I started penning a review for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but quickly evolved into a love letter to one of the most influential games in my life: Metroid Prime. I’ll reference my time with Prime 4 below, but only as a reference point for how special Metroid Prime is.
Video games have this unique ability to help us through difficult times. They can often act as a distraction from the horrors of the world, can bring people together for cooperative or healthy competitive gaming, and in the case of Metroid Prime provide us a model to live by.
In 2002 I was living a very privileged life. My father was the main breadwinner, as my mother resigned her teaching position to raise myself, and my three siblings. Making the choice to leave the profession had to be a difficult one, but it was the right choice for my family. Being children of the mid-late 80s meant my brothers and I were raised on pixels, and it is the collective language that we share. We became close passing the controller, taking turns, and overcoming in game obstacles. Single player games were quite the opposite, as it took a team effort to get through the parts we were each good it. We never finished a game alone, but conquered them together.
2002 was also the year that my parents separated, and we learned pretty quickly how the other half lived. There was a period of time where the 'will they, won't they' conversations were held amongst siblings, but we quickly had to adapt to our new reality. A year later my father would move to a city much farther away, so for the time being he was still in our lives.
That Christmas stood out to me for a couple of reasons. It was the first post separation, and it would be the last semi-regular christmas we would have.
Prior to Christmas, and the release of Metroid Prime, Nintendo was running ads in Nintendo Power for a mail in bundle that included: Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime Player’s Guide, Memory Card, $15.00 cdn off coupon for a Wavebird, and a 12 month subscription for Nintendo Power all for $110.00. Being fans of the Metroid series, and frothing for the next release in the series, this offer seemed like a no-brainer for my brothers and I.
We did not want to wait for Christmas, and asked our parents to get it for us. Our Dad replied to keep an eye on the mail. And we did. The ad said 2 day air shipping included. I went to the mail every single day for roughly a month waiting for this treasure trove to show up. It never did. Deflated we asked dad, and he kept saying “keep an eye on the mail” and still, nothing showed.
Any illusion of Santa was destroyed that Christmas, and I pity my younger sister as she was the sole believer in the house. Christmas morning arrived, and there was a demilitarized zone of chocolate, and candy that marked Mom’s gifts, and Dad’s gifts. At that moment we new any sense of normalcy was about to be eroded. The Prime bundle was under the tree, and we were both elated, and deflated. Why didn’t Dad just tell us it would be a gift instead of having us check the mail every single day. It was a portent of things to come.
Metroid Prime pits Samus against an occupying force of Space Pirates hellbent on harnessing the energy of Phazon on the Chozo world of Tallon IV. Prior to that, the game opens up with the iconic Samus responding to a distress signal from a space station orbiting the planet below. This area has two purposes: act as a tutorial for Samus’ first FPS foray, and presents players with an ‘abilitease’ showcasing how powerful the bounty hunter is.
The tutorial is fleeting, but effective. Unlike traditional FPS with the main focus on action, it becomes evident that Samus’ journey is about puzzle solving, scanning the world around you for information, and adapting to your environment. Concepts that are further explored when Samus escapes the space station after an accident strips her of her abilities and is marooned on Tallon IV.
Due to the infliction of the ‘great poison’ brought on by the Phazon Leviathan the Chozo abandoned Tallon IV. Through the lens of Samus’ scan visor you piece together the history of the planet, classify flora and fauna, and learn about the Space Pirates lust for phazon. An element they believe if harnessed correctly will lead them to galactic supremacy. Samus is alone, and isolation plays a huge factor in the theme this game presents. Metroid Prime speaks to the importance of understanding your environment, learning from the past, respecting the natural rhythms of ecosystems, and adapting to face what is before you.
Throughout the game Samus will regain the tools required to complete her mission, and uncovers a few more to make her a dominate force in her new environment. Over time, Samus overcomes the isolation, and through interconnected tunnels, elevators, and pathways she is able to navigate this hostile environment with ease. While completed powered up enemies that posed a great threat initially become passive entities used to harvest health powerups, and missile ammo.
Folks decry the end of game key scavenger hunt Samus has to complete, but it provides the final test of your abilities, and allows you to demonstrate mastery of the environment. You don’t have to find every power up, and if you think you are ready you can face the final boss. Of course this will end Samus’ journey, but will also rob the player of the intricacies of unlocking every pathway, and fully exploring Tallon IV. To each their own.
We never know the impact of great art until we are older enough to appreciate what those things truly mean to us. Metroid Prime was the game I needed in that moment. As mentioned before, my life was completely turned upside down with my parents separation, that last Christmas was almost like an ‘abilitease’, and much like Samus I lost all the tools that helped me navigate my environment. We were now a no-income home, we didn’t know where our next meal would come from, and when you become so reliant on supports and systems that support low income people other support systems suffer. Suddenly friends who you ran with don’t want to associate with you, people think they are doing you favours leaving you off sports teams because of the costs associated with it. Essentially you need to understand your environment, learn from the past, respect the natural rhythm of society, adapt and survive.
Alone and isolated, I navigated my new reality and began to amass knowledge, and abilities to achieve success. The abilities were leaning on the ones close to me. I owe a great deal of my success to my siblings, and each one provided a metaphorical upgrade. We really came together, worked through this tough time together and were able to overcome a huge shift. I doubled down on what I could control. Focused on my studies, understood the social structures that could benefit me, and adopted a survivalist mindset.
This is why Metroid Prime truly resonates with me today, and why I believe Metroid Prime 4: Beyond falls flat. Prime 4 is very pretty, and the tech driving the game is great. The individual environs that Samus explores are beautiful artistic show pieces, but those are not enough to push Prime 4 beyond the meaningless scanning, monotonous corridor shooting, forgettable collect-a-thon and NPCs that are both in awe of Samus, and don’t trust her to know where to go. Perhaps a more appropriate subtitle for this game would have been flux, because it seems like it is trying to be two games, and does not succeed at either.
I appreciate this game was actually released with such a lengthy design cycle, and a retrospective about this game’s development will be fantastic. I just can’t comprehend a scenario where this game would have as much of a meaningful impact as the original Metroid Prime had on me.