Introduction
Basic information
Developer Name: Nintendo / Retro Studios
Full Name: Metroid Prime 4 Beyond
Release Date: 2026
Released on: Switch 1/2
Cross Play: No
Initial thoughts
I have waited a very long time for Metroid Prime 4. Eighteen years is not a small amount of time, and during that wait I replayed the original trilogy endlessly. I sequence-broke them, experimented with routing, and squeezed every last bit of atmosphere and mechanical depth out of them, exactly how Metroid games are meant to be played. So finally booting up Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch 2 was surreal.
And the truth is: it is a good game. It controls well, looks impressive, and has flashes of genuine Metroid brilliance. But it also feels rushed, strangely constrained, and often disconnected from what makes Metroid feel like Metroid. The disappointment does not come from hatred, it comes from expectation, history, and the feeling that this could have been so much more. It almost feels like Mochtroid Prime instead!
Story and setting
Plot overview
The plot feels surprisingly thin for a game that took so long to reach release. Only one NPC feels properly fleshed out, while the rest seem to exist purely to push objectives forward. Many interactions feel as if cutscenes were removed or shortened late in development. This does reinforce a sense of isolation, but not in the intentional, environmental way Metroid usually excels at; instead, it feels like narrative content is simply missing.
Sylux returning should have been huge. We see him in the intro cutscene, and then he essentially vanishes until the final boss. Yes, there is a fake psybot stand-in, but that does not meaningfully build tension. By the time you reach the Chrono Tower and see Sylux hooked into tubes like some forgotten experiment, the moment raises more questions than intrigue. It feels abrupt rather than climactic.
World building and immersion
World-building is where the game begins to unravel. Metroids have very clear rules in the franchise. Before Metroid II, attempts to modify them resulted in Mochtroids, unstable, imperfect copies. Here, suddenly, Sylux has perfectly cloned a Metroid stolen in Federation Force and somehow turned it into something that behaves like an X parasite, the very organism Metroids exist to hunt.
This breaks internal logic. These Metroids fuse with hosts, infect bosses, and yet cause no ecological devastation on the planet Viewros. Metroids are apex predators that collapse ecosystems, yet here they exist in isolation with no visible consequences. This contradiction is never explained, and without scans or logs to justify it, immersion suffers badly.
Character development
Character development is minimal. NPCs exist to talk at Samus rather than grow alongside her. Samus herself remains entirely silent, which feels wrong. She is not a mute protagonist; she traditionally speaks sparingly but meaningfully. Here, even moments that beg for acknowledgment pass without a single line, making her feel oddly detached.
Emotional impact
The emotional impact is muted. Major events occur, but they rarely land with weight. Sacrifices, fake, and real, feel hollow, especially when gameplay immediately contradicts their supposed importance. Without strong character grounding or consistent lore, emotional beats struggle to resonate.
Rating for story and setting
I have visited multiple aspects of the story, and after some thought and objective thinking, I rated the story and setting with an 5.
Gameplay and mechanics
Core gameplay mechanics
At its core, Metroid Prime 4 plays well. Psychic abilities are genuinely fun, allowing beam manipulation and creative bomb usage. Viola, the desert bike, is a welcome addition mechanically, though it feels underused. However, the radio system being locked behind an Amiibo is baffling, especially when its unlock conditions are unclear even after 100% completion.
The biggest mechanical disappointment is guidance. Instead of organic exploration, an NPC constantly tells you exactly where to go, whether you want that help or not. This strips away the joy of discovery. A fusion-style navigation terminal system would have preserved player agency while still offering direction when needed.
Difficulty and balance
Difficulty is inconsistent. Combat is generally fair, but the constant guidance and upgrade gating remove much of the challenge traditionally found in navigation and routing. The game rarely asks the player to truly think spatially.
Pacing of the game
Pacing is uneven. The early game feels carefully built, but later sections rush forward rapidly. Four of the five main areas are facilities with cosmetic variations, snow, lava, underground, lightning. Which makes the game feel visually and structurally repetitive. I also have the idea that four areas are scrapped; this can be seen in the hub and the final boss battle. Four missing slots, four rings not lighting up in the teleporter.
Innovation and uniqueness
Psychic mechanics are the standout innovation, but they are not pushed far enough. Many ideas feel introduced and then abandoned rather than fully explored.
Controls and user interface
Controls are excellent and responsive. The UI is functional, though somewhat sterile compared to earlier entries.
Microtransactions
There are no traditional microtransactions, but locking features like the radio behind a $30 Amiibo is a concerning practice. Metroid has great music, I would have loved to test this.
Rating
After combing through many of the mechanics, the pacing and other factors of this game, I rated the gameplay and mechanics with a 7.
Graphics and art style
Quality of graphics and art direction
Visually, the game is impressive, but enemy variety is severely lacking. Grievers dominate the roster. We have sand grievers, fire grievers, energized grievers, and maul grievers, creating visual fatigue. Early worlds show promise, but later ones feel rushed. There are a few other monsters, but I am almost done naming them all if I say a few robots and some bee like creatures.
Technical performances
Performance is solid overall, but the lack of variety and reuse of assets becomes increasingly noticeable the further you progress.
Environment and design uniqueness
Environmental design peaks early. Later areas recycle themes heavily, making the world feel smaller than it should.
Rating
It took me some time to give the graphics and art style an objective rating. There are many things to consider, but ultimately, I rated this section with a 7.0.
Sound and music
Music score and how it contributed to the game
The soundtrack is epic and atmospheric, but the absence of the radio system dampens its impact. Whether it can be unlocked remains unclear. As of now, I have 100% the entire game, no radio unlock so far.
Sound effects quality
Sound effects are strong and impactful, especially weapon feedback.
Voice Acting
NPC voice acting is fine, but Samus’ silence is a major issue. She traditionally speaks briefly at critical moments, showing care and resolve. Here, even near death situations elicit no response, making interactions feel one sided.
Rating
After a lot of consideration, I rated the sound and music section with a 7.
Replayability
Game Length and content volume
A 100% run takes roughly 14 hours, which feels short after such a long development cycle. This game has fewer areas to explore compared to the other three Metroid Prime games.
Extra Content
Aside from hard mode, there is little additional content at launch.
Replay value
The inability to sequence break meaningfully hurts replayability. Upgrades are gated through NPC chips, and attempting early acquisition can softlock the game. This is the opposite of what Metroid encourages.
Rating
After thoughtful consideration, I decided to rate the replayability and game length of Metroid Prime 4 with a 5.
Suggestions and comparisons
Suggestions and feedback
The game needs more freedom, clearer unlock systems, deeper lore explanations, and less forced guidance. Like mentioned before, some scans would be neat on the Mochtroids. (Yes, they are Mochtroids to me until someone proves me otherwise.)
Comparisons
Compared to Metroid Prime 1, this game feels more restrictive, less mysterious, and less confident in player intelligence.
Plot Holes
Metroids cloned perfectly and behaving like X parasites with no explanation
Space Pirates absent despite universal teleportation
No ecological damage caused by Mochtroids on Viewros
Sylux modifying Metroids without explanation
Sylux infecting his own commander instead of Federation troopers
Fake sacrifice scene contradicted by enemy behavior
Sylux found hooked into Chrono Tower with no explanation
Mochtroids infecting only bosses breaks internal logic
Personal experiences and anecdotes
My feelings are conflicted. The game is fun, but short, rushed, and lore-inconsistent. Enemy repetition is extreme, scans are sterile compared to earlier games, the bike is underutilized, and the final boss is deeply frustrating, protecting fragile NPCs who die in one hit is not a satisfying finale.
A small but telling nitpick: Mochtroids now have one nuclear brain like core instead of their traditional structure. This could have been explained, a single scan would have solved so many issues, but instead it is left hanging.
Rating
Taking in all the personal experiences with Metroid Prime 4, I give it a personal rating of 6.5.
Last words
Pros
- Excellent controls
- Psychic mechanics are fun
- Strong soundtrack
- Visual fidelity
- Atmospheric early areas
- Solid combat feel
- Bike mechanics have potential
- Stable performance
- Classic Metroid framework still visible
Cons
- Rushed narrative
- Major lore contradictions
- Poor enemy variety
- Over-guidance
- Some repetitive side quests
- No meaningful sequence breaking
- Short length
- Silent Samus feels wrong
- Amiibo-locked features
- Weak final boss design (Altough Lockjaw was a nice surprise)
Metroid Prime 4 is a good game, but not a great one. It heavily carries the weight of its legacy but struggles to live up to it. With stronger lore cohesion, more freedom, and greater confidence in its players, it could have been exceptional. As it stands, it is enjoyable but undeniably disappointing.
FINAL RATING
6.5
Please let me know what you think of Metroid Prime 4 in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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I totally agree about the hand-holding, Metroid works best when you’re finding your own way.
Gotta find the way!
Tending to agree with this review. Atleast can always return to dread!
I am sad to say I sold Dread :O
Reading the reviews, it’s good to see that this game does have its interesting parts.
Still, I wonder what the reception would have been like if it weren’t a Metroid game, and if it weren’t viewed as a sequel to Metroid.
Would prob have been better, but the lore still would suck.
Being a Metroid game it should have been better
We waited so long!
From the review, I can feel that you really like this series. Sometime I do wonder if the developer ever hand out trial copies and collect feedback during the developement.
They got feedback, they did not listen.
Well, it’s good that you at least had some fun with it, despite the disappointment!
Great review, as always! 🙂
I do love me some Mochtroid.
Another informed review! Sad to see you are disappointed in a game from a series you like so much. Fortunately for me, I was not even aware of the series prior to the screenshot quest.
Maybe you can now try the series? (emulated since you do not own consoles, the older ones are very good.)
I like how they try and bring metroid into a new era with the full 3D, free movement and everything. Now they only have to bring the old storytelling back 😀 I hope they’ll continue with this. I’ve never played the original games, but I would be interested in something new like this.
Now get this gameplay to five, and get the lore back from the original games.
Which review did I read? Moch or Metroid? 😀
btw what is a Moch? :thinking:
First thought was it’s a fangame ^^. So it’s Metroid Prime 4, ported to switch without beeing Metroid Prime 4 anymore? That’s even worse than actively rebuilding some bugs in a remake 😀
A mochtroid is a failed attempt at cloning or modifying a Metroid.
As a non FPS player “enjoyable but undeniably disappointing” is not inviting me to try Metriod Prime 4. Maybe I should start with a previous sequel and see if it’s fun or not to get into this genre.
The original games were much better.
I don’t know the series very well, so thank you for the review.
Dang, seems a bit disappointing, good bones but poorly executed, hoped nintendo would do it some justice but guess not :/
I am glad to provide the review.
Seems they sacrificed narrative development a bit this happen too often in new games that they sacrifice something and games are not as complete because they are hurrying with release or dont have enough budget maybe? Guide should be optional/customizable with maybe running “on” at default but with option to stop it (during play the best). I wouldnt remove guidence completely from game. In general i think they should have worked more on game content to make it less repetetive.
Just make an option to switch guidance on or off. Often called explorer mode.
Honestly I never played any Metroid, cuz never had any Nintendo console, so could only play metroidvanias inspired by it :-). I also rarely play FPP games and prefer TPP. Anyway, it’s good that you had a little fun despite of disappointment.
Who knows, they might improve it, but Nintendo rarely does this and moves on.
i can look at before Halo games.
Halo also has guns and aliens!
I have seen the wait for Metroid 4 from the sidelines for a large part of my life and wondered why the discourse went silent after the title finally released, unlike than I had remembered being for Metroid Dread. This excellent review has illuminated me on why it is so.
I am glad you enjoyed reading this review.
Low Character development for a Metroid game is okay, isn’t it. But someone who constantly tells you where to go or what to do is something I really hate in games. Amiibo-locked features … meh … don’t like that one.
Amiibo locked features suck!
I really like the game. And it’s great that the Switch 1 version isn’t too far behind.
It is still a lot of fun.
This sounds like a game that took Metroid, kept the heart of it, but made it more kiddish in a sense with hand-holding, no voice, etc.
It is even Metroid, if you cannot find your own way in the game, and feel rewarded for it?
It is indeed catered more to the newer generation.
A bit of a letdown after such a long wait, eh? I would have expected more from Metroid game too, given how deep the lore is. Not sure why didn’t they just use that lore more. :/
They really should have used that lore.
Sounds like a bit of a disappointment, especially after such a long way. Although maybe there’s still a little fun to be found in it.
There is still fun to be found.
Poor enemy variety is a very big con for me, and it’s strange that they didn’t give Samus voice lines! It seems like they didn’t try to be very bold or creative
They just rushed the game, and edited multiple ideas together.
This review is informative and interesting. I agree with advantages and disadvantages of this project. Maybe this game will give more emotions for kids, which like flexible and interesting gameplay.
Yeah, they forgot the people who made Metroid Prime important in the first place.