Longstanding Metroid Fans: Was Metroid 4 Beyond Worth The Wait?

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
A question chiefly for Ninten-GAF.

As an outsider to the ecosystem and franchise, it feels like the game has released and not made much of an impact. *

How do fans of the original Prime trilogy feel about the fourth one? Is it living up to your personal hype/expectation?


* perception as an outsider.
 
No, it's not as terrible as dramatic people are claiming but it's pretty mediocre with some fun bits. It's a big step down from Prime and 2, and it suffers because it throws out a lot of them to do things fans of the series didn't ask for.

I think it probably got rebooted after it was rebooted a few times and didn't actually take as long as it's been.
 
Loving it, I'm crawling through it, just about to go to Flare Pool with like 10 hours on the clock lol.

Bosses are good fun so far, not amazing but great, music is better than i was lead ti believe.

Desert + bike is a bit of a head scratcher but I dont hate it.
 
Anticipation Popcorn GIF
 
100% it. When it plays like a prime game, it's excellent. The bosses are a big standout for me as some of the best in the series. The soldiers are so god damn pointless and annoying, bike was enjoyable but the green crystal collecting is stupid.
 
Was a great game, better than most I've played this year.

Not as good as dread but not much is.
That's how I feel about it as well.

Edit: If you mean Metroid Fusion (which is Metroid 4), then hell yes. The game was and still is amazing. My favorite Metroid game.
 
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About to wrap up my third playthrough after 30+ hours, so I definitely enjoyed my time with it.
Worth the wait? Probably not if you see "the wait" as the time since the original announcement.
But it's not like I haven't had anything else to play these past 7 years.
The game is nowhere near the previous 3 as a complete package, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is still leagues better than a lot of pretentious stuff that gets released everyday. And I think it's better to have had the chance to play it, than see it cancelled. To me, it's a legit Metroid game.
 
I like how the new ammo types allow you to strategically kill enemies much quicker. I didn't see anyone talking about that but Ive avoided most post launch discussion.
 
I'm only a few hours in but I'm enjoying it. It looks and feels like Metroid Prime and the boss fights have been fun. The world map is more spread out to accommodate the bike, which is a main hook for this game. Driving around is fun so I don't mind. The biomes have been pretty straightforward, which is my biggest complaint: too much action and not enough exploration or platforming. The action is fun but I'm hoping for a better balance as more abilities/biomes unlock. Oh, and Miles doesn't bother me. Seems like a good game so far.
 
I'm not that poster, but now that you've quoted him, you had me thinking… Silksong is an excellent, expertly-crafted game that was also announced around the time of MP4. And despite that, very few are still talking about it.
Very few games people talk about several months after release, unless it involves some sort of drama around it. And people not actively talking about it as if it were a new release does not mean that people don't care about it, that is reflected on how long it keeps selling.
 
Have you changed your mind? :messenger_tongue:
It's a role reversal. After how bad MP4 turned out to be everyone will care more about Silksong and everything MP4 could of been.

$70 game ended up having $20 of content with 8 hours of game and 4 hours of padding. Easy as all hell. Treats you like idiot.

$20 game has $70 of content with pretty much no filler and hard as balls and rewards skill.

Crow has been administered and eaten.
 
We deserve better for Metroid Prime after a 18 year wait for a 4th mainline entry.

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I'm curious man, do you have any unreleased games currenly on your radar? Because for me, I haven't been able to feel any sort of hype since the DD2 debacle. :goog_relieved:
 
I'm curious man, do you have any unreleased games currenly on your radar? Because for me, I haven't been able to feel any sort of hype since the DD2 debacle. :goog_relieved:
Yeah. Lots. Quite a few are tentatively releasing in 2026. And a couple in 2027 and 2028. Seeing as I can't DM you I can't exactly send a big list and I also do not wish to derail discussion over the divisive design decisions made for Metroid Prime 4.
 
Yeah. Lots. Quite a few are tentatively releasing in 2026. And a couple in 2027 and 2028. Seeing as I can't DM you I can't exactly send a big list and I also do not wish to derail discussion over the divisive design decisions made for Metroid Prime 4.
Didn't know I have that disabled, sorry man. I would appreciate that list, but if it's too much work or whatever it's fine.

On my side I'm a bit let down by AAA and even AA games. Indies is where it's at, imo.
 
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It's a good game, but a terrible metroid prime game. The very core of prime has been branching paths and exploration. It's none of those things.
Very let down by it, not worth the wait nor the hype
 
On my side I'm a bit let down by AAA and even AA games. Indies is where it's at, imo.
If it's any consolation the list I've sent you is comprised of Indie games. I feel that AA and AAA games have enough marketing to be noticed.

But they also are overpriced and as of 2026 I have no problem waiting for a killer deal.

It's why most cases I need a stellar NieR Automata tier kind of game to pique my interest. Both Automata and DDDA have ambient sound and a somber melancholy kind of atmosphere.

Which when it comes to say MP4 it kind of has this with the Desert...but they put nothing in it which kills the vibe. The lack of any discovery just kills interest in engaging with a world that does not want to be engaged.
 
I'm enjoying it so far but, hey, I'm not a major hardcore Metroid fanboy to except the GOTY from it.

Edit: Could the game be better? Probably. Especially Retro Studios working on it for God knows how long....
 
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I am taking my sweet time with this lovely, lovely game. So far it has been an amazing ride. It's audio & visuals are simply outstanding. The pointer controls are sublime, still not quite sure how they nailed it so well with just Gyro. A significant step up from Prime Remastered in how it feels and plays.

I am not going into direct spoilers, but I really am confounded by the numerous complaints I have read on here & in certain reviews.

The atmosphere in this game is fucking ace. The whining about the GF Troopers is a joke. They are barely in the game, and when they do appear it is welcome. They do add a nice element to the game. The tone of the game is really about survival and figuring out what the hell is going on.

I love the fact they continued onward Prime 3's approach to combat. It's also interesting to see the various differences in combat when you switch between Dual Stick vs. Pointer. Battles play out differently. Each mode is suited better to certain battles, but you can complete them either way.

The bike controls like a dream, and it keeps traversing thru this large planet interesting and fun. It just adds another layer to this game. And that is how I feel about it so far, it is a beautiful Metroid Prime game with extra layers that it makes it feel like something more.
 
On my side I'm a bit let down by AAA and even AA games. Indies is where it's at, imo.
I kinda feel the opposite…I'm having more fun with AAA and AA compare to indie games because for whatever reason indie devs are obsessed with roughlike crap.
 
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I'm still very early on I think, but I'd already answer "no" to this question.

They've basically made a first person (Classic 3D) Zelda game, not a Metroid game. It all feels very simplistic compared to previous entries so far.

It looks nice visually and is very polished for what it is though.
 
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It's more of what I hated about Corruption with some other problems I didn't see coming. I love the first prime but the series has gotten worse with each entry and Beyond is no exception.
 
I'm about 80% done with it. So far, its about a 7.5 to 8 game. Its a really good, polished, quality game. Not much of a fan of some of the mechanics and chatting it up with NPC's is annoying. At times, I feel like it's more of a Zelda game than Zelda. Overall, I'm enjoying it, more than I thought I thought I would.
 
TL/DR - finished it, liked a LOT of it (no prime game has controlled this well while looking this good imo), and I felt the desert was an unnecessary gameplay element added to increase playtime (but admittedly …riding the bike can be fun).

******

It looked and performed better than I thought it would in the console (docked and handheld), honestly it's a real looker!

My gripe/complaint has more to do with level planning/design: I would have liked more verticality and with that more difficult environment traversal.

I eco the same sentiment as others regarding the desert section - I would have preferred the "take an elevator to the next zone" that we have had for ages across all Metroid games instead of putting a large area you need to traverse in the Prime series as they did here.
This also might be sacrilege but I think there could be a great (scope properly managed obviously) open world game in the bones here but for me it mashes Metroid and Zelda a bit too much in the game. I don't think these fit together great, but apart and given room to breath, I would easily play an open world Metroid.
 
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I kinda feel the opposite…I'm having more fun with AAA and AA compare to indie games because for whatever reason indie devs are obsessed with roughlike crap.
I think the only AAA/AA I've played this year was KCD2 and yeah, that one's great. I'm kinda tired of them tho because most just do the same as every other game, barely any innovation.

And yeah when it comes to indies there's tons of roguelites. I get some people liking them because they are kind of like the "new arcade", cool games that are fun in sort bursts. But I still prefer traditional games with traditional and long-term progression, and there's lots of those still! Just the other day I saw this one and it looks super cool imo:



roughlike crap.
lol. Was that a typo? Because I like that term haha.
 
lol. Was that a typo? Because I like that term haha.
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I think the only AAA/AA I've played this year was KCD2 and yeah, that one's great. I'm kinda tired of them tho because most just do the same as every other game, barely any innovation.

And yeah when it comes to indies there's tons of roguelites. I get some people liking them because they are kind of like the "new arcade", cool games that are fun in sort bursts. But I still prefer traditional games with traditional and long-term progression, and there's lots of those still! Just the other day I saw this one and it looks super cool imo:
For me this year I enjoyed lot of AAA and AA games.

Also people say indie games are more "innovative" but all I see is them shoving roguelites and soulslike elements to every genre they can.

I honestly lost all motivation to play indie games. I personally prefer AAA and AA over indies these days.
 
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It wasn't, sadly. Despite great visuals, sound and gameplay, the main attraction in Metroid Prime is the great interconnected world-design, puzzles, exploration and finding where to go. And this game has none of these. Certainly a good sic-fi FPS, but Metroid Prime is meant to be more than this. Metroid gave its name to an entire genre of games, and this one barely feels like it belongs in the genre.
 
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I'm about seven hours into it. I've played every Metroid game and I think this one is just as good as the rest. I like them all for different reasons and I think this one does an amazing job at fleshing out the lore of an alien world and having a grand scope and feeling of being trapped in the unknown.

The first Prime is still the best in the sub-series but this game moves the franchise into a larger scale direction I am down for.
 
No.

It had good parts. The metroidy parts like morph ball sections and some (not all) well designed boss fights.

But it's a fusion of metroid prime with corpo normie slop. The slick interconnected environment exploration of a good metroidvania is replaced with handholding linear levels where chatty npcs who are completely out of place in a metroid game defile any chance of atmosphere or immersion. At their absolute best the npcs are boring and bland and have no reason to be there. At their worst they're appallingly cringe and talk like they were written by the type of cat lady female writer who doesn't respect or care about the world or setting so they make everyone exhaustingly "quirky" no matter how much that doesn't match the franchise or situation. The planeteers don't just yap pointlessly saying that maybe we should try doing something you just did 5 seconds ago, they also do friggin' escort segments. So in the guided tour of the mines, I'll be trying to scan an alien fauna that keeps jumping out of the ground, and I'm about 75% finished scanning it to get the log entry, when the dumbass companion shoots the alien critter so I gotta find another one and start again. The worst part is when all the samus superfriends fight the final boss together because of the power of friendship yay. The boss has a lightning form that kills them instantly and if you don't run around resurrecting them all extremely quickly you get a game over screen even though your health is fine. sometimes they die on opposite sides of the arena and there's no way to raise them all, I had 3 game overs trying to protect the planeteers.

Ugh, I feel like I could rant for hours. And I haven't even mentioned the uncooked motorbike sections and the desert crystal collectathon. Rocksteady got so much hate when they did the batmobile in arkham knight but at least that was fleshed out. These basic biker bits are relatively pointless padding. I haven't been this disappointed since Dark Souls 2. I was kind of ready for it because corruption was already heading in a bad direction and it's been such a long time and they hired halo ppl (343 not bungie) but still.
 
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