Following its release earlier this month, Metroid Dread has been showered with praise, as many have called it one of the best Metroid games ever made, adding that it's breathed new life into the seemingly dormant franchise. Metroid fever seems to be sweeping the gaming landscape, and those who've finished the new entry are excitedly waiting for more news on the upcoming Metroid Prime 4. Unfortunately, while Metroid Dread is a success in just about every aspect, Metroid Prime 4 isn't guaranteed to be one as well.
While there's certainly a lot in Prime 4's favor, however, there seems to be an equal number of things for fans to be cautious about. The success of Metroid Dread seems to have caused many people to forget and that there's still so much mystery surrounding the next entry in the series. This isn't to say that fans shouldn't be excited for Metroid Prime 4, quite the opposite, but that they're going to be two completely different games. Everyone is rooting for Metroid Prime 4 to be a success, and hopefully it is, but Metroid Dread's success is unlikely to influence its development in any meaningful, positive way.
MercurySteam and Retro Studios
Both MercurySteam and Retro Studios have worked on other successful Metroid games in the past, making them the perfect companies to handle the new generation of games. After the success that was Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS, MercurySteam seemed like the obvious pick for Nintendo to have make a new 2D Metroid title. It's clear that choosing the studio was the right choice, as Metroid Dread took a lot of the ideas introduced in the Metroid 2 remake and explored them further in the new title.
Retro Studios also is a great pick for continuing the franchise's first-person entries, as the studio created the original Metroid Prime trilogy in its early days. That said, while the studio successfully translated the gameplay of the original 2D Metroid games into 3D space for the Metroid Prime games, it hasn't touched anything Metroid-related in over 10 years. That doesn't mean that Retro Studios is incapable of making another entry in the franchise, but that its recent work, while good, doesn't reflect the first-person puzzle/action gameplay that the series is known for.
What's more, a lot of the key personnel who worked on the Metroid Prime series are no longer with Retro Studios. Mark Pacini, the director of all three titles, left the company in 2008, leaving Kensuke Tanabe to direct Metroid Prime 4. That itself isn't a huge red flag, as Tanabe has been a producer on the rest of the franchise, but the general changing of staff at Retro means that the upcoming game isn't guaranteed to be cut from the same cloth as the originals.
The Troubled Development of Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime 4
It's no secret that both Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime 4 have had their fair share of development issues. After it was revealed at E3 2021, Metroid Dread's producer Yoshio Sakamoto was interviewed about the lengthy development process of the game, detailing that it spanned 15 years. That doesn't mean that it was in constant production for that amount of time, but that it was off and on before truly picking up steam and being entirely greenlit. The development of the game itself wasn't necessarily troubled, however, as the issues with Metroid Dread were mainly due to the technical limitations of Nintendo's hardware hampering the vision of the project. Metroid Prime 4, on the other hand, seems to be a different story.
Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, but there wasn't much to show. A teaser logo was all that Nintendo had to offer for its announcement, alongside the fact that Bandai Namco would be developing the game. The following year, Nintendo claimed that development was going well, but didn't showcase the game. Metroid Prime 4 wasn't mentioned again until late 2019, when it was announced that development on the project was being restarted with Retro Studios taking the reigns of the franchise back from Bandai Namco.
Nintendo addressed the project by saying that development was going well once more before the reveal of Metroid Dread during this year's E3, but there still hasn't been any significant update on the game since Retro Studios started its work. There's nothing to suggest that there have been any major issues with the game's development following its reset, however the complete silence surrounding it, paired with the fact that much of the original Metroid Prime team is no longer with the studio, has given fans a reason to be cautious.
Metroid Dread Released Too Late to Influence Metroid Prime 4
As a result of the differences between the two companies and where they currently sit in terms of Metroid experience, it's hard to say that Metroid Dread's success would influence Metroid Prime 4 in any significant way. Additionally, if development for Metroid Prime 4 started in 2019, by the time Dread was released in 2021, Retro Studios should be well out of the design phase on its project meaning that Prime 4 wouldn't be mechanically influenced by Metroid Dread at all if development is going as well as Nintendo claims.
There's plenty working in Metroid Prime 4's favor, as it seems like excitement for the franchise is at an all-time high, but expectations may have been set impossibly high by Metroid Dread. There's nothing to indicate that Prime 4 will be anything other than a successful release, but it's important to remember that Metroid Dread will likely have very little bearing on how Prime 4 has been developed.
Metroid Dread is available now for Nintendo Switch.