Metroid Prime 4, a game that was announced just a few months after the first Switch came out, is finally coming out sometime this year.
Frustratingly, we don't know the precise date yet, which makes me think it's closer to the holiday season than we all would like. But I got to play a quick demo of it at a Nintendo event on Wednesday and came away impressed for multiple reasons.
For starters, it's just nice to step into Samus's power suit again, for the first time in a Prime-style game since 2007. Beyond that, however, this demo was almost more of a tech demo for the Switch 2 than anything to do with Metroid. Not only does it look incredible running on Switch 2 hardware, but it acted as a pretty convincing use case for the new Joy-Con mouse controls. Here's how my time with it went.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond hands-on: It's all about the frame rate and the mouse
The demo Nintendo had at the event I went to was very brief and very un-Metroid; it started with Samus landing in the middle of a warzone, and played more like a traditional combat-focused FPS game with a big boss fight at the end.
There was no exploration or puzzle-solving involved, which makes me think this is the opening sequence and tutorial for the game. The actual game will assuredly have all of the things you want from Metroid in it, don't worry.
As such, I didn't get a great sense for what sets Prime 4 apart from the others in the series, but I did get a sense for what the Switch 2 can do to enhance a game like this.
For starters, Nintendo had it displayed at 1080p and 120 frames per second. I didn't have a precise frame-counter on screen or anything like that, but to my eyes, it looked silky smooth and totally stable.
I couldn't detect any frame drops whatsoever. It was one of the most "oh wow" moments I had looking at any Switch 2 game.
This demo was mostly a proof-of-concept for the mouse functionality in the new Joy-Con controllers. The way this worked is that, at any time, I could place the right Joy-Con down on a flat surface in front of me (surface provided by Nintendo and not included with the game) and it would automatically turn on mouse controls.
If I wanted to go back to playing with regular dual-analog stick controls, all I had to do was lift up the Joy-Con. It was shockingly easy and seamless.
Purely as a tech demo, Prime 4 was one of the most impressive things at the show, and convinced me the Switch 2 is the real deal under the hood.
