Finished the game. 

Would score the series as such: Prime 1 (10/10), Prime 2 (9/10), Prime 4 (8.5/10), Prime 3 (8/10.)

Cons (for me): are the level design is a bit simple, like Corruption's was, desert, too many useless scans, wish there was more enemy variety, story is a bit disjointed. 

Pros (for me): most beautiful metroid game, fluid gameplay and great combat, music is among the top in the series, story has great elements (even if disjointed), boss fights are indeed the best of a 3D Metroid, difficulty was actually moderately challenging at times on normal mode, great balance of cinematics and story scans. 

If the game were a bit less linear, the story wasn't disjointed, and there were more enemy variety it might have been tied with Prime 2 for me. I liked it better than Prime 3. 

Just finished Flare Pool. The finale was absolutely epic: from working together with Armstrong and Duke to the boss to the self destruct sequence. So much fun ^^

The only thing that got into my nerves was the abrubt ending. Like... After leaving the Federation Soldiers I thought we would have an over the top escape sequence to get out of Flare Pool. But nope: cut to black and Samus is exiting the area riding VIOLA like if she was just leaving her own house. Super anticlimatic...

We're at the exact same point; I just finished Flare Pool as well.

And yeah, the boss was epic as hell, one thing the game really nails is making the bosses feel like a spectacle.

While cheesy, Nora being starstruck by meeting Samus was kinda cute. Seeing realistic character faces in a Nintendo game isn't something you see a lot either; this being a 60fps Switch 1 game they're not cutting edge, but still set a new standard for Nintendo.

Even at 60fps, the visuals are leagues better than any of the dozen Pokemon games released on Switch/Switch 2.

Those curated and baked details actually hold up well in many areas... This is where taking your time and building your game for the hardware, rather than just rushing in for a cash-grab has paid dividend's.

So, at first Miles didn't bothered me at all. In fact, Miles as a character feels just fine to me. After the time he tags along with you, he tones down a bit the whole nerdy chatty stereotype and he's just a nice guy who wants to help and is really into machines and technology.

BUUUUUUT, the game really wants me to hate him apparently. I'm not against him telling me to come back to base or visiting another area after beating one of the main areas (the Aurora Unit in Prime 3 did this too and I was OK with that). But if you decide to explore Sol Valley instead of proceeding with the story he will try to correct that at least three times befor shutting up. "Maybe you should go here!". "OK, you are not going where I told you. Here, I'm marking the location on the map and putting a big promt on the screen for you to notice me and open the map". "Ok, you're ignoring me. If you want to stop ignoring me, you can always contact me pressing the X button on the map".

Personally I would add an option to turn off these kind of communications. And again: Miles is not the problem. Miles is fine. I even like his interactions with the other Federation Marines at base. The game is the problem here.

Also also... It's one thing to not allow progression into areas that are not supposed to be explored yet. You get inside, you see you can't go anywhere, you get back. It sucks, but once you have dealt with this once you learn to just follow the path the games take you through.

But it's another very different thing that you get into one of these sanctuaries after getting the right beam, solving the puzzle... and then the game throws at you a new puzzle that requires an upgrade you don't have yet. Like... seriously? You allowed me to enter this place, you allowed me to solve the first puzzle... and then you kick me out? Now? It pisses me off.

The game is amazing so far, don't misunderstand me. It has some important problems related to progression and structure.

Yeah being able to switch off the radio hints would be a nice quality of life feature. Maybe they can patch it in.

And yes, if I had to narrow down the game's biggest issue, it would be that the layout of the world makes getting roadblocked and backtracking more laborious than it should be. You spend a lot of time getting from point A to point B, only to have to turn around and travel all the way back to point A.

It's not enough to ruin the experience, but it does mean the game doesn't flow as well as the genre's best.

On a more positive note, having now unlocked them all, the game's arsenal of beam types are well done. While they're not groundbreaking, the elemental shots all have cool visuals and are useful in combat, with the ammo system keeping you from spamming them but not being so restrictive as to discourage their use. I think it's better handled here than it was in Prime 2, which also used an ammo system.

... to then lock it with an amiibo.

I strongly agree on Miles unprompted handholding and it definitely feels like something that can be patched to be selectable in the menus so that you can turn it off if you want to. Considering the hint system in previous Prime games was something you could disable in the menus, I'm actually kind of shocked they didn't have it.

Got back to Ice Belt, met another "Federation Marine" and got the Spider Ball.

I don't understand how so many early reviewers and players got just around 50% item collection by the end. Once you get the Bolt Beam, you can unlock every expansion location on the map of each area. Very useful.

[Plot spoilers]