Metroid Prime 4: Beyond‘s very, very sandy open world has been a target of Nintendo fans’ criticism since the release of the Metroid Prime franchise’s highly anticipated sequel last month. Now, one unnamed Nintendo developer is finally acknowledging mixed player reception, open-world execution, and complications caused by the game’s prolonged production period. In an interview with Famitsu (translated by Nintendo Everything), the unidentified dev said that Nintendo and Retro Games’ original plans for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond included incorporating exploratory gameplay elements seen in the studio’s critically-acclaimed open-world blockbuster, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
“We saw a lot of comments on the internet saying ‘we want to play an open-world Metroid’,” the unnamed source is quoted as saying. “However, Metroid’s core element of ‘increasing the amount of explorable areas by unlocking powers’ is not very compatible with the ‘freedom to go anywhere from the beginning’ of open worlds. Thus, we thought to design a limited area that could be freely explored, and have that be a hub that could connect to other areas. Then we thought that if one could move around on the bike in a satisfying way in that area, it could be a segment that mitigates the tension from exploration, and paces the whole game.”
It’s worth noting that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was first announced in 2017 — nearly a decade ago — and, naturally, the global zeitgeist has shifted considerably since. 2017 brought more sprawling worlds than Breath of the Wild‘s Hyrule; the year’s release calendar comprised open-world hits like Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin’s Creed Origins, and more. But by the time Metroid Prime 4 was nearly ready to ship, the vast open-world settings seen everywhere in the mid-2010s had fallen out of vogue.
“In the end, the game took much longer than expected to finish, and we realized that players’ impressions toward open-world games had changed,” the anonymous interviewee continued. “That being said, development had already been reset once before (when we started again from scratch with Retro Studios) so backtracking development again was out of the question, and we resolved to move forward with our original vision.”
Open worlds weren’t the only gameplay element that had seen a shift in player reception. “During this time, shooting games and action games went through evolutions, with an increase in game speed in particular, but taking in those changes would have made it difficult to construct the tempo of an adventure game, so we actively chose to not take them into account. Therefore, I think this game is pretty much divorced from the changing of times.”
Historically, media and popular culture define decades. And according to the unidentified dev, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was created for 2017 audiences and given to 2025/2026 audiences. While the prolonged window between Metroid Prime 4’s reveal and release may not seem so significant to some, it’s important to remember that 2017 was also the year of fidget spinners, the Apple iPhone 8, and the second season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.
