Metroid Prime 4 kept one of its most controversial features because it was too late

The team behind it Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has revealed that the game's hub world design was a consequence of its time in development hell. First announced in 2017, the latest in Retro Studio's Foremost franchise was in development for so long and with so few updates that it became a running joke among fans. It seems that the long development cycle also took its toll on the game design, as the team didn't want to delay things again to fix one of Metroid Prime 4: Beyonds most controversial features.

Although it received generally positive reviews, Metroid Prime 4 is the lowest-rated mainline game in the series, continuing a trend of declining review scores with each subsequent release. At launch, the game had an 81 on Metacritic, and it has since dropped slightly to 78, and its user score, at 8.2, is also the lowest in the franchise. One of the most common criticisms has been that Metroid Prime 4s approach to an open world falls flat and feels outdated to many, and now it's clear why that might be.

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Review – The most disappointed I've ever been with a video game

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a beautiful game with some exciting action, but otherwise it's hard to find many positive things to say about it.

Nintendo didn't give Metroid Prime 4 a real open world because it had spent too long in development

In an interview with Famitsu, Nintendo shed some light Metroid Prime 4s development, including how its long delay affected its world design. Originally, the team was inspired by how Breath of the Wild started a new generation of open world Zelda game and wanted to incorporate similar elements into Metroid. At the same time, the developers believed that the freedom of a completely open world did not fit with the core mechanics Metroid Prime series had become known for. As a compromise, Nintendo opted for a central, semi-open hub surrounded by more linear areas, but when it realized that the tide had changed, and modern gamers now appreciated open worlds more than ever, development had already taken too long.

Nintendo Confirms Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Timeline Position

As Nintendo puts it, “players' impression of open-world games had changed” after Retro Studios took over the game. However, since the team had already restarted once, it was out of the question to “backtrack development again”, so it stuck to its older method of combining an open world with classical Metroid game. The desire not to delay the game again is understandable, given the 18 years between them Metroid Prime 4 and the final main title, but the decision to keep the older, even outdated, world design may not have worked in Nintendo's favor.

Some fans havee said Metroid Prime 4 feels like a one-way nostalgia trip, with it strongly evoking the first three Metroid Prime game, but its adherence to these elements is also one of the biggest things holding it back. The hub world design might not have been so controversial back in 2017 when Nintendo first announced the title, though it's impossible to say for sure, but the extra time didn't help. Games and people's expectations of them have changed a lot since then, so the linear, limited exploration that might once have felt like a throwback now feels firmly in the past.

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Nintendo admitted in the interview that shooters and action games are faster now than they were in 2017, which goes against the classic Metroid the rhythm to unlock areas by upgrading Samus' abilities. It is unclear whether the team will incorporate what it learned from the experience into the next game. There are rumors about it Metroid Prime 5 will begin development soon if it hasn't already, but fans probably won't hear about it until later.