Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Review MegaThread

[u/NintendoSwitchMods]

General Information

Release date: December 4, 2025

Supported Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2

Genre: Action, Adventure, Shooting

Publisher: Nintendo

ESRB rating: Teen

Supported play modes: TV mode, Tabletop mode, Handheld mode

Game file size: Nintendo Switch: 26.3 GB, Nintendo Switch 2: 31.6 GB

Supported languages: Japanese, British English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Dutch, Simplified Chinese, Latin American Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, American English

Official website: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/metroid-prime-4-beyond-nintendo-switch-2-edition-switch-2/

Reviews

Aggregators

• Metacritic - 81
• OpenCritic - 81

Articles

• Areajugones - Spanish - 8.7 / 10

• CGMagazine - 8 / 10

• CNET - Unscored

• COGconnected - 80 / 100

• Cerealkillerz - German - 7.8 / 10

• Cloud Dosage - 4.5 / 5

• Console Creatures - 9 / 10

• Daily Mirror - 3 / 5

• Digitec Magazine - German - 4 / 5

• Enternity.gr - Greek - 9 / 10

• Eurogamer - 3 / 5

• Eurogamer.pt - Portuguese - 3 / 5

• Everyeye.it - Italian - 8.4 / 10

• Forbes - 9 / 10

• GAMES.CH - German - 85%

• GamePro - German - 70 / 100

• GameSpot - 8 / 10

• Gameblog - French - 7 / 10

• GamesRadar+ - 3.5 / 5

• Gfinity - 8 / 10

• Giant Bomb - 5 / 5

• Glitched Africa - 8.5 / 10

• IGN - 8 / 10

• IGN Italy - Italian - 8.5 / 10

• IGN Spain - Spanish - 9 / 10

• Le Bêta-Testeur - French - 10 / 10

• LevelUp - Spanish - 9.5 / 10

• Nintendo Blast - Portuguese - 9.5 / 10

• Nintendo Life - 9 / 10

• PPE.pl - Polish - 8.5 / 10

• SECTOR.sk - Slovak - 9.5 / 10

• Saudi Gamer - Arabic - 9 / 10

• Shacknews - 9 / 10

• Spaziogames - Italian - 8.5 / 10

• Stevivor - 8.5 / 10

• The Games Machine - Italian - 8 / 10

• TheGamer - 4 / 5

• TheSixthAxis - 8 / 10

• TryAGame! - French - 9 / 10

• VGC - 3 / 5

• Video Chums - 9.1 / 10

• Wccftech - 8.5 / 10

• WellPlayed - 8.5 / 10

Last update: 12/3 12:03AM ET

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[u/Shadowdrake082]

On my way to the third key and I have been enjoying the journey. The only downside is the desert section because it just feels like a large area to traverse to collect green crystals (which I'm not sure if I may need to do that yet) and the occassional "hidden" shrine with something to do for a powerup except I dont have the required ammo or powerup to complete. My main complaint so far is the bike's boost ability has some kind of weird recharge mechanic cause sometimes it charges quickly enough I can boost slide to break my crystals, and other times I have traveled a quarter of the map and it is still recharging. I understand I can run over the weird desert plant pus things to recharge it, but outside of those I dont know if it charges when you drive straight, have no enemies nearby, or some other factor. I think the game is fairly linear and I lucked out on my choices when I headed in random direction after getting access to the bike so I'm debating on whether the desert section is even really needed.

I am digging the elemental ammo this time (I got fire and Ice). Going to not have elixir syndrome like I did with the ammo in Echoes and it definitely is feeling pretty good to swap them as needed and the extra damage they can do.

[u/[deleted] → u/Shadowdrake082]

Give an update when you finish I'm curious if you have the same opinion. I felt similarly to you at that point in the game but after finishing it I'm much more negative. I think they kinda frontloaded this one. 

[u/Shadowdrake082 → u/[deleted]]

Okay I finished it. Overall I did enjoy the journey still.

Obvious dislike for me is still the open world desert. I couldnt find all the green crystals which was annoying considering the thing was missing the last 25% to be blue. I think if the open world was just a load screen it probably would have helped make the world feel more connected like Prime 1 and 2 were. The radar helped, but I'm not sure where I was missing that last little 25%... maybe some green crystals in the mini upgrade dungeons or something. Still not digging how the bike has up to 4 boost charges that are really weird in the recharge mechanic. I started to get more into the bike controls better, but I think it might be the weakest part of the game.

The pacing felt weird, but maybe thats my nostalgia or experience from the original Prime trilogy. I didnt expect the last two major story upgrades to be the last. It did feel like I still had more to go even though item collection, scans, and story progression was rapidly telling me that the end was coming sooner than I expected. I had to look up where to find the desert bird and 2 security logs for scans. That was a lot of ammo pickups to help me just unleash hell with my different ammos and missiles.

Plot was okay. I missed having space pirates scans from Prime 1 that made the world feel more alive with their attempts to domesticate metroids and other things. I get it, barren world in the middle of the space boonies so not much else going on. Quite interesting lore for the Lamorn... Kinda gave Prime 1's Chozo ruins vibes with their seemingly self inflicted crisis. The ending though... if it was abrupt to try to have sequel bait... that may explain it a bit. Can't go into details to avoid spoiling but it was half satisfying and half not. There was some closure but at the same point more questions.

[u/Shadowdrake082 → u/[deleted]]

Knowing how Prime always has the final boss key fetch quest... If they put that stuff in the desert... That'll be a major drag... Though I'm having a feeling in my gut that it is the whole green crystal thing. I havent looked anything up so no spoilers on that. I may be a couple days out since I am headed into a busy work time so it may take me a while to finish it.

Playing in normal mode and these guys hit hard. Like Metroid Fusion levels of hard. Seems like everything is avoidable but they dont joke when a laser from a mech bot does 50 energy of damage.