Metroid Prime Remastered - DF Tech Review - An Essential Buy For Nintendo Switch

The recent release of Metroid Prime Remastered on Nintendo Switch is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. The quality of the remastering work could well be described as a remake owing to the night and day differences and improvement delivered by the new version of the game, seemingly based on an enhanced version of Retro Studios' internal engine. Either way, this is an essential buy for Switch users.

00:00 Overview
01:13 Visual features and upgrades
06:16 Animation and control changes
09:41 Image quality and performance
11:57 Analysis and conclusion

[UserInterface]

This shadow drop was a breath of fresh air. For someone who hasn’t played the original, I’m really enjoying this game.

[williamcrms]

Look at what an in-house engine can deliver, and on a Tegra x1! This ties in perfectly to what John and Alex were talking about in the most recent DF Direct: Unreal may be the most accessible engine for developers, but in-house engines (like the RUDE engine here) deliver some of the best performance and visuals on their respective platforms. UE5.1+ is certainly an improvement from UE4, but we can't let these great in-house engines go extinct.

[KarlRock]

I’m playing it right now for the first time, you can tell how it inspired future games! It’s a must play for anyone into shooters esp. sci-fi.

[LelandHasGames]

It is just such an incredible remaster. The core aspects of the original game are still intact but, the graphics overhaul is so stunning. It's how my childhood mind remembered the game.

[AGRACUTA]

For me personally, Metroid Prime came out during a time of extreme turmoil in my life. Words cannot express the solace i found exploring the planet Tallon IV. It was a rare escape for a very troubled young man. To the developers of this game: Thank you.

[MGPCycling]

been playing this game all weekend. holy moly is it amazing. fluid framerate, spot on controls, gorgeous art direction and geometry. and the fact that this all runs on the switch just goes to show how beautiful switch games can be.

it also really makes me wonder just what they're cooking up for Metroid Prime 4 with fully modern tech

[lordmetroid]

One of my all time, favorite games, after 21 years, still holds up today.

[ChileanWarrior]

What an amazing Remaster. It really looks amazing with the new lighting system and models. If anyone misses the look down while jumping mechanic like I did you can turn it on in options => controls => jump foot checking.

[DoshindeReus]

So much in my life has changed since I played this game as a 13 year old boy. I finished school, went to college, made new friends, married, and now have children myself. This may sound strange to some, but coming back to this game and having so much fun, really made me think about life. I feel like I haven't changed much. But in the end so much has changed. How will it look like in 21 years? Thank you, Retro Studios for remaking this beautiful game. Let them remain a constant provider of these timeless pieces of art in our lives.

[jetthejudge]

seeing them side by side makes me realize how genius the original was

[darkknightniner]

Still my favorite videogame of all-time. This remaster is incredible! Can't wait for the rest of the trilogy and of course, Metroid Prime 4.

[russellgolden]

A couple corrections: you can have the camera tilt down when you jump — it’s in the options, defaulted to off. There is also gyro aim available in the dual stick mode as well as the pointer and hybrid. Again, in the options menu.

[FutureAlien]

Thanks for the in-depth analysis, Oliver! Some notes below:

3:09 While I initially thought this effect was missing altogether in Remastered, later in my playthrough I noticed that the effect seems to be there in a really subtle form - it starts off further than the player character and is way smaller, but it can be seen e.g. in most of Chozo Ruins if you stand in a darker corner and shoot somewhere close to the wall and ceiling. To be honest I prefer this implementation.

4:56 Not only does the visor fog up, but the fogging-up effect is now animated and also directional - e.g. if you stand close to a steam plume, the fog-up droplets will subtly move in a direction away from it depending on where the plume is in relation to the viewpoint. This impressed me quite a bit!

5:02 I remember showing the Gamecube version to a friend who owned an Xbox; he was impressed with the 60fps, but absolutely floored when he saw the face reflection!

8:45 The camera tilting can actually be used with the dual-stick controls, but you need to have turned off the dual-stick & gyro aiming options - then you will have the option to turn on jump-tilting, as well as to turn on resetting vertical tilt when walking, but you need to look for those by scrolling down. In general, the in-game options and especially the control options are shown in a bit of an awkward way, due to the developers keeping the menu design of the original game, i.e. you have options activating or deactivating depending on other options, but they appear off-screen and you need to scroll down to them, something not immediately apparent. Also, those options do not seem to appear at all in the start screen options menu.

Some additional notes:
I noticed some more animations that seem to be missing, e.g. in the Gamecube version, when you left the game idle for a bit, Samus would occasionally press some buttons on the side of her weapon, but I have yet to see this in Remastered.
Like the already-mentioned "issue" with doors being too blue (due to alpha-channel), the entering-morph-ball animation seems to have an overly bright alpha that hides the last part of the animation a bit.
When using dual-stick controls and you activate any of the options to adjust target while free aiming, sometimes you seem to lock-on to a spot above and to the left of the actual spot you want. In some cases this caused me to miss shots while locked-on and not adjusting. This does not happen if you turn off the adjustment options - then the game behaves like the original and always locks you to the intended target.
There are some bugs in the start menu options - specifically, when selecting an option that can be toggled with left-right, the arrows actually get muted instead of lighting up i.e. they should be red when not selected and white when selected, just like the option text between them, but they are reversed (yes I realize this is peak nitpicking).

In general I am quite amazed by the work put into this Remastered version and very happy that Metroid Prime can now be used as a hardware showcase on two different generations! I sincerely hope Nintendo and Retro Studios bring us Remastered versions of MP2 Echoes and MP3 Corruption as well - that would make for a great lead-in to Metroid Prime 4!

[SamDSchumacher]

I never played the original, and I am absolutely loving Remaster. I know this can't happen nearly all the time, but this is the perfect way to experience legacy content.

[sextonj]

It's a stunning piece of work. Arguably the new gold standard in remasters.

[SnazzyPuke]

I had no idea this was even a thing! This has to he one of my favorite games of all time. The atmosphere and soundtrack were ahead of its time. I'm so happy it's a great remaster!

[NeoSlyfer]

Bought as it was announced. Didn't even hesitate. One of the best Games of All Time

[VulturePilot]

One of my favorite games of all time, first played it in 2002 wow. They did a great job with the remaster, looks and plays great

[tiramisumochi]

The video break down really shows how technically advanced this game was 20 years ago. One of the best game I played to date. Still have the original game with the gamecube box its a classic.

[guillermopaolini]

You see this, Rockstar? This is how you remaster a game.