Stories in video games are controversial. Many games in today’s market offer impressive, engaging storytelling efforts, which could rival blockbuster movies. Other games prefer to keep things simple by focusing on gameplay, while the plot remains insignificant or exists only through hints and optional side quests.

Like any controversial topic, each side has its supporters. Some prefer video games to be video games and just get engrossed in the challenges ahead. Others believe that a satisfying narrative and characters encourage them to keep playing, as the destination is just as important as the journey. I could make arguments for each side of the debate, but I’d also argue it depends on the game in question and what it’s aiming for.

A series that attempted both approaches to storytelling is Metroid. Nintendo’s long-running franchise, which basically created a whole genre (hence the name Metroid-Vania), is no stranger to storylines and continuity. While the games in the series haven’t been released in chronological order, there is a sense of continuity between each title. 

Unlike other Nintendo franchises, such as Mario or Zelda, Metroid has a mostly clear narrative structure. Super Metroid carries on from the ending of Metroid 2. We know for a fact that Metroid Other M starts right after Super Metroid concludes, but it takes place before the events shown in Metroid Fusion. The status quo doesn’t just reset like in Mario. There’s no split timeline like in Zelda. Metroid has a set chronological order. 

The main difference between Nintendo’s two golden boys and Metroid, however, is none other than the lead protagonist, Samus Aran.

Who is Samus?

Samus Aran is a bounty hunter who goes on intergalactic missions, oftentimes on behalf of the Galactic Federation, in order to ensure peace and prosperity across the galaxy. She suffered a tragedy at a young age, watching her family being murdered by the monstrous Ridley. Raised and trained by a group of aliens called The Chozo, Samus grew from that tragedy into a strong, determined, and no-nonsense fighter who would stop at nothing until her mission is accomplished.

That’s the basic backstory. The games themselves have gone several ways in characterizing her. In the first two games, Metroid and Metroid 2: The Return of Samus, there isn’t much to her. Even the backstory I just summarized isn’t present outside of manuals and supplementary material. To be fair to these games, though, besides being on consoles that couldn’t fit much of a story, they didn’t need any deep plots and characters.

Samus was nothing more than your avatar. You interacted with both planet Zebeth and SR-388 through her, all by yourself. Metroid relies a lot on the atmosphere created in exploring these planets by yourself as part of a dangerous mission. There was no need for Samus to have a set character because it didn’t matter. You reacted to the dangers she’s facing instead of her, just like she faced those threats instead of you. Metroid 2 did give her one character moment, in which she spears the baby Metroid she encounters at the end of the adventure. 

Things changed in later entries. Super Metroid incorporated more story elements, which became possible on the new hardware. While nothing grand, a prologue connects this new game directly to the ending of its predecessor. Before touching back on Zebeth, there is a whole storyline focusing on Ridley kidnapping the baby Metroid that Samus found in Metroid 2. There's even the first bit of Samus' inner monologuing, shown via the opening text briefing to fill us in on the events of the game. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

Metroid Fusion was the first game in the series to have a full-fledged story with a beginning, middle, and end. You didn’t just read the manual or watch a small recap, and then go off to the mission. There was a plot that progressed the more you played, had some twists and turns, and Samus’s character had more to say. In addition to more monologues, which provided exposition to her relationship with her former commander, Samus also spoke to characters in the game itself. 

Aside from that instance, however, the bounty hunter never spoke much, nor did she really need to. Metroid: Zero Mission, as a remake of the first game, didn’t give her any reason to talk, and neither did the first two Metroid Prime games, despite the much bigger emphasis on lore. While Metroid Prime 3 had other characters interacting with Samus, she herself never speaks. It’s an odd decision, but we’ll loop back around to it.

Metroid Other M is notorious among fans of the franchise. Baffling gameplay aside, the story and characterization received a lot of backlash. The strong and determined bounty hunter was turned into a confused girl with daddy issues. Not to mention that she doesn’t get anything done in the story itself, as everyone else completes the missions she’s supposed to complete as the protagonist. It’s not all bad, as we also get to see Samus’s calm and nice side when she’s talking to survivors, but the game’s storyline didn’t do her character any favors.

Games like Metroid: Samus Returns (a remake of Metroid 2) and Metroid Dread seemed to have corrected the characterization issue. Samus doesn’t talk in any of them, save for one scene in Metroid Dread in which she’s speaking Chozodian. Considering she doesn’t have many characters to speak to yet again in these games, it’s not much of an issue. All of this recap is leading us to the recently released Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (MP4).

How Does Metroid Prime 4 Treat Samus?

Before discussing the recent entry in the Metroid series, I have to give a spoiler warning as I will be discussing many plot details in this article, including the game’s ending. Also, I would like to thank Nintendo for providing a review code for the game.

MP4 features one of the most confused characterizations of Samus Aran in the history of this franchise. While nothing reaches the levels of absurdity that Other M did, the newest entry in the series seems to have the opposite problem. If Other M tried giving Samus a character to the point it betrayed her character, then MP4 doesn’t even try to give her depth at all, which also betrays her character. 

MP4 starts with Samus answering yet another distress call from the Galactic Federation. Space pirates are attacking the facility to steal an artifact that the Federation has obtained. Samus arrives amidst the chaos and discovers that the pirates are led by a former enemy of hers, Sylux. While duking it out, Sylux breaks the artifact in question, which teleports him, Samus, and a few other Federation soldiers to the planet of Viewros.

While exploring the new planet, Samus learns the story of the ancient civilization, the Lamorn, which once inhabited the planet. Throughout the game, the bounty hunter reunites with some of the Federation soldiers who were caught in the crossfire. Myles MacKenzie, Reger Tokabi, Ezra Duke, Nora Armstrong, and the battle robot VUE-995 are Samus’s companions for this adventure. In each area, you encounter a different character, who serves as your companion in various sections of the game. Samus’s goal is to find a way to get back home with the troops, while also navigating The Lamorn’s technology and Sylux’s vendetta.

Now, contrary to some discourse I’d seen before the game was released, the side characters aren’t all that bad. MacKenzie may be a quippy nerd, but his technological skills provide Samus with new weapons throughout the adventure. Tokabi is a tough warrior who lends a hand in fights, despite his old age. Duke is a tough, but caring, commander. VUE-95 serves its role as a devastatingly powerful battle robot that brings the pain. Armstrong ended up being my favorite, not just because she’s the rookie who grows more and more confident as the adventure continues, but also because she’s a fangirl of Samus. Call me cheesy, but she represents the fans, and I think it’s adorable.

I really don’t have any issues with the character; they’re not amazingly well-written or anything, but who said they need to be? They get the job done, and the voice acting helps the personalities shine through. If anything, the biggest problem I have with them isn't even about them. You can probably tell where I’m going with this: My biggest problem is their interaction with Samus… or lack thereof.

Similar to Metroid Prime 3, all the characters speak except the galactic bounty hunter. However, while there was no real reason for Samus to talk in that game, in MP4, the silence actually hurts the narrative. There are several moments in the game where one of the characters would ask Samus a direct question, and she just doesn’t answer. From her thoughts on a current situation to how a problm should be solved, Samus remains completely mute. 

Now, even in games in which she did talk, Samus is always presented as a “less talk, more action” type of character. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem here is that she doesn’t talk AT ALL. Besides an occasional nod of her head, Samus doesn’t react to anything her comrades are saying, which honestly makes her out to be an emotionless jerk towards them. I get that she’s not much of a talker; that’s what makes her Samus. However, when a person address her directly, the silence is taking it too far. What, did she forget to unmute her helmet or something?

Metroid Dread is another game in which Samus is mostly silent. She’s in constant silent badass mode throughout the whole adventure. The main difference is that in Metroid Dread, Samus is alone throughout her journey. She has her ship’s computer, yes, but there aren’t any situations where she’s required to talk. The one time she does talk is when she meets another Chozo, and in the Chozo native tongue no less! That’s how you do it! Keep her silent most of the time, but let her speak up when the situation requires it.

The Samus we see in MP4 barely shows any signs of caring for the people accompanying her in this scenario, and that’s not Samus Aran in my eyes. It’s also a problem when, throughout the gam,e there are moments where a character might sacrifice themselves for Samus to succeed. That's a tough situation that would be hard to process, but the bounty hunter barely reacts. If she doesn’t care… why should I? She doesn’t care whenever a character supposedly dies, and she doesn’t care when the same character ends up being alive. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen…

The Ending That Broke the Bounty Hunter’s Character

Nothing in MP4 does Samus’s character more disservice than the ending. To quickly summarize the plot: Samus has to find 5 ancient keys in order to operate a teleporter, which will take her and the other troops back home. When they all get to the teleporter, however, Sylux shows up because the game suddenly remembered he’s the villain.

The start of the battle is actually pretty cool because for the first time, you’re fighting alongside all of the other Galactic Federation soldiers. They may require some reviving here and there, but I found them helpful in the fight when they actually landed crucial shots on the boss. That’s pretty cool and allows me to connect with these guys through Samus’s eyes; (Literally, since this is a first-person game).

When Sylux is eventually defeated, Samus activates the portal, and the gang is ready to head home. The portal begins to operate when Sylux suddenly returns. To make sure Samus gets home, the team is holding Sylux back, keeping him busy for long enough time so that Samus can return to their planet. She does and… that’s it! These guys are still stuck on the other planet with no way back, and Samus doesn’t seem to show any emotion to that. She doesn’t even remove her helmet unless you beat the game 100%! She’s just… moving on. What happened here!?

For all intents and purposes, finding a way to bring these guys home was Samus’s mission in the game. She rescued all of them, helped them out, they helped her when they could, and now she’s just leaving them there!? That’s not Samus! Talking or not, Samus Aran wouldn’t leave her teammates behind, teammates she took upon herself to bring back home! I get that it’s supposed to be an emotional scene where we see these troops standing up for Samus and helping her. But the way events play out make it seem like Samus didn’t really care for these people.

Now, there is another bit of the story I didn’t really talk about; The Lamorn. This ancient civilization is referenced a lot throughout the game, as Samus is essentially gathering information about their history before they were eradicated. The Lamorn had a lot of knowledge that they wished to spread out via the life seed Samus obtains during the journey. Considering Samus grew up with the Chozo, another race of aliens with great knowledge that is no more, I can understand how she could relate to this story. Some characters even comment on how they know this may hit a sour note for her. 

On paper, this is an interesting idea. Samus has the chance to help a civilization, which resembles the one that raised her, expanding its knowledge from beyond the grave. In theory, this makes her choice a lot more tragic, since she has to choose between her friends and something which holds sentimental value for her. The problem is that once again, the story does nothing with it. If the idea is to make Samus relate to The Lamorn, then I simply don’t feel it.

It all comes back to the scene where she plants the seed in the ground once she goes back home. It grows a small tree, on which Samus hangs the amulet that one of the troops gave her. This tree now provides a new beginning for The Lamorn, while also honoring the Galactic Federation soldiers who sacrificed themselves in order to preserve their history. In any other game, I’d call that ending beautiful as much as it is heartbreaking. 

What sadly lessens the impact is that Samus doesn’t really have a connection to anything this ending represents. Her silence throughout the game and lack of connection with anyone and anything prevents the ending from landing in the way the developer surely intended. This tragic choice Samus has to make falls flat because, as the player who’s supposed to relate to her, I don’t feel much of a connection to any of the things that came before the ending.

It is unclear what the future holds for Metroid. Will there be a new 2D game? Is there going to be a Prime 5? Would Prime Pinball get a sequel? The answers may be unclear at the time of this article, but I’m sure of one thing: If you’re going to write a story surrounding Samus Aran, you need to treat this character better. She can speak if she has reason to. She can show emotions if the time calls for it. She’s a silent and determined bounty hunter who’s achieved incredible feats, but she’s also a heroic and caring person whom we want to root for and not just question.

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After being caught in the middle of yet another Space Pirate scuffle with the Galactic Federation, this time a mishap with a strange artefact sees Samus zapped away to the planet Viewros. There, she’s enlisted by the holographic ghosts of the Lamorn to help preserve and release their dead civilisation’s knowledge into the wider galaxy. To do this, you must reach and retrieve five teleporter keys from five different biomes and regions on this planet.

Stripped of her equipment, as is tradition, Samus is given the beginnings of a brand new set of gear, almost all with a slick new purple hue… because they’re pretty much all psychic. A gemstone is embedded in her helmet, so the scanning visor also allows for a variety of telekinetic manipulations, the beam cannon can now fire guided bolts, and there’s barely visible platforms and grapple points that you need the psychic view and psychic grapple to manipulate. The nomenclature is pretty ham-fisted, but it is an effective blend of the old and the new, successfully adding a new layer on top and around the core gameplay. It can be a little confounding at times, when confronted by a puzzle that leans on a less commonly used mechanic. I often forgot that I could turn a morph ball bomb into a grab-able psychic bomb to trigger raised nodes, for example.

You have that same blend of old and new, from a Metroid series perspective, for the controls and combat. The fundamentals are now those of a modern first person shooter, though you still lock on with the left trigger and automatically circle strafe around enemies. This means you can easily keep moving and evading incoming attacks thanks to this, and then move your actual target point on screen using the right stick or with motion controller after touch. Alternatively you can drop in and out of mouse mode when playing with detached Joy-Con 2 on Nintendo Switch 2, getting more of a PC FPS control scheme, which certainly has advantages for quick and precise aiming.

Personally, I kept things very vanilla, playing purely with controller, no motion controls, and then regularly re-aiming with a snap as needed. This generally worked very well for me, though it’s fair to say that it does struggle a bit when trying to target certain enemies in a crowd – some of the combat-heavy sections really throw a lot of enemies at you – and for targeting weak spots during the larger scale boss battles. Those moments aren’t common, and you can overcome them with a little patience, the game generally feeling quite forgiving in these most frantic and frenetic moments.

Through the opening biome of the adventure, the mixture of nature and sandstone-like ruins ably demonstrates the downfall of the Lamorn civilisation and how nature was corrupted around them. From here, things get far more heavy metal, from lighting powered factories to facilities deep in a volcano and beyond – are the Lamorn actually Bond villains?

They’re typical elemental archetypes, but I rather enjoyed how the Lamorn facilities and technology have more than a hint of H.R. Giger, Alien and Prometheus to their look and feel. It’s obviously not wholly original, but this biomechanical style absolutely works for me.

Instead of linking these regions together directly, they’re instead joined up by the barren desert of Sol Valley, a wide open expanse that you need Samus’ new Vi-O-La motorbike to cross in any sensible amount of time. It’s a pretty slick addition and it’s fun to zip up and over the sand dunes, crashing through green crystals and searching for the handful of secrets and points of interest between locations.

You can be attacked during these moments by a few different types of fast-moving enemy, and thankfully things are kept quite light, thanks to a locking homing disc attack… or you can generally just avoid them. The only issue is that there’s not that much to do here. There’s a handful of Breath of the Wild-like puzzle temples to seek out, and green crystals that you need to power up your Power Beam, but it’s largely just connective tissue between the regions.

And you will be going back and forth plenty. Backtracking and exploring newly accessible parts of the world is a key part of the Metroidvania formula, and in some ways Metroid Prime 4 does this very well, and in others it makes it a bit of a chore. Actually getting back to previous locations isn’t fast travel fast, but thanks to the bike, it’s also not actually all that time consuming. It does still feel like dead time, but the actual time you spend trekking back and forth isn’t too bad when you feel focused on an objective.

The real problem with this, though, is the game simply doesn’t leave you alone to soak in the atmosphere and figure things out for yourself. Early on in the adventure you meet Specialist Miles MacKenzie, who fights alongside you for a brief period, before setting up a camp for himself and any other Federation Troopers that you find along the way, putting together a rag-tag team of survivors. They’re a contrasting group of characters, but MacKenzie stands out for his… quirky dialogue, when compared to the more by-the-book nature and tone of some other troopers (who I inevitably liked more).

I have mixed feelings about this and how it affects the storytelling alongside the stoically silent Samus. The vast majority of the game, is spent on your own with rare interjections over comms when exploring a region, but once you’ve completed an area, beaten a boss, found a new tech part, it feels like MacKenzie helicoptering in like an overbearing parent to make sure you don’t get lost. That’s even more annoying on the handful occasions where he’s actively misleading, “helpfully” suggesting I visit one locale or another only for me to hit a familiar dead end and double back again. If I’d done this on my own? Fine, but for it to be because the game effectively lied to me is annoying. I know this handholding is important for the game’s accessibility, but there really should be an option to turn this off.

For the overarching story, I really liked the drip feed of learning what happened to the Lamorn and how their civilisation died, picking up the journals and logs, and finding their psychic statues. The broad team of Federation Troopers did also grow on me for their key moments and narrative payoffs.

Nintendo’s latest title coming to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – was seemingly made with quite a few studios working together. As spotted by Nintendo Life, the credits for the game credits Retro Studios, as well as a host of other development studios, including Virtuos, Territory Studio, Waterproof, AMC Studio, Red Hot CG, and others. You can check out the complete list of studios that were credited as having worked on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond below.

It is worth noting that, while many of the studios listed in the credits were likely teams specialising in supporting the development of major titles, others seem to be more specialised. Red Hot CG, for instance, is a development team that focuses primarily on the art assets that games need. The studio has credits across quite a few major releases, including Destiny 2, Horizon Forbidden West, Valorant, and even Starfield, among many others.

Keywords Studios, on the other hand, is a larger support studio that has several other listed studios under its overall banner, including GameSim and Smoking Gun Interactive.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has been in development for quite some time. The title was originally unveiled all the way back in 2017. At the time, the title was noted as not being made with traditional Metroid Prime franchise developer Retro Studios. Rather, at the time, it was being made by Bandai Namco Studios based out of Japan and Singapore. Since then, however, quite a few things changed for the title, and its development had been confirmed as having been restarted under Retro Studios back in 2019.

The title once more puts players in the armour of Samus Aran who is stuck on the planet Viewros and must fight for survival against a variety of foes, including rival bounty hunter Sylux. Keeping to series tradition, the first-person gameplay of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond offers a heavy mix of exploration, platforming, puzzle solving, and action. To aid players, Samus is once more equipped with the ability to scan objects in the environment which can then help her unravel the overall story of the title.

The newest entry in the Metroid Prime franchise is also bringing with it some new features, like psychic powers that can be used throughout the game. Along with this, Samus will also have access to the Vi-0-La bike to travel around the game’s various environments.

Releasing on both Switch and Switch 2, the version of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on the more recent console will feature quite a few unique features, like the ability to use the Joy-Con 2 controller as a mouse, more closely mimicking the gameplay of traditional PC-based shooters.

For more details about Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, here are 15 things you need to know. Also check out what has changed since Metroid Prime 3.

Studios credited with work on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond:

• Retro Studios
• Next Level Games
• Virtuos
• Territory Studio
• Waterproof
• Keywords Studios
• Liquid Development
• Volta
• AMC Studio
• GameSim
• Smoking Gun Interactive
• Forge Studios
• Red Hot CG
• Original Force
• Devoted Studios
• Room 8 Studio
• Next Gen Dreams
• Mock Science
• Cup of Tea
• Formosa Interactive
• House of Moves

Nintendo has just added Metroid Prime 4: Beyond themed icons to Nintendo Switch Online. Both Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch owners can grab them now. Characters and backgrounds are currently available based on the game. For the former, it’s 10 Platinum Points each on My Nintendo. Backgrounds go for 5 Platinum Points each. You’ll always be able to keep them,...

The post Nintendo Switch Online adds Metroid Prime 4: Beyond icons appeared first on Nintendo Everything.

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Metroid Prime 4 is almost here, bringing an almost two decade wait for a new Prime game to an end. While you'd have thought that would have been a reason to celebrate, a fairly standard Metacritic score and some snippets of gameplay online seem to have whipped up a little bit of a hate storm before the game has even launched.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has cast a new voice actress for Samus.

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As Metroid Prime 4: Beyond hits storefronts, I'm pretty sure you're going to see a whole lot of fevered debate online about the game's curious choice to place Samus, famously quiet Bounty Hunter, as the de facto head of a squad of Galactic Federation soldiers. Does it still feel like Metroid, famed for its sense of creepy, atmospherically rich isolation, if Samus has a buddy in her ear or - worse - alongside her physically? Or does the presence of friendlies ruin that Metroid magic?

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Taken as a whole, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels like something of a composite. On one hand, it is clearly a follow-up to 2007's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, drawing close many of that game's greatest triumphs and fumbles with a fascinating reverence. On the other, it is something new for the series, structurally most comparable not to other Metroid games but rather to a different Nintendo adventure franchise (more on that shortly). Then there is how the game is built, feeling almost modular, with different modes and moods of play stitched together with visible seams. With all that said, it certainly - at least broadly - works rather well.

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The post <i>Metroid Prime 4: Beyond</i> Might Be A Good Excuse To Upgrade To Switch 2 appeared first on Kotaku.

Nintendo has just added Metroid Prime 4: Beyond themed icons to Nintendo Switch Online. Both Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch owners can grab them now. Characters and backgrounds are currently available based on the game. For the former, it’s 10 Platinum Points each on My Nintendo. Backgrounds go for 5 Platinum Points each. You’ll always be able to keep them,...

The post Nintendo Switch Online adds Metroid Prime 4: Beyond icons appeared first on Nintendo Everything.