StarTopic Metroid Prime Remastered |ST| Prime Prophecy Fulfilled

[Romancedawn]

I'm playing this game again after 2 runs on Gamecube and it is as amazing as it ever was. I remember the graphics being stunning back then but today I'm captivated at what I only now fully comprehend. Every room I go into I'm like oh this is where the toilet water ended up... Oh these pipes must have been used to spread fresh water across homes... Oh the Chozo really liked this architecture... These steps are big, I forgot how large the Chozo actually were... So the construction materials used in this pillar are what I might find at Home Depot...

It goes on like that. I am looking at everything and the detail and clarity is amazing! Then I'm factoring in the lore within the rooms and I feel like I'm actually visiting real ruins or watching an episode of Ancient Aliens or something. I am having such a good time in a way I had not back in the day.

 

[Weiss]

So can you unlock the Fusion suit or...

 

[Aurc]

So can you unlock the Fusion suit or...

As of right now: no, you cannot. I love the Fusion Suit, so I'm a bit bummed. I expected the Fusion Suit and Dread Suit to be unlockable bonus features in this remaster, but instead, neither is present. I hope they at least add the Fusion Suit in an update.

 

[Weiss]

As of right now: no, you cannot. I love the Fusion Suit, so I'm a bit bummed. I expected the Fusion Suit and Dread Suit to be unlockable bonus features in this remaster, but instead, neither is present. I hope they at least add the Fusion Suit in an update.

Literally 1984.

 

[em]

Any idea how easy the casual mode is? I never beat this as a kid/teen. I finished Dread but I feel like it was only because of the frequent checkpoints, which I know this doesn’t have.

I feel the game is extremely easy on Normal. Not sure if it's the dual stick controls or something else, but everything feels very non-threatening compared to the GCN version (which I last played through nearly twenty years ago).

 

[SammyJ9]

I feel the game is extremely easy on Normal. Not sure if it's the dual stick controls or something else, but everything feels very non-threatening compared to the GCN version (which I last played through nearly twenty years ago).

That's how I'm feeling too. Could be I'm used to playing on Hard most recently (many years ago), but Normal feels very forgiving. Granted I know the game very, very well, but it doesn't seem like enemies do all that much damage to you on Normal.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

I honestly don't know what it says about Metroid Prime (or the modern state of the gaming industry...) that they more or less took the game and dropped it as is (outside of the major graphical facelift I mean), and it stands, not only side by side, but ahead of almost all modern games even with having zero updates made to its 21 year old design, that, hell, it stands side by side with Nintendo's own best efforts on the Switch; Prime Remastered is every bit part of the same tier on Switch as Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild, and to me it's nuts because it is more or less a straight re-release in terms of the core game design.

How far ahead of its time was it, and how good was it at doing that? The mind boggles.

 

[ermitron2]

I feel the game is extremely easy on Normal. Not sure if it's the dual stick controls or something else, but everything feels very non-threatening compared to the GCN version (which I last played through nearly twenty years ago).

Yeah I remember having trouble back in the original version, specially with the flying pirates and now I'm cruising and kill them like flies. I also remember the rock boss took me like 5 tries and now was able to finish it in the first encounter. I do feel the dual stick control helps a lot

 

[AngryAlchemist]

It's really interesting to me how all the different control methods for Prime over the years have allowed us to peek into how difficulty works in this game.

I haven't played the Gamecube game, but from what I understand you basically have to use tank controls for aiming vertically, where you stop and place and move your arm. The compensation was that for normal combat you had lock-on that worked the same as it does in the current release (I think?), but if an enemy was in the air or you were aiming for something in the air, you had to aim carefully.

With the Wii version, the way the lock-on works is very, very interesting, and the only other analogues I can think of are Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. Basically instead of the lock-on centering your character/your arm, it kind of just centers the camera position, so you still have to move your cursor when you're in lock-on, you're just less disoriented because your field of view is centered.

With dual stick analog controls + normal lock on though, the games difficulty is really almost not there. Though honestly I still feel like there's a pretty big bump when you get to the Phazon Mines, which I seem to remember being the same in the Wii version, too? So parts where you'll get hit with a lot of damage obviously remain mostly in-tact difficulty wise.

It's very interesting, and honestly I think the Wii method was the best. As much as people hate to compare the Prime games to shooters, honestly, a new Prime game could learn a lot from the genre. Especially since they're probably going for a modern control scheme.

 

[MrGab]

It's really interesting to me how all the different control methods for Prime over the years have allowed us to peak into how difficulty works in this game.

I haven't played the Gamecube game, but from what I understand you basically have to use tank controls for aiming vertically, where you stop and place and move your arm. The compensation was that for normal combat you had lock-on that worked the same as it does in the current release (I think?), but if an enemy was in the air or you were aiming for something in the air, you had to aim carefully.

With the Wii version, the way the lock-on works is very, very interesting, and the only other analogues I can think of are Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. Basically instead of the lock-on centering your character/your arm, it kind of just centers the camera position, so you still have to move your cursor when you're in lock-on, you're just less disoriented because your field of view is centered.

With dual stick analog controls + normal lock on though, the games difficulty is really almost not there. Though honestly I still feel like there's a pretty big bump when you get to the Phazon Mines, which I seem to remember being the same in the Wii version, too? So parts where you'll get hit with a lot of damage obviously remain mostly in-tact difficulty wise.

It's very interesting, and honestly I think the Wii method was the best. As much as people hate to compare the Prime games to shooters, honestly, a new Prime game could learn a lot from the genre. Especially since they're probably going for a modern control scheme.

But you can set lock on free aim in dual stick controls too.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

But you can set lock on free aim in dual stick controls too.

But I'm not talking about settings, I'm talking about difficulty balance and comparing the base difficulty of all the versions. That wasn't really my point.

 

[Weebos]

As of right now: no, you cannot. I love the Fusion Suit, so I'm a bit bummed. I expected the Fusion Suit and Dread Suit to be unlockable bonus features in this remaster, but instead, neither is present. I hope they at least add the Fusion Suit in an update.

Maybe they drop it when Fusion comes to NSO, as a nod to it's original unlock method.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

It's really interesting to me how all the different control methods for Prime over the years have allowed us to peak into how difficulty works in this game.

I haven't played the Gamecube game, but from what I understand you basically have to use tank controls for aiming vertically, where you stop and place and move your arm. The compensation was that for normal combat you had lock-on that worked the same as it does in the current release (I think?), but if an enemy was in the air or you were aiming for something in the air, you had to aim carefully.

With the Wii version, the way the lock-on works is very, very interesting, and the only other analogues I can think of are Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. Basically instead of the lock-on centering your character/your arm, it kind of just centers the camera position, so you still have to move your cursor when you're in lock-on, you're just less disoriented because your field of view is centered.

With dual stick analog controls + normal lock on though, the games difficulty is really almost not there. Though honestly I still feel like there's a pretty big bump when you get to the Phazon Mines, which I seem to remember being the same in the Wii version, too? So parts where you'll get hit with a lot of damage obviously remain mostly in-tact difficulty wise.

It's very interesting, and honestly I think the Wii method was the best. As much as people hate to compare the Prime games to shooters, honestly, a new Prime game could learn a lot from the genre. Especially since they're probably going for a modern control scheme.

I've been thinking about control method's effect on the difficulty as well, comparing how it felt playing the original on GCN versus the Remaster's dual stick controls.
I actually don't think combat is as affected as one might expect, the difficulty there feels about the same to me. Thanks to the lock-on mechanic, the gameplay is still the same even if the finger dance has been streamlined. In the original you'd orient yourself toward your target and then if you needed vertically, a very quick/easy flick of the stick while holding R got you to your lock-on, took half a second. In the new dual stick controls, you're still just orienting yourself until you achieve that lock-on, you just use one less button to do it.
The real benefit of dual stick controls is outside of combat, for traversal and sometimes puzzles. It's more difficult to platform on Gamecube. Sure, the original game would tilt your view down as you jumped to make things easier and that worked out fine, but it's so much easier to hop around with precision now that I have full control of my view while I'm doing it. It's much simpler to be aware of the platform edges and surrounding environment now that I can orient myself however I want. And I think making traversal easier is an improvement.

One control oddity I noticed in Remastered while trying out Classic controls was that the lock-on "field of view" wasn't the same, seemed slightly smaller. Like I think the distance of it is probably the same (or slightly farther I've read?) but how wide a target can be from center to be a valid target seemed slightly narrower. I don't know if this comes down to the game itself or the pro controller or what, but I'm very accustomed to certain lock-on dances to quickly switch targets and in some cases it just wasn't acting like I expected. For example, on GCN right after you start the game and scan the controls to activate the second gate with 6 targets, you can basically mash L+A+L+A+L+A in the direction of the gate and take out all three targets on one side nearly instantly without ever needing to aim. When I try this same thing on Remastered standing in the same spot, the top target is outside of lock-on range and I need to actually look up to get the lock-on. Makes me wonder if they slightly adjusted it coinciding with the new control schemes and other contributing factors such as widescreen and different controller hardware. Whatever it is, Classic controls do not necessarily behave identically to Gamecube. (Obviously while using another control method like Dual Stick this becomes trivial because you're always aiming.)

Regarding the Wii ports/releases, I do think those controls definitely made the game harder. You still have to actually aim your shots manually in those games even with the lock-on mechanic due to it now being more of a camera function than a weapon aiming function, and while the novelty of aiming Samus' arm canon with your actual arm is obvious, it definitely alters the difficulty in a way not necessarily originally designed for. But clearly it still works, because many people played and enjoyed Prime 1 in the Trilogy release. It's fantastic that they decided to retain a form of that in Remastered as an optional choice. For me though, I prefer an experience closer to the original intent.

I too wonder how they'll handle the difficulty in Prime 4, the first Prime game designed from the start to take advantage of modern control schemes. It could open the door for them to feel more comfortable expanding the complexity of gameplay. We'll see.

 

["James"]

The difficulty is honestly pretty jarring when coming from Dread, which has way more demanding combat. I remembered not being a super huge fan of MercurySteam's more action oriented approach at first. But after playing though both of their games multiple times and finally returning to Prime I appreciate it a lot more.

Prime's still a great game don't get me wrong, I think it has the best atmosphere in the entire series, and the level design's still really damn solid. But I definitely think now Prime 4 would do well to improve upon the combat, it's the weakest part of Prime by a long shot.

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

I honestly don't know what it says about Metroid Prime (or the modern state of the gaming industry...) that they more or less took the game and dropped it as is (outside of the major graphical facelift I mean), and it stands, not only side by side, but ahead of almost all modern games even with having zero updates made to its 21 year old design, that, hell, it stands side by side with Nintendo's own best efforts on the Switch; Prime Remastered is every bit part of the same tier on Switch as Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild, and to me it's nuts because it is more or less a straight re-release in terms of the core game design.

How far ahead of its time was it, and how good was it at doing that? The mind boggles.

I don't exactly really disagree. It certainly holds up, and is still very engaging to play in 2023 with little more than a facelift and improved controls. But the design around save stations does feel dated. It's integrated in the core game design and lends to the challenge and length of the game, but "start over and you re-do everything from the last hour because you're not skilled enough" isn't something Nintendo does anymore. Odyssey got rid of 1UPs and BotW auto-saves and lets you save anywhere. Even Dread has checkpoints on top of the save stations.

I love Prime. I agree it's ahead of its time and the remaster is amazing, but I think the design around save stations does date it.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I did just go through the Phazon Mines and finally get to the save room. Gonna be honest, being low on health and doing that is some of the most fun I've had replaying the game. Though it feels somewhat bittersweet considering the only reason I lost so much health is that I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do during the spider ball descent where the rails and electricity do damage to you (I probably was supposed to bomb the spinning rails, wasn't I?).

I've been thinking about control method's effect on the difficulty as well, comparing how it felt playing the original on GCN versus the Remaster's dual stick controls.
I actually don't think combat is as affected as one might expect, the difficulty there feels about the same to me. Thanks to the lock-on mechanic, the gameplay is still the same even if the finger dance has been streamlined. In the original you'd orient yourself toward your target and then if you needed vertically, a very quick/easy flick of the stick while holding R got you to your lock-on, took half a second. In the new dual stick controls, you're still just orienting yourself until you achieve that lock-on, you just use one less button to do it.
The real benefit of dual stick controls is outside of combat, for traversal and sometimes puzzles. It's more difficult to platform on Gamecube. Sure, the original game would tilt your view down as you jumped to make things easier and that worked out fine, but it's so much easier to hop around with precision now that I have full control of my view while I'm doing it. It's much simpler to be aware of the platform edges and surrounding environment now that I can orient myself however I want. And I think making traversal easier is an improvement.

One control oddity I noticed in Remastered while trying out Classic controls was that the lock-on "field of view" wasn't the same, seemed slightly smaller. Like I think the distance of it is probably the same (or slightly farther I've read?) but how wide a target can be from center to be a valid target seemed slightly narrower. I don't know if this comes down to the game itself or the pro controller or what, but I'm very accustomed to certain lock-on dances to quickly switch targets and in some cases it just wasn't acting like I expected. For example, on GCN right after you start the game and scan the controls to activate the second gate with 6 targets, you can basically mash L+A+L+A+L+A in the direction of the gate and take out all three targets on one side nearly instantly without ever needing to aim. When I try this same thing on Remastered standing in the same spot, the top target is outside of lock-on range and I need to actually look up to get the lock-on. Makes me wonder if they slightly adjusted it coinciding with the new control schemes and other contributing factors such as widescreen and different controller hardware. Whatever it is, Classic controls do not necessarily behave identically to Gamecube. (Obviously while using another control method like Dual Stick this becomes trivial because you're always aiming.)

Regarding the Wii ports/releases, I do think those controls definitely made the game harder. You still have to actually aim your shots manually in those games even with the lock-on mechanic due to it now being more of a camera function than a weapon aiming function, and while the novelty of aiming Samus' arm canon with your actual arm is obvious, it definitely alters the difficulty in a way not necessarily originally designed for. But clearly it still works, because many people played and enjoyed Prime 1 in the Trilogy release. It's fantastic that they decided to retain a form of that in Remastered as an optional choice. For me though, I prefer an experience closer to the original intent.

I too wonder how they'll handle the difficulty in Prime 4, the first Prime game designed from the start to take advantage of modern control schemes. It could open the door for them to feel more comfortable expanding the complexity of gameplay. We'll see.

Yeah I didn't think it would be that different from Gamecube. I just haven't played that release so I couldn't say. I think the difficulty is probably slightly better in the Wii version/the similar settings on Remastered, if only because it doesn't essentially trivialize aiming. That being said, I'm really not interested in playing with joycons and I don't really like horizontal gyro with a Pro controller, so I'm happy to just keep playing.

 

[Discokuningas]

Regarding the Wii ports/releases, I do think those controls definitely made the game harder. You still have to actually aim your shots manually in those games even with the lock-on mechanic due to it now being more of a camera function than a weapon aiming function, and while the novelty of aiming Samus' arm canon with your actual arm is obvious, it definitely alters the difficulty in a way not necessarily originally designed for. But clearly it still works, because many people played and enjoyed Prime 1 in the Trilogy release. It's fantastic that they decided to retain a form of that in Remastered as an optional choice. For me though, I prefer an experience closer to the original intent.

No, Wii controls made the game way more easier.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I honestly don't think the difficulty is done that well in Dread either, it's not bad, but it could use a lot of work. There's some seriously weird damage scaling where stuff that probably should do a lot of damage doesn't and stuff that does shouldn't, but on top of that, I feel like the checkpoint system in that game encourages players to repeatedly try and fit square pegs into a round hole, because there's no stakes to losing, so players will just try to win as fast as possible, which will result in more deaths than if there just weren't checkpoints. Dread even occasionally has controls which feel overly cumbersome, I seem to remember lock-on plus multi-missile launching was a pretty common annoyance anytime I had to fight against those reused sword enemies over, and over again.

Fusion, which ironically is very linear and combat oriented, probably still has the best difficulty in the series. It has very simple and intuitive controls, but also the smoother movement people are used to, yet really requires a lot of accuracy with its aiming, but also doesn't make the player fiddle around with an analog stick. It really is beautiful.

 

[Discokuningas]

The save station thing is there cause it is an important mechanic from Metroid series. When you find a save station it feels like you really gain something. It's not perfect. Some placements surely isn't that great and maybe there should be a check point before boss fights and a save point after. I remember that in Prime 2 the save points were more problematic.

But I wouldn't change the saving method. It just needs some better save point placements (more of them?) and maybe those checkpoints before boss fights. Also someone suggested save and quit method where it deletes the save when you continue.

 

[SammyJ9]

Extremely minor thing that has always bugged me: Why is there a hunter metroid in the Frost Cave, and NOT in the Hunter Cave which is right next door?

 

[Aurc]

I've been enjoying myself quite a bit. Game plays perfectly smoothly, and looks beautiful. Can't state that enough. It's also crazy faithful to the original. The game feel and sound design are identical, and they didn't make any controversial embellishments upon the aesthetic, like some remasters / remakes tend to. Even the menus are accurate! Definitely one of the best remasters ever, I'd say. I just wish the Fusion and Dread Suits were in the game as unlockables.

 

["James"]

Fusion, which ironically is very linear and combat oriented, probably still has the best difficulty in the series. It has very simple and intuitive controls, but also the smoother movement people are used to, yet really requires a lot of accuracy with its aiming, but also doesn't make the player fiddle around with an analog stick. It really is beautiful.

Strongly disagree, Fusion felt comparable to Dread in difficulty to me, but it was far more annoying due to the lack of autosave points. I'm fine with Prime's "the combat's easy, but checkpoints are few" approach, and I'm fine with Dread's "the combat's difficulty, but saves are plentiful" approach as well, neither are better or worse than the other, they're just different. And I do think there's probably I happy medium somewhere in between that Prime 4 could aim for. The real problem's when you cross the streams, making it difficult, while having to walk back every encounter gets extremely annoying, even if it's a fairly short trek. That on top of the controls, the linear structure, and some some puzzles I had to use a guide to solve make me very sour on Fusion.

 

[The Giant]

What's the bet that Iron Galaxy will be porting MP 2 and MP 3 to switch/switch 2?

 

[Phendrift]

I’d like improvements to the combat in MP4, but man playing MPR is making me remember and appreciate how slow and pondering it is. This excerpt from the Polygon review captures it well

In Metroid Dread, you are encouraged to sprint through, keeping clear of enemies that, at the outset, you have no means of defeating. Your central relation to the game world is that of anxiety and, yes, dread. Metroid Prime, by contrast, wants you to feel inquisitive toward its lonely landscapes, to seek understanding of your enemies as much as mastery over them. Through its contemplative gameplay loop, wherein entering a new area means taking time to consider it, 20 years later, Metroid Prime might have even more to say about what it means to slow down, taking time to view the world with curiosity and wonder.

I get the feeling people who want “better combat” in MP4 are referring to modern FPS stuff like Doom, and I just worry it’ll get in the way of that contemplative feel. I’m kind of torn.

 

[Yazmat]

Does the scan logs stay in the new game? I want to start a new playthrough on hard and I don't really want to scan everything all over again, just the logs that I missed on normal mode.

 

[joveroy]

Phazon Mines is nightmare.

 

[Yazmat]

Phazon Mines is nightmare.

I feel you, I didn't really liked the color-coding enemies, I understand the idea to make the player use everything they have, but the weapon swap system isn't really comfortable for this kind of encounters.

 

[ermitron2]

Forgot the game can be mean sometimes. Finally got the Ice beam and it puts not one, but two elevators to Tallon overworld next to it, so of course I'm thinking the next part gotta be there. One of them is blocked so obviously it's the other one that puts you next to the sunken frigate and I'm like "yeah of course, it's the underwater part gonna get gravity suit there" only for me exploring reaching the shaft and the alert that you can't pass with your current equipment and just after that getting the goddamn hint of "gravity anomaly" in Phendrana. So yeah that was a long trip

 

[Yamanoi]

Question for those who played the previous releases: The HD Rumble is amazing on Switch. Did they implement similar rumble in prior MP releases?

 

[manfromthedam]

Metroid Prime feels like the older and more thoughtful sibling of Doom 2016 xD . Honestly, the remaster certainly looks the part, and considering how many design and visual cues Doom 2016 took from Prime (outside of combat) the similarities are stunning at times.

Anyone know if Retro folk ended up at ID Software? Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[Aurc]

Question for those who played the previous releases: The HD Rumble is amazing on Switch. Did they implement similar rumble in prior MP releases?

As in, the GameCube and Wii versions? I've only ever played the latter, and seem to recall the rumble being decent, but nothing like this, obviously. Charging beams and such feels a heck of a lot better on the Pro Controller.

 

[Yamanoi]

As in, the GameCube and Wii versions? I've only ever played the latter, and seem to recall the rumble being decent, but nothing like this, obviously. Charging beams and such feels a heck of a lot better on the Pro Controller.

Yes! I was curious about that! Do you like any of the visual changes barring resolution in Switch vs Wii??

 

[Aurc]

Yes! I was curious about that! Do you like any of the visual changes barring resolution in Switch vs Wii??

It just looks better across the board, I'd say. Throughout the past week, a common sentiment expressed by longtime fans has been "This is Metroid Prime as it appears in my memories", and that resonates with me. There's really no greater praise for the work Retro's done here, haha. I'm sure there's some dude out there currently nitpicking the look of a save station or wall texture, but the wider Metroid fanbase's response has been overwhelmingly positive, and with good reason. The devs did this one up right. Prime Remastered and Zero Mission are the Metroid games I'd recommend to series newcomers, and with GBA games finally on NSO now, it seems pretty likely that ZM will hit Switch at some point. Good to finally have these games made accessible to the system's wide audience.

 

[SiG]

Metroid Prime feels like the older and more thoughtful sibling of Doom 2016 xD . Honestly, the remaster certainly looks the part, and considering how many design and visual cues Doom 2016 took from Prime (outside of combat) the similarities are stunning at times.

Anyone know if Retro folk ended up at ID Software? Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Funny how Doom2016 actually picked up a lot of cues from Metroid Prime, including some of its boss encounters.

The Cyberdemon sure fights like a Metroid Prime bosss, haha.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Forgot the game can be mean sometimes. Finally got the Ice beam and it puts not one, but two elevators to Tallon overworld next to it, so of course I'm thinking the next part gotta be there. One of them is blocked so obviously it's the other one that puts you next to the sunken frigate and I'm like "yeah of course, it's the underwater part gonna get gravity suit there" only for me exploring reaching the shaft and the alert that you can't pass with your current equipment and just after that getting the goddamn hint of "gravity anomaly" in Phendrana. So yeah that was a long trip

Lol, I remember this happening on my first playthrough 20 years ago. I had a good chuckle thinking about all the new players who are gonna do the same thing here. Metroid games love trolling players haha.

I feel you, I didn't really liked the color-coding enemies, I understand the idea to make the player use everything they have, but the weapon swap system isn't really comfortable for this kind of encounters.

Beam switching on the dual analogue options sucks, as does firing super missiles. I'll probably do classic controls on my next playthrough cause I'm so used to the GC controls, and both those inputs are much easier.

 

[goldenpp72]

I figured I would add my perspective here as it might be a tad unique in contrast to others. For background, I am a big Metroid fan, but mostly of the 2D entries. I bought Prime back at launch and was so stoked to play it, and while I did beat the game in the day... I found it to be pretty disappointing as a follow up to Super Metroid, mostly because Samus moves like a rock in contrast to Super, which still is the case. In many ways my opinion hasn't changed, but I have also found that I like the game more than I once did. Partly because I somewhat knew what I was walking into this time, but also because there are elements or strengths about it that I either didn't note much as a kid, didn't realize would go away in modern gaming, or in some cases, enhancements done in this remaster.

First, I will say that a lot of the warts about the game still remain for me, while the level design in itself is very, very good, it also doesn't do much to reward you or compel you when you're lost. If you don't know the ins and outs of the game, you can find yourself traversing world to world continually, and this is kind of where the game falls apart for me. Basically, new powers rarely unlock much on the general routes, the things you can find are usually a bit dull, and a lot of the stuff is hidden so cryptically that it's just kind of mean spirited. The map not noting anything you have found also makes it extremely difficult to find all the items, and the worlds are in my mind not nearly interconnected enough, requiring often to traverse significant distances just to get back to one area.

All of this comes to an even worse head with how obtuse the artifact hunt can be, it adds so much slog to what is kind of an extraordinary game. I always felt there was a reason why the sequels did poorly, and I believe it is because people left this game a lot more disappointed than the hardcore perception would lead you to believe. I'm positive a lot of people who bought it, never beat it. If you look at releases like Returns or Dread, they do a lot of work to try and mitigate a lot of the issues found in a game like Prime, but this is also an issue found in other great Metroid games, such as the best one, Super Metroid. They are often just really frustrating for a lot of first time runs, and become superior as you get them down, I think this is really the primary hurdle the series faces as it struggles to retain the intrigue and mystery while also being easy enough to navigate, and while I love Dread, it isn't a total success here because of how much it funnels you.

With all that being said, I put up a small list of 'what is next' power ups, as well as had a map on hand, I allowed myself to be lost until I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore, referred to the assist, and got back on track and continued to enjoy myself. What I found is that the base level design is fantastic, the combat is much better than my child mind recalled, I think at the time I considered the lock on mechanic to be kind of a baby FPS mechanic, but now I realize it basically enables 2D like combat in a 3D environment and I love it. The visuals on Switch are astonishing (not an issue with the original release either) and the soundtrack is great as always, the controls are a bit cumbersome as I did not enjoy having to hold a button to switch weapons (or visors if you use that mode instead) but otherwise the new dual stick controls are quite nice.

I would say it's worth experiencing this more than I probably would have in the past, I would still say for a first time (or in my case, a 20 year lapse replay) it's maybe a solid 8 while using some assistance, but I imagine it would be more enjoyable if memorized due to not being so lost, but this doesn't remove the fact that there could be much more work done to make being lost fun, something titles like BOTW or certain Metroid games pull off much better. Continually being able to flex your new powers, find new and exciting things, as well as having decent guidance at points can go a long way to helping, even being able to put markers or something on the map would have been nice. I also don't appreciate how often the game requires you to backtrack significantly due to finding a powerup, so I see a lot of room for improvement in modern times.

I think in the past I would have given the Gamecube entry a solid 7, but I would upgrade this to an 8 and recommend it to anyone really, just don't be ashamed to seek some guidance, if you find it fun to be lost even while accomplishing nothing for long periods by all means, but if you don't, don't let that sway you from what is a nice experience worth running through still.

Also, scanning is just super tedious, I understand they did streamline that a lot in future entries but I can't say the extent. If they ever remaster 2 and 3 (or say for sure they will not) I will go through them as well. The visuals are like black magic to me on the remaster as well, really astonishing work for a Switch game.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I figured I would add my perspective here as it might be a tad unique in contrast to others. For background, I am a big Metroid fan, but mostly of the 2D entries. I bought Prime back at launch and was so stoked to play it, and while I did beat the game in the day... I found it to be pretty disappointing as a follow up to Super Metroid, mostly because Samus moves like a rock in contrast to Super, which still is the case. In many ways my opinion hasn't changed, but I have also found that I like the game more than I once did. Partly because I somewhat knew what I was walking into this time, but also because there are elements or strengths about it that I either didn't note much as a kid, didn't realize would go away in modern gaming, or in some cases, enhancements done in this remaster.

First, I will say that a lot of the warts about the game still remain for me, while the level design in itself is very, very good, it also doesn't do much to reward you or compel you when you're lost. If you don't know the ins and outs of the game, you can find yourself traversing world to world continually, and this is kind of where the game falls apart for me. Basically, new powers rarely unlock much on the general routes, the things you can find are usually a bit dull, and a lot of the stuff is hidden so cryptically that it's just kind of mean spirited. The map not noting anything you have found also makes it extremely difficult to find all the items, and the worlds are in my mind not nearly interconnected enough, requiring often to traverse significant distances just to get back to one area.

All of this comes to an even worse head with how obtuse the artifact hunt can be, it adds so much slog to what is kind of an extraordinary game. I always felt there was a reason why the sequels did poorly, and I believe it is because people left this game a lot more disappointed than the hardcore perception would leave you to believe. I'm positive a lot of people who bought it, never beat it. If you look at releases like Returns or Dread, they do a lot of work to try and mitigate a lot of the issues found in a game like Prime, but this is also an issue found in other great Metroid games, such as the best one, Super Metroid. They are often just really frustrating for a lot of first time runs, and become superior as you get them down, I think this is really the primary hurdle the series faces as it struggles to retain the intrigue and mystery while also being easy enough to navigate, and while I love Dread, it isn't a total success here because of how much it funnels you.

With all that being said, I put up a small list of 'what is next' power ups, as well as had a map on hand, I allowed myself to be lost until I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore, referred to the assist, and got back on track and continued to enjoy myself. What I found is that the base level design is fantastic, the combat is much better than my child mind recalled, I think at the time I considered the lock on mechanic to be kind of a baby FPS mechanic, but now I realize it basically enables 2D like combat in a 3D environment and I love it. The visuals on Switch are astonishing (not an issue with the original release either) and the soundtrack is great as always, the controls are a bit cumbersome as I did not enjoy having to hold a button to switch weapons (or visors if you use that mode instead) but otherwise the new dual stick controls are quite nice.

I would say it's worth experiencing this more than I probably would have in the past, I would still say for a first time (or in my case, a 20 year lapse replay) it's maybe a solid 8 while using some assistance, but I imagine it would be more enjoyable if memorized due to not being so lost, but this doesn't remove the fact that there could be much more work done to make being lost fun, something titles like BOTW or certain Metroid games pull off much better. Continually being able to flex your new powers, find new and exciting things, as well as having decent guidance at points can go a long way to helping, even being able to put markers or something on the map would have been nice. I also don't appreciate how often the game requires you to backtrack significantly due to finding a powerup, so I see a lot of room for improvement in modern times.

I think in the past I would have given the Gamecube entry a solid 7, but I would upgrade this to an 8 and recommend it to anyone really, just don't be ashamed to seek some guidance, if you find it find to be lost even while accomplishing nothing for long periods by all means, but if you don't, don't let that sway you from what is a nice experience worth running through still.

Also, scanning is just super tedious, I understand they did streamline that a lot in future entries but I can't say. If they ever remaster 2 and 3 (or say for sure they will not) I will go through them as well. The visuals are like black magic to me on the remaster as well, really astonishing work for a Switch game.

Have you played Echoes before? If not, I would recommend against it. Everything you find tedious here is doubled down on in Echoes. Corruption you might enjoy though, it's a much more streamlined and welcoming experience.

 

[goldenpp72]

Have you played Echoes before? If not, I would recommend against it. Everything you find tedious here is doubled down on in Echoes. Corruption you might enjoy though, it's a much more streamlined and welcoming experience.

I have not played Echoes at all, and played Corruption briefly but I don't like 'streamlining' in the sense of how I've heard Corruption does it (could be wrong though, I quit that after being turned off big time by the intro, the 'I'm Halo' feel to it really killed me). Being lost is one thing, finding out that to become unlost you have to tediously scan and read tons of information and still often wrap your head around pretty obtuse puzzles on the other hand, is a pretty bad design in terms of flow. It's nice the game has a pity 'go here' mechanic after being lost for like an hour I suppose. Again though, being lost can be a great thing, but the problem is so many of the new moves you get don't really do anything anywhere. The amount of boost ball ramps you find for example, or things you can find while being lost, is simply too minimal. Even an older game like LTTP makes being lost pretty fun, as you'll keep finding a few new things or stumble into stuff.

In Super, at least when you're lost you can blow through the entire map extremely fast and with kick ass powers, in Prime though, it often times means you're going through the entire game lost while having a lame new super missile move that leads to little. Prime feels like one of the best linear game worlds ever designed, but as something you're meant to be lost in, there isn't much to accomplish while lost, which is I think a vital issue. It doesn't help that some of the enemy encounters respawn to a point of being worth just avoiding.

I feel Prime is sort of a quintessential 'nerd' game, a game best soaked up and enjoyed by people who love a very slow burn, and to digest a lot of information and world building, etc. For someone who just wants to have a great time and go through the game though, it can be pretty trying. I respect both sides, but I feel Super is still the closest to tickling both the hardcore and mainstream appeal overall if that makes sense. I think this is why the Prime series is so popular on forums, and so ignored in mainstream audiences however. I have wondered for years how modern audiences would take to playing Prime today, and I imagine now we'll find out soon enough. I do think having modern online guidance will alleviate a lot of the issues however, which is nice.

I suspect Prime 4 will address many of the complaints I have though, with 20 years of time having passed and a lot of perspective, I am excited to see what they will do with it, and if they do it right, I think a lot of people will look back on the older games a bit less fondly. They just haven't exactly been surpassed by other games in the 3D space, making them a bit untouchable.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I have not played Echoes at all, and played Corruption briefly but I don't like 'streamlining' in the sense of how I've heard corruption does it (could be wrong though, I quit that after being turned off big time by the intro). Being lost is one thing, finding out that to become unlost you have to tediously scan and read tons of information and still often wrap your head around pretty obtuse puzzles on the other hand, is a pretty bad design in terms of flow. It's nice the game has a pity 'go here' mechanic after being lost for like an hour I suppose. Again though, being lost can be a great thing, but the problem is so many of the new moves you get don't really do anything anywhere. The amount of boost ball ramps you find for example, or things you can find while being lost, is simply too minimal. Even an older game like LTTP makes being lost pretty fun, as you'll keep finding a few new things or stumble into stuff.

In Super, at least when you're lost you can blow through the entire map extremely fast and with kick ass powers, in Prime though, it often times means you're going through the entire game lost while having a lame new super missile move that leads to little. Prime feels like one of the best linear game worlds ever designed, but as something you're meant to be lost in, there isn't much to accomplish while lost, which is I think a vital issue. It doesn't help that some of the enemy encounters respawn to a point of being worth just avoiding.

I feel Prime is sort of a quintessential 'nerd' game, a game best soaked up and enjoyed by people who love a very slow burn, and to digest a lot of information and world building, etc. For someone who just wants to have a great time and go through the game though, it can be pretty trying. I respect both sides, but I feel Super is still the closest to tickling both the hardcore and mainstream appeal overall if that makes sense. I think this is why the Prime series is so popular on forums, and so ignored in mainstream audiences however. I have wondered for years how modern audiences would take to playing Prime today, and I imagine now we'll find out soon enough. I do think having modern online guidance will alleviate a lot of the issues however, which is nice.

Ahh, ok. Sounds like the Prime series just isn't for you. At least you enjoy the 2D games. FWIW Corruption is a completely different game after you get through the intro.

 

[goldenpp72]

Ahh, ok. Sounds like the Prime series just isn't for you. At least you enjoy the 2D games. FWIW Corruption is a completely different game after you get through the intro.

Yeah I have a friend I trust who said that much, I've been debating going through it just to see if I enjoy it, but have been apprehensive due to the possible Switch release that has been rumored for.. 5 years? I suppose we finally got 1 down though, so I'll hold out awhile before deciding to do the rest.

I did still very much enjoy my time with Prime though, but it was met with moments of 'this sucks' between moments of 'this is great'. The Phazon Mines left me bleeding but I loved it, as well as basically the entirety of Phendera and the lab sequence. For every misstep, there is a lot of great stuff as well. In the mines I had one energy tank left before I ended up in the area with a save point, but then a mini boss turret thing attacked me, got me down to 24 points of health, and then I was forced to navigate an electrical ball maze before I could finally save.

I loved it though, I like ball busting games when it comes to challenge, just less so when it just gives you no natural way of knowing where to go, so it all depends on the moment. Anytime I was on track, it's amazing though, so I can see why some hold it so high. I suppose if you somehow interpret the game or never find it obtuse, then you likely would hold it much higher. I think if I replayed it right now, I would have a better, smoother experience, but that artifact hunt might just be the worst padding I've ever seen, again because it's not really much of a victory lap when there isn't much to find on the way.

 

[Yazmat]

Beam switching on the dual analogue options sucks, as does firing super missiles. I'll probably do classic controls on my next playthrough cause I'm so used to the GC controls, and both those inputs are much easier.

I think it would be much better if they made a weapon wheel, which would be assigned on R button and just map the rockets on X.

 

[goldenpp72]

I think it would be much better if they made a weapon wheel, which would be assigned on R button and just map the rockets on X.

I think the fact that they require you to switch to the power beam and then charge it, then fire a missile to trigger a super missile shows they didn't think it all through that much. It would have been easier to just allow us to charge the missile button itself while using any beam type or something. That and the fact that jumping in the morph ball is not the jump button, are a couple of the more bizarre control quirks.

I think it would have been nice to have an option to have both a weapon wheel, but also have a non committal scrolling of weapons/visors on the D-pad. Basically, up/down to scroll through visor types, left/right to scroll beam types, but not trigger the animation until you let it sit a brief moment. For people in a pinch, a weapon wheel, etc.

Sadly I was going to try the gyro option which then enables the R stick to be weapon swapping, but I discovered I didn't like them at all because rather than act like a mouse pointer, it requires you to 'hold' the pointer on a screen side to then begin scrolling, it's so laggy feeling compared to implementations found in stuff like Splatoon, really a bummer.

 

[Yazmat]

You know, after thinking about it, I find it very funny that Prime Remastered is literally Super Metroid in 3D in many ways (which is my favorite 2D-Metroid) and both of them have one of the clunkiest weapon swap mechanics I've ever seen.

 

[Aurc]

You know, after thinking about it, I find it very funny that Prime Remastered is literally Super Metroid in 3D in many ways (which is my favorite 2D-Metroid) and both of them have one of the clunkiest weapon swap mechanics I've ever seen.

The parallels are fun to think about. Biggest, most obvious example: both games start with Samus receiving a distress signal from a space station, arriving to find nearly all of its inhabitants dead, with her ending up needing to escape the station's imminent destruction, before pursuing a fleeing Ridley to the game's main planetary setting.

Another one I like: the rainy main hub's music changing to reflect a decent amount of progress having been made.

Crateria 1 - Crateria 2
Tallon Overworld 1 - Tallon Overworld 2

There's also the fact that Metroid Prime can be credited with cementing Super Metroid's main theme as Samus's official leitmotif, where previously, it was merely the theme of Super Metroid in particular. It doesn't appear at all in Fusion, nor Zero Mission (mainline games released during the same era), yet can be heard in each game of the Prime trilogy.

According to an interview with Jack Mathews (lead tech engineer on the Prime trilogy), when developing Metroid Prime, Retro Studios referred back to Super Metroid "all the time", and approached Prime as a "3D imagining of Super Metroid". Makes sense.

 

[Raytro]

I only finished Prime 1 once, back in 2017. I couldn't wait the physical release to play the remaster. So here we are, buying the game on eShop, and oh god what a f*cking masterpiece. I already find it incredible 6 years ago but, yeah, that new playthrough was something. I liked it even more than before. Was a solid 9/10 for me and close to perfection imo. Now I'm just craving for Nintendo to release MP2 and MP3 remasters now (Prime 2 was a 10/10 for me 6 years ago and I didn't play more than 1 hour to Prime 3 sooooo that would be great to get them on Switch).

 

[SammyJ9]

Lol, I remember this happening on my first playthrough 20 years ago. I had a good chuckle thinking about all the new players who are gonna do the same thing here. Metroid games love trolling players haha.



Beam switching on the dual analogue options sucks, as does firing super missiles. I'll probably do classic controls on my next playthrough cause I'm so used to the GC controls, and both those inputs are much easier.

At least for missiles, I found it to be a big help to “swap missiles and beam switch” in the control options. Having missiles on the smaller right trigger made firing a super missile extremely cumbersome since I’ve been using the right trigger to fire the beam, so you have to hold the main trigger and then hit the smaller one, which is almost impossible with how I hold the controller (only my pointer finger is on the triggers)

 

[Deleted member 645]

Can someone give in detail what’s good about prime 1? I’m curious.

 

[Weiss]

Can someone give in detail what’s good about prime 1? I’m curious.

Explorative Metroidvania gameplay in first person through a world map so masterfully created that you naturally stumble upon secrets.

It came out over 20 years ago and was re-released with only the most minor gameplay adjustments, and if I didn't tell you that you wouldn't have noticed.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

Lol, I remember this happening on my first playthrough 20 years ago. I had a good chuckle thinking about all the new players who are gonna do the same thing here. Metroid games love trolling players haha.



Beam switching on the dual analogue options sucks, as does firing super missiles. I'll probably do classic controls on my next playthrough cause I'm so used to the GC controls, and both those inputs are much easier.

In the game's control settings there is an option to swap the buttons for missile & beamswap and I think it should be default, it feels a lot better to me. And it makes beam combos a lot easier to do.

Forgot the game can be mean sometimes. Finally got the Ice beam and it puts not one, but two elevators to Tallon overworld next to it, so of course I'm thinking the next part gotta be there. One of them is blocked so obviously it's the other one that puts you next to the sunken frigate and I'm like "yeah of course, it's the underwater part gonna get gravity suit there" only for me exploring reaching the shaft and the alert that you can't pass with your current equipment and just after that getting the goddamn hint of "gravity anomaly" in Phendrana. So yeah that was a long trip

I have fallen for this several times. You'd think I'd learn. I don't. It always feels right to head to the frigate at that point.

 

[Paxie]

The physical has gone out of stock everywhere in the US. I really hope they're shipping more copies in, I have a pay day right before release