‘Metroid Prime Remastered’ stirs nostalgia

The following review is based on an estimated 6 hours of gameplay.

On Feb. 8, a long-rumored remaster of “Metroid Prime” shadow-dropped onto the Nintendo Switch. The original game is considered one of the greatest of all time and was groundbreaking upon its release in 2002. “Metroid Prime” redefined a long-established series and combined its search-action design with new gameplay mechanics to make a “Metroid” fitting for a different gaming landscape and a brand new audience.

In 1986, Nintendo released the first “Metroid” game on the Famicom Disk System in Japan. This sci-fi, action-adventure game starred skilled hunter Samus Aran, who ventured to the planet “Zebes” to prevent Space Pirates from taking advantage of biological creatures known as “metroids” that could end all life in the galaxy. The series would receive two more entries before taking an eight year hiatus. In 2000, a brand-new Nintendo subsidiary called “Retro Studios” took on the task of adapting the franchise for a new era. The result was a first-person shooter: “Metroid Prime”. 

It has been over 20 years since “Prime” was first released, but does it still hold up when put against modern standards? The answer is both yes and no.

Prime’s gameplay infuses the play style of an FPS with the series’ usual toolkit and design philosophy. The beginning segment follows a classic game design trope of giving a player tons of tools at their disposal during a tutorial segment and then taking them away to set a goal for the player of getting them back. 

Samus starts her main journey solely equipped with the power beam on her arm cannon. The charge beam, missile launcher, morph ball and grapple beam all have to be regained by exploring the world, with several areas locked off until each tool is acquired. Further upgrades to the suit also exist, such as the wave beam and boost ball. The morph ball is easily the most fun of Samus’s toolkit; rolling around as a ball brings a childlike fun, especially when momentum, bombs and other upgrades are mixed in.

The controls in general are incredibly solid. Players can choose between the original GameCube scheme, a style reminiscent of Wii’s “Metroid Prime Trilogy,” a combination of the GameCube controls and motion aiming, or a brand new dual-stick setup that is reminiscent of most modern shooters. This new scheme is a massive upgrade from the original controls. The implementation of “Prime”’s lock-on function with the left trigger is beyond satisfying. It was used in the original to help players strafe while keeping track of enemies, but here, it makes hordes easier to navigate and gives each hit a good feeling. This is a game that keeps you on your toes, and the music and atmosphere give a sense of epic sci-fi energy the series is known for.

The overhaul in graphics helps to achieve this vibe and boosts it to new heights. “Prime Remastered” looks like a late Xbox 360 or early Xbox One game. While this may not sound groundbreaking when current-gen PS5 and Series system games can look like Pixar animations, for a game released 20 years ago, it looks incredibly modern. 

The lighting and shadows are clean, the water is beautiful and it runs at a solid 60 FPS in both TV and handheld mode. The resolution is only 900p and 600p, respectively, but that’s still an upgrade over the GameCube and Wii re-release’s 480p graphics. The game does look worse in handheld mode, as do most Switch titles, and the visor HUD took some getting used to, even on the larger Switch OLED’s screen.

“Metroid Prime”’s biggest flaws are in its backtracking and save system. There is as much magic in upgrading your suit and finding new opportunities as there is frustration from hauling it 20 minutes to unlock new sectors within locations you have already visited. 

Exploring the world and solving puzzles can be rewarding, but after a while, it becomes annoyingly easy to lose track of where to go next. If little progress is made for a certain amount of time, the game will give a hint of where to go on a map. However, it often just leads you to a room where another upgrade or boss fight will happen, rather than a hint of how to actually get closer to that room. Call it a skill issue, but running around aimlessly without anything new to do may be a turn-off for modern audiences, especially those with shorter attention spans.

The save system is also incredibly frustrating by modern standards. “Metroid Prime” uses the save point approach — instead of being able to save wherever you want, players have to find a room where they can stop and save their progress. This is not always a problem; however, these rooms are few and far between, often quite removed from a major event. A boss fight could be beaten with very little health left, and that moment of triumph can be swamped by a little bug on the way back to a save point, wiping out half an hour of progress. Losing a boss battle sends you all the way back to the save point, which can be very frustrating to just get back to. 

The game’s structure doesn’t lend itself well to the quick save concept (saving wherever you want) because it always wants you on your toes. But, at the very least, the frustrations of losing progress could be alleviated by placing save points closer to moments where the prospect of losing that progress is scarier than losing the battle itself, or just letting players restart key fights.

If players can put that aside and be patient in handling loads of backtracking and problem-solving, it’s a great game. It’s well-designed, fun to play and successful in achieving the anxious sci-fi energy “Metroid” is known for. It’s the definitive way to play “Prime,” with a better control scheme, lots of extras and a new coat of paint that puts it alongside modern titles better than other Nintendo re-releases like “Skyward Sword HD”. 

It is an old-style game just as it was in its original release. It carries the flaws of that decades-old system, but the freshness of the FPS-style format still makes it worth playing, even if there are some annoyances. Just be patient, remember the time it’s from and maybe keep a walkthrough on hand if you get lost.