I think it being 3D immediately gives it more mainstream appeal. That there's not very much to get for Switch 2 this holiday will probably help also.

I'd argue the opposite of this. Trailers can always mask that deficiencies. What they've done is:

Trailer 1-Introduce the game with very straight forward gameplay reveal showing how it runs and plays, new location. No smoke or mirrors. 
First Mission Gameplay- 30mins of Straight gameplay. No fancy edits, or trying to hide deficiencies just pure gameplay.
Trailer 2-Introduced a new mechanic (telekenesis)
Trailer 3-Introduce open world segments and bike gameplay

Now I'm not saying this is the best approach, but its clearly not trying to hide anything. Maybe they would of done better to put all of that into one reveal trailer

What people are caught on IMO is the fact that none of this is sexy. The "good stuff" you're referring to probably doesn't exist because what you're seeing is a good reflection of the game. It's not AAA, its not heavily story driven, likely very few if any big set pieces.  It's the next entry in the rather niche prime series.

I think people are wanting this...



Whereas instead you're getting this

I expect more Metroid Prime and have been waiting almost 20 years for this, everything about the game looks amazing, and I honestly couldn't give a fuck less what anyone else thinks nor if the game sells 1,000,000 copies or 10,000 copies.

I do personally feel like Metroid Series does deserve the AAA treatment but that would probably need either a whole new development team or a lot of growth and learning in Retro studios. None the less, as a Metroid Prime fan, Nothing looks suspicious about Prime 4, it looks like a continuation of what we've seen and an expansion of what they done technically with the remaster

Nintendo released a sample of the prime artbook. You can find it here:

https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/metroid-prime-1-3-a-visual-retrospective-artbook-arrives-on-oct-28/

I totally appreciate this perspective. However, I disagree with the second half of your post.

I don't think the skepticism about the game comes from a misunderstanding of the core gameplay loop. I think it comes from the fact that much of the promotional material for the game has been underwhelming. I played Metroid Prime 1 and 2 in college and Hunters and 3 shortly thereafter. I adore the sub-series. I don't want Beyond to ape Halo (especially not Halo 4) or to abandon its roots. I want a continuation, in both narrative and mechanical terms, of the previous Prime games.

I don't think "trouble" is the right word. I feel it's more like... a huge missed opportunity to make Metroid Prime (or Metroid in general) a much bigger brand.

Like... I'm not worried about its quality (I think Retro Studios is giving it all to prove themselves as the true "Metroid Prime guys"). But by playing the right cards, there was potential to make Metroid Prime sell at least on the levels of pre Switch Zelda (4-8 millions for main entries). Being a key Switch 2 holiday was a good start, but non-existent marketing, Prime 1 being a fistant 2022 release and the lack of Prime 2 and 3 on Switch/Switch 2 REALLY holds the game down.

They are not feeding the hype machine, that's the problem.

Given that you want a continuation, what exactly do you find underwhelming here? Genuine question.





I mean I lowkey agree but that's my point about it not looking "sexy". The environments look artistically great as always, the tone and atmosphere is rich, the world detail bar the open world looks good. There are new mechanics to expand the interaction and the world has been greatly expanded. As a fan it's clearly an improvement on anything we've seen and carries forward all that people enjoy from the franchise. 

Has it been the most exciting or stylistic reveal or trailers ever? No. But that's just a missed marketing opportunity, not anything that I think reflects a worrying quality about the game. Nor anything that indicates the team/Nintendo trying to hide development issues.

...Unless the worry is that it will just be a continuation without a really modern jump in quality, scale, cinematic feeling etc... which takes us back to the other point. 

Lastly I will just add that I think Nintendo should of made it a S2 exclusive and really took advantage of its specs. That would of given it the wow factor I think a lot of people find is missing. I suspect 70% of its sales will be on S2 anyway and its sales potential would of been greatly increased if it actually looked like a late PS4 era/early PS5 game and not like Halo 4 from 2012

I actually was able to find my first impressions of the initial gameplay reveal: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9580052

As for the most recent motorcycle trailer, I'm not going to lie: I thought at first Samus was guest-starring in some third-party production. That's how rough and abrupt it was.

I guess I just disagree that you can't make Metroid Prime sexy. Heck, that Corruption trailer you shared got me jazzed, and I beat that game for the first time 18 years ago.