Review: Metroid Prime 4 Feels Exactly How I Expected

While there is a point to Samus’ latest adventure, story isn’t the most in-your-face element of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It is there. But some of the narrative comes from incidental elements. Overheard conversations from Galactic Federation officers at Tanamaar’s UTO Research Center help shape things. Insights from Lamorn priests’ messages we encounter and scanned remnants of their civilization on Viewros can be pulled together to figure out their history. Commentary from folks like Galactic Federation members Myles MacKenzie, Nora Armstrong, and Ezra Duke sometimes makes him feel like both sidekicks and narrators, with Myles especially coming up a bit. However, I felt that input and “conversations” with characters makes the fact that Samus is such a silent sort of protagonist stand out in a negative way. I don’t think these additional characters are a bad addition, and I even appreciated their insights and intel. The fact they will often say things that would merit some sort of response, and Samus says nothing, feels awkward. 

I’m also glad we finally got more insight into what’s going on with Sylux. He’s been a looming, mysterious figure in the Metroid series since 2006! However, maybe because it did take almost 20 years, I also felt a bit of a “well, that happened” reaction. Others may feel differently! I almost wished the pacing had been adjusted a bit to somehow feature more of him, though he is featured prominently. I think in my case, there was all this build-up to him being properly featured as an antagonist, so it was difficult for the final result to meet the hype and theories I had over the years and as I played.

As for gameplay, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond follows in the footsteps of the previous entries, with players inside Samus’ suit for an FPS with occasional platforming elements. There’s no hiding behind cover here. You dodge, jump, turn into a Morph Ball, and hope for the best. The default essentially involves her locking on to an enemy with the press of a trigger, but it is possible to use mouse mode, the joystick, or the gyroscope for free aiming. As with every entry, she’ll also acquire new technologies that enable different sorts of attacks or profession methods, in this case in the form of psychic abilities. These aren’t limited to being used in boss fights, with some standard enemies and foes I sort of considered “minibosses” making good use of them. There are also ample opportunities to use the Morph Ball outside of a means of “ducking” in battle, as it is used for getting to certain areas, dropping bombs, and triggering certain switches. Platforming is also an element, with Samus dodging elements like electrical currents or fire and scaling platforms to reach higher locations.

Speaking of which, the psychic abilities in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond are often exceptional and my favorite part of the game. Almost immediately after getting to Viewros, Samus starts gaining access to these new abilities. Some are as simple as a visor scanning augment and a psychic glove for manipulating the energies and specific environmental objects. However, another early example is a Control Beam that lets you fire a charged psychic shot and then direct it to reach a certain place. Time is “paused” while this happens, allowing you to solve puzzles that involve hitting multiple triggers at once or bosses with multiple nodes that need to be hit. Another eventually makes use of the Morph Ball Psychic Bomb, as you can charge up when you lay one, then use the glove to grab it and throw it at a particular target. Some of these elements can involve traversal, such as only being able to use certain platforms if Samus’ armor is properly augmented with the boots to stand on them. While I sometimes didn’t feel like some locations offered a lot of excuses to go back with psychic abilities acquired later, I could see spots in locales like Fury Green or Volt Forge that hinted at what abilities would come up next. The only downside to it is the time and precision sometimes needed to use them and energy limitations associated with them. An example is that the Control Beam “charge” can take some time to use, and there are a few opponents who need that type of attack to become prone, but strike swift enough to keep me from building it up.

As for those early areas, they’re honestly quite straightforward and even simple. I never felt like any of the puzzles in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond were exceptionally challenging, but those two locations especially feel like they lacked any real thought when it comes to the tasks that involve using your brain to figure out how to use psychic skills to keep moving forward. Certain types of triggers are pretty obvious after their initial introduction, and I never found myself wondering what I needed to do next to keep making meaningful progress. It almost feels like there’s a bit of a pacing issue in general, with the early areas feeling a little simple and, while I don’t want to say too much for sake of spoilers, later plot beats also feel like they don’t move at a steady, natural clip.

Said early areas also aren’t all that dangerous, though things do start to ramp up once you hit the second part of Volt Forge. The only emotion these, and a handful of later spots, inspired in me were curiosity. While there are a few altercations, both the forest and the factory feel more like they’re about establishing ambiance and showcasing different elements of Viewros than making it feel like Samus is ever in any actual danger. Sure, in Volt Forge I did get ganged up on occasionally, but I felt like it takes time for real threats and a sense of pressure to build up. Both spots look and sound great, as do many others that Nintendo mentioned before or that would be spoilers. I especially loved the use of the Morph Ball and how it starts to feel even more meaningful in Volt Forge and beyond. The insights that came from scanning everything in that factory and Ice Belt are interesting too, though I did sort of feel like I did more scanning and lore acquisition in the original trilogy. Likewise, Sol Forge can feel more like a means of connecting locations than a fascinating overworld space. Maybe this will sound silly, but it almost reminded me of running around Gran Pulse toward the end of Final Fantasy XIII? It looks interesting and sometimes there will be an enemy encounter or thing to get, but there’s really not much to do there compared to the main biomes.

The introduction of the Vi-O-La motorcycle ends up feeling practical, and I loved the way in which Retro introduced it in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Once we gain access to it, there are times when we use it to explore the planet or sometimes briefly in locations. It can even be summoned The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom style with a press of a button, though Samus isn’t really “whistling” like Link does to make it show up. It helps emphasize the idea of exploring and traveling across a planet, and I found it did make it easier to reach outcroppings of the green crystals I’d need to collect when going between locations. The counter-attacking feels much more natural than I expected too, which I appreciated! But again, it feels like a means of getting to certain places faster and to establish ambiance.

While some spots early in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond can make it feel like I’m supposed to take in the scenery, explore, and appreciate what I’m learning about the location more than thinking or fighting, I will say the boss fights all feel really fantastic. While Aberax feels a tutorial fight for her different types of attacks, charges, Morph Ball dodges, and jumps, it also is well-designed and makes you think about her movements. Ones that come up later can incorporate different psychic abilities, building on what we’ve done in our journey to gain access to areas and flip switches. This is on top of them often looking visually impressive. They can combine platforming, using psychic abilities like the Control Beam, and pattern recognition to successfully understand what the foes are doing and how you can use your techniques effectively. I found the fights after Volt Forge most interesting mechanically and challenging, with difficulty scaling in a satisfactory way. In fact, there’s one fight in the second tower there that really made me think about how clever it was and what order in which to take steps to defeat it.

I played Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on the Switch 2, and I felt like the extra features were most impressive when playing the game docked and dealing with either large numbers of enemies or bosses. Performance Mode is perfect for that, as it absolutely hit 120fps and felt so smooth. It was almost jarring how seamless it all looked. (It was so sharp and responsive that in certain locations with certain types of enemies, like two situations in Volt Forge, Performance Mode strained my eyes a bit. But I do have a minor vision impairment in one eye that can occasionally exacerbate that in FPS games and third-person shooters.) Pair that with using mouse mode for boss fights or situations when the Control Beam could be best approach, and it feels so fantastic. I will say to be careful about your finger slipping over the mouse sensor if you change positions though, as sometimes mine could get in the way of the sensor. Quality Mode is is also great, and I found I appreciated it most while in places where there were a lot of different colors or environmental details to take in like Fury Green, Sol Valley, or Flare Pool. I think I’d say I preferred playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in Quality Mode in Handheld mode on the Switch 2 for exploration, then dropping it into the dock for boss fights with mouse controls. 

I love how Metroid Prime 4: Beyond looks and plays, but it sometimes doesn’t feel as narratively satisfying or mentally stimulating as the original trilogy. Psychic abilities feel fantastic. The Switch 2 mouse controls are a great option for fights. Finally, my curiosity about Sylux isn’t eating away at me. I’m glad Retro Studios and Nintendo finally finished it! But its story didn’t hit in the same way the Metroid Prime trilogy did and I didn’t feel tested by its puzzles. 

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will come to the Switch and Switch 2 on December 4, 2025.