Metroid Prime Remastered - Review

For years there have been rumours about the Metroid Prime Trilogy making its way to Switch. The collection was first released on the Wii and brought the two Gamecube titles to the pointer platform, complete with some updates to its controls and elsewhere. However Nintendo were mum on any Switch port, but instead they revealed and released Metroid Prime Remastered via a Nintendo Direct. Does this cube classic have what it takes to survive in the modern gaming landscape, or like the Chozo, is it a relic of the past?

The setup for the game story is that Samus Aran, one of the galaxies best bounty hunters, has responded to a distress call on a space station. Upon arriving she is beset upon by Space Pirates and after defeating a creature that was being studied there, the station takes catastrophic damage and Samus must escape. During the run away, she comes in contact with Ridley, the giant dragon-like being that leads the Space Pirates. While taking damage during her escape and losing access to most of her abilities, Samus still chases Ridley down to the planets surface, that the station was orbiting and soon discovers that something dangerous is lurking beneath the planets surface. That all takes place within the first 30 minutes or so of the games opening and while there isn’t a whole lot more direct explanation provided to players, the game has lore everywhere.

That leads into one of the games biggest mechanics, scanning everything. You can scan enemies to learn about them and discover any weakness they might have, or scan some abandoned ruins for history of them and even scanning to interact with technology, to gain even more insights. The more you scan, the more lore you uncover and the more of the planets history and the events that lead up to Samus arriving on the planet, you discover. You can do what I did for this review and just ignore most of that, but you will be missing out on a lot. I didn’t worry about it, because I have played the game many times, including recently streaming the entire series, so I was pretty up to date on what is going on. Prior to this games release, everything about Metroid was presented within a 2d plain, so the inclusion of a third dimension could have been a lot, but the scanning aspect, slows down the games pace, allowing you to really become Samus.

Combat takes a similar approach to scanning, you can lock on to your target and them strafe around them with ease, or you can now free aim like any regular shooting game. While the game is played from a first person perspective and features a lot of shooting, it is best not to think of it as a first person shooter, the game was in fact the original first person adventure. Shooting is of course a large part of it and its great to see the remaster including a more modern scheme, but also including some legacy options. The GameCube release had players navigating with just a single stick, opting to then free aim, required holding another button, which meant you couldn’t move and shoot at the same time whilst doing that. The game actually includes that as an option, going so far as to even support the GameCube controller, via the Smash Bros connector. Beyond that the remaster also includes a hybrid motion/cube controller setup, but I was not a fan of it and it also supports a style that harkens back to the Wii release. Basically, if there is a particular way you want to play it, the game more than likely has you covered, with options within each to further customise.

Sadly there are some weird things, for example you can shoot with A button or the Right Trigger, which makes sense, but if you use the trigger and then need a super missile, you have to hold your hand in a contorted manner, in order to make it work. Jump is also assigned dual buttons, B and the Left shoulder button and that really doesn’t make sense to me. As I use the 8BitDo Ultimate Controller, I was able to remap some of the functions to the rear buttons, giving me even more control and once I did, I was flying through. Without that option however, I would have struggled as the games default twin-stick shooter layout, was just confusing and I was forever getting stuck with pressing the wrong button. Most of those issues could be corrected, if they allowed for button remapping within the game.

Now with the games presentation, there is something to consider here, at least from my point of view and that is that the game looked amazing on the GameCube and still does to this day. Seeing the same visuals, just with a higher fidelity and textures, would be enough to make most players happy, but as the original release sported some fantastic art design, this remaster loses some of it shine, because there were no changes. Please don’t misunderstand the game looks incredible, when the rain is falling on Samus’ visor in the Talon Overworld, or when she gets to close to lava in Magmoor Caverns, even when he shoot a critter and it explodes over Samus, the attention to detail is staggering. My main issue with the visuals is that it is almost a 1-1 recreation of the original game, now again I had played the game a little over 12 months ago, so it’s still very fresh in my mind. Going in as someone who either, had never played the game before or hasn’t in a long time, you will get shocked at just how nice this game can look. The Switch is home to some truly beautiful games and this easily takes up a spot towards the top of the list, just for those with a good memory, it may not feel like they have done much of anything, but that maybe the best part.

The games incredible soundtrack is here again and running through the world and hearing those familiar beats, the cry of the Metroid’s before they attack and even just the sound of the doors opening, its perfection. Of course, the game has one of the best uses of sound in any game, well back then at least and that is when it drops the music down to near nothing and just leaves you with the effects and Samus’ own voice. These moments really make you feel like you are on a planet that hasn’t seen a living sentient being in a long time and when you scan the lore panels and learn about the fate that befell the Chozo, the immersion into isolation just feels all that more real.

The biggest complaint I have about the release of Metroid Prime Remastered is that it feels exactly like my brain remembers the GameCube version to be. I know that is not true, the twin-stick controls help sell that point among many other things and all that is a testament to just how well the original game was designed. Those coming back to the series in a while or coming in for the first time will find a game that provides plenty of exploration chances, tense combat encounters and puzzles that will test your morph ball skills. The visual upgrades have made a game that was stunning before, look phenomenal and with a truly epic score, plus some extraordinary gameplay, it is one of the best games I have played in a long time.

The Score

9.5

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

+The game looks incredible, with even the smallest details paid attention to

+The game still manages to embrace the isolation of exploring an alien planet

The Cons

-The new control schemes will take a bit to get used to

-The default button layout is not ideal and could do with a remapping function