Something evil lurks below the surface of Tallon IV, and it is up to the bounty hunter Samus Aran to discover what it is and put a stop to it. The first Metroid Prime game is back with an all-new remastered look and feel for newer and older generations to enjoy once again. This remastered classic is available now digitally with a physical copy to be released in a few months. However, does this remaster give justice to an iconic game or is there a darker force lurking within something too good to be true?
The Story of Metroid Prime Remaster is that the interstellar bounty hunter Samus Aran intercepts a distress signal from a frigate orbiting over Tallon IV. The frigate is operated by Space Pirates who were almost completely wiped out by their own genetically modified creatures. After exploring the ship which acts as the tutorial of the game Samus encounters a parasite queen in the ships reactor room. After defeating the queen by having it fall into the reactor core Samus attempts an immediate escape from the ship however as she escapes a couple of unfortunate circumstances take place. The first being that a creature known as Meta Ridley escapes the frigate and makes its way to the planet below. The other unfortunate issue is that the radiation from the frigate’s unstable reactor causes Samus Aran’s armor to malfunction which disables most of her abilities. Now armed with only her Arm Cannon she ventures to the planet to put a stop to Meta Ridley. On her journey she will encounter many creatures both large and small as well as receive components to help restore and upgrade her power armor. She will also discover that there is more to this planet than meets the eye with there being many lost Chozo secrets and ruins. Will Samus Aran be able to stop Meta Ridley and restore her armor to full power lets travel deep into these ruins and find out.
The gameplay of Metroid Prime Remastered is easy to follow. 1.) Pressing the ZR button shoots the arm cannon while holding the button charges the cannon into a charge beam that both powers up the attack and brings dropped ammunition towards Samus when it is out of reach. 2.) Holding the ZL button locks onto enemies. 3.) pressing the Y button activates the Morph ball ability which turns Samus into a ball that can get into small spaces. 4.) Hitting the R button fires the missiles which take out the tougher enemies. 5.) Holding the L button and pressing B while moving the stick left or right allows the player to dash dodge. There are many upgrades that the player can receive from exploring the world and ruins of Talon IV that allow the player to go back and access areas they couldn’t before.
The world of Metroid Prime Remastered has Samus Aran exploring the many Chozo ruins of Tallon IV. From the rainy grass lands where the rain visibly drips down Samus Aran’s visor to the magma filled underground network filled with lava and brimstone. There are multiple regions and ruins that can be explored within this game some in which are better than the others. Some areas as stated before even have areas that can be explored again later once the player obtains the right upgrade. Keep in mind however that because this game is a remaster the game mechanics are updated for the new console, but not remade meaning that there is no fast travel or waypoints, so traversal is based on backtracking and remembering where the areas that were originally inaccessible. The map of the areas themselves are 3D models that can be rotated around. Every time a room is explored it is highlighted as orange while the unexplored rooms are highlighted in light blue and the doors in the rooms are highlighted blue or purple. When the map is zoomed out to show all the areas that can be explored, they are hexagons with each region having their own colors to distinguish themselves like the lava areas being highlighted red while the grass areas are highlighted green. Throughout the map there are also a total of 12 artifacts that are needed to access the final fight with Meta Ridley.
The best upgrade to the game comes in the form of the graphics. Metroid Prime Remaster has remake quality graphics that are more detailed than the original. Being able to see Samus Aran’s eyes through the visor has been made less blurry and much more detailed than the original. Every terrain and texture have been rebuilt seemingly from the ground up to bring an old game from the days of the Wii to the current Nintendo Switch generation that I am all for because unlike most remastered games that are just ports with a few enhanced textures this game is given a change that accommodates its mechanics and style into current gen.
Overall, the game is fun, but difficult to maneuver around. This is especially if the player loses track of where they are supposed to go, but this does harken back to a time in which video games required the players to keep track of everything instead of relying to much on games telling the players where to go and do while holding your hand around every simple puzzle. Not that getting help every now and then is an issue it’s just that this game like some others allows the player to discover things for themselves about the world without the game telling you everything that needs to be done in a way that makes the player feel dumb for not doing it.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch