Metroid Prime 4 hands-on preview – the queen of Metroidvania returns

After almost two decades there’s finally a new Metroid Prime game but what does the new sequel bring to the table, and can it live up to the quality of the originals?

It is now 18 years since Metroid Prime 3 was released on the Wii and 23 years since the original Metroid Prime reinterpreted the 2D gameplay of the earlier titles into a first person adventure. It’s fair to say that a lot has changed in that time, including the popularisation of the term Metroidvania and the concept becoming a favourite of indie developers all around the world. So much so that even Nintendo was tempted to make a new 2D entry.

And yet in over two decades there have been virtually no other games that have attempted to copy Metroid Prime or otherwise expand the Metroidvania concept into 3D. The reason why has never really been clear but it puts Metroid Prime 4 in an interesting position, where despite the huge gap between sequels the field is still clear for it to continue to evolve and innovate the concept.

The potential is certainly there but having played around an hour of the final game we’re not yet in a position to judge. What we can say is that it recreates the magic of the original GameCube and Wii games very well, with a satisfying level of challenge and visual complexity. Although there is one fly in the ointment that we hope doesn’t ruin the whole experience…

The storied history of Metroid Prime 4 is by now well known, with the game famously being cancelled and started again from scratch in 2019, with original developer Retro Studios. There’s never been any indication of what the game was like before that, or what was wrong with it, but knowing Nintendo we’ll probably never find out.

Although we played the Switch 2 Edition, Metroid Prime 4 was originally created as a Switch 1 title. But as a game developed late in the console’s lifetime it is clearly one of the most technically advanced on the system and polishes up very well on the Switch 2. The game world is still divided up into discreet rooms, separated by doors, but while that was a technical limitation of the originals, it’s also a key gameplay element for any Metroidvania.

There is, apparently, a more modern open world hub in the game – a desert area that you traverse with a sci-fi motorcycle – but we weren’t allowed to see that. However, Nintendo likened it to Hyrule Field from Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, in terms of size and how it connects the other areas of the game, which would put the motorcycle (called Vi-0-La) in the role of Epona.

What we did play was the same short, tutorial level we experienced back in April, which introduces the controls and the basic set-up. We’re still a bit unclear on this, but the plot seems to involve the Space Pirates, and their new leader Sylux, trying to steal a mysterious artefact. As a result, Samus Aran – the bounty hunter that never hunts bounties – finds herself stranded on a planet called Viewros, that was once home to a race of benevolent aliens, just like the Chozo.

After the brief tutorial level, the initial area is a forest setting, called Fury Green, that is reminiscent of the opening of Metroid Prime 1, but which quickly introduces you to the game’s primary gimmick: psychic powers. We didn’t notice it until we played the game, but Samus’ helmet now has what is essentially a third eye and through various upgrades you gain a limited form of telekinesis, that allows you to manipulate the various alien machinery that is littered around.

Everything we played was simple stuff, barely counting as a puzzle, but you also gain the ability to fire psychic projectiles that you can then control in slow motion, like a guided missile. This is used to interesting effect, almost like a short range drone, to explore where you can’t yet get to and activate doors and equipment that’s currently out of reach.

It’s also key to the area’s first major boss battle, against a carnivorous plant, where you have to shoot its three tendrils all at the same time, using your psychic powers, in order to open its vulnerable interior. This was not easy and while also not exactly Dark Souls level of difficulty we found it a welcome reassurance that the game will be not be dumbed down in terms of either complexity or challenge.

The improved visuals on the Switch 2 include a performance mode option that allows for up to 120fps or a quality mode that offers 1080p in handheld mode or 4K when docked to a TV, which seems very impressive. The other major advantage is optional mouse controls, which work very well. Despite what it looks like, though, Metroid Prime is not a first person shooter in the traditional sense and if you use the default control set-up, the lock-on system means you barely have to manually aim at all.

Metroid Prime 1, like Super Metroid before it, is one of the few games that we’d describe as literally perfect, but that always created a problem for its sequels which, while still very good, could add nothing more to the equation than minor new gimmicks. There’s an obvious concern that the same will be true of Metroid Prime 4 and its psychic powers, but we’ll just have to wait and see on that.

As far as first impressions go, Metroid Prime 4 is excellent, with impressive graphics, solid combat and puzzle potential, and lots of nostalgic elements – but not so much that it becomes an overdose of memberberries. There is one problem though, and he’s called Myles MacKenzie.

At one point you find a stranded Federation engineer (he and presumably other allies and enemies were also caught up in the time warp) and have to rescue him from the local fauna. However, while Samus remains completely mute he’s written like an annoying Saturday morning cartoon character; an irritatingly nebbish one that won’t stop talking and seems specifically designed to upset fans that want Metroid to be a more serious sci-fi tale.

Even if you don’t care about that, he’s absolutely the last thing you want in a series that’s famous for its foreboding atmosphere and sense of quiet isolation. We don’t know how much he’s in the game but there’s a spanner icon next to his name, on your HUD, that suggests that perhaps there’s multiple characters you come across, each with a different skillset.

We don’t know that for sure, but Myles is more than just annoying, he seems so badly judged, and so obviously a character nobody is going to like, that it does make you question what other bad decisions the final game might be hiding. Despite that ominous thought though, we can find no other fault with the game and remain hopeful that Metroid Prime 4 will be able to live up to the legacy of its predecessors.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 (previewed) and Nintendo Switch
Price: £58.99 (£49.99 on Switch 1)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Retro Studios
Release Date: 4th December 2025
Age Rating: 12

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