GAME CLEAR No. 129 -- Metroid Prime Remastered

Metroid Prime Remastered (2023, Switch)

Remaster of: Metroid Prime (2002, GameCube)
Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Clear Date: 4/3/23

Prime Metroid

Many years ago, I purchased a used copy of Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube. I got a little ways in and then it kept crashing on some elevator, so although I was able to replace it, I think I was annoyed enough that I never really returned to it. Anyway, enough time passed that finally the game has been remastered and I can play it in a shiny new form. A tale as old as time.

Metroid Prime Remastered is precisely what it says on the tin: Metroid Prime with fancier lighting, assets, and a sharper resolution for your Nintendo Switch. In this respect, it is essentially flawless. The world of Tallon IV is presented just about as beautifully as the rather underpowered Switch can handle. Some new, more modern control schemes are on offer as well, but as I am often wont to do, I stuck with the original controls and even used my trusty GameCube Controller adapter (Wii U branding and all) to play it exactly as I attempted to all those years ago.

And the game that’s there, familiar old Metroid Prime, still rocks. It’s one of a series of Nintendo’s brilliant leaps to 3D, only this time developed by a little old game dev shop in Texas. It took me a couple hours to really be won over, but after getting in the groove, I found it impossible to deny that it was a perfect conversion of Metroid concepts to 3D. The planet Tallon IV consists of multiple biomes with enemies both new and familiar, and as usual Samus’s general motivation is to find the next powerup she needs to get to allow her to get to places she currently can’t. Combat is primarily lock-on/strafe-based, and although it can feel dated at times, it works well enough, especially in one-on-one counters against bosses or other tougher enemies. It was a bold choice to have Metroid Prime go first-person, but it works, and it makes the big fights and exploration feel all the more engrossing. With great music that’s just as good as the many classic tunes from its predecessors, Prime captures that Metroid mood perfectly.

So the sense of stoic, silent exploration is there, but it’s enhanced by perhaps the game’s most compelling addition to the formula: the scan visor. Using this, Samus can zoom in on enemies, environment details, and computer screens to get a little readout about the subject. These combine to offer a better understanding of what the hell is happening on Tallon IV and why the Space Pirates are so interested in it. I won’t spoil anything, but suffice it to say the drip feed of context and information is super cool. Where discovery in previous Metroids was pretty much limited to uncovering more and more of the map and physical space you were exploring (and perhaps making deductions based on light environmental storytelling), Metroid Prime complements that with a bevvy of planetary history whose mystery slowly unravels. It rules.

My only complaint with this game is that, as is so often the case, it doesn’t do much to honor its subject matter. This is a competent remaster of a great game, and in that way it’s a good product, but it doesn’t tell us why we should care about it or make a case for playing it to younger people who may not have been there for it in the first place. In the best case, a retro product like this should satisfy both audiences familiar with the original and those who are not – and to a certain extent I’m sure this will. Nevertheless, it would be so much cooler if the game featured developer interviews or retrospectives or, hell, even a cool poster in the box. But Nintendo couldn’t even be bothered to credit the original devs. Perhaps most puzzling to me, Nintendo didn’t even do any amiibos or collector’s editions or any of that other cynical moneygrab bullshit you would think would be a slam dunk with a nostalgia product like this! Even that, in a different way, seems like a missed opportunity.

But what do I know? Metroid Prime Remastered is one of the very best-reviewed games of all time. Indeed, it is in the 100th percentile of all games reviewed on OpenCritic. I think that’s sorta bullshit. As I’ve harped on before, games companies as big as Nintendo have got to start doing more with rereleases like these. There is value in making a game this important legally available on a modern platform again at all, but I wish that weren’t the bar.

Still, I’m sure I’ll buy Echoes and Corruption when they come out too, so do I have any right to complain?