Purely judged as a remaster, this would easily be 5 stars. The overhaul does far more than a simple texture and resolution upscale. Almost every asset in the game has basically been remade from the ground up to fully utilize the hardware of the Switch, from the lighting and character models to even the polygon counts in the environments. Everything received a makeover, and as a result, you could easily mistake it for a native Switch title and it borderline looks like something that should require PS4-level hardware in order to play, but nonetheless magically runs on the Switch; all of this while maintaining 60 FPS to boot.

If there is any complaint I have about its graphics, it's mainly in the odd decision to redo Samus' arm cannon animation such that it's much more muted and stiff during movement now. Previously in all other versions, there was more of a sense of tactile sway when moving around in the game, and it was just generally more pleasing on the eyes. I am not sure why they felt the need to change this animation, but nonetheless they did, unless oddly enough, you select the pointer-based control scheme from the Wii trilogy, and then for some reason it defaults back to the old animation. It's a curious choice, but overall not enough to seriously deduct any points from the game. Tallon IV looks more gorgeous than ever, and the aesthetic they chose for the update, while slightly different, is mostly quite faithful to the game's original art direction.

Minor nitpicks aside, Metroid Prime Remastered is a technical marvel to behold. However, a game is more than just graphics and eye candy, and while Prime Remastered brings plenty of this in spades, gameplay is still equally important, and an aspect that I think the fanbase has far too often overlooked when it comes to its many flaws.

For instance, many Metroid fans will vigorously rail against the so-called "pixel hunting" sections of Other M for being tedious, frustrating, and time-wasting affairs, but curiously have nothing at all to say about the MANDATORY artifact hunt at the end of Metroid Prime, which serves as nothing more than pure multi-hour-long filler with no upgrades or rewards for collecting other than to just gate your progress to the final boss. Nor do fans have anything to say about the numerous backtracking sequences in general during the latter half of the game, as well as the excessive over-abundance of scannable objects; most of which have very little interesting to say or add to the story, unless you're the type of person who enjoys reading random articles on Wikipedia for fun. I would surmise there are no less than 50 scannable objects within the opening space station section alone, which if one were to scan and read them all, could easily balloon the length of this prologue segment from 15 minutes to instead well over an hour. As far as I'm concerned, any complaint regarding Other M's pixel hunting sections comes across as disingenuous without also acknowledging these far more egregious time-sinks in Metroid Prime.

Furthermore, Prime is often lauded for its "bold" decision to switch to a first person perspective in its transition to 3D, yet at the same time fans will often downplay any discussions surrounding Prime's gunplay and combat because it draws attention to the fact that the game doesn't actually benefit at all from this change in perspective. After all, what does Prime truly gain from switching to first person? Certainly from a platforming and mobility angle, all this does is hamper Samus' movement, making her more sluggish to control. This is especially apparent if you compare this to Metroid's other recent (and much superior) release, Metroid Dread. Samus is far more agile and fluid to control in Dread, making the act of movement in itself fun to just hop, flip, and swing around as you please. With Metroid Prime on the other hand, Samus chugs along at the pace of a Resident Evil protagonist, but without half as interesting or challenging combat to make up for it. She even outright loses her screw attack and speed booster abilities, and switching to morph ball mode takes at least twice as long as it does in Dread because the camera has to adjust to a third person view.

So if Samus doesn't gain anything from the movement side of things, what else are we to expect than surely a greater emphasis on gunplay and combat? After all, this is where a first person perspective tends to excel. Yet anyone being truly honest with themselves knows that Metroid Prime's gunplay pales in comparison to the likes of Halo: Combat Evolved or frankly any sufficiently competent DOOM clone. It just doesn't feel all that good. Functional, yes, but ultimately pretty bland by comparison. Samus' weaponry is fairly limited compared to other shooters, and most encounters merely involve locking onto the target and letting the camera handle the rest. There's rarely any aiming involved.

This is the point where someone may be quick to exclaim "Metroid Prime is not a first person shooter though! It's a first person adventure, you see." But as I've already noted earlier, if the goal of the game is to place a greater emphasis on exploration and adventure, then wouldn't it be prudent to make the actual act of movement or, well, adventuring, feel more fun and satisfying, not slow and tanky as it is in Metroid Prime? Also, if it was the developers' intent to de-emphasize the shooting in order to focus on more adventurous elements, then why is it that the phazon mines largely consist of a series of hallway fights with inflated-health space pirates, or infuriating phazon-infused metroids? Why are the boss battles some of the longest in the entire series, with the Metroid Prime in particular clocking in at roughly half an hour on average (and that's assuming you didn't die and have to start all over)? At the end of the day, we are often forced to engage with the game's combat mechanics for extended periods of time and there's simply no excuse why those mechanics couldn't be more fun or interesting.

Calling this game a "first person adventure" as a means of sweeping its mediocre gunplay under the rug is not doing the game any favors, because whether we're comparing its platforming and movement mechanics to other metroidvanias or its gunplay and combat to other first person shooters, it doesn't stack up on both accounts. Which just brings me back to my original point: why does this game need to be in first person? Are the small gains to immersion so important that we literally have to weaken all aspects of the gameplay for it? I'm sorry, but being able to see rain droplets trickle down my visor does not even come close to making up for all the gameplay sacrifices made here.

To the extent that the first person perspective offers any genuinely unique gameplay aspects at all, it is in the introduction of visors. Yet in practice all of the mechanics these visors bring to the table feel more like chores than satisfying new abilities. As I already mentioned, the scan visor amounts to nothing more than a glorified Wikipedia browser and creates massive pacing issues in a game that already suffers from many pacing issues, and the other visors do nothing more than make cosmetic changes to how you see the environment around you; most often in ways that only make it harder to see what you're doing, so you just want to get through with it quickly and turn the visor back off. Literally the sole new feature that Prime's first person perspective offers is just a nuisance more than anything, so there's no point to any of this.

The truth of the matter is, we now know through developer interviews that the only reason this game ended up in first person was because some business brainlets over at Nintendo of Japan insisted that Retro Studios should do this in order to make the game more appealing to a western market. It had nothing to do with presenting an interesting new gameplay angle to the series; it was just a marketing gimmick for the west. That's it. And Retro's devs rightfully fought against this decision quite aggressively, but eventually Nintendo won out. It's honestly astonishing that it was an error on Nintendo's part, as usually they have better instincts than western developers when it comes to gameplay considerations, but this was a rare case of the reverse. It's a shame Retro didn't push back just a little harder; things could have turned out so much different.

Yes, I just spent over half this review fixating on Prime's first person perspective, but it's because this single design choice influences every other aspect of the game in ways that I think many vastly underestimate, and it cannot be overstated how much it detrimentally affects the core Metroid formula. Solid platforming and movement is central to any good metroidvania, and it's very hard to translate those mechanics to a first person environment. Imagine how disorienting it would be to play a Mario game entirely in first person for example. Sure you might be able to get it functional, but any slightly more sophisticated moves like backflips or mid-air ground pounds would feel pretty awkward not being able to see the full environment around you. Inevitably many aspects of the gameplay would be compromised, and with Metroid it's no different. It's simply not a good idea, which makes it especially frustrating to me that the fanbase has so thoroughly latched onto this as the definitive 3D Metroid formula.

If Prime Remastered receives criticism at all from anyone outside of myself, players tend to focus on its lack of checkpoints or fast travel. However, I think this demonstrates a misunderstanding of where its real problems lie, as any proper Metroid game should never need any of these additions. After all, the numerous hallway fights with space pirates in the phazon mines wouldn't be such a slog if the shooting in the game actually felt fun, and the artifact hunt wouldn't feel half as laborious if Samus could move as nimbly as she does in the sidescrollers. Part of the fun of a good Metroid game is basking in the immersive atmosphere of its world and wanting to spend more time exploring every last corner for hidden secrets, but this gameplay loop only works when the movement mechanics match the quality of the world design. Backtracking never feels like busywork in Super Metroid because speed boosting and screw attacking my way through Brinstar never grows tiresome. So the key to fixing Metroid Prime isn't making it easier to skip over content, but to actually make that content fun to engage with in the first place.

Prime's design is incredibly devious because it's so good at tricking players into thinking it's much better than it actually is through sheer bedazzlement with its production values and atmosphere. Despite all my complaints about the first person perspective, lackluster combat, and sluggish movement, most of this is subtle and slips under the radar at first to the average player. The game distracts you with its absolutely stunning visuals and casts a hypnotic spell with its impeccable soundtrack, all the while initially being careful to not make enemies too aggressive or annoying, and mixes in some solid puzzles for good measure. But by the time players encounter the back half of the game and are bombarded by a barrage of frustrations from the likes of the chozo ghosts, phazon mines, artifact hunt, and obnoxiously lengthy final boss battle, the idea has already solidified in their minds that Metroid Prime is a great game, and even if they end up quitting from the extreme padding before they reach the end, all they'll likely remember is that strong first impression. Yet we must be willing to point out how problematic these gameplay elements are because I truly believe they are holding back the franchise from greatness.

Contrary to what some may believe after reading all this, I criticize this game because I love Metroid. I expect better of Metroid. It deserves better. I think we can have a 3D Metroid that has all the shiny bells and whistles of a AAA production, but without sacrificing the quality metroidvania gameplay that equally made this series so special. Just free Samus from the chains of first person already. I promise you, there are many, many more ways you can design a 3D Metroid game besides this or Other M. Imagine what it could be with the speed and fluidity of Dread combined with the jaw-dropping immersive visuals of Prime. Sadly with Metroid Prime 4 now on the horizon, I fear we may be in for another couple decades of this franchise being held back by a stale and deeply flawed formula.

But, at the end of the day, Metroid Prime is a competently made game with impressive visuals and an atmospheric soundtrack that all lives up to the franchise's pedigree. It's just too bad that it couldn't be more than only competent and very pretty to look at.