I will say, though Prime Remastered did help me acclimatize, going back to analogue stick aiming, even with gyro assist, does feel like a step down from the sublime pointer controls in Prime 3/Trilogy, and it's a shame Nintendo couldn't find some way to replicate this on current hardware.

It's not a major problem as the game is designed around the scheme it has, I just miss them.

This is Prime 4 double edged sword issue.

If they changed the formula too much, so many people would have complained it wasn't true to the Prime formula. But then the opposite is also true, if not much was changed it feels archaic, and it impacted the overall score many people/reviewers gave it.

So what did Retro do? Retro mixed things up a little bit by adding a hub style overworld, which also gets complaints. This game, because of just how highly regarded Prime 1-3 + coupled with waiting many years was already set to receive backlash from the start, no matter what direction Retro took with Prime 4.

I personally think Nintendo should do 1 more 3D Metroid game this generation but not a prime game (also bring remasters of prime 2 and 3) and let the prime series rest for a while.

Yeah with the 8.5 year wait since the announcement, 18 year wait since Prime 3, the previous games being so revered, and the clash between Metroid purists not wanting it to change and others wanting it to branch out and try new things, it was almost inevitable that it wouldn't meet expectations.

It's a lot like Bayonetta 3 in that it's a very good but imperfect game that had the misfortune of belonging to a series where "masterpiece" is the norm.

I like the hubworld. It gives a breather between the more intense 'dungeons'. Even going back and forth to miles and such. Just a place to relax a little before the next big section.

I can imagine reviewers being on a time limit to get their reviews out don't like it at all, because it is a time filler.

I'm up to the Ice belt now and so far I like how the enemies make you use your different beam and missiles. Shooting a missile at a drone and watching it bounce around feels so satisfying and so does melting a wolf in one shot.

That was probably my favourite part of the game, the general physics of how weapons interact with enemies. Another favorite is when you're on a bridge or something similar and you can knock the enemies off with missiles. 

I get you! From my side, the S1 is somewhere collecting a good amount of dust lol.

Played a good hour or so into the Ice Belt, and it's the highlight of the game so far.

The "abandoned medical facility" trope isn't new to the series, but Prime 4 executes it brilliantly, evoking the Pirate labs of Prime 1. The atmosphere is on point too, with the Alien vibes in full force, and the feeling of cold so intense you can almost feel the icy air.

I may have to take a bit of a break though, as I'm unwell at the moment and I think the first person perspective is making my nausea worse.

My playtime clocks at 4:30h and I'm at about 23% completion I think. Just got the fire beam (or whathever is called in english) and I'm about to use it to melt everything I find in the frozen area (forgot its name xD).

So far I'm enjoying Prime 4 A LOT. But there is ONE thing I don't like about it. Once you can ride the bike inside the desert, you can go wherever you want and enter almost every main area in the game. However, the game has a very specific sequence and you must follow this sequence (it tells you to go to Flare Pool next). Because if you decide to visit a different area, you are going to experience a huge waste of time. You CAN enter, say, the frozen area right after you finish Volt Forge. You CAN traverse the entire Sol Valley, enter the different gates of the area and go through their small loading screens... just to find out that you can't do absolutely nothing inside yet. Then you have you waste even more time to get back on track.

I also decided to visit Fury Green before progressing because I didn't know if the game would make me go back on purpouse at some point soon. I wanted to see if I could grab some expansions now that I had the cool psychic boots and deliver the green crystals I gathered so far. So, a trip to Fury Green, then exiting Fury Green. Then a trip to the Flare Pool... and then the game requires you to go back to Fury Green in order to get the flame beam. So even more time wasted.

See, in part this is my fault. In all fairness, the game told me where to go next. And if I had followed the path it marked, I'm sure it would have been very a very fun trip and it would have felt rewarding and great. But the game ALSO allowed me to go to other places. In my opinion, if you allow this kind of (aparent) open structure, you have to allow the player to do something with it. It doesn't need to be like BotW (being able to beat the game in any order you can think of), but there should be some stuff to do in every area you can reach. Specially when there is no fast travel and there are indeed loading times between zones (even if they are short).

In summary: if you are gonna dictate the exact structure and rhythm of the game and I have no choice in it, don't give me the ability to go everywhere. I would be happier if this was a Metroid Fusion/Dread kind of situation where the game locks you on the path to follow. Otherwise, it can potentially waste the player's time and make the game feel like a slog,

Of course, now I will always follow the actual route the game tells me to follow and will only detour once I get a lot of upgrades in order to fully explore previous areas. This is how the game is supposed and has to be played.

I must say— this game has to be one of the most “you either love it or hate it” kind of games I’ve ever seen. I’ve heard many call MP4:Beyond a mediocre 5/10 mess (and most of these people I can tell are genuine Metroid fans judging by their critiques); I’ve also heard many praise this entry as being worthy of the Metroid Prime label, with some even calling it the best in the franchise. It sits with a highly polarized User Score across different sites (high on MC, not as high on HLTB nor Backloggd).

The consensus is clear: MP4:Beyond is a compromised experience. How impactful these compromises are on your personal enjoyment, however, varies radically from person-to-person.

Not even M&L:Brothership was this divided. I don’t like saying this… but it seems a lot closer to discourse surrounding PM:Color Splash or The Origami King, where you’ll have some “die on a hill” for the game, but a majority left feeling very disappointed.