If Metroid Prime 4 hasn’t clicked for you yet, you’re definitely not the only one

Well, I finally caved and bought Metroid Prime 4: Beyond for Switch 2. I've basically been tossing and turning about whether I should get it, after the critic reviews and general reception left me wondering if it would be worth it in the end. As a longtime Metroid Prime fan (like from the beginning), I figured I'd appreciate what Metroid Prime 4 was trying to do, with it apparently feeling rooted in its origins for the most part. However, that hasn't been the case for me so far, because something just isn't clicking.
When I booted it up for the first time, the sounds, the visuals, and that feeling of "we're back" hit me hard. I had stepped into a time machine that brought me back to 2002, when the disc for the original Metroid Prime spun inside my GameCube and offered me one of the most atmospheric gaming experiences of my life at the time. But with each passing hour I spend in Metroid Prime 4, I feel shortchanged. Something about it leaves me asking, "After all this time, this is it?" If you've found yourself in the same boat, just know you're not alone.
Nostalgia is by far one of the most deceiving feelings one can experience. It can ignite in you the same emotions a game like Metroid Prime once gave you, and for a moment, it's almost as if you're there again. But the problem is that nostalgia can never truly bring back those moments, and once that reality sets in, you begin to realize they'll never happen again, giving you no choice but to chase new experiences and hope they have the same impact.
For the most part, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has felt like a one-way nostalgia trip that offers occasional temporary highs that quickly settle into mundane lows. This game is every bit Metroid Prime, and in some ways, that's one of its strengths. However, I also find that to be the one thing that holds it back from being what it could have been. The nostalgia serves up a delicious meal, but one that grows cold and bland all too quickly.
Metroid Prime 4 spent many years in development, yet it feels like it hasn't evolved beyond what it once was. It almost plays things too safe, rehashing old ideas out of fear that veteran fans like me might have cried foul. That part, I can somewhat understand, but like 4s have been known to do, this could have been the Metroid Prime to reboot the series. Metroid Prime 4 could have been the first step toward fresh concepts that are still built on the series' most iconic design principles. Instead, it often feels like an arcade alien shooter one might play at the local pizza parlor—a beautiful, atmospheric arcade game, but a simple, overtly familiar one nonetheless.
Again, I'm not alone in this, and if you feel the same way, you're not alone either. One Reddit post by Affectionate_Emu_818 praises Metroid Prime 4's visuals and atmosphere, while citing criticisms like "babysitting an uninteresting NPC" and far too much handholding. Comments in the thread below call it a game of "extreme highs and extreme lows" and say they're "straight up not having a good time with MP4." In fact, one comment by Iggy_Slayer even echoed my thoughts about Metroid Prime 4's dated feel when they said, "Lots of people said it feels like a game trapped in time."
Leaning on nostalgia isn't inherently bad philosophy, but it needs to act as a bridge to evolution rather than a wormhole to the past. One hour is usually the time it takes for someone to decide whether continuing to play a game is worth it, and it pains me to say that I was bored with Metroid Prime 4 long before that hour was up. I've since put around another 15 hours into it, so I have seen the game's efforts at trying to do something new. However, even those make it feel like the game is headed toward something great, only to stop at the door and never walk through it.
Metroid Prime 4's Sol Valley is one of those doors. I don't think the open-world formula is something that every franchise should try, but I do think it could have served Metroid Prime, a series built on environmental splendor and atmospheric tension, better than most. Retro could have used this area to take everything these games are known for to the next level, and instead, it feels like "valley" was taken a bit too seriously because there's nothing there.
Sol Valley is a desert if there ever was one. It's a barren wasteland filled with plenty of collectible items and upgrades to collect, but not only is there basically nothing between them, acquiring them requires minimal effort. Even the puzzles aren't really all that puzzling, and the time it takes to travel between each objective is a drab experience that I really have little desire to chase. To put it bluntly, Sol Valley behaves like a glorified loading screen most times, and the fact that I can't even use the radio on Samus' Vi-0-La unless I buy the Metroid Prime 4 amiibo it's locked behind feels like too modern a choice for a game that otherwise plays like it's over a decade old.
At this point, I'm convinced that Metroid Prime 4's Sol Valley desert is a metaphor, even if Retro didn't intend for it to be. It's the perfect showcase of the game's attempts at reaching for something bigger yet never using the ladder that's right in front of it. It's clear that there are ideas there that are supposed to move the series forward, and every now and then, you get a glimpse of what that could have looked like. The problem is that those moments never really turn into anything substantial. Sol Valley is this picture of space for something new, and the foundation is right there, but nothing really fills it. You walk through it thinking about what could have been instead of what is, and that might be the most telling part of my experience so far.
I know this has been one of the high points of Metroid Prime 4 criticism as well, but I tend to ignore critical viewpoints until I've had a chance to see for myself whether there is any merit to them. However, I've clearly found myself joining the rant train that many others are on—like Arceorenix, as explained in a post of theirs on Reddit. The post explicitly calls out the desert overworld as the worst part of the game, saying that Sol Valley is probably the game's "single biggest mistake." I would normally say harsh criticism like that goes too far, but in this case, I'm inclined to agree. Several comments in the thread affirmed Arceorenix's point of view as well, with some calling the desert "padding" and others, like CahuelaRHouse, saying "The whole idea of an open world with a vehicle doesn't fit Metroid."
I'll say again that Sol Valley's addition didn't have to be a bad thing. Over time, open-world games have proven that the formula works if it's executed well, even though it was seen as inherently flawed for a while. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring were forerunners of that idea, showing that the size of a game's map doesn't automatically disqualify it. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond may not be a true open-world game, but Sol Valley is an open-world area that could have been executed better. It really is a shame, considering how long we've waited.
At the end of the day, I don't regret playing Metroid Prime 4, but I do regret how often it has made me feel like I'm just waiting for the real version of it to show up. I wanted the nostalgia of classic Metroid Prime, but I also wanted something that proved the series still knows how to innovate. Instead, I keep running into ideas that stop short of becoming something memorable. That has been the hardest part to sit with. To me, Metroid Prime 4 feels like a reminder that returning to the past can only take you so far before you have to acknowledge that you're not there anymore, and it's time to move forward.