Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Hands-On Impressions - Can Samus Aran control like a twitch shooter?

"Metroid will be playable". I woke up to the good news today before attending the Nintendo Switch 2 Premiere event in Paris, where both the upcoming system and a good number of games, old and new, were waiting for us to go hands-on for the very first time. I did expect both Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza given their release date within the launch window, but Metroid Prime 4: Beyond remains un-dated and Nintendo remains shy in what they're showing so far, both when it got a full title and last week when it committed to its 2025 launch, also on the OG Switch.

But this was the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, as stated on the title screen already. What it meant at first sight was crispier graphics. We'll of course be able to compare versions side-by-side in a few months, and I'm looking forward to checking out the level of detail at 4K/60fps in Resolution Mode, but today's demo was preset on Performance Mode, meaning 1080p/120fps on compatible screens. I played on TV, mostly because I also got to try out the different control methods at hand.

But before I talk controls as perhaps the most relevant aspect of the newest adaptation of the series, let me talk feel.

"It is Cosmic Year 20X9. Determined to defeat Samus and the Galactic Federation, Sylux and his army of Space Pirates launched a series of attacks on Federation Research Facilities. It is believed the Space Pirates are being controlled by Metroids that have the ability to fuse with other life-forms and control their minds. Now, on Planet Tanamaar in the Desolan System, another Federation Research Facility is being attacked. Galactic Federation HQ received their distress call and dispatched Samus, who was on a reconnaissance mission nearby".

The first few minutes of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feel exactly like you know and love from the beloved Prime series. It's a tad similar to Metroid Prime: Remastered and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, in that the former is the one I (and any other fan) played two years ago (with this being a natural follow-up as 2-3 never came to the Switch) and with the latter starting with a Galactic Federation action-heavy warfare initial sequence, which is very similar to what I played today in tone and pace. But, yeah, Samus Aran moves exactly how you expect her to move, visors accompany you naturally, and shooting, morphball, scanning, and every other action feels just like the predecessors.

So no, I won't be able to tell you anything about deeper exploration, atmosphere, or intricate puzzles, much as they define what we probably love the most from the first-person adventure series. It makes sense, though, same as it did back in the day with Corruption on the Wii, as in it uses these 15 minutes to get you up to grips with the new controls.

With all that out of the way, the controls. For now, I don't think I'll play MP4: Beyond on Mouse mode whenever it releases later this year. At least not for more than 10 minutes straight. The control mode is interesting for sure, a neat idea for the Joy-Con 2 controllers, obviously, and the most accurate aiming system the series has seen. But, and it's a big BUT, it gave me some wrist pain after a while. The right Joy-Con (in my case, as I'm right-handed), just isn't a mouse, and the grip makes you grab it tighter while at the same time trying to reach the buttons and angling how it sits on a table or mousepad. You can aim more towards to the left diagonally if it feels more comfortable and natural, but it just didn't click for me. That being said, I landed shots around the screen as if it were a PC shooter, either as I moved around the areas or while locking onto enemies with ZL, and there were colleagues who liked it all the time. However, and seeing how I wasn't the only one feeling this way, I already expect Nintendo to release a super expensive alternative mouse controller for those who want to play desktop or tabletop all the time, because the precision is great.

And how do I change control method? I was wondering this too. But this is something I liked very much as I learned it while playing. I was just tired of dragging the "mouse" around, so I lifted my hand and... voila! It automatically switched to handheld controls. So, you don't even need to browse menus (where I could set sensitivity for mouse, gyro, and sticks), you just decide how you want to approach a specific section differently or just because you're tired of the current method. With two Joy-Cons 2 in hand, it plays like Metroid Prime Remastered on Switch 1, only that the gyro aiming seems more responsive, accurate, and smoother, even if it will never be as fast as the Wii's camera-based pointer. The HD Rumble 2, in the meantime, felt even better and more nuanced, same as the bigger sticks.

By using both control methods I went through several rooms supporting struggling Galactic Federation soldiers against Space Pirates, and also did a little bit of scanning (X) and morphballing (Y) around. I had Space Jump unlocked for my regular jumps (B or L), the same button as Boost for my Morphball (Y). I shot homing missiles with R, and the regular beam with either A or ZR, which was the same to drop Morphball bombs or to charge your beam to attract pickups. I even got my first Energy Tank, defeated an ugly mini-boss called Aberax, and met one of the bad guys, a familiar face I recognised from Metroid Prime Hunters.

Two nice touches about the Galactic Federation forces: A) In one section you can save several human lives if you wipe it up fast enough, before a Metroid-powered Space Pirate kills them all. And, B), the Galactic Federation has the *takes a deep breath* heavyweight class golem mk-99 bipedal manned war mech in its ranks, which looks as rad as it'll probably be fearsome when it inevitably falls into the wrong hands.

I sadly had no headphones to check whether the music feels as "Primey" as the environments, the effects, and the overall graphics which, by the way, look solid and decent, and not as "striking" to the eyes as the official key art in terms of colour palette. I'm already looking forward to leaving these cliché space station environments to dig deeper into the wilderness of Planet Tanamaar, as that's where you'd also expect a Metroid Prime entry to excel.

So yeah, a controls-focused demo or intro (including an ambitious war-like CGI sequence) that left me very happy about just more Metroid Prime that feels like Metroid Prime but with modern graphics and smoother everything. I need to find a more comfortable way to make the Mouse mode work, but for now I can't wait to play it on Switch 2 with sticks+gyro hopefully soon. It's Cosmic Year 20X9, but it's 2025 in the real world, and it's about time we got a new Prime.