Switch 2’s Metroid Prime Problem – Editorial

For about two decades now Nintendo has set a standard of reinventing with every new generation. The jump from Gamecube to Wii barely moved the needle in terms of graphical horsepower but it completely changed the way we interacted with games. The Wii U, while not a commercial success, pushed lag free streaming technology to a level that had never been done before and that Sony still hasn’t quite managed to catch up to. Finally, the Switch allowed us to untether our home console gaming and bridge the divide between the dedicated handheld and the home entertainment system. Heck, it has spawned a new generation of handheld PCs that for the first time in their history are actually catching on. The Switch changed the landscape of video games for far more than just Nintendo. Its follow up however is exactly what no one expected, in that it is exactly what you’d expected.

The Switch 2 looks to be the most straightforward successor a Nintendo home console has had since we made the transition from Nintendo 64 to Gamecube. And to be clear, that isn’t a bad thing. Like I said the Switch altered the landscape, and iterating on it rather than starting over makes perfect sense. And that isn’t to say it won’t have any patented Nintendo weirdness either, it’s got Joy-con that are mice maybe, this extra button the internet is obsessing over for some reason, and probably some other little tricks up its sleeve. But at a basic level the Switch 2 is pretty much exactly what you’d imagine from a Switch 2. It is a Switch with more horsepower. It is what the PS5 is to the PS4 or the Xbox Series X to the Xbox One. An updated model with better specs and some nice new features.

Now here’s the interesting part, we haven’t seen Nintendo sell a tech upgrade like this in more than 20 years. We’ve seen them launch new systems, sure, usually with a launch title that catches fan interest. But we haven’t seen them sell a graphical upgrade. The Wii was about selling motion controls in Wii sports. The Wii U was about selling asymmetric multiplayer in Nintendo Land. And the Switch, well the Switch was about selling you the Wii U games you didn’t play. But that’s exactly what the point of the Switch was, take your console games portable. So just selling Breath of the Wild as a handheld game was enough. Launch titles like these are essentially tech demos. They’re something you can see demoing at a store or in an advertisement and understand why you’d want this new system. And that isn’t exclusive to weird Nintendo style systems. For the PS5 it was Astro’s Playroom. For Xbox One it was Ryse Son of Rome. On Gamecube it was Wave Race Blue Storm and Rogue Squadron 2. Games that both had easy comparison points on the prior hardware. The game doesn’t necessarily need to be that good, it just needs to show what you couldn’t do on your old system.

Obviously the Switch will need one of these games. Something that clearly illustrates an experience that the previous Switch can’t deliver. The only Switch 2 game we really know about so far is Mario Kart 10, 9, Tour 2, whatever they go with. I’m sure this game will be great but it sorta looks a lot like the last game, which is 11 years old. It looks like it would run on the base model Switch and honestly, it might. I’m expecting a decent cross gen period for these systems given backwards compatibility and the insane install base for the original Switch. But the point is, Mario Kart isn’t our technical showpiece. Another rumor from which we’ve seen a lot of smoke is an even more HD release of Breath of the Wild. But once again, that’s literally a game that already exists on Switch. Sure it may run at 1080p now instead of 900p but that isn’t going to be transformative even with some upscaling to maybe 1440p or so. Could Pokémon Legends ZA turn out to be a Switch 2 title? I don’t think it’s likely but even if it is, pinning your technical showpiece hopes on the Pokémon company is a bold plan. But there is another problem for the Switch 2 and that is Metroid Prime 4.

Metroid Prime Remastered is the best-looking game on the Nintendo Switch. I will happily die on this hill. When the trailer for Metroid Prime 4 came out, I had to argue with the internet to convince them that it was in fact possible that it was running on the original Nintendo Switch. What we’ve seen looks absolutely gorgeous. And that’s a problem. This to me looks a whole lot more technically impressive than Mario Kart or Breath of the Wild running at a higher resolution. And in theory Metroid Prime 4 is coming out this year. I’m expecting the Switch 2 to be out in June. Whether Prime 4 comes out before that or later in the year, mark my words it will be put up against every Switch 2 launch release with an annoying influencer claiming that this Switch 1 game looks better than anything on the Switch 2. Metroid Prime 4 is going to be a marketing problem for the Switch 2 regardless of how well Metroid Prime 4 actually sells.

The obvious follow up then is, what if Retro releases a separate Switch 2 version of Prime 4 with better graphics. Here’s the problem with that. Metroid Prime 4 isn’t going to sell an incredible number of copies. It is a Metroid game. Metroid Prime 4 hitting 3 million copies would be a monumental achievement. So, Nintendo isn’t going to want to spend the money to make a bespoke Switch 2 version when the Switch version will play on Switch 2 just fine. It’s possible the Switch 2 may have some sort of upgrade system where you can put in a Switch 1 game then download an update for a Switch 2 version, but at best I’d expect an update to resolution.

Nintendo needs a studio that can put out a game that can be stacked up against Metroid Prime 4 and come out the clear winner in terms of visual fidelity and features. But their list of studios that I’d consider capable of doing that on new hardware for launch isn’t particularly lengthy. Retro themselves are of course busy. Monolith would likely be my next pick, but they have a Xenoblade X remaster releasing in March and I doubt they’d want to put out a second Xenoblade game this year. It is possible that a team from Monolith is working on a separate smaller title, but I also think that title is probably the very Breath of the Wild remaster we mentioned earlier. You’ve got the 3D Mario team of course, and they may be able to pull it off, but my bet is actually elsewhere. I’m pulling for Next Level Games.

Their last game was Mario Strikers Battle League in 2022. They’re quietly one of the most technologically competent teams Nintendo has, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 being in my opinion really the only other game Nintendo has produced on Switch that can hold a candle to Prime Remastered. Since Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon in 2013 Next Level Games have had a roughly 3-year gap between each of their products: Metroid Prime Federation Force in 2016, Luigi’s Mansion 3 in 2019, and Mario Strikers Battle League in 2022. Everything would point to a 2025 release for their next game, perfect for the launch of the Switch 2. The question of course is what is it? Another Luigi’s Mansion? Some other classic series? Or an entirely new IP?