Metroid Dread revitalised the great series back in 2021 and with the eagerly anticipated release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond coming next year, it’s easy to wonder what could be in store.
Yes, Dread was a 2D affair while Beyond will be of the 3D variety, but with a series prone to being dormant, you’d imagine the developers will be hyper-aware of its most recent entry.
So what could they learn from Dread? Well it’s all rather convenient that I’ve got a list for you isn’t it? There are numerous aspects, both good and bad, that they could take from 2021’s beloved title. So without further ado, let’s begin.
Must: Make inventive use of previous abilities
Dread did a lot right and the most startling of them was how they changed the look and feel of old abilities. The slide function made you miss the morph ball more than ever, yet keeping it away and out of sight for vastly longer than you’d expect made the inevitable future acquisition all the more tantalising.
It made you miss it as opposed to being that default ability. The longer you went without it, the more you considered what they might do with other established abilities, which they then changed up like the space jump’s usage underwater. The classic jumping ability took on a new life in Dread becoming a way of staying horizontal but without being able to jump higher. It was a small restriction but one which opened up a new way of you racing through your mind to figure out how to use it, or at least before you obtained the Gravity Suit and water became irrelevant.
Dread delivered here, and an easy way of keeping players on their toes would be to keep these established powers out of sight or reinvented.
It worked well.
Must not: Resort to quick-time events
I died a lot to quick-time events during my Dread playthrough and it is an amusing thing to worry about all things considered. Metroid is an action game, with tense boss fights, it’s a bit ironic to ostensibly complain about frantic button pressing.
Yet a cinematic cutscene regarding precise button presses felt tedious and the wrong way to mix up the formula. It took away from the fights when they effectively boiled down to being able to predict the way a cutscene would go. Metroid has always been fair and sometimes harsh; this was just boring. Metroid Prime 4 must avoid falling into the same trap.
Must: Embrace graphical change
Dread’s comparatively new look made it stand out immediately and while it might have been weird at first it worked overall.
A new look to the HUD is in store, but elsewhere you can hope they keep the same level of commitment. If graphics need to change, be bold and commit. This was a strange entry into the series graphically, but few could argue it didn’t pull it off.
A different look to the games or a strong stylistic choice here could be a great idea, the recent remaster of the first Prime game was faithful but looking similar to it could be very problematic given that the original was released some 22 years ago.
They should commit to a thoroughly progressed look.
Must not: Make stealth such a roadblock
The EMMI started off as a great idea but quickly became a tiring waste of time. Yes, they were dangerous and threatening, but so quickly became a one-and-done quick-time event which led to a tonne of restarts while you perfect your line through a key area. It was more like a restricted time trial in a racing game.
It got boring. Even Metroid Fusion’s SA-X was less painful. Success would come but it wasn’t fun, the lustre wore off quickly.
Stealth is fine, but don’t weigh it so much against the player in Metroid Prime 4 that it becomes a series of forced restarts again.
Must: Include more characters
Dread by comparison was a great title for this, you had Adam, Raven Beak and Quiet Robe. It meant plot developments were never too far away, while it seems the addition of Sylux is promising the series could use more characters who guide the plot a bit more regularly.
Sylux debuted in Prime Hunters, so there’s an easy pool of characters to bring back and add more to. If they want a bigger plot, then more characters are essential.
Whisper it, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night aged poorly due to how infrequently the plot is relevant.
Must not: Have so many repeated bosses
More so than encountering an EMMI, the biggest sighs in Dread will have come from another encounter with the Mawkin warriors. These were often quite difficult boss fights from which no abilities were gained and who never changed in terms of strategy.
They weren’t fun or interesting, they were just there to slow down the game. A short entry but the repetitive nature of these encounters seemed to serve no real purpose other than to be a time sink.
Speaking of which…
Must: Be bold with returning one-time foes
Everyone smiled when Kraid returned, as seen above in Super Metroid, it was a welcome surprise in Dread. Yet no one complained that Ridley wasn’t there, and for good reason, the series has a lot of good boss fights.
A reluctance to go to typical crowd favourites and lean on memorable, but not recurring, fights from previous series will be a popular move. Heck, they even seem to be aware of this, the much-maligned Metroid: Other M brought back Phantoon and Nightmare, which hadn’t been seen since Super and Fusion respectively. They might have been lost given the general reception to that title, but their inclusion brought a smile to any player’s face.
So goodbye Ridley, hello to a lot of other candidates.
Must not: Think 2D applies to 3D
Beam-stacking was disappointing to see in Prime 3. Sure, with the controls it made sense, but there was such a thrill in changing guns on the fly in the first two Prime games.
It worked, it made exploration and battles a lot more amusing while you worked out what worked best and where. Seeing the major graphical difference between how the beams looked, fired and even the difference in the projectiles made each acquisition so much more exciting.
In 2D games having each new beam stack on top of what you already had worked fine, but then again you’re not in first person and elements like a wide beam can function in a 2D space. The original Prime, with the addition of beam-missile combinations, made the change to separate beams which further showed how well they got that initial transition to 3D.
It’s been a while since this kind of Metroid title, so let’s hope they remember what worked so well originally and not take lessons from the more immediate 2D past.
So there it is, my big ol’ beating list of what I hope does and doesn’t get transferred over to Metroid Prime 4.
