Completed Metroid Prime 4 in ~14 hrs (baby distractions make true time difficult to gage) This has some of the highest highs and lowest lows of the whole series, even counting non-Prime games. I fear the lows outweigh the highs, but any Metroid game is better than nothing

First, the good. Combat is stellar. Bosses are a highlight, each with great mechanics, though sidestep should be a dedicated button rather than double-tap jump if they're going to rely on it so often Beam upgrades feel impactful and have distinct uses against particular enemies

The music is fantastic as always. Each area has multiple themes and all fit with the rest of the Primes' soundtracks. No jams that hit as hard as Bryyo though Areas are all beautiful to look at and it's easy to remember distinct areas but that's also because...

Every single level is ridiculously linear. Now every Metroid game requires certain items to progress without sequence breaking, but retracing your steps should never be this painful. Almost every room has one entrance and one exit except for bonus doors for save rooms

Way, way too many upgrades require moves you don't get until the endgame. In Dread, it was fun going back to each area and picking up a few upgrades each time you get a new ability or two This time around, you might as well wait for right before the last area to do a sweep

And every area has a bot to activate that will straight up tell you where every single upgrade is. Now as a completionist, I enjoy not having to Google every area, but it basically becomes a Ubisoft sandbox where you just beeline to the map icons. Not very Metroid

The puzzles are another highlight though. While most abilities are taken from previous games, there's a few new ones that have novel uses in puzzle design here. And nearly every upgrade is more satisfying to grab than just shooting a random wall like in Super Metroid

But by far the worst part is the handholding. The NPC interactions are kinda cringe but can be sometimes funny or ignored But every time Miles jumps on my comm and forces me to open the world map to show me a location I already know to go to, I wanna chuck my Switch at a wall

I STRONGLY suggest going into the options and turning off "tutorials" because otherwise the game will just tell you how to solve every puzzle. I only ran into one issue with them off because powerslide on the bike is double-tap B for some reason

Speaking of bike, the desert was fine. I enjoyed collecting the green crystals, though it really has no place in a Metroid game. The area should have been 20% smaller or had more stuff in it, but it doesn't ruin the game Ridiculous that you have to unlock music in it though

Also the story is really inconsistent. I mean I don't personally care about the timeline, but why is Sylux even involved if he's only around for two minutes at the beginning and end. This planet has interesting lore but it's just not cohesive with the rest of the Prime games

They honestly should not have restarted development 6 years ago because even if they had put out something sub-par, it would have made this entry seem less lackluster. It was not worth waiting 8 years since MP4's announcement for this, and Sylux didn't need to be shoehorned in

TL;DR if you're a fan of the Prime games for the moment-to-moment gameplay, it's worth a playthrough, but don't expect a lot from the story or exploration aspects. I enjoyed my time, but I'm not itching to jump back in for a Hard Mode run any time soon