After years of rumors and speculation about the Metroid Prime trilogy making its way to the Switch, Nintendo finally opened the door by announcing Metroid Prime Remastered during a Nintendo Direct presentation broadcast in early February 2023. Immediately following the reveal, the game remastered the acclaimed GameCube action/adventure first-person shooter from In 2002, it was released digitally via the eShop, quickly rising to the top of the competitive sales charts. However, some Metroid fans have decided to wait a few weeks until the physical version of the game hits store shelves, launching on February 22nd in North America and March 3rd in Europe. With those dates quickly approaching, let’s explore whether Metroid Prime is really worth your Metroid time.
On a technical level, Metroid Prime Remastered is much more than a typical remaster. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD rendered the game at a higher resolution and included some quality-of-life features, but the visuals remained mostly the same. The differences between “remaster” and “remake” can be a bit confusing, and while Metroid Prime Remastered doesn’t qualify as a full remake, it’s certainly impressive in its own right. While the core gameplay remains unchanged, graphical elements such as textures, models, and lighting effects have all been drastically improved if not completely replaced, somehow managing to run at a perfectly smooth 60 frames per second in the process. Retro Studios, along with the many other developers who worked on the project, really knocked it out of the park by making a two-decade-old game brand new. I can’t stress enough how gorgeous this game looks on the Switch OLED.
As for what hasn’t changed, Metroid Prime has aged very gracefully, with the same level of polish and quality care you’d expect from a modern first-person shooter. Despite being Samus Aran’s first venture into 3D, the non-linear exploration genre of the Metroid series was excellently adapted, even to this day, thanks to the exceptional skill of the world itself. Unlike some classic FPS games of the era, which were stereotypically made with mindless violence as the main selling point, playing through Metroid Prime requires strong puzzle-solving skills and a pretty good sense of direction. Based on your cognitive ability in this regard, it will take you between 10-20 hours to complete the game.
Metroid Prime’s world isn’t completely open, but it’s far from linear. You start with a limited number of locations you can access, but as you progress through the game, the world opens up more and more. Different biomes are separated by the use of elevators, but load times are so instantaneous that it’s hardly a burden. However, as your world map gets bigger, it’s easy to get lost, especially since backtracking is so deliberately commonplace. Still can’t open a certain door? You’ll have to come back to it later. It can be a bit tedious at times, but the environments are so beautifully designed that you’ll likely come across something new every time you revisit an area you’ve already explored. Just make sure you frequent your save stations… or you’ll unfortunately lose hours of progress like I did.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Metroid Prime sees you play as Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter, as you explore and traverse the alien planet Tallon IV. Instead of the story being told solely through cutscenes or dialogue like in most games, the context of your mission is mostly provided by manually analyzing objects and enemies with your Scan Visor. This not only helps the world feel incredibly robust, but also encourages the exploration aspect, as it really makes you feel like you’re discovering and exploring things on your own. Everything you scan with your visor is practically written into a log that you can access at any time, which can be useful if you forget the weaknesses of an alien you’re trying to defeat, or if you just want to go back and take in the extensive lore some more.
Samus is equipped with not only a visor, but also a Power Suit, Arm Cannon and Morph Ball. The Power Suit is your armor, the Arm Cannon is your weapon, and the Morph Ball does exactly as it suggests, turning you into a ball so you can get into hard-to-reach places. All these tools can be upgraded by purchasing different modules. Using these found upgrades is what allows you to access new areas, defeat various enemy aliens and complete intense boss battles. Each module adds a new mechanic to your arsenal that helps prevent gameplay from stalling. Almost all of the options are fun to use, with the exception of the thermal visor, which left me feeling disoriented, but luckily it only needs to be used for a short time.
Retro Studios has made sure to include every control option you could ever want, meaning that at least one of the four available configurations is sure to suit your needs. “Classic” faithfully replicates the original controls of the GameCube version, “Pointer” closely emulates the Wii port allowing motion controls for the camera and aiming, “Hybrid” adds motion controls to the GameCube’s control scheme, and “Dual Stick” is a modern, more traditional control method. I personally opted for the Dual Stick controls, but whichever you choose, rest assured that you’ll have a blast exploring, gathering information, solving puzzles, and destroying unique menacing creatures on the mysterious planet of Tallon IV.
Metroid Prime Remastered takes the already perfect GameCube classic and makes it even better by significantly updating its visuals and controls. With an affordable price, Metroid Prime Remastered is an absolute must-have for any Nintendo Switch owner, even if you played it on Wii/Wii U through the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I envy those who experience the magic of this underrated gem for the first time. Hopefully the similarly remastered versions of Metroid Prime 2 and 3 will also come to Switch sooner rather than later, so we can all prepare for the upcoming main thing that is Metroid Prime 4.
9/10
A copy of Metroid Prime Remastered for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK.
