Promotional artwork for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond featuring Samus Aran in her iconic Power Suit, reaching out with an open hand glowing with purple energy. She holds her arm cannon at her side against a background of a purple-hued landscape, featuring massive architectural structures and rows of distant statues under a cloudy sky.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Played on:
  • Nintendo Switch logo
Time played:
25 hours
Rating:
Liked

I was extremely excited for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but after finally playing through it, I have some seriously mixed feelings. First off, the presentation is out of this world. It features absolutely stunning graphics on the Switch 2, and I think it's one of the prettiest games on the platform so far. The environments, the lighting, and the details on Samus's suit look jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

That said, the actual flow of the game didn't engage me as much as I would have hoped. It felt a little too handholdy at times, which isn't really what I want from a Metroidvania. The very first character you encounter is kind of annoying. Thankfully, the handholding isn't completely intrusive throughout the entire game, but it still pops up enough to dampen that classic feeling of isolation.

Compounding that issue is the fact that the game feels a bit linear. Instead of the organic, deeply interconnected world-weaving of the classic entries, this one funnels you through a more structured progression. Because of that, exploring just didn't feel nearly as rewarding or fun as it did in the previous Metroid Prime games.

By far the worst part of the game, though, has to be the massive central desert hub that you're forced to traverse over and over again to get between biomes. There is almost absolutely nothing to do out there. Driving Samus's motorcycle back and forth across a giant, empty sandbox felt like pure padding and became a total chore rather than a fun mechanic.

At the end of the day, it's a visually impressive game, but it highlighted something for me: personally, I just prefer 2D Metroid to the Prime iterations. The 3D formula can be great, but while playing Beyond, I wished I was playing Dread instead.

The logo screen for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond displayed in metallic white and glowing pink text over a dark, swirling cosmic background. A purple banner near the bottom reads Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
Screenshot from Metroid Prime 4 showing Samus's arm cannon in the lower right foreground. The player is looking out at a vast, mountainous alien landscape dominated by a massive, bioluminescent tree on the left, under a blue heads-up display (HUD) framing the visor's view.
Third-person gameplay screenshot from Metroid Prime 4 showing Samus Aran in her sleek, red and black Varia Suit standing in a vast desert landscape. Behind her stands a massive, robed statue with outspread arms under a light purple sky.
Cinematic screenshot from Metroid Prime 4 showing Samus Aran in her metallic red and black armor. She extends an open hand over a dark basin, with glowing green crystal fragments floating and crackling with energy above her palm.