I definitely gotta play more metroidvanias going forward. Metroid Prime is very good but I did have a lot of small grievances with it, the backtracking and the boss fights being the worst of it. When I say backtracking I'm not referring to revisiting areas, I'm talking about having to traverse the same pathways over and over again to get to and from a specific area. My problem with the boss fights comes from how long they take and how they aren't involved enough to remain interesting for the whole duration. None of my complaints are major enough to ruin the game or anything but they're enough for me to dock it a few points.

It's nice to finally play one of the most famous games in one of my favorite franchises.

I've been a huge fan of 2D Metroid ever since I first played Metroid Zero Mission back in 2012. I love almost all of them, and each one has a distinct rhythm to it that never fails to captivate me. I think a large part of it is due to Samus' kit being so iconic and fun to use. Power ups like the shine spark, screw attack, and morph ball all make it so that the act of controlling Samus never gets old.

When starting Prime I was really worried about how that flow would be affected in a 3D space. A Metroid game being good to me relies on 2 key factors, control and pacing. So seeing that the control was completely changed to be a first person shooter, I was nervous that the feeling of Samus would not be as solid as the 2D games. I was super wrong though.

Samus controls like an absolute dream in this game, and the added duel stick option in the Remastered easily makes this the definitive way to play the game. The new camera shift actually makes combat a lot of fun to engage with in this game, which the developers clearly knew because this Metroid game has a larger focus on combat. There are multiple different beam types that you can swap on the fly, which create a great sense of flow that you dont typically see from a Metroid game.

The main downside to this camera angle is that it doesn't really allow for some of my favorite upgrades like the speed booster or screw-attack to exist, but I was honestly ok with it for this game. Areas feel a lot less platforming heavy, and the added boost ball ability still made moving through areas a breeze. It had a bit of a learning curve, but by the end of the game the boost ball had joined the ranks of one of my favorite abilities in the series.

Moving on to that second criteria for a good Metroid game for me, the pacing of this game is utterly fantastic. The balance between finding new areas and backtracking to old ones is a very tricky one, and I think Prime mostly nails it. By the end of the game I knew each area like the back of my hand, and I never really tired of backtracking to them (until I attempted 100% but we'll get to that.)

The atmosphere and music are incredible too, which isnt a surprise since its fucking Metroid Prime. However, the part that surprised me the most was the story. I actually found myself really engaged with it, and the way it was told diagetically through using the scan visor was really damn smart. It brought me back to my first time exploring and scanning text on planets in Outer Wilds, which made me realize that the translator in that game was probably heavily inspired by Metroid Prime (same with the parallels between the Phazon and Ghost Matter tbh).

My only real complaint with the game came from a lack of QOL features with its map. Modern Metroid does a really good job of allowing you to mark areas on your map that you want to return to, and also showing you how many items are left in each area, which makes backtracking easier. Prime doesnt have anything like this, which makes the endgame grind for 100% extremely tedious and boring. The pacing of the game got completely destroyed in the last 2 hours of my session, mainly because I kept wandering around in circles looking for the last 5% of items.

Overall, there is a reason that Metroid Prime is an absolute classic and seen as the epitome of the series. While I don't enjoy it as much as some of my favorite 2D outings (Dread and Zero Mission), I do think it has quickly risen to being one of my favorite Metroidvanias of all time.

....I just really don't like what the Remastered did to Samus' face. It's in that state of the uncanny valley that I REALLY hate.

I can for the most part understand why people gave this game such glowing reviews back in the day Retro was able to take the Metroid formula and effortlessly convert it into 3D which is double impressive for this game being the studio's first game and how it seemed like a project that was doomed from the start since Nintendo didn't seem to care what retro was doing hence why their founder was using the money given to him to host porn sites

I'd say the biggest gripe I have with this game is kind of how slow it is compared to something like Super Metroid but that's understandable when you're working with an fps framework the thing I just plain got annoyed about was the sheer amount of backtracking there is compared to super or even fusion it just got tedious

overall a game that holds up well to this day and is another game that reminds me of the best generation gaming being the GameCube era they also did a mostly fantastic game job remastering this game taking an already really good-looking game and made it better the only cons being it can get overly dark and hard to see in some areas and the thermal visor looking like ass

Extremely good. One of those games where I play the first hour and think "this is alright I guess". But I'm drawn back and then after a 3 hour straight play session I go to bed wanting nothing more than to go back to that spider ball spot in the Magmoor caverns that I forgot to check before switching the game off. Amazed at how well the Metroid formula transfers to first person. Am now excited for Prime 4.

One criticism: when you're designing a game where you rely on the map so heavily, let me see EXACTLY where elevators take me. "Tallon Overworld East" - cool, how about when I push A on the elevator symbol on the map, you just show me the room I'm about to go to - is that okay? No? Okay I'll just go fuck myself then

This game is peak Metroid. It's got all the great things about the 2D games but now in 3D remastered beautifully
on the switch.

It's open ended and has tons of fun items, enemies, upgrades, and locations to explore. The game has spectacular atmosphere and drives home the feeling of being alone on an unknown planet.

My main problems are it's a little too long and I've got a little bit of a problem with these types of games in general. I love exploring and getting upgrades but I absolutely hate getting lost and I did get lost a couple of times while playing. Also I feel like the combat is a little undercooked. It's just an endurance war between you and the enemy most of the time.

Overall a great game I've just got a couple personal problems with it.

Metroid Prime is the vital “mood” game. The atmosphere is what sells it, shootin’ shit is just a plus.

Straight out of the gate, boom, detailed planet in the distance whilst in the middle of space. It hooks you in with its stellar visuals and killer soundtracks, and keeps you sucked in with its atmospheric world building.

Curling up into a ball and rolling or bouncing around might be the absolute most fun thing in any game ever. Because, sure, it’s not the only game to ever have a playable ball, but it is the only one that looks, sounds, and feels like this while also racking up alien K/Ds. Bouncing off of morph ball bombs through the air, using the spider power up to roll around ceilings and walls, twisted columns, it’s so surreal.

Metroid coined the term “metroidvania,” and Metroid Prime 15 years later certainly shows why. Yep, there certainly is a whole lot of backtracking here. It’s not terrible since the goal is just collecting artifacts and the maps are extremely detailed. Colored
doors guide your way to understand the best path to advance from elevator to elevator.

Where Metroid Prime fails, though, is its endgame. Petrasyls may be my least favorite game enemy of all time. They are not fair and challenging, they are not a scary design, they are not cool to look at. They take way too many shots, and latch onto your face constantly for no other reason than to slow you down. So, when they start coming my way by the dozens after the Phazon Suit is acquired, I want to die. Especially when the final boss throws 2-4 of them at once, so you’re just scrambling to try and get them off of you.

There’s not a whole lot bosses here, since the focus is the vibe, but when you do come across a boss, it is very fun. I just kind of wish they’d had been more balanced out throughout the whole game, rather than really spread out.

Metroid Prime Remastered takes the cake of an already amazing game, and adds some icing to really boost its replay-ability. This is one of the best looking games on the Switch, the source material was already there. Thanks Reggie, you did it this time. 8/10

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

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

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

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

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

its insane how this shit is still the goat 20 years later. this must be like the fifth or sixth time i've replayed prime, and even now i think it's the only game i love so much that i can actually sit through and finish it in 1-2 sittings. it's a massive comfort game for me and a huge source of nostalgia - but i will admit, every time i finish a new playthrough i find more flaws with it. still, this shit is really nice.

this is probably the best example of a remastered game that looks how you remember it as a kid. they improved upon this game's environments SO fucking well. prime was already a game that looked great for its time, and the remake amps that up to 11 - imo one of the nicest looking games on the switch. i feel like even now the amount of work that went into this game is unappreciated, it's really incredible how they dropped this one and then dipped.

combat feels great as always, and I love how many different control schemes they provided. i was so used to the wii pointer controls that i couldn't imagine using anything else, but i got used to twin stick shooting pretty easily. there were a few times where i fumbled with switching beams or some shit, but it didn't bug me too bad. shooting feels great, platforming gets better and better the further along you go, shit is just NICE man. this is a primo-ass game right here.

i think with this playthrough, though, it finally hit me just how awful the backtracking can feel at times. even when compared to other metroid games, there were plenty of moments that had me scratching my head as to why they'd make me retrace my steps so far for a single upgrade. easily the worst offender was the game leading you directly to the crashed frigate and waiting until you're halfway through it before saying "oops uwu you need the gravity suit get fucked" and making you backtrack through some pretty terrible underwater platforming. then the gravity suit is halfway across the fucking planet! how would i have assumed to go that way without a guide or waiting around for the game to literally show me where it is? if this was literally any other game, i'd be foaming at the mouth over having to spend so much time backtracking - but prime is lucky that i hold it so dearly. it gets a pass, even though i didn't like that shit.

also the x ray and thermal visors are somehow even worse on my eyes than they were in the original release. that's pretty bad too, i always hated using those. but both of these were also issues that were present in the original version, so it's not like i can fault them for it now. these are my only real complaints tbh.

i still think this is one of the best FPS games out there, and one that everyone should try at least once if they haven't already. seriously, if you haven't played prime you gotta rectify that shit!!

My only gripes with this game are the fact sometimes it's took dark to see anything (that could very well be a problem with my TV though) and the boss lineup aside from Ridley and the final boss. I would say the backtracking is also a negative but part of what makes metroidvanias so special is going back to previous areas and discovering new things with the new abilities you've acquired and this game was full of that. Other than those possible shortcomings, this is one of the best Metroid games.