‘Metroid Prime Remastered’ Is a Reminder of a Bolder Era of Video Gaming

Released in 2002 for the GameCube, the original Metroid Prime feels like a concept that frankly wouldn’t be made by modern Nintendo. At the time, the Japanese company was coming out of their first ever major defeat in the console wars with the Nintendo 64 having been outsold by Sony’s PlayStation by a margin of 3:1. Despite having some of the world’s most recognizable characters and titles, there was cause for alarm as the Big N came into this new generation for the first time as an underdog, a position they’d backslide into cyclically from this point onward.

But as underdogs, the famously innovative brand took some of the biggest swings in its history, from turning Zelda into a cartoon pirate to making Luigi a ghostbuster, and Metroid Prime was one of its unequivocal knockouts. The fifth entry in the series that began in 1986, Prime took all the hallmarks of the franchise — the isolating sci-fi horror atmosphere, labyrinthian world design, and the exploration/puzzle based gameplay loop — and brought them to life not just in stunning 3D, but in the first-person perspective. It was a seminal release that set a high benchmark not just for the series, but for the entire GameCube era. Now on Nintendo Switch, 2023’s Metroid Prime Remastered is that exact game, just better. And that’s kind of the problem.

Metroid Prime Remastered is exactly the kind of concept that modern Nintendo would make. Although beautifully rendered, with uprezzed widescreen presentation, modernized controls, and much welcomed accessibility options, it is still very much trading in the kind of artificial scarcity and weapons-grade nostalgia that makes Nintendo the video game world’s Disney. Rather than having the original widely available through backwards capacity on Switch — or even having a digital reissue of the whole Metroid Prime trilogy that made its way to the Wii ­— we instead get a simultaneous announcement and release (tactically straight from the nineties) that feels like a $40 apology for the fact that Metroid Prime 4 has been MIA for six years.(*)

(*) That game, announced in 2017, fell entirely off the grid before Nintendo announced in 2019 that they’d be starting it over from scratch with new developers. It remains unseen to this day.

Handwringing aside, there’s much to celebrate about this version of Prime. The 2002 version brought the world of Metroid to life in spectacular fashion and this remaster improves it in every possible way. Visually and mechanically, it does the thing that’s so fashionable these days: Looking and playing as you remember the original, not the way it was. And what a beautifully facsimiled memory it is. After booting up the game for the first time in 20 years, I was able to tear through the first quarter in a trance-like haze, acting almost entirely on muscle memory. It felt like I was speed running a game I didn’t know I knew so well; I was suddenly like Jason Bourne, an amnesiac savant of gaming. It took a while for me to recognize that it was the result of a mechanical overhaul, adding in dual-stick shooter controls that all modern gamers are familiar with (and ironically introduced by this game’s direct competitor, 2001’s Halo). I briefly switched back to the “purist” version, a clunky single stick system that relies almost entirely on lock-on aiming as the game did in 2002. I preferred being Jason Bourne.

Visually too, everything seemed per the rose-tinted memory of the original. Prime was famously a gorgeous game — after all, it was built for the GameCube at a time when Nintendo competed in the technical fidelity market rather than relying on unpowered hardware and plucky charm — but this remaster is honestly one of the best looking games on the Switch. Sometimes shockingly so, to the point peeping a YouTube clip of the original was appalling. The level of shading and texture here makes the 2002 iteration look like mud. It’s also surprisingly stable, especially compared to the numerous recent first and second-party Nintendo titles that have struggled to perform on the aging Switch hardware. Only 2021’s 2D-oriented Metroid Dread comes to mind as a game that’s looked this good on Switch. It’s best summarized by a single recurring detail: whenever an explosion occurs too close to the player’s visor, they can see a gorgeously rendered reflection of their own face, or rather heroine Samus Aran’s. It’s the kind of detail that somehow has eluded 99 percent of first-person games and is what makes Metroid Prime Remastered feel vital, even if it’s retread.

Speaking of Samus, it’s good to see her getting her due these last few years. For newcomers, the Metroid series may feel somewhat familiar. It’s heavily “inspired” by Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien, placing a strong female lead in an isolated horror space surrounded by creatures. Her nemesis is literally named “Ridley” — it ain’t subtle. The series began as a merging of Nintendo design philosophies — the precision platforming of Super Mario Bros. meets the item-based exploration of The Legend of Zelda. Mix those up in a blender, add in a stoic female mercenary whose sole personality trait amounts to “badass,” and you’ve got Metroid. Gameplay amounts to exploring terrain until you’re blocked, then finding the right tool to unblock the way, double back, repeat. It’s tried and true, and although Nintendo fridged the franchise for the better part of a decade following 2010’s abysmal Metroid: Other M, the subgenre would become popular with indie developers (like Hollow Knight’s Team Cherry), and for good reason.

So, while you can’t quite say that “they don’t make them like this anymore,” a cynic might point to Metroid Prime Remastered as another reissued pittance to tide fans over until Metroid Prime 4 becomes more than vaporware. In a world where Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario 3D World are still best sellers despite being ports, there’s little reason to expect more. But if you’re new to the series or looking for a Metroid fix, it’ll hit the spot until this generation’s innovational equivalent to Metroid Prime appears.

Metroid Prime Remastered is now available digitally for Nintendo Switch. The physical edition releases on Feb 22.