For a while people feared this was going to be the Duke Nukem forever for Nintendo, a game announced and constantly set back. This happened as while it was announced early on with the Switch, Nintendo made the decision to without fanfare, came out in a video and added what they had was not good enough and the game had to be restarted. Then things went silent for years. But the game is here now. And a version of it for Switch 2. Now let’s not be arses and claim the time it took to arrive creates impossible hype and instead let’s look at it as it is.

The last core Metroid Prime game was the 3rd one out on the Wii. That was a long time ago, and despite it completing the Phazon story, if you 100% it ended on a cliff hanger. This cliff hanger continued to be teased in the Federation Force game, so the core aspect of the wait wasn’t so much when the game would be done, it was when would the cliff hanger be resolved, one resolving around the villainous bounty hunter Sylux the character from Metroid Prime Hunters that stood out more than the rest.

We have a game that had to be restarted in development and had to answer a cliff hanger to a character the previous games ended teasing. Fortunately it’s a good game.

I very much enjoy the original Metroid Prime, it’s a classic enjoyable experience. Starting the game up you get that feeling as you’re thrown into an attack on a Federation facility by Space Pirates led by Sylux who is also using Metroids to control people. This is sadly the only time Metroids really play into the plot, the main bosses supposedly have their involvement but it could be ignored and they don’t show up as enemies. Once you get to the main game, Sylux isn’t really a factor, which is a shame given this was meant to be the pay off for him, and you do learn his backstory or at least some of it if you 100% or get the amiibo.

The core exploratory nature to get power ups so you can explore more has returned. There are several core biomes that fit your classic theme of them that are connected by a central open Desert location. This bit is one of the main focuses on aspects as to traverse through it faster Samus gains access to a motorcycle. Though sadly this location is with one exception the only part of the game you really use it. Except for that one exception you don’t use it to explore the different zones, those are explored as Samus normally does.

These bits show some great moments of environmental story telling as the fate of the world is less told by scanning lore objects, but more revealed throughout the gameplace, there are minimal cutscenes you can find but also you can piece things together from the locations as you explore them.

How does the core gameplay feel? As mentioned, going into the game if you played the original, you will feel familiar with the core controls. New to the game are Psychic Powers that Samus gains fairly early on. Most of these however are just new forms of the classic abilities that were in earlier games but some of the earliest like the Psychic Shot are fairly new. I struggled with an element of the first major Boss until I remembered it existed and was the key to defeating them.

Samus is not alone in the game as there are several Federation troopers that Samus will find and assist her in the game. Since Samus doesn’t speak in game (last time she had major dialog was Other M so… Nintendo probably gun shy) The first one of these Myles MacKenzie will help Samus over the course of the game by supplying her with means to fire Elemental Shots. These have other upgrades you can find in the Desert area for bigger charged variants and are used in a lot of puzzles. The other characters are found as you explore the main story part of each of the major biomes. While some people complained about NPCs in Metroid, I liked them… though one bit later on felt a rather questionable use of them, especially with how the game ends.

To achieve that 100% ending will take quite a lot of work. Not only are there Green Energy Crystals in the Desert you have to hunt them down with the motorbike. There’s also finding all the items in the game, but also you need to get every Scan, and some Scans can be missed. Which did result in me having to switch to my Psychic Visor at the start of Combat worried if I’d miss a Scan. But I managed to do it, and didn’t miss one to get that 100% ending. The Scans are the scariest part of that as after you reach certain points of completion you gain access to Radar and Trackers to show where Green Energy Crystals or items you haven’t collected are.

Sadly if you missed some of those Scans, if you start up a new game plus your Scans get reset, so you don’t even get the heads up on the ones you missed, you just have to be extra careful to Scan everything again on a second play through.

Definitely this is a good continuation for the series. It’s not the height the first game was, but it manages to avoid many of the lows the later games reached. The hunt for objects at the end to open up the final location is nowhere near as bad as 2 and 3 where, especially 2 where that one I ended up having to look online, which I consider an instant fail. Nope you most likely found most of the objects needed to open up the end long before getting to this point, now you just need the means to collect them.

So yeah it’s a decent game and return to the Prime games.

Rating : 🎮🎮🎮🎮