In today's Nintendo Direct we got some more footage and insights into Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The games looks very beautiful, it's easily going to be one of the best-looking games for the Nintendo Switch, but everything also looks underwhelming at the same time... Why is that?
It starts with the marketing itself, where they are handling things in a similar fashion to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom last year. So, they are picking things up from where they had left off in June, on a planet called Viewros, giving us an overview of what the players can expect there. And all of that randomly in the middle of the Direct.
It wasn't the big opener and it wasn't the big finisher. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but they are effectively putting this on the same level as a lower budget top-down Zelda title at this point. It can't compare to the treatment of games like Breath and Tears, where they had felt the need to give these games a dedicated showcase.
The other problem is the same as with the original trailer: everything just looks so familiar, like you've seen it all before – it's a blend of elements and themes from the Metroid Prime Trilogy games. Viewros may remind you of the Tallon Overworld from Metroid Prime, you even get the same orange plant pods. The main foes look and behave a lot like the Reptilicus from Bryyo in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. There's a crashed ship hanging in the trees, something seen in pretty much every Prime game. And how the Lamorn race, the inhabitants of Viewros, see Samus as their chosen one, feels very reminiscent to the Luminos in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, who already were a replacement for the Chozo.
It all was done before, it now just looks bigger and prettier. The only thing that sets it apart from the rest of the trilogy is the new gimmick with the psychic abilities. But both Prime 2 and Prime 3 had their own unique gimmicks as well, with the dark world and the Hyper Mode respectively. And for the most part the psychic stuff looks like it's this game's equivalent to the special visors, which lets you interact with the environment in new ways, like the Echo Visor or the Ship Visor did before. I won't be surprised if it even gets activated like one.
Steering your own beams is a really cool idea, however, where you even have entire games built around this, just with sniper bullets instead. So, there is quite some potential here, but for the most part it looked underwhelming again. "It let's you open doors, wow."
It also seems to be the reason why both the visor and the arm cannon
have this purple glow to them, which wasn't the case in the announcement
trailer. But it's something that you are getting right after, because
all the new footage was still from the early game with only one Energy Tank available and so on.
Also, the big plant boss is giving Flaahgra vibes, adding to the list of familiar things, but I like how the Mochtroid(?) merged with it, which looks like it's going to be a general thing for bosses in this game. That's really cool and certainly a fresh idea for the Metroids as an enemy. It's also the only connection to the whole Sylux situation from the first trailer, where we have yet to learn how Samus gets from there to Viewros.
The trailer also made it sound like Viewros with be this game's Tallon IV or Aether, meaning that after the inciting incident with Sylux the entirety of the game will take place on this planet. So, you won't be planet hopping like in Prime 3. Instead you will be moving through time, apparently, if you put weight on the words in the trailer...
The threads intertwining beyond space and time are beginning to weave a new tale.
The producer of the Prime series, Kensuke Tanabe, also revealed in the past that he wants Prime 4 to have some sort of time shift mechanic, so it would add up. Potentially, the scenes in the first trailer from the beginning of the game, where the Galactic Federation Research Facility gets attacked by Space Pirates, also take place on Viewros, just in a later time, meaning that Samus gets transported into the past.
Let's see. I don't expect a major info dump next week, in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, but we will likely see the game again for how it may look on Nintendo's new system or even an upgraded version. We have learned today that there will be "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games (see here), which may be enhanced versions of Nintendo Switch games – and this could become one of them.
We may also get a proper release date next week, where maybe this is planned as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo Switch 2, or at least one of the early releases, and they didn't want to give this away just yet. Or Nintendo is simply aware that everyone will be speculating exactly this and they didn't want to create the expectation / assumption that the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming around the same date.
The new trailer ends with the introduction of a new suit for Samus, which reminds me of the Light Suit from Prime 2, but with a red and black color scheme. If they are doing things like with Echoes of Wisdom, then the next trailer will probably start with showcasing some of her new power-ups, including this suit. But I don't expect this to happen next week already, so maybe in a June Nintendo Direct. Next week will probably just tell us how they will treat this game in relation to the new console.
