Metroid Prime 4: Beyond | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''THE LEGEND OF SAMUS''

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Developed: Retro Studios

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Action/Adveture

Release Date: December 4th, 2025

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch

*Review copy provided to me by Nintendo

Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is the latest adventure for our girl Samus and it is developed by Retro Studios and Published by Nintendo. With the recent Metroid Dread being a resounding success for the series both in reception and sales, fans then eagerly awaited the arrival of its next big mainline game, a new Prime title. But does Beyond live up to the hype? or should there have been a different approach taken here? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''HAVING A BALL''

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GAMEPLAY:

Oh man, its time to harness my inner Rose Dawson and say what everyone else has been thinking... ''Its been 84 years''. Well it hasnt exactly been 84 years, but it definitely feels that way considering this title was originally announced in 2017 and then rebooted and restarted its development again shortly after that, completely skipping the Switch era... or so we thought. Now flashing forward to 2025 and in that time we've had the awesome Metroid Dread to hold us over while wait we wait for the perceived ''main event'' to arrive with Metroid Prime 4 Beyond. Look, I'll be honest, I won't claim to be the know it all Metroid fan or heck even the biggest fan in general, I've played the titles, enjoyed the games but as far as becoming a die hard fan and knowing every ounce of lore, ya, that's not me. Now if you let me rant all day about something like Final Fantasy 7, then yeah, you'll never get me to shut up no matter how much you try, heck you can even throw Final Fantasy 10 into the mix as well... but we'll wait for January next year to get more into that one, trust me. My point is even though I'm not the most ''up to date'' person on how deep the franchise goes, the one thing I do know is the franchise for a very long time has been in some pretty stressful situations, and to be fair, isnt in a very healthy state. Over the course of many years, the Metroid franchise has taken some rather odd turns or questionable directions with the series, such as the weird direction that was taken with the 3.D.S. title, Metroid Prime Federation Force and even Other M, that changed the perception of what people saw with Samus with her dialogue and overall character direction, even though, personally, I thought gameplay wise the game was fine, everything else beyond that, was just...super meh. Sales wise Metroid also hasn't been the talk of the town, even though hardcore Metroid fans love to do just that, ''talk'', rather than purchase the games they say they love, with the highest selling game, not counting re-releases, coming in at just over 3 million sales, achieved in 2021. Keep in mind this franchise next year is celebrating its 40th anniversary and its highest selling game is 3 million.. while that's not overly ideal, its still not terrible either to be completely fair, considering how big Samus is herself in the main scheme of things and how worldwide she as a character is so beloved.. I mean heck, she was one of the first kick butt women in gaming, so yall better give her those dang flowers she's earned, just saying. My point is this franchise has seen ups, its has its downs, its struggled, but its pushed through, and Prime 4, in the vein of the success of the other Prime games, aims to get it back on track and keep the momentum going that Metroid Dread has afforded to it.

From the get go here in Metroid Prime 4, which I will just shorten to ''Beyond'' going forward, you will realize that not much has changed since the Prime days or even classic Metroid feel, but strangely at the same time of feeling that bit of nostalgia, you'll notice that yes, there's also very much that's changed too, and now it combines what worked in the previous Prime trilogy, fixes any missteps they had and now combines it make it feel like a love child between the Metroid series itself and The Legend Of Zelda. I know I know, on paper that seems like a rather odd combination, however, when you look back at this franchise itself, is it REALLY that much of a stretch? personally, I don't think so, but purist who know more than me can definitely say otherwise and that would be fine as well. Beyond is a first person shooter that mixes and balances all elements of the franchise with its engaging and intense combat, puzzles, stunning atmosphere and platforming, and its opening, for better or for worse, depending on who you ask, has Samus making her grand entrance, ala Halo style as she flies through enemy gunfire and an overall chaotic battlefield that she narrowly avoids in order to begin her original objective as to why she's on this planet to begin with, and immediately upon landing, you'll be thrusted into action and begin learning what the game has to offer you right off the bat with new abilities and ways to fight being opened up to you as you participate on combat to destroy fiends, taking on boss fights and even coming face to face with ugly boy Sylux himself. Oh man, this fool is lucky I don't have my Eleven powers from Stranger Things, otherwise bro is going through a wall, but never mind, that couldnt work even if I wanted it to, Samus isn't bald... curses Sylux you win this day, you proclaim as you suddenly get warped away by some mysterious artifact. Wait wait back up, hang on, if being bald means you have the strongest psychic ability powers, does that mean Sinead O Connor is the strongest being alive in the Stranger Things universe? mind blown. When you awaken, you're on a planet named Viewros and like like many many other games do, you now have lost all your weapons and even your abilities. Great, now I just feel like Falco in Star Fox and understand his grouchyness. GEE IVE BEEN SAVED BY FOX, HOW SWELL. I dont like having my weapons and abilities stolen in Castlevania Symphony Of The Night and I do not like it here, but alas I'll live, after a bit of raging out of course. But we'll have time to rage later, we need to regain our focus and get back to seeing what Beyond has to offer us as the players.

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''WE MUST GO THROUGH THE MINES OF MORIA''

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The more you push through the story, the more the narrative opens up as you scan items around the world, find log books that feed bits and pieces of lore for you to uncover, get haunted by ghost like alien race priests who think you're Neo from The Matrix or something and dub you ''the chosen one''. Only there's no following the White Rabbit this time, but we have a Miles... which isn't a very good trade off, he can be rather annoying, but hey, I mean I've dealt with MUCH MUCH worse as far as video game companions go, so I can't complain too much... ya, that's right, I'm looking at you Fi and Adoring Fan. But since this isnt your home and you're basically trapped in Viewros, there's only one way to get yourself back home and that's to follow the yellow brick road, find the Wizard Of Oz and tap your red shoes together to get back home to Kansas... well sorta. While you won't be finding a wizard or tapping your shoes, you will be tasked with finding five Master Teleporter keys and these will be your way home, if and when you manage to obtain them all. Nothing to it right? easy peezy. The map system in this game opens up your adventure to multiple opportunities, whether you just want to go straight through the story itself or locate areas in the map that offer you ways to obtain various upgrades such as further expansions of your missiles as you cruise around on your motorcycle named the VioLa, which is a capable of being summoned immediately, much like mounts from other M.M.O. style of games. One of my early gripes about using this motorcycle isnt even anything major that effects the gameplay itself, but more so that I cant' do a super awesome Akira slide. I mean come on, that's dropping the ball there, but oh well, at least Samus still hops on and off the VioLa in style with some cool backflips, so at least that's something. Using the VioLa, you traverse the hub area that's basically just a large desert that has green crystals to find that give you upgrades, shrines to find, power ups, and while it is fun due to it giving you a break from the normal style of gameplay, it can be however perceived as ''empty''. Now the major question on everyone's minds that hasn't played his yet is, ''is this just another open world game'' and I have to say, remember when I brought up The Legend Of Zelda earlier? well that comes into play here because while Sol Valley is decent in size, its still not on the level of what you'd traditionally think of with open world games, such as Tears Of The Kingdom, and more akin to Ocarina Of Time's world map that gave you the illusion of open world that allowed you traverse from Hyrule Field to your next town and destination such as a farm or your next dungeon... think of Prime 4 and Sol Valley in the same exact way and you'll get what they're going for. By invoking a balance between the original Prime game, and again, Ocarina Of Time, with its combat to puzzle to exploration ratio, it allows the game to breathe better than it would if it just focused on one of those aspects over the other and lets long playthrough sessions feel like more of an adventure than that of a tedious chore as you use scanner and map to find targets, hidden items, routes, key places of interest etc, it all flows well and makes the times where you have to backtrack feel rewarding, rather than a nightmare headache inducer like I've raged about in past reviews I've made. Also I know, I didn't forget, I mentioned SAND, so insert the mandatory Anakin hates sand scene and were good.

Fighting mini bosses is always a great time with each one having a different mechanic and new way to take them down with other areas explored evolving over time and changing the more you progress through the story, Morph Ball elevators, being able to mark and ping where to find collectibles or items of significance, like of course the 5 keys you need to obtain, as well as upgrades to your weapons like when you got from a normal Thunder Shot weapon to something more substantial like Psy bolt - there's just a ton of things to find, do and upgrade, but in between the exploring and upgrading, what do you ACTUALLY do? you know gameplay wise?. Well obviously you got your awesome Arm cannon pew pew action going, because come on, its not a Metroid game without some Danny Devito ''SO I JUST STARTED BLASTING'' going on. Using the D-pad on your controller you're freely able to switch from missiles, fire, thunder ice and various other elemental shots, which by the way, all these can be upgraded should you choose or want to, obtain Psychic crystals from those crazy ol ghosts again to obtain psychic abilities such as psychic boost ball and even a psychic themed grapple that allows you to pull, whip and use on puzzles to move door locks when activated. Combat gets smoother as well by using Z.L. to lock on foes, and aim for an enemies weak spot, whether you feel like letting the game do the work for you by finding said weak spots on its own, or if you choose to say the heck with that and use Free Aim mode instead and want to test your own aiming abilities out yourself and find out whether that's a good or bad thing, depending on your own skill level. The game also gives you several options on how you wish to play as well, such as your traditional straight forward with a normal control scheme, using Gyro aiming in handheld mode or with your Pro controller, or once again, my favorite edition to Switch 2 this generation, which I've harped on about over and over, is of course Mouse Mode. Using Mouse Mode makes things feel very much similar in way to playing an F.P.S. on your P.C. but using your leg, couch, mousepad or your desk to be able to move and aim around, but... even though it does feel pretty good, I still very much prefer the old fashioned way of just using a proper controller, just my personal preference...but hey, at least everyone has options.

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''CATCHING SOME SWEET AIR''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day Metroid Prime 4 Beyond exceeded my own personal expectations in a very surprising way. Sure its not perfect with Sol Valley sand hub being a tad bit empty and not was expansive as Nintendo's other ''open world'' attempts, some areas feeling a bit ''playing it safe'', Companion characters like Miles being a tad bit jarring at first when he wont shut up, but luckily afterwards becomes a non-factor overall, etc. But with awesome new psychic power ups to use to overtake normal enemies and bosses, including mini bosses, graphics that really send home the atmosphere of the planet and world that help keep you immersed in the adventure and each areas mystery, ethereal like music that leaves you in awe at times, and gameplay in both Sol Valley and in the games dungeons that invoke the sense of Zelda and Ocarina Of Time due to where the way these explorable dungeons are laid out and how you navigate them and solve their puzzles, etc. It honestly makes me realize what Zelda itself is missing nowadays, even though I loved Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom. Were missing iron clad dungeons and the sense of exploration and puzzle solving and Metroid Prime 4 Beyond here gives me that in chunks and superbly blends both the Prime style and Zelda style together to make this an extremely fun experience, even with some of its shortcomings getting in the way of it reaching the perfection of the series. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW

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