Nearly a decade after it was first teased, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally out on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Samus Aran’s latest first-person sci-fi adventure is a visual treat that features some well-designed levels that provide hours of satisfying exploration and puzzle-solving. Unfortunately, annoying NPCs, a big ol’ boring desert, and a nothingburger villain make this a messy, so-so entry in the Metroid franchise.
Metroid Prime 4 starts with a large-scale galactic battle that wouldn’t be out of place in a Halo or Star Wars game. An army of Space Pirates, led by Metroid villain Sylux, is attacking a Galactic Federation facility, and Samus arrives to save the day. But shortly after showing up, Samus, Sylux, and some Federation troops are teleported to the faraway alien planet of Viewros, which is where Prime 4 takes place. Here, Samus is isolated on a mysterious alien world and—
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Well, okay, Samus isn’t really isolated and alone on Viewros. Instead, a plucky squad of Galactic Federation troopers is located on the planet, too. Very early on, you encounter one of them, Myles, who is written as if he fell out of an MCU movie. The other troopers you meet are also different flavors of annoying, with each falling into one overused sci-fi soldier trope, from baby rookie to cool, silent sniper. There’s even a robot who is polite and comical! The whole gang’s here. And they all ruin the vibes constantly.
None of these chuckleheads will shut the hell up! When you discover each of them while exploring the game’s various levels and biomes, they end up working alongside you for an extended period of time and offer tips that seem to imply they think Samus is a buffoon. Stuff like “Scan that computer” or “Put a bomb there.” Yet all of them also treat Samus as if she’s Space Jesus and the coolest, most badass person ever.
The worst of these offenders is Myles, who will call up Samus while she’s out exploring the open desert that connects Pime 4’s various levels and side areas and bug you to do this or that. A few times, I was out trying to find secrets and Myles intervened, marking a spot on my map for me to go to next. Thank god you’re here, Myles, or I might have enjoyed a few minutes of quiet exploration and discovery!
When the federation squadmates aren’t squawking, and it’s just Samus alone on a strange planet trying to solve puzzles and progress forward, Prime 4 is a much better game.
©Nintendo / Kotaku
The level design is exquisite, with each of the various biomes you explore and return to feeling both large and complicated without being confusing or a slog to work through. I’ve already talked about how much I love Volt Forge, the first real level you visit in Prime 4, but the other areas are also fantastic. The legally mandated ice level, Ice Belt, is an often claustrophobic and creepy trek through an abandoned laboratory that was doing some strange alien tests. It ditches the ice caves and snow of most ice levels for sterile labs and windy alcoves that are all properly desolate and dreary.
And of course, inside all of these levels are various alien enemies to fight, which isn’t a problem because combat in Metroid Prime 4 is fantastic, even if it is more or less the same gunplay found in past Prime titles. You lock on, hop around and lob missiles, energy blasts, and elemental-themed shots at a varied selection of critters and robots. Certain enemies have different weaknesses, like ice blasts, which help you clear the hordes more effectively. It ain’t new, but it still feels good, and running at 120FPS, it looks incredible.
That’s probably the biggest compliment I can pay to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. This is a visually stunning, aesthetically cohesive first-person action shooter that runs like a dream. I never once encountered a FPS drop that was noticeable or ran into an area that looked ugly. Every inch of Prime 4 delivers sharp, stylized sci-fi visuals that pop on a big 4K TV. This ain’t what I expect from a first-party Nintendo game, but I’m not complaining about it. I loved it so much, and it makes me hopeful for future Nintendo games on the Switch 2.
*Sci-fi-sounding notification beep* Hey, writer, don’t forget to mention the desert and the motorcycle! These are features in Metroid Prime 4, the game you played, and are worth including in your review. Use the keyboard to write about them in the next paragraph.
Right, the desert. This is the most baffling part of Prime 4. The large Sol Valley desert acts as a strange, mostly empty hub area connecting the different levels together. To help Samus traverse this large space, Prime 4 gives the player a cool motorcycle. And it is cool, and feels great to drive. Hitting a dune while boosting and flying across the sands is sick shit. But the open desert just becomes a boring way to slow the game down.
Find a new upgrade that will let you explore more of a past level? Cool. You get to drive all the way back to that level. Want to go get some upgrades now that you have a new Morph Ball ability? Well, guess what, you gotta drive through the desert again. Worse, to get into and out of the desert, Samus is forced through at least two different loading areas that make it feel barely connected to the rest of the game.
Back-of-the-box quote:
“Hey, this is the back-of-the-box quote, Samus! You should read this.”
Developer
Retro Studios
Type of game:
First-person sci-fi adventure shooter
Liked:
Stunning visuals, great level design, and solid performance
Disliked:
Annoying squadmates, the boring desert, Sylux, and the ending
Platforms:
Switch, Switch 2 (played)
Played:
Completed the main story and around 30% of the side content in 11 hours
Release Date
December 4, 2025
The desert also seems to imply Prime 4 is an open-ended adventure, but it ain’t. Like past Metroid games, you collect power-ups and unlock more of the game world in a mostly pre-determined order. And that would be more than fine if the desert didn’t seem to set up this idea that you had more freedom than you really do. It’s just a big empty waste of space that shouldn’t have been included in Prime 4 at all.
And while exploring the desert, Myles will keep yelling at you to do this or check on that or open your map to go here, and it just becomes so tedious and annoying. Worse, to reach the game’s ending, you have to collect a ton of green crystals that spawn in the desert. I didn’t have enough when I got to the final moments of Prime 4, so I had to spend 30 minutes or so driving around the desert collecting gems while Myles repeated the same tip about harvesting the damn things. The word torture popped into my head a few times during all of this.
*Sci-fi-souding notification beep* Oh no! Don’t forget Sylux! This is a villain that has been a part of Metroid for years now, but gets a bigger role than ever in this latest sequel. You should discuss him and his appearance in Prime 4 in the next paragraph.
Dear god, leave me alone, Myles. But yes, Sylux is in this game. And that’s… about all I have to say about that. I’m not trying to avoid spoilers; I just have nothing else to add. His presence is so minimal that at first I thought he was just a fun cameo included at the start. But no, you technically (sort of) see him a few more times before the end.
What are his motivations? Why does he do anything he does in this game, which is very little? Why should anyone who, like me, hasn’t played the games he appeared in previously care about any of this? The game only really answers one of these questions if you manage to get 100 percent and unlock the secret extra ending. For everyone else, kick rocks.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a good game made worse by some really bad choices. It features annoying characters who ruin the isolated and haunting vibes that this latest sequel strives so hard to create, and forces Samus to drive across a boring desert over and over and over again for no good reason other than forcing you to do some extra busy work to extend Prime 4’s runtime to around 11 hours for most people.
