Beyond Hands-On Switch 2 Preview –The Game That Will Redefine The Series For A New Generation

Releasing eight years after it was first announced, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is something of a swan song for the Nintendo Switch, but it is also Samus Aran’s debut on the Switch 2. We’re no strangers to protracted development periods in the modern AAA industry, but having a game revealed in a console’s first year only to have it release in the first year of that console’s successor is not only bizarre but also cathartic. Metroid Prime is back, and a cross-generation release sets it up for unprecedented success, even if that means some unsurprising pitfalls.

I’ve been anticipating Metroid Prime 4 since its existence was confirmed in 2017, and now that I’ve played roughly 90 minutes of its Switch 2 Edition, it feels quite strange for the game to be exactly what I expected, even though it’s nonetheless still exciting. In 2002, when the original Prime came out, the idea of a first-person Metroid raised a lot of uncertainty, but what sounds derivative on paper is, in practice, an immersive twist on the genre, filling an FPS niche that remains largely vacant more than two decades later.

Metroid Prime Remains A Novelty Among First-Person Shooters

Lock-On Combat & Puzzles Galore

Screenshot showing Samus lock onto an enemy during combat in Metroid Prime 4 Beyond.

Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime series was born with tank controls, which sell the illusion of wearing Samus’ Power Suit, but were woefully obsolete even on the GameCube. The exceptional Metroid Prime Remastered offers dual-stick controls in what is arguably the definitive version of the classic game, but the original control scheme necessitated what still lends Metroid Prime 4 its novelty: lock-on combat.

Encounters aren’t your typical FPS campaign shooting galleries. Instead of popping in and out of cover, firefights in Beyond often take place in the open. Having your aim locked lets you move, jump, and dodge deftly while firing. As you come across more enemy types and encounters become increasingly varied, Prime 4 verges on the bullet-hell gameplay that’s become the cornerstone of games like Returnal, which clearly takes a lot of inspiration.

While it feels great to get back into the rhythm of Metroid Prime‘s combat, laying waste to Space Pirates and hostile alien creatures, the mechanics also crucially lower the barrier to entry tremendously. Metroid‘s labyrinthine, progression-gated levels are already less approachable than other Nintendo properties – turn it into a first-person shooter, and you potentially lose a whole casual audience of people who struggle to conceptualize 3D environments. Negate the need for precise aiming with lock-on combat, though, and Metroid Prime is quite accessible, even if the skill ceiling remains high.

Still, if you can manage it, aiming with the right stick can be advantageous, even while you’re locked on. You can further adjust the crosshairs inside the lock-on reticle in Metroid Prime 4, and while it only proved useful a couple of times in the very early sections I played, it seems like a basic mechanic that will be put through its paces as Beyond unfolds.

My preview afforded me a similar conclusion regarding Metroid Prime 4‘s puzzles. Using Samus’ new psychic powers, none of the puzzles I encountered in the game’s earliest stages were true head-scratchers, but there is a noticeable, gradual compounding of difficulty, so the potential is plain to see, and I hope the game follows through with more elaborate brain-teasers. Said powers also introduce a new Arm Cannon beam, which, when fired, freezes time and lets you pilot the projectile. This is used very cleverly in one of Beyond‘s earliest boss battles, and has me interested in seeing how it evolves via classic Metroid upgrades.

At its core, Metroid Prime 4 continues the series’ engaging blend of lock-on combat, puzzle-solving, and light platforming. The technical and visual aspects of the equation are brought to new heights courtesy of the Switch 2, but even while playing the “better” version, it was clear that Beyond is fundamentally an original Switch game.

Metroid Prime 4 Uses All The Switch 2’s Bells & Whistles

Multiple Control Schemes & Impressive Performance

Screenshot showing Samus scanning a Psy-bot Soldier in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The description says, "Basic model of a Lamorn-made "Pay-bot" battle android. Typically equipped..." before trailing off. — Screenshot showing Samus scanning a Psy-bot Soldier in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

For my short time with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, in an innocuous event space in the heart of Manhattan’s Garment District, I played two separate instances of the game. I was first given a few minutes to play through the tutorial mission on a Switch 2 in handheld mode. This sequence, set at a Galactic Federation research facility, has been showcased extensively in trailers and gameplay demos already.

A short while later, I sat on a short stool directly in front of a fairly large 4K monitor. On the table was a Prime 4 mouse pad, on top of which was a Switch 2 Pro Controller and a couple of Joy-Con 2 controllers. I started with the Joy-Cons because they were already on, and was very quickly asked to please use the wrist straps. I obliged and began playing through Samus’ earliest exploration of Viewros, Beyond‘s new planet.

Playing with a Joy-Con 2 in each hand worked predictably just as it did when they were attached to the Switch 2 itself. Holding them separately let me seamlessly switch to mouse controls, though; simply turn the right Joy-Con on its edge and the control scheme changes automatically. Mouse controls worked perfectly, especially with a mouse pad, but I found it almost unnecessary. As previously mentioned, precise aiming isn’t exactly needed in Metroid Prime, but having the option for mouse controls is nice for convenience.

The only issue I encountered when using the Joy-Cons was that one of my fingers would occasionally trigger the mouse sensor while using button controls, momentarily switching the control scheme until another input rectified it. This isn’t exclusive to Metroid Prime 4, can be easily remedied by adjusting your grip, and I would opt to put the controllers in a grip if I had the option anyway. I ultimately gravitated toward the Pro Controller and used it for most of my hands-on time with Beyond.

I also had a chance to test both of Metroid Prime 4‘s graphics modes on the Switch 2. Quality mode renders in 4K at 60 frames per second, while performance mode dropped the resolution to 1080p and uncapped the frame rate to reach up to 120 FPS. Metroid Prime 4 is one of the very few games for which I will likely opt to use the quality mode. I usually don’t mind the resolution loss for more frames, and this could simply be a symptom of sitting so close to the monitor, but the game had a very noticeable loss of detail in performance mode.

Part of the fun in Metroid Prime is exploring all the alien life and using Samus’ Scan Visor to learn more about the unusual plants and creatures. Performance mode introduced enough fuzziness that, after I put the novelty of higher frame rates through its paces, I switched back to quality mode for the rest of my time with Beyond. From what I observed, Prime 4 appears to consistently meet its 60 FPS target at 4K, which I suspect is due to its cross-generational status.

The Switch Is Holding Back Metroid Prime 4, But Only Slightly

Nintendo Is Keeping A Promise

Samus looking up in Metroid Prime 4, with Sylux reflected in her visor.

Despite all the novelties and exceptional performance the Switch 2 version of Metroid Prime 4 boasts, if you look close enough, it’s clear that some compromises had to be made for its original Switch edition. I have not played it on the original Switch, so I can’t speak about how well the dated hardware runs Beyond, but the Switch 2 version has plenty of low-detail textures and blocky assets that would look more at home on the previous generation.

Most of them you really have to search for, like flat, fuzzy ground textures underneath plants – the stuff you don’t really notice unless you’re expressly looking for it. Others are a bit more obvious, such as the blurry body armor worn by Galactic Federation engineer MacKenzie, who is stranded on Viewros as well and has hilariously one-sided conversations with Samus. (See what you’ve done, Other M? You made Samus awkward.)

It’s hard to really call this a knock on the game; Metroid Prime has never looked better. Achieving both 4K and 60 FPS is also a clear upside, and I must concede that Beyond is in a very unusual position. It was announced for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, and is rightfully still coming to that platform. I broadly wish cross-generation release windows would expire more quickly, so we can get more technically impressive games, but Nintendo reneging on its promise to bring Prime 4 to the Switch would have been an incredibly bad look.

The imminent cross-gen release of Beyond is also an opportunity for Metroid to reach unprecedented heights. Playing Prime 4 only reinforced my notion that the series is incredibly refreshing, and that the franchise as a whole deserves more attention. I don’t expect Metroid Prime 4 to sell Mario Kart or Animal Crossing numbers, but multiple factors are aligning to potentially make it the best-selling Metroid game.

The Switch is closing in on the DS as Nintendo’s best-selling platform ever, and the Switch 2 is already setting a blistering pace. Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime Remastered helped reestablish the classic franchise in recent years, and now Prime 4 will be one of Nintendo’s major exclusives for the upcoming holiday season, alongside Kirby Air Riders and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Releasing cross-generationally and as one of the few Nintendo-published games so far on the Switch 2 is setting Beyond up to have a lot of eyes on it, especially after its notoriously long development.

It makes an incredibly strong first impression; all that’s left is to see if Metroid Prime 4 can stick the landing. The series’ fourth entry is a long time coming, and it may benefit from no other games stepping up to fill its niche. Its combination of lock-on first-person shooting, puzzle solving, and platforming is just as inspired as it was 18 years ago when Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out. The series’ brand of immersive sci-fi stands out among Nintendo’s other properties, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has the potential to propel it to renewed success.