When Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is good, it’s good. The latest in Nintendo’s sci-fi exploration franchise, and the first since Metroid Dread in 2021, Beyond captures the moody sense of isolation and discovery that has been so core to Metroid since it debuted in 1986. Those quiet moments truly make you feel all alone on a harsh alien planet, punctuated by intense action set pieces and some incredible boss fights. At its peak, the game is among the best in the series. The problem is that Nintendo added a whole bunch of stuff on top of that — including chatty companion characters and a boring, empty hub world — which gets in the way.
Despite the 4 in the title, Beyond is a largely standalone experience. The latest in bounty hunter Samus Aran’s many adventures starts in the midst of a war with some space pirates, before she finds herself mysteriously transported to a faraway world. The planet is typical Metroid stuff: Once home to an advanced civilization, it’s now covered with ancient technology lying in slumber, and all kinds of dangerous creatures. Early on Samus learns that the only way to get home is to find a series of “transporter keys” and take them to a giant tower. Oh, and the dead alien race, which look like talking axolotls, view her as a chosen one meant to fix the mistakes that led to their downfall, which expands her quest even further.
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Doing all of this involves the standard Metroid formula. You start out with only a few abilities — a gun and the ability to turn into a little ball — and steadily gain new ones, which let you further explore. The joy in a Metroid game comes from unraveling its intricately designed levels, spaces full of secrets and connections between them that usually only become apparent once you have the right ability or knowledge. You’ll regularly see doors that can only be opened with a weapon you don’t have yet, or ledges too high to reach with your current abilities.
Image: Nintendo
Rather than mess with what works, Beyond just does it really well. The levels both challenge your brain and are absolutely dripping with atmosphere. Sometimes that comes in the form of small details, like scurrying alien bugs or packs of wolves that watch your every movement. Other times, it’s more elaborate. In one abandoned factory level, you wander through eerie hallways filled with powered-down security bots. It’s very unsettling, and later, after you solve some complex technical challenges to get things up and running, the mood shifts completely as the bots come to life and attack you. Beyond has an excellent balance between solo exploration and action, with a handful of large-scale battles, including some white-knuckle boss fights. It also adds a few new tools to Samus’ arsenal with psychic powers that let her manipulate certain objects and slow down time to bend shots around obstacles.
If that’s exactly what Beyond was, it would be a brilliant game, and a welcome addition to the Metroid canon, one that was worth the near decadelong wait from announcement to launch. Unfortunately, Nintendo also decided to add some new and very un-Metroid elements to the game that dampen the experience.
First up are the new companion characters. It’s not like Samus has always worked solo — she previously had an AI guide in Metroid Fusion, for instance — but here the other characters are much more involved. Over the course of the game you’ll discover a handful of soldiers who were similarly transported to the planet, and you’ll spend much of the game working alongside them to get home.
This has a big impact on the game: While the story is usually background material in Metroid, where you can dig in as much or as little as you like, here it’s much more present because Samus isn’t alone. She’s still a silent protagonist, but her new crew — each of whom is a generic sci-fi archetype, ranging from nerdy gearhead to gruff sergeant — can be pretty chatty. This is mostly relegated to cutscenes in which people are constantly risking their life for Samus, though they’ll regularly chime in over the radio to provide hints as well. The dialogue doesn’t overwhelm the experience, but it also doesn’t add much to it; the characters are so forgettable that I found myself tuning them out.
Image: Nintendo
More frustrating is the new hub area. While much of your time in Beyond is spent in those well-designed levels, connecting each of them is a vast expanse of desert, which you traverse on an Akira-style motorcycle. At first, it’s very cool; blazing across a highway while heavy metal blares and lightning strikes gothic alien towers in the distance is an excellent introduction to the bike. But eventually it becomes clear that the desert is a bare and boring place. There are some basic shrines where you can solve simple puzzles to unlock new power-ups, and some space junk and other points of interest to investigate. Mostly, though, you’re speeding across an empty place while getting stuck in tedious vehicular battles.
This problem becomes even worse as you progress because of the game’s structure, which necessitates lots of backtracking. So every time you need to go back to an area to use one of your new power-ups or talk to a character, it means a long trek through nothing. The game eventually devolves into an unavoidable collect-a-thon near the end, which really kills Beyond’s momentum as you approach the conclusion.
These parts of the game are especially frustrating because otherwise Beyond does so much well. While Metroidvania has become an inescapable genre, the Prime games are still unmatched when it comes to bringing that style of exploration-heavy gameplay into a 3D world. Beyond is a fitting follow-up, but you really have to push through some drab and unnecessary additions to see its best moments.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches on December 4th on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
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