After eight years of waiting, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is just three weeks away, and honestly, writing that still doesn’t feel real. Maybe that’s partly because Nintendo has kept a pretty tight lid on specifics surrounding Samus Aran’s next adventure – we’ve only seen a small handful of trailers, and much of Prime 4 has remained a total mystery. That’s caused a lot of fans to think that they must be preserving some special surprise, right? Well, while playing over an hour of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Nintendo Switch 2, I discovered a seemingly major component that’s been completely absent from any footage we’ve seen so far: an extraordinarily talkative companion who’s constantly spewing unwanted hints, quippy jokes, and cries for help, breaking the isolated, atmospheric themes Metroid is known for.
His name is Myles MacKenzie, a specialist from the Galactic Federation stranded with Samus on the planet Viewros. Myles tagged along for a significant chunk of my play session, and the way Retro Studios has implemented this NPC companion is far and away my biggest concern about Prime 4 after my time with it. But we’ll get to him a bit later.
Because everything else was pretty encouraging: classic Metroid Prime exploration and combat, an intriguing setup, gorgeous art direction, and great technical performance on Switch 2 are coming together to create an adventure that likely won’t redefine Metroid in any meaningful way – or live up to the unrealistic hype built by nearly a decade of waiting – but one that could serve as a great return for a subseries that hasn’t seen a new mainline entry in 18 years, as long as annoying sidekicks don’t keep getting in Samus’ way.
Behind the Visor
Before we get too far, a word about spoilers. Everything I played takes place during the first 90 minutes or so of the adventure, so you really don’t have to worry that you’re going to see too much. It’s also worth pointing out this was all on Switch 2, no one outside of Nintendo knows how Prime 4 will perform on Switch 1 just yet.
But on Switch 2, it’s looking fantastic so far. I started my preview in handheld mode, where I replayed the same introduction sequence we got to play at the Nintendo Switch 2 Premiere event back in April. This was the final build of Prime 4’s opening, and it’s still an explosive introduction that sets the stage for the conflict between Samus and the Metroid-breeding bounty hunter, Sylux, as our hero is warped away to the mysterious planet Viewros. The biggest takeaway here is that Prime 4 looked fantastic on the Switch 2 screen, specifically at 120 fps in Performance Mode.
Once I was set up on the TV – playing in Quality mode at a crisp 4K 60 fps – things got started with a very familiar, nostalgic chain of events: the camera snaps behind Samus’ visor and I’m left alone to explore a lush forest region, so I – almost reflexively – start scanning everything in sight to add it to my logbook. Gameplay-wise, Prime 4 doesn’t seem to be reinventing the Morph Ball: this still looks and plays like Metroid Prime, and I really enjoyed falling back into its investigative flow: examining the local flora and fauna, locking onto floating gaseous spores or roots that leap out of the water and blasting them away with my arm cannon, scanning lore tablets to learn about the ancient race called the Lamorn, seeing Samus’ reflection in the visor as I open the blue and orange wireframe map all Prime fans will recognize… I felt like Retro Studios was picking up right where it left off, retaining the core DNA of the series in this first major area.
The forest is called Fury Green, and after making my way through several linear hallways I was formally introduced to it with a sweeping wideshot that showed how great Retro’s art direction still is. You can tell Prime 4 was built as a Switch 1 game in a couple ways – some background elements look a bit flat – but handing the added power of the Switch 2 to a studio with an artistic track record like Retro has resulted in what’s shaping up to be a really beautiful game.
At least in this self-contained area – my preview didn’t cover the open desert or Samus’ motorcycle we’ve seen in the last couple of trailers. It’s important to note that Nintendo specifically chose not to include that content at this preview event. Make of that what you will, but it leaves those two key components as our biggest unanswered questions that will have to wait for our final review.
But back to what I did actually see: in classic Metroid fashion, I soon ran into the first door I couldn’t pass, so I morph-balled over to a new area and unlocked one of Prime 4’s main new powers: the Psychic Glove. This gives Samus telekinetic control of psychic objects. I returned to the blocked door and used the glove to grab a psychic energy “mote” from a nearby statue and redirect it into the lock, allowing me to proceed. All examples of this were pretty simple so far, but this is the first major area, so it’s probably fair to expect they’ll get more complex as Samus progresses.
I’m hoping the same for the other uses of the Psychic Glove, which involve slowly tracing basic shapes to unlock an energy tank, or painstakingly pulling a lever to open the way to a Save Room. The animations felt sluggish and the actions were completely mindless – another thing I’m expecting to ramp up as we go.
My map beeped, alerting me of a distress beacon from the Galactic Federation a few rooms away. On the way there, I passed some hardened tree resin I couldn’t yet destroy, and scanning it indicated that a missile would take the wall down. I appreciate that Prime 4’s blockades aren’t all the same familiar doors, and that in this case, it was naturally woven into the environment. We’d be back here later, but with a friend in tow….
Beyond Chatty
After tiptoeing through an eerie, condensed part of Fury Green, I came across a crash-landed Galactic Federation ship, where I was immediately taken aback by the tonal whiplash. My way here was filled with hauntingly beautiful choral melodies and isolated exploration – it was vintage Metroid Prime. But now, it’s finally time to get to know specialist Myles MacKenzie, who introduced himself with this honestly cringey monologue (and if you don’t believe me, watch it in the video version of this preview at the top of the page):
“Oh wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. What a mess. You’re alone, on a planet, with no hope of survival. But, you’re also not sitting next to Phil anymore in that cubicle… So… Win?”
He didn’t leave a great first impression, but I was still intrigued to see where it went. Samus and Myles got swarmed by some jungle monsters, and it became my job to protect Myles from them. After a close-quarters firefight that concluded with shooting the vines holding up Myles’ ship, he awarded me with the missile upgrade for being his savior. “This is fine,” I thought. I prefer isolation in Metroid, but I don’t mind running into a character here and there to flesh out the story with some voice acting and cutscenes. But then…
“If it’s OK with you, I’m gonna tag along. So, where to? It might be a good idea to check the map and get our bearings.”
I started to get a sinking feeling. In one turn, Samus not only gained an unwanted companion, that companion also instantly started chiming in on what I should be doing, like Atreus to Kratos in God of War, or Aloy to… Aloy in Horizon. The next 20 minutes of my demo ranged from mildly annoying to downright infuriating, as Myles constantly bombarded me with either awkward attempts at quippy humor…
“It’s about to get reeeeal nerdy in here!”
Unwelcome hints that directly defy Metroid’s spirit of exploration and discovery:
“Missiles are effective against a creature with a hard shell, you know.”
He would scold me for not stopping to save my game:
“Samus, there’s something interesting over there. Are you sure we don’t need to use that?”
Comment on everything I scanned:
“Can you read that? Does that say anything about this place? They really don’t want anyone in here. Must be a sacred space.”
State the obvious:
“I can see the door, Samus! Let’s get out of here.”
And he’d scream whenever an enemy popped out of the ground suddenly. I promise I’m not cherrypicking here – I was in complete disbelief at how Myles was constantly talking during gameplay, to the point where I dug around the settings menu to see if I could tone it down. The only option I found was to mute voice acting entirely, but I don’t see myself doing that when there are plenty of actual cutscenes I’d still like to see play out normally.
I don’t have a problem with Metroid focusing more on story or introducing important new characters. But that story and those characters still need to be good, and Myles was so annoying and overbearing that I honestly found it hard to focus on what I was doing. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption features other bounty hunters that Samus occasionally crosses paths with, but it’s never been this much of a focus. And, throw in as many cutscenes as you want, but I can’t help but feel a sacred line has been crossed when I’m playing Metroid and an annoying engineer tells me how to open my map, how to defeat an enemy, or reminds me to save without me asking for any of it. There are far smarter, more nuanced ways to onboard new players and push a franchise forward while still respecting the reasons people love it in the first place. And, the way Retro weaved Myles in caused a lot of dissonance that shattered the immaculate vibes the introduction set up. How am I supposed to soak in these gorgeous vistas, and this epic, serious music when this guy is asking me if that “strange smell” is “sweet or stinky?”
I’d had enough, and I tried to ditch Myles during a fight on a (very cool) bridge. I heard Myles yelling to not leave him behind, but before I knew it, he went down and my visor prompted me to use Samus’ psychic powers to revive him. When I failed to do so, Myles died, and I got a game over for letting a federation trooper fall in battle. Of all the things Metroid Prime 4 could’ve been, I never would’ve guessed it would include outdated escort missions with a companion that never stops talking. Samus doesn’t respond at all – which if you’re going to pick between Samus talking a lot or not at all, silence is the right choice in a vacuum, even if I think a few words here and there would work better than awkward silence – but there are three words I really wanted to hear her say: “Please shut up.”
Thankfully, this didn’t last forever. After earning the new Control Beam ability that lets Samus direct her charge shots to hit multiple targets, (to which Myles said: “You found something for your suit, didn’t you?”) we arrived in a Lamorn temple, where Myles decided to stay behind to work on fixing up some tech. Finally, some peace and quiet! I controlled a charge shot to open a blocked door from the other side, which reminded me of using Zelda: Skyward Sword’s Beetle ability – both in its close-up camera angle and use of optional Wii-era motion controls – and pressed forward on my own.
After enjoying the silence while working through a few more simplistic rooms, Samus was face-to-face with Carvex, Fury Green’s plant-based boss. I blasted its tail, opening its belly up for a serving of missiles. It entered its next phase with two tails, and I found that by the time I destroyed the second, the first one had grown back. So, in classic Metroid fashion where your most recent upgrade is often key to beating a boss, I had to use the Control Beam to destroy both its tails with one bullet. This was neat, and really felt like more vintage Metroid Prime game design shining through.
Defeating Carvex netted Samus the Power Bombs, which have received a psychic buff this time around. You can place standard bombs to blow up suspicious spots as usual, but placing one infused with psychic power essentially turns it into a mote Samus can telekinetically move. I grabbed the first of five Master Teleporter Keys Samus is collecting to escape Viewros, and…
“Booyah! Long-reange comms are back online!”
Myles was back, this time in my visor. But he didn’t stick around for long, just asking Samus to return to base camp to talk about what to do next. Once I returned, Myles shared that Viewros isn’t on any known star charts, saying we could be anywhere, or we could be nowhere, setting up an interesting story that – paired with Samus’ other main objective of preserving the history of the Lamorn civilization before it’s lost to time – I can’t wait to see play out.
With that, Myles and Samus agreed to be partners, sharing data with each other now that the comms are working, and Myles stayed behind as Samus returned to the desert area we still know so little about, bringing my time to an end before I could take a single step.
So, how big of a role will chatty companions play in the full adventure? It’s hard to say. The game over screen telling me a “Federation Trooper” was killed in battle rather than that “Myles” was killed in battle, coupled with the fact that the Federation page of the logbook had several blank entries to fill out after I scanned Myles, tells me that each major area of Prime 4 will likely have a companion to find. If that fear turns out to be true, I can only hope that they aren’t all as overbearing as Myles, that his section felt particularly frustrating because it was the opening area, and that Prime 4 won’t be afraid to let me explore and figure things out on my own, which is a strength of all the best Metroid games. Because other than that major exception, I really enjoyed my first big look at Prime 4, and I’m beyond curious to see how it all – finally – comes together on December 4th.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN’s Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find him online @LoganJPlant.
