster. Over two decades later and the game still feels current. A slight update to the control scheme and an overall of the graphics to modernize them is all the game needed to immediately slot in as one of the best games of the 2020s so far. Retro's design work on the original game is legendary, and I think their artistic work on this remaster will wind up spoken of in similar regard.

Remasters almost feel like they've become more commonplace in this industry than actual new video games, but it's easy to see why. It's a lot easier, cheaper, and faster to put out an old game with some sprucing up than it is to design a game from start to finish, and everything that entails. But it's clear that this was no rush job. Retro spent years updating every single asset in the game, new effects added, adding several customizable control schemes to ensure every player was taken care of, and then throwing a bunch of fun extras in with the model viewer. When it comes to faithful remasters, this is probably the best that's ever been done.

The game itself, well, it's Metroid Prime, unruined. Still the best playing 3D Metroid-style series, Prime somehow holds up remarkably today. It's a first person game where platforming feels better than it often does in third party games not made by Nintendo. Before Prime I reviewed the quite-good action platformer Hi-Fi Rush, and despite being 20 years older and in first person, Prime's platforming manages to feel light years beyond that game's. Combat is a bit weaker in this entry than the following two Prime games, but it does the job. Bosses are fairly infrequent but quite fun, with the final battle against the titular monster being a particular standout. Prime's biomes are gorgeous now, and its music? Almost unparalleled. These 20 year old MIDI tunes are more memorable than basically any video game music released nowadays, and the visuals, music, and general design of these areas all lead to a game that is just so wonderful to spend time in. The atmosphere is perfect. It's perfect.

It's a perfect game. If you own a Switch, you need to play Metroid Prime. It's not even my favorite of the trilogy, but it's the one that does every single thing a video game can do to a very high degree of quality. The others do some things better and some things worse, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any video game even now that executes on every single possible level as highly and as effortlessly as Metroid Prime.

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.