Metroid Prime Remastered | Pleasure, and high definition as a bonus

High definition graphics, more accessible controls, the cult game Metroid Prime is entitled to a new life in 2023 with a remastered version. The solitary huntress is just as mute and determined as ever, and the sci-fi sets are beset by monsters to be pulverized all the time. Fans will appreciate.

The Metroid franchise has come a long way since its debut in 1987, first for the NES and then on each of Nintendo’s platforms for around twenty games. Metroid Prime landed for GameCube in 2002 and quickly became one of the Japanese giant’s biggest hits, still considered by some to be one of the top ten games.

So here we are 21 years after the original Metroid Prime, as lone bounty hunter Samus Aran lands on a hostile world, Tallon IV. She lands on an abandoned ship where genetic experiments with a mysterious substance called Phazon have gone wrong. Samus comes across her lifelong nemesis, Meta Ridley, who has been resurrected and whom she hunts down to end the Phazon threat.

We are dealing here more with a canvas than with a scenario in good and due form. The main goal, and you have to like this genre, is to shoot, manage your ammunition, survive and discover your environment. A dialogue never interrupts the action of this solo game and no radio contact is established with anyone.

From the very first seconds, you feel like you’ve gone back to the arcade era with this first-person shooter where you have to constantly pull the trigger, in metal corridors criss-crossed with electric lightning where resonates disturbing music. Except that we have applied the latest developments in the art of video games, with stunning images and much more intuitive game controls.

To analyze your environment, you can scan yellow dots, which are simply instructive, or red dots that reveal essential information. Samus Aran wears this spectacular suit, an exoskeleton that allows her to jump, fly and withstand fire. She scans her surroundings with her special sight, and fires quickly or with a held charge that gives more power. If a passage seems blocked, it turns into a rolling ball that can become a weapon or solve puzzles.

We thus go from the abandoned ship to lava fountains, we must scan everything to store knowledge on the planet, its flora, its fauna, its improbable monsters which arise at the bend of a corridor or at the bottom of a cave. What seemed like pure science fiction now and then turns out to be worthy of pure Resident Evil-style horror. And we are nicely helped by the possibility of locking our target and the analytical viewfinder which reveals important clues.

But you should never let your guard down, because even in easy mode, some fights are tough and require a good mix of skill and strategy. It is not clear from the start how to defeat a “boss”, what weapon or ammunition to use or what part of his body to aim for. Most don’t even have a life gauge and taking them down is sometimes endless. Although a 3D map always guides you, the planet that hosts your adventures, Tallon IV, is so rich and complex that you will quickly lose your bearings.

In the end, we have here an excellent remastered version of a game that was a pioneer in its time, with mechanics now made classic. You have to dive into it with a very particular state of mind, typical of these retro games whose objective is to entertain, not to move.