10 Things Metroid Prime 4 Needs to Accomplish

‘Metroid Prime 4’ is almost here. Have been announced in 2017 for the Nintendo Switch platform, fans of the ‘Metroid’ franchise have been eagerly anticipating the latest iteration for years now. Rumors have recently sprung claiming that the new game could be right around the corner. “Metroid; Prime 4” has the potential to be the biggest game ever released by Nintendo. There’s an impressive amount go hype already, before the first trailer has even been released.

1) It Needs To Feature Open-World Gameplay

‘Metroid Prime 1-3’ did feature a semi-open world style gameplay. What I’m talking about is something on the level of ‘Metroid: The Other M’. Something that ‘Metroid; Prime 4’ could do is create a sprawling map, filled with a slew of side missions could re-define the Metroid experience. Here’s something that I’ve always found amusing, the protagonist of Metroid is a bounty hunter named Samus Aran, and I have yet to see her go after a bounty. Nintendo now has an excellent opportunity to feature bounty missions. (Or even keep it back as a DLC, that works too)

2) It Needs Real Voice Acting

‘Metroid’ never has featured any truly great voice acting, ever. ‘Metroid; Dread’ came pretty close, but all we were really given was unintelligible alien garble. In a world where Keanu Reeves, Nicholas Cage and Ben Affleck are voicing video games, Nintendo needs to get with the times. Adding some voices to the characters would make for a more cinematic experience.

3) It Needs To Create A Meaningful Combat System

The Metroid Prime series is a genuine masterpiece. A true example of originality. I wish I could say the same for the combat system. I’m not suggesting the combat system in the Prime series is bad, because it isn’t. All I’m saying is that it could use some upgrades, I’d like to see some new weapons show up. Perhaps multiple classes of weapons would be one way to do it. I’d also like to see other weapons than just blasters, arm rockets would be great. Lasers would also be appreciated. The point is, if Prime 4 is going to be this massive release, then I would like to see more weapons than we’ve seen in the past.

4) It Needs To Feature Vehicles (and lots of them)

One of the significant flaws plaguing the Metroid franchise is a lack of vehicles. I have never understood why create an epic space adventure and fail to include vehicles. There’s no ships, cars, nothing. Can you imagine how good ‘Metroid Prime 4’ would be if there were dogfights? Or how great it would be to storm an enemy base with a tank? Nintendo has used the Metroid series over the years to play around with interesting ideas, so why not use this opportunity to feature some futuristic concept vehicles? This could be an untapped mine of potential.

5) It Needs To Feature A Well Drawn Plot

This is yet another fault that Metroid has suffered from. None of the games have ever featured a truly great plot. Up until now this has been forgivable, but now Nintendo needs to completely re-define the Metroid experience. Past entires have been downright confusing. Take ‘Metroid: Dread’ for example. Great game, really. Only it suffered from lack of cohesiveness. A few examples;


6) It Needs A Cast

Here’s another golden opportunity for Nintendo, add a real cast to Prime 4. The previous entries have never featured a great cast of characters. In the past you could get away with this, but times have changed. A helpful companion could be interesting, maybe some villain monologuing, something to make the game stand out on its own. It can be hard to take a game seriously with a character that is mute the entire time.

7) It Needs To Rid Itself of The ‘Amnesia Effect’.

Virtually every Metroid game starts out with Samus Aran flashing some of her awesome abilities and new suit, before some cataclysmic event takes place and then she wakes up having forgotten everything, in which case the players have to and ‘remember’ their abilities. The cheesy amnesia thing needs to go away this time.

8) Interchangeable Suits

‘Metroid’ always features a couple of different suits, but here’s the deal, you can’t use them all. Each new suit you gain in the games are always mere upgrades to whatever you are currently wearing. This time I want to see interchangeable suits. For example, we could see suits that give environmental immunity, or even a suit that allows for flight. Numerous possibilities exist here.



9) Massive Boss Fights

One of the best things about playing Metroid, is every game features great boss fights. “Metroid: Dread” featured some of the greatest boss fights I’ve ever seen. (Nintendo was well aware of this too, because they included a ‘Boss Rush’ mode allowing me to face every boss, one after the other. For ‘Metroid Prime 4’ I want to see if Nintendo can top themselves yet again. Supposedly Prime 4 is going to have cinema level graphics, well that’s good. I expect some amazing boss fights.


10) It Needs To Fix The Chronology Gap