When Nintendo concluded its latest Direct presentation with the full unveiling of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the world went awry for a while as fans celebrated the glorious return of one of the company's most iconic franchises. At the endFollowing its initial announcement in 2017, the Prime 4 is planned to launch in 2025, and it looks fantastic.
While most people reacted to the trailer with excitement and anticipation, there were some who were disappointed, as they cited its similarities to previous Prime versions in terms of both visuals and gameplay.
The thing is: I understand it. I really do. After 7 (or, if you're like me, 18) years of waiting, our imaginations undoubtedly start to get the better of us, and after games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and even Super Mario Bros. Wonder showed just how far Nintendo is willing to go from tried-and-tested formulas, it's natural to assume that Prime 4 will also mark a significant evolution for a series that began in 2002.
Now, I'm not saying that developers should rest on their laurels and be satisfied with the minimum; experimenting, pushing the boundaries, and challenging players' expectations is always a good thing. But with Prime 4, I think it's important that we check our own expectations and understand what this game really is.
Let's look at the development timeline. There's no doubt in my mind that Prime 4 was announced too early, and few would argue against that. These days many Nintendo first-party games are revealed and released within the space of a few months, yet in June 2017, nearly two years after Prime 4 was announced, Nintendo's Shinya Takahashi confirmed that development would be restarted at Retro Studios.
So let's get to it. If development began in January 2019, that means Prime 4 has had about five years to cook in the oven until now (a large part of which was likely also affected by pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021). 20 years ago, this would have seemed most unusual, but for big budget titles on 8th and 9th generation consoles, it's considered the norm. The only difference with Prime 4 is that we, the fans, already knew about it (good luck with The Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda).
I know a lot of people are probably reading this and thinking something like this, “Well, it's not like that Our Is this a problem?” – And you would be right. However, I want to clarify that when a game becomes a known entity and is subsequently shrouded in secrecy ( Seven YearsMind you, it's very easy to get your expectations high. It's happened to me many times.
It's also impossible to avoid the growing speculation that Prime 4 might actually skip the Switch entirely and release on its successor. It's certainly an understandable conclusion, but an unfounded one nonetheless. Nintendo has consistently labeled Prime 4 as a Switch game, including it in its regular lineup during financial updates. Now, I know companies like to exaggerate information or provide misdirection from time to time, but lying about what platform Prime 4 will launch on? No, I never bought it. Prime 4 looks like a Switch game because it Is 1. Even if it is cross-generation, the Switch 2 version will simply be a shiny version of what we have.
Also, it's important to consider that Prime 4 is the fourth main entry in an ongoing narrative. When you look at franchises like Zelda or Mario, those games (for the most part) rarely put numbers in their titles, essentially giving developers a blank canvas on which they can work their magic. Prime 4 is the continuation of a story that ended on a big cliffhanger in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, with Federation Forces giving only a few intriguing clues about what might happen in the future.
The thing is, this isn't a reboot or major overhaul of the Prime series; it's just the next chapter, just like Halo 4, just like Uncharted 4, just like Gears 4. Just like Pikmin 4! And I think we can all agree, no matter how good they are, that none of these games did anything particularly revolutionary compared to previous entries. Again, it comes down to expectations and what we think we want from the next game versus what it's actually going to be.
Finally, I want to particularly highlight the visuals. It's clear to me that Metroid Prime Remastered was a sort of test for Prime 4. Watching the two side-by-side (which I did, by the way), the latter is a notable improvement, but you can tell that the technology implemented in Metroid Prime has likely been repurposed for Prime 4. With that in mind, you'd be forgiven for thinking, “Oh, Prime 4 looks just like the first game.”But I will say that you go back and watch footage of the original trilogy on GameCube and Wii and I think you'll be amazed at how far Retro Studios has come.
Metroid Prime 4 won't be the franchise's 'Breath of the Wild moment', and that's okay – we shouldn't expect it to be. What we can expect is an exciting journey in the fourth mainline entry in one of Nintendo's most famous franchises of all time. 2025 can't come soon enough.