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Forums - Nintendo - The Development of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — Interview

Leynos on 27 December 2025
curl-6 said:
CaptainExplosion said:

I'd like the desert sections if there was more going on out there, and I'd also like if it was scarier like Prime 2 and Dread. Thought fusing with Metroids would result in certain characters displaying more body horror, like at least close to David Cronenberg's The Fly.

There's only so much body horror you can pull off while retaining a Teen rating; Metroid is niche enough without limiting its audience even further with an adult rating.

Xenoblade 2 Torna would disagree. That aside Metroid was never about pure horror. More about isolation. If people want body horror. You can play Dead Space or Still Wakes in the Deep or something like that. Metroid doesn't need to go into that stuff.

Last edited by Leynos - on 27 December 2025

Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

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CaptainExplosion on 27 December 2025
curl-6 said:
CaptainExplosion said:

I know, but so far I haven't found anything as scary as, say, Draygon from Super Metroid or Nightmare from Metroid Fusion.

Yes it's upsetting and disturbing when you realize Carvex's situation after killing it, but would've been scarier if it tried to communicate with what little humanity (in a sense) it had left post Metroid infection, saying something like "Help me...".

I mean the Prime series has never been as horror-oriented as some of the stuff in the 2D series.

Prime 1-3 had their moments of darkness like the experiments on the Orpheon in Prime 1 or the GFS Olympus in Prime 3, but they were always a bit more understated, Prime 4 simply continues with this trend.

True.

Ironically one of the scariest things in Metroid Dread was Samus herself when she tapped into the Metroid DNA within her, grabbed onto Raven Beak's face, screaming with rage as she drained almost all his life force. Now Samus is the very creature she had hunted for years; a Metroid. A Metroid with a conscious, but still scary seeing her go through that.

Leynos said:
curl-6 said:

There's only so much body horror you can pull off while retaining a Teen rating; Metroid is niche enough without limiting its audience even further with an adult rating.

Xenoblade 2 Torna would disagree

^THIS!! And of course, Draygon, whom I mentioned earlier.

Yes, those are very likely screaming human faces in her exoskeleton.



Leynos on 27 December 2025

Not really scary but the only moment in the Prime series that took me by surprise was when I played Prime 1 for the first time in 2002, went into a room I been through a dozen times and suddenly Chozo Ghosts. Driven insane by Phazon.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

curl-6 on 27 December 2025
Leynos said:
curl-6 said:

There's only so much body horror you can pull off while retaining a Teen rating; Metroid is niche enough without limiting its audience even further with an adult rating.

Xenoblade 2 Torna would disagree. That aside Metroid was never about pure horror. More about isolation. If people want body horror. You can play Dead Space or Still Wakes in the Deep or something like that. Metroid doesn't need to go into that stuff.

I feel like Torna gets away with this primarily cos it's more stylized and cartoony, if it had a realistic art style I don't think this would qualify as a T Rating.



CaptainExplosion on 27 December 2025
Leynos said:

Not really scary but the only moment in the Prime series that took me by surprise was when I played Prime 1 for the first time in 2002, went into a room I been through a dozen times and suddenly Chozo Ghosts. Driven insane by Phazon.

Isn't there an ending cutscene where we see the remains of the Prime Metroid, and from there a creepy hand with an eyeball pops out?



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Leynos on 27 December 2025
curl-6 said:
Leynos said:

Xenoblade 2 Torna would disagree. That aside Metroid was never about pure horror. More about isolation. If people want body horror. You can play Dead Space or Still Wakes in the Deep or something like that. Metroid doesn't need to go into that stuff.

I feel like Torna gets away with this primarily cos it's more stylized and cartoony, if it had a realistic art style I don't think this would qualify as a T Rating.

Cartoony maybe but still horrifying. I would not call Metroid realistic but stylistic. The most we got was MP3 with Samus transforming and vomiting phazon.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

Leynos on 27 December 2025
CaptainExplosion said:
Leynos said:

Not really scary but the only moment in the Prime series that took me by surprise was when I played Prime 1 for the first time in 2002, went into a room I been through a dozen times and suddenly Chozo Ghosts. Driven insane by Phazon.

Isn't there an ending cutscene where we see the remains of the Prime Metroid, and from there a creepy hand with an eyeball pops out?

Not a human hand but humanoid hand. It's not exactly body horror or gory.  It's Dark Samus being born.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

curl-6 on 27 December 2025
Leynos said:
curl-6 said:

I feel like Torna gets away with this primarily cos it's more stylized and cartoony, if it had a realistic art style I don't think this would qualify as a T Rating.

Cartoony maybe but still horrifying. I would not call Metroid realistic but stylistic. The most we got was MP3 with Samus transforming and vomiting phazon.

Metroid's art style may not be photorealistic, but it's much more realistic than Torna's anime aesthetic.

How realistic things look affects how they're treated by ratings boards, hence why many game have alien blood appear as green or blue to soften the violence rating.



Pemalite on 27 December 2025

Do mature ratings really impact sales?

I mean, things might be different here... But when I was a kid I had no issues grabbing a copy of Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem and more.




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite

curl-6 on 27 December 2025
Pemalite said:

Do mature ratings really impact sales?

I mean, things might be different here... But when I was a kid I had no issues grabbing a copy of Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem and more.

I mean it won't greatly decrease sales, but it may mean less parents pick it up for their kids, and Metroid is already a niche series with low sales, so given the game is likely among the most expensive Nintendo has ever made, they probably wanted to appeal to the widest audience they could.