Measly Game Review Archive

Finished 1/10/2026

7.8/10 ~ 21 Hours + 83% Item and Scan Completion

Verdict: I think I had my expectations a bit too high. I’m usually good about that, but with the overall high quality found in other Metroid titles, I assumed this game would hold onto that quality as a baseline. Now, I wouldn’t say this game is bad as many Reddit keyboard warriors would have you believe; it’s a fun and visually stunning adventure with a fun mouse controls scheme; however its flaws dampen the core gameplay experience strongly enough to make a noticeable difference. This game that myself and many others were really excited for just fell flat. Pre-release was pretty dry, and even post release had nothing that cashed in the decade of hype build up. This recent video from Kyle Bosman’s Delayed Input show puts it well.

To start off, this game does the basics really well. From a sensory perspective, this game absolutely NAILS it and feels like a true modern evolution of Metroid Prime. The UI design and sounds still have that edgy early 2000s sci-fi touch all while being decently intuitive to navigate. I love the added touch of seeing the reflection of Samus’s face against the visor when you open the map. Super cool and immersive effect. The game looks stunning even on Switch 1, and needless to say Switch 2’s fidelity and lighting look absolutely stellar. My favorite new addition are the Joy Con 2 mouse controls, which I have been eagerly anticipating. I’m happy to say they pulled it off (except for one really bad part which I’ll explain in a second), with precise aiming feeling seamless and badass to use. I really didn’t want to play any other way, and I’m glad there is some real utilization of this Switch 2 gimmick. I will say I do not like how gyro puzzles feel with the mouse. I have to constantly drag in place or find some weird position to reset the gyro calibration, so I usually switch to the dual stick mode for scenarios like the Psychic control beam or the Lamorn shrine doors. I’m glad you can switch between them dynamically, it really means a lot over the course of the whole game. The mouse controls especially crapped out when clinging onto grappling points, floating over to the ceiling for whatever reason.

The moment to moment gameplay is solid too, with shooting, platforming, scanning, and puzzle solving all feeling snappy and fun. The game still has the magic of the first Prime game of walking into an unknown area, scanning objects to learn about the world, then getting jumpscared by creepy enemies and engaging in a shootout. This was especially fun in the early areas where you would have a shoot out with deadly robots and hide behind giant containers for cover. This paired with the mouse controls felt really special and I had a blast doing it. The dungeons themselves are fun, and I didn’t mind the backtracking when obtaining new abilities since there was quite a bit to find upon each return. I especially love the Volt Forge, from an aesthetic, narrative, and gameplay perspective. It was really cool slowly awakening the forge, watching Viola bikes get assembled, getting in shootouts with robots, and grabbing a Viola bike for yourself. Returning for upgrades felt fun too, and I really love the Tron style tutorial, which I felt was necessary as the bike controls would be pretty confusing otherwise. Viola was fun too, overpowering enemies in the Sol Valley overworld and stylishly fighting a handful of bosses while riding it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t ride the high for too long as the issues this game has are deeply woven into to the gameplay loop. What was initially strange became tiring, lame, and bothersome. These handful of issues sadly brought down the experience for me:

1. Boring and tedious hub world that did not encourage exploration in the slightest
2. Lack of more cool new ideas on top of the motorcycle to make the game feel special and unique
3. Grinding halt in pacing at the end of the game
4. *drum roll* intrusive NPCS!!! (though I don’t think they’re as bad as everyone says. But they’re still not good)

Mid Exploration

The idea of an expansive hub world sprinkled with secrets sounds cool, especially when you can drive a shooty-mctooty motorcycle all over it, but that’s about where the positives end. I understand Sol Valley is not meant to be an Elden Ring nor Breath of the Wild and more of an Ocarina of Time Hyrule field, but that doesn’t necessarily make it fun to explore. There are things to discover such as missile expansions, energy tanks, shrines a la Breath of the wild with mini puzzles, destroyable crystals, and abandoned wreckages, but 90% of those things can’t even be interacted with until you’re at least halfway through the game. Metroidvanias always have areas you can find early in the game but can’t traverse until you find the right ability, but I feel that was ALL I was running into for half the game. One discovery after the next I would just futz around with it then leave to go find another thing I can’t activate. Even then, when I DO get the ability, it’s just the same abilities I had before in previous games, such as an elemental beam, spider ball, morph ball bomb, super missile, or some version of the former but with Psychic thrown in front of it. I never once got an ability where I went “WHOAAA COOL!” except for Viola and the final and only other suit you get in the game, which gives you a barrier designed to be used for a specific attack the final boss uses.

On top of this, the entire valley is completely monotonous looking; there are no towering formations or weird looking structures to lure you to the other side of the map outside of the main dungeons and the shrines / wreckages that you often can’t do anything to. It just makes you feel resigned to whiz by everything for half the game. Sometimes you’ll find a secret statue at the entrance to a dungeon that expounds on the history of the planet, but that’s all they do. Additionally you’ll find one of your NPC companions Tokabi sitting by a campfire with a missile tank and a story for you. It’s cool, but doesn’t really move the needle in making me want to explore outside of being a completionism. It doesn’t help that the purpose of the crystals were not clear at all until the very end of the game where you HAVE to collect a shit ton just to finish the game. I thought they healed you at first, but they’re just there to get small but mandatory upgrades to your abilities.

Poor pacing in the endgame

This sudden importance placed on these crystals describe the serious issue with the late game that stalls all momentum. The final act of the game sees you do a fetch quest going back to all the wreckages you found throughout Sol Valley. Though you can’t even activate THAT until you find Tokabi sitting at a campfire in some tiny corner of the map. You essentially spend the last few hours running around on your bike, going to the same places you’ve already been, fighting the same enemies except for one cool boss in the desert that eats a mech part, and going back to the forest area to turn stuff in. It’s super boring and lame.

Drumroll, please! The NPCS!!!!! (hear me out)

It doesn’t help that this game’s famous issue, it’s witty and intrusive NPC dialog, is at its worst here. Throughout the game you would find and rescue the main cast from each dungeon. You’d have to make sure they don’t die as you escort them out of the dungeon, and they have many cutscenes where they try to help Samus untangle each location’s puzzles. I honestly didn’t mind the NPCs that much at first as they helped humanize the Galactic Federation that sent Samus on this mission in the first place, and made the Metroid universe feel a little more real. What doesn’t help is how much they shoehorn in their roles into the gameplay. The famous MCU “well THAT just happened” sounding NPC Miles Mackenzie is the first one you meet, and the one you hear from the most. He gatekeeps the activation of your upgrades and constantly chimes in telling you where to go while you explore the hub world, and is completely inept in combat. I get the developers are trying to give these NPCs a purpose, but it just gets in the way. Other NPCs “um actually” you when you scan things unrelated to the objective in the dungeons, and are a complete hinderance in the combat. Nowhere is this worse than the final boss’s tedious first phase. It’s already bad enough that the main villain, Sylux does nothing the whole game then suddenly shows up AND also doesn’t let you lock on to his weak spots during the fight, but you HAVE to fight this first phase with every single NPC in the cast. They constantly die, cannot dodge attacks, and cause a game over if they lose all their health when downed. You often have to sacrifice an opening in the boss to go heal their sorry asses. If it’s trying to create a feeling of tension and urgency, I guess it worked, but I didn’t enjoy it. I just felt I was fighting the game instead of Sylux himself. At least they let you restart from the second phase if you die during it.

This game famously restarted development back in 2019 after being announced in 2017. A long awaited sequel to the beloved Metroid Prime subseries that was hotly anticipated for decades. Yet as it was closer to coming out, the hype fell flat, and its release was also pretty muted. I was still excited and I did have fun, but this was not the fulfilling experience I had hoped for.