Metroid Prime Remastered Review: A Triumph Of Design

It’s easy to forget that once upon a time, Metroid Prime wasn’t looked at as this amazing, canonical game that would bring Metroid to a new generation but was instead looked at as a series-ending mistake that would take a beloved series and transform it into a first-person shooter. Nintendo was so desperate to fight this narrative that they insisted Metroid Prime wasn’t a first-person shooter at all, but rather that it was a first-person adventure game, an FPA instead of an FPS. FPA might as well have stood for first-person abomination as far as many fans were concerned. While this might seem like an overreaction, if you take a step back in time, it’s easy to see where it came from. Tons of great 2D games didn’t survive the transition to 3D, and in 2002 there were still few shooters that dared to ask more from players than to mow down their foes, and even fewer of those were available on consoles.

The team at Retro Studios dreamed that the genre could be more, though, and even after more than twenty years, Metroid Prime remains a triumph of game design. To be clear, Metroid Prime is absolutely a first-person shooter, even if it is also absolutely an adventure game. Games can be more than one thing, and they’re often at their best when that’s the case. Above all else, though, Metroid Prime Remastered is still a Metroid game, capturing all of the wonderful things about the series and moving them smoothly into 3D in a way few series ever managed.

Back In Time

No one comes to Metroid for the in-depth story, but Metroid Prime does fit into the series timeline, taking place right after the original Metroid to prevent some of the events of later games from limiting their options. Samus Aran starts the game searching for a client when she picks up a distress signal from a nearby space station. She arrives to find it’s a space pirate ship that escaped after the events of the first game and quickly dying. Queue the requisite early game encounter where you lose all of your gear so that you can spend the rest of the game earning it back, and soon Samus finds herself chasing after the remaining space pirates to the planet of Tallon IV below, eager to put an end to them for good.

Those items that you’ll spend the game earning back include a great many familiar to series fans, including missiles, the morph ball, and bombs. There are also new options such as new suits, and visors which allow you to view the world around you in new ways. The scan visor is the first that players will have access to, and it allows you to scan nearly everything in the environment for additional details. For example, you can scan enemies for information on how to fight them or the environment for ideas to interact with it. In addition, computers will fill in gaps in the story, which means players can engage with the storytelling as much or as little as they like.

The Real Star

Tallon IV is divided up into a variety of different biomes, such as the lava-filled Magmoor Caverns and the icy Phendrana Drifts. As you explore the game’s many areas, you’ll find that despite being in first-person and there being a lot of shooting, this is still very much a Metroidvania in the style the series is known for. When you reach a new area, you’ll find all kinds of passages and sections you can’t get to. You’ll need to return to these areas with later upgrades to fully explore them. Inevitably though, you’ll find a few areas you can get into, and by searching through them, you’ll find new weapons, new items, and new paths forward. When you can’t go forward anymore, you’ll need to backtrack, returning to earlier areas and finding places you couldn’t get to before. Thankfully, you have a map that’s full of information and makes it clear what stopped you from progressing into new areas, so you can specifically look for areas your new upgrades will let you reach.

Each area will inevitably end with you fighting a boss, most of which are giant and task you with getting the most from your various abilities. It’s been years since I played through Metroid Prime and a few of them left me confused until I inevitably realized I wasn’t using a recent upgrade that would crack them right open. These boss encounters are wildly inventive and some of the highlights of the entire game.

One could argue that Tallon IV is the real star of this game. It’s a diverse and stunning environment to explore, and doing just that is the highlight of the game. Metroid Prime Remastered goes far beyond a resolution bump, completely redoing the artwork, and it looks stunning. While it’s easy to get lost, there’s a hint option that will give you a nudge in the right direction if you’re struggling to find the right path forward. There’s also a casual difficulty if you want to focus on the exploration aspect of the game. I could have done without the late-game fetch quest, which is purely there to lengthen the game, something Nintendo was overly fond of during the era of Metroid Prime’s original release, but it’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

The Best Way To Play

Beyond the fantastic visual upgrade this remaster has seen, there are a few other reasons to play this version of Metroid Prime. The biggest, though, has to be the modernized controls. Released before first-person controls had truly been standardized for controllers, Metroid Prime originally had you moving around entirely with the left analog stick, only able to aim precisely with a button press. That control scheme is still here if you want it, and it works better than you’d expect, thanks to the lock-on option, but new players will definitely need some time to get used to it.

Thankfully, they don’t have to. Retro Studios filled Metroid Prime Remastered with control options. The motion controls from the Wii version of the game are still here for those who fell in love with them. The newest option, though, may be the most important one. An all-new control scheme for the first time allows players to enjoy Metroid Prime with dual analog controls, much like players are used to in modern shooters. It feels great and, thankfully, doesn’t ruin the game’s balance. It’s not a perfect solution; there probably is none without a controller featuring significantly more buttons than modern ones do. The right stick was originally used for changing between various beams, which now has to be mapped to a button. It works fine, though not quite as smoothly as with the original controls. Still, this is by far the best option overall.

Conclusion

Metroid Prime Remastered modernizes a classic, keeping everything good about it and fixing some of the few things that wouldn’t make sense to modern players. While a few late game design choices stop it from being near perfect, there are precious few better games you can play on a Nintendo Switch in 2023. New players should run to pick this one up, and those who haven’t touched it in twenty years won’t find a better way to revisit this classic.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available on: Switch (Reviewed); Publisher: Nintendo; Developer: Retro Studios; Players: 1; Released: February 8th, 2023; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $39.99

Full disclosure: This review is based on a retail copy of Metroid Prime Remastered.