Review: ‘Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’ falls just short in Samus Aran’s anticipated return

TORONTO – Eight years in the making, and eighteen years after the release of its predecessor, “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” arrives on the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 carrying the weight of lofty expectations.

The latest chapter in the adventures of spacefaring bounty hunter Samus Aran provides plenty of what we’ve missed — an excellent soundtrack, rewarding exploration and gadgets galore.

But does “Beyond” meet the moment? Not quite. While the game is often very good, and sometimes great, it is held back by some design decisions that bloat the overall experience and sap the narrative’s momentum.

“Beyond” is the 10th core game in the Metroid franchise, which has been a critical and commercial success for Nintendo and sits in a tier of popularity just under the titanic “Mario” and “Zelda” intellectual properties.

The “Metroid” franchise also features one of Nintendo’s most recognizable characters in Samus, the laconic galactic warrior whose power armour lets her morph into a ball, jump to great heights and dispatch enemies with an arsenal of weapons. Gaming’s groundbreaking female protagonist has been raiding the deep-space equivalent of tombs since Lara Croft was in grammar school.

And when Samus is free to do her thing, “Beyond” really clicks. Stranded on the planet of Viewros, Samus uses her guns, wits and new psychic abilities to look for a way to escape. Fans of the series may get a nostalgic thrill whenever Samus unlocks a new ability, allowing her to access areas once off-limits and delve deeper into the world.

Viewros has a lot to offer for a hardened adventurer, from an active volcano to a windswept glacier. The environments in “Beyond” generally look great.

And this time, Samus isn’t working alone. Throughout the course of the game she assembles a team of stranded galactic marines. While Samus performs best as a lone wolf, having a crew occasionally tag along allows for some narrative building options that were not a part of the previous “Prime” games.

Trying to tie the game together, however, is where “Beyond” falls flat. One of the most curious design choices was to add an open-world segment to link the various locations Samus is tasked with exploring. This featureless desert must be travelled multiple times throughout the course of the game. While Samus does get a vehicle to speed things up, it quickly becomes monotonous driving between locations.

Backtracking has always been a part of the “Metroid” experience, but it feels arduous in “Beyond.” Games have evolved over the last 18 years, and modern imitators of the “Metroid” design have found ways to include fast-travel systems in their games that eliminates the tedium of backtracking without sacrificing a sense of exploration.

Perhaps owing to some of the game’s disjointed nature, “Beyond” had a significant bump in its development. Work on the game under original developer Bandai Namco Studios was scrapped two years into the cycle and restarted under Retro Studios, which made the first three games in the “Prime” subseries.

Regardless of who was in charge, a more taut design could have elevated “Beyond” from a good game into an elite title that stacked up with other great entries in “Metroid” the series. There are a lot of excellent individual parts here, but the sum doesn’t quite add up.

“Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” retails for $85, with an upgrade pack available to Switch 2 players at an additional $15. While this is a costly add-on when already paying full price for a new release, graphics and performance — in particular load times — are improved significantly by the upgrade.

“Beyond” is rated “T” by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, meaning suitable for gamers aged 13 and up. A digital copy of the game was provided for purposes of this review.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2025.