Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Is Nintendo’s Big Test of Switch 2 Controls

Behind Samus’ visor, with a spread of otherworldly architecture and fluorescent flora arrayed before the player, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels so totally alien and still incredibly familiar. The arm cannon-toting bounty hunter feels her best on the Switch 2 (it’s also available on the original Switch), not the least because of the handheld’s unique hardware touches. But it’s the beauty and the detail that will outlast any hardware, and Metroid Prime 4 seems to have the right stuff to leave us with something truly remarkable.

Nintendo invited me to play through a few of Metroid Prime 4’s opening environments, and I came away wondering what it means that this is Nintendo’s last first-party title launching before the year’s end.

The Switch 2 has had plenty of worthwhile first-party games this year, like Donkey Kong Bananza, though none have seemed more consequential than Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which is launching on Dec. 4. It’s a game that was long promised for the original Switch, but now it’s being used to showcase what the Switch 2 is technically capable of. Beyond promises to hit 60 fps at 4K resolution when the Switch 2 is docked. Sure, Nintendo’s sequel Switch is still selling like hotcakes, but this is one of the first games to show how new titles can use the novel mouse mode to enhance the feel of first-person games on consoles.

The game remembers what made the series stand out so much on Nintendo’s older hardware. Retro Studios’ last mainline entry in the series, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, is more than 18 years old. Metroid: Dread on the original Switch was a solid entry in the franchise, but the Prime games regularly represent what is best about Nintendo’s hardware, from the GameCube to the Wii. Nintendo announced Prime 4 game back in 2017, and it took the entire original Switch lifecycle before it was finally set to arrive in a month’s time.

Metroid Prime 4 remembers that atmosphere is king

In my nearly 2-hour demo with the game, I would repeatedly stop, open my scanning visor, and read the small entries on every minute environmental detail I could find. Sure, it will offer a little insight into the enemies you face, but the game is ready to share a tidbit about a line of marching ants hidden in the hollow of a fallen tree. It’s the kind of game that revels in detail and begs you to explore. Like the first Metroid Prime back on the GameCube in 2002 (and the recent, excellent remaster), the player will sometimes see Samus’ eyes reflected in her visor, reminding you that you aren’t some out-of-body character puppeting this bounty hunter along her journey; you inhabit this world. You are a part of the ecosystem as much as every gargantuan “Sacred Tree†or Ghaspore fungus that shoots explosive homing seeds.

Right from the main menu, the game’s music was a highlight. I repeatedly asked Nintendo if the original trilogy’s composer, Kenji Yamamoto (who also did the music for Super Metroid on the SNES), was involved, though the company declined to say. The ethereal tones are garnished with a mix of mechanical and organic sounds, just like the creatures who now occupy the dilapidated structures of a long-dead civilization.

It’s the atmosphere that drives Metroid, more than any boss or set piece that sticks in our collective memory. The fourth title in the series seems to have it, though the game may not feel nearly as lonesome as the first two titles. About halfway through me stomping from one room to the next, I came across a stranded Galactic Federation engineer, Myles Mackenzie. He’s the kind of bumbling, slapstick character I first feared would become a yammering voice in your ear, ruining any sense of remoteness. After a few minutes of him tagging along, I actually didn’t mind him. He will join you in combat and require healing if he goes down, but he didn’t seem like he was getting in the way. I just hope he doesn’t become a routine presence throughout the entire adventure and that Samus can have some alone time.

Get ready for psychic Samus

Samus is probably a little too used to alien elements invading her form. In Metroid Fusion, Samus was infected with an alien parasite that completely modified her DNA. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Samus was again contaminated with the caustic substance Phazon, and she spent the rest of the game trying to stop its spread. At least, this time, the series’ heroine isn’t finding her body manipulated by a foreign pathogen or mutagenic substance. Oh, the old parasitic Metroids (the floating brain bags with two pincers for feet) are somehow involved in the mess, but it’s not clear how at the start of the game.

After a short fight against Space Pirates during an invasion of a Galactic Federation stronghold, Samus gets mixed up in a struggle over a strange alien artifact. Events—as they tend to do—go awry, and Samus is whisked away to a foreign planet, Viewros, in an unknown part of the galaxy. A near-extinct alien race, the Lamorn, gifts Samus the ability to tap into their species’ ancient psychic abilities with the hope she can remember and spread their culture throughout the known universe. The bounty hunter must use her newfound abilities to fulfill the Lamorn’s wishes and halt the machinations of an old nemesis, fellow bounty hunter Sylux (you’ll recognize that big, blue baddie if you played Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo DS).

Like most Metroid games, Samus loses most of her abilities after the first level and slowly reclaims them throughout the game. However, the twist this time is that Samus also gains numerous psychic powers. The first is tied to her scanning visor (renamed to the Psychic Visor) that lets her open select doors and manipulate psychic energy orbs, called “Psychic Motes.†Later powers enable her to fire a psychic beam that slows time, allowing players to control its trajectory. I had the chance to test this against the area’s boss, a Metroid-infected plant creature with tentacles you needed to destroy by guiding your psychic beam around the arena.

The old Metroid formula was alive and well in the new title, though my short demo was centered on an early level that was mostly a series of linear hallways with little room to explore. I also did not get to try out any gameplay of Samus’ new whip, the motorcycle called Vi-O-La (and I will die on the hill that it’s an objectively cool name for a two-wheeled ride). I have to hope the game opens up its areas and lets me explore on my own time.

A game with almost too many controls options

The original Metroid Prime was a game built for a different era of console. Retro Studios worked to make the original GameCube controller feel as if its lack of two full analog sticks wasn’t a limitation. The 2002 classic used a lock-on mechanic to help you find targets, then tried to craft levels so players wouldn’t walk into lava as their vision followed their enemy’s movements. It was workable, though the design was exacerbated in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes’ more claustrophobic corridors. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption upended the formula thanks to the Wii’s motion controls. The game involved more pointing and shooting, and while it felt smoother, it came at the sacrifice of its predecessor’s open-level design.

Compared to the other entries in the series, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond features a smorgasbord of control options. The default style uses your Joy-Con 2 or Switch 2 Pro controller (or any other compatible controller with gyro controls) in a standard console shooter setup, where the right stick controls your aim. You still have the ability to lock onto enemies, but now you have more fine precision of where you place the reticle on enemies with the help of either gyro or the Switch 2’s mouse controls. In the game’s opening level, the end boss creature will shield glowing weak points with its shielded arms, requiring you to aim with a bit more precision.

Beyond feels more wonky if you try and treat it like a traditional first-person shooter. My demo was running on a 4K TV at 60 fps with “Quality†settings. Nintendo reps told me that if I switched it to “Performance†mode for 1080p resolution and 120 fps, then massaged the sensitivity, it could feel more like a regular mouse-based game, as if I were playing on PC. Hell, Nintendo even let me play on a large, Metroid-branded mousepad (they told me repeatedly it wasn’t coming to retail, unfortunately). It’s clear the game wants you to use the age-old lock-on system anyway, and most players will gravitate towards simplicity.

That brings us to the second major control scheme, and this one is somehow even stranger than the first. Instead of your cannon being fixed in place on the screen, it can freely move, as if you were standing with your head still and waving a gun in front of your face. If you bring your reticle to the edge of the screen, you’ll start to turn. The entire scheme uses the controller’s gyros in an almost Wii-like fashion.

This control scheme is more akin to hardcore military first-person shooters like Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, and when I told Nintendo that, they had obviously never heard of those games. This is a scheme that takes much more getting used to, and I didn’t have the time to sit there and get repeatedly mauled while I figured out the best way to use it.

There’s more to see in this game, and Nintendo is holding more of the fine details close to its chest. The Switch 2 needs a game to show other developers how they might include mouse controls for first-person games. It worked well enough in Metroid Prime 4 that it leaves me hopeful for the rest of the Switch 2’s lifecycle. More than that, I hope Metroid Prime can return in glorious fashion to take its place among Nintendo’s standout series.