Metroid Prime 4 fans are frustrated with long scan times

Metroid Prime 4 hasn't been the triumphant return to the Prime series that many were hoping for, but judging by both critics' and fans' reactions, it's still a pretty damn good game. If you can get over some pretty questionable decisions, like locking desert music is an expensive amiibo, and the game is filled with chatty companions, it sounds like there's still a lot of fun to be had.

However, there is one aspect of the multiplayer game that seems to be getting in the way of the fun for a lot of people, and it all involves a very classic Metroid Prime feature that turns out to be a little more frustrating this time around.

Metroid Prime 4 fans are frustrated with long scan times

Anyone who has played a Metroid Prime game knows how important scanning enemies and your environment can be. You're usually stranded in a hostile and unknown environment, so gathering information is obviously a vital boost to Samus' chances of survival. However, Metroid Prime 4 seems to have made the whole process a bit more tedious, increasing the time it takes for Samus to successfully scan an enemy object. To say it's annoying for many would be an understatement.

Samus holds up a powerful arm cannon in Metroid Prime 4.

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In a post on the Metroid subreddit earlier this week, a user named Rube complained about the game's scanning, claiming that it “takes way too long” and wishes it could only last a second or two instead of feeling more realistic. Rube's post then acted as a bit of a lightning rod for other disgruntled scanners, who began voicing their own function.

Another user named Paradox52525 claims that there are too many things to scan in the game, many of them not very useful or useful. They suggest that things that are important to scan, such as a new enemy, should be highlighted in a different color and take longer to scan, but that simple scans like crates and vehicles should be much faster.

Samus Aran in her new costume in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Surprisingly, another of the big complaints when it comes to scanning is the colors. Unlike in the first three Metroid Prime games, which highlighted scans in blue and red, Metroid chooses to make unverified items green and scanned items gray, throwing off players like VaatiReborn. Even those who think the scan times are good are puzzled by the color changes.

Pretty much every reply in the thread complains about scanning in some way, with many people admitting that they stopped scanning almost everything the further into the game they got, either getting tired of the whole process or tired of not being rewarded with new information or knowledge. Sounds like a feature that needs work, so let's hope Nintendo is working on a tweak as we speak.