Metroid Prime Remastered review: Samus Aran as the inquisitive explorer

you don’t have to recommend me metroid prime remastered to you. (If so, see the series recap by Maddy Myers.) If you could say video games have canon, metroid primeis definitely one of the established greats, originally released on the GameCube in 2002. There are countless reasons why this game remains relevant — the world design, the atmospheric score, the magic of classic Metroid — but it’s beautifully rendered on the Nintendo Switch, which Nintendo surprise-dropped during the Nintendo Direct in February. Playing the master version makes me appreciate it again. A curious and empathetic incarnation of Samus Aran.

one of the first goals in Prime, A game of exploring, solving puzzles, backtracking, looking for Chozo artifacts and fighting the occasional enemy is scanning the environment. Playing from the point of view inside Samus’s claustrophobic helmet, you gather information about the world and its various flora and fauna as text, and collect entries in your bounty hunter’s logbook throughout your adventure.

I played the original version of metroid prime When I was 12, I had far less patience with reading than I do now. So I remember skipping almost all of the game’s unimportant log entries, marked as orange squares on the HUD and red boxes that are important to progress. Did you care? What’s there to know about War Wasp other than the fact that you have to kill it before it kills you?

Now, at 32, when I replay the game, I find myself taking the time to play it. Prime It still evokes a sense of loneliness that few games have ever achieved. This is an alien world and you are an alien. metroid prime remastered It looks great and plays smoothly in both TV and handheld modes. New models and textures obviously updated But feel true to your childhood memories. What hasn’t changed, as far as I can tell, are a great many text entries in the game.

Scan trees, buildings, spooky crawlers, and more metroid primeScanning enemies and bosses reveals information vital to defeating them, and increases motivation for action because enemy weaknesses and vulnerabilities aren’t always apparent by simply blowing them up. The thing is metroid prime Don’t put a big block of text on the screen that just says “shoot your ass”. Instead, place this information in fiction alongside scientific observations. A lot of the text isn’t important to the mechanics of the game, but it’s very important when it comes to characters and textures. PrimeThe story of.

Take the initial boss Flaahgra’s logbook entry as an example:

Flurgra’s growth cycle has been dramatically accelerated. As a result, they require near-constant exposure to solar energy to stay active. Due to this exposure, Fulagra’s outer shell is thick and durable. However, its underlying root system is unprotected and vulnerable. Please exploit this flaw if possible. Focused weapon fire can blind it for a short period of time.

In fact, this boss fight more or less boils down to “shoot the butt”, but before we get to that phase, some deductions are needed. , consider what it takes to survive outside the context of the current tangle. Doing so makes it clear to the player that they must deprive the creature of daylight in order to make meaningful progress. The deduction is confirmed when the player realizes the arena is lined with solar panels and Samus can disable them. What begins as scientific observations ends with dead plant monsters and barrier suits. A welcome sight to the recently weakened Samus and the ticket to the next area.

Image: Retro Studios/Nintendo via Polygon

Other than these dramatic encounters with larger foes, Samus’ entry reveals quieter details about the world and its inhabitants. To ward off hungry herbivores, sacs evolved to explode. Shriekbats are “fierce territories”. Reaper Vines encourages you to “always be vigilant”. Unlike many lore entries that fill the pause screen, metroid prime It conveys the protagonist’s inquiring mind and empathy for the environment she actually traverses. It’s moving through the world with gameplay implications, an accumulation of what is what in terms of irrelevant details.

of Metroid Dread, it is recommended to sprint at full speed, avoiding enemies that you have no means of defeating at first. Your central relationship to the game world is anxiety and fear. metroid primeBy contrast, is intrigued by lonely landscapes and wants you to try to understand your enemies as much as you control them. Through a meditative gameplay loop, where entering a new area means taking your time and thinking 20 years into the future. metroid prime Perhaps there is more to say about what it means to take your time and look at the world with curiosity and wonder.

metroid prime remastered It was released on February 8th on Nintendo Switch. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.