This week on Unskippable Dialogue, Pearse finally sits down with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, a game that spent seven years in development, one very public reset, and somehow still arrived carrying the weight of everyone’s expectations like a cursed Chozo artefact.
We talk about the logo-only reveal back in 2017, the 2019 development restart, and how Beyond opens feeling more like Halo than Metroid, Space Pirates, marines everywhere… and then they vanish completely. Classic.
There’s a deep dive into scanning (too much of it), the poorly signposted point of no return that will absolutely ruin your 100% run, and why Metroid Prime Hunters somehow has more mechanical variety than a modern flagship sequel. We also get into Nintendo briefly flirting with open-world design because Breath of the Wild existed, and why Metroid absolutely does not need that energy.
Boss fights come in for a hammering, especially the final encounter, which ignores everything Metroid bosses traditionally teach you and replaces it with escort mechanics, damage sponges, and vibes. Bad vibes.
By the end of it, Pearse lands where he’s been circling all episode: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a good game that never had a chance. Not because it’s bad, but because the internet decided it had to be transcendent.
A calm, spoiler-aware, Irish gaming podcast take on one of Nintendo’s most over-argued-about releases.
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