Nintendo is not regarded as a company that has games constantly struggle to get through development, as classic titles from franchises like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda are often smooth successes. However, there's a bit of a thorn in Nintendo's side right now, and its name is Metroid Prime 4. Nintendo's original sci-fi saga starring Samus Aran is having an incredibly difficult time getting made. Fans have been well aware of this for years, but no moment highlighted the problem more than last year's announcement that development on Metroid Prime 4 would start over completely. It was devastating for fans of Metroid Prime, who haven't gotten a new Prime entry in more than a decade.
Some can't help but feel that Prime 4 is getting in its own way, in a sense. The game has fallen into ignominy after the announcement of the development reset. That's not a tremendous surprise—after all, there's nothing to be said or revealed about a game that doesn't have anything to show. Every difficulty that Metroid Prime 4 faces in development seems to compound into more difficulties. The challenges are no fault of the Metroid series, but everything that the game has been through is leaving fans anxious and confused, unsure of what to expect for Samus' future.
Scrapping and Salvaging Metroid Prime 4
It's really hard to say what Metroid Prime 4's state of development is like right now. There haven't been any major announcements about the game for a very long time, as one might expect of a game undergoing a total reset. It doesn't help that Nintendo has been light on announcements lately, considering the Direct drought of 2020. Unfortunately for everyone, communication between the company and consumers hasn't been predictable. Metroid Prime 4's silence might be less glaring if Nintendo was pumping out other titles throughout 2020, but it's been a slow year.
The best clue that fans have on the status of the game is the steady flow of developers joining the team working on Prime 4. Even though a total overhaul is a major task, Nintendo and Retro Studios seem determined to make the second draft work. Developers with hands in everything from Halo to Darksiders are putting their heads together on Metroid. However, the company faces more daunting tasks than sifting through Prime 4's first development and seeing what can be done next. The game is developing a reputation for misfortune that might make fans less than optimistic about its future.
Second Chances
Metroid Prime 4 was announced in 2017, and yet it remained a total mystery. It was unlike Nintendo to share so little about the game, and disheartening to learn that the game was going so drastically in the wrong direction. There's also reason to be worried that a second draft will have high development standards to live up to, and it certainly doesn't help that Prime 4 is trying to start development over in the middle of an on-going global pandemic. This is a very difficult time to develop a game; it can only be more difficult to have to reanalyze and restructure a game that Nintendo once thought it had a grasp on. Metroid Prime 4 is shaken after all its own strife.
To reiterate, most of Metroid Prime 4's difficulties have very little to do with itself at its core. Lots of people want to see a new Metroid Prime game, especially since it's an opportunity for Metroid to reclaim its fame. It just so happens that Bandai Namco Singapore and Nintendo didn't see eye to eye on the game, and Nintendo's drastic plans to fix it alongside the pandemic mean that Prime 4 will be stuck in development for a long time, falling under its own weight as a Nintendo powerhouse. It's not often that a game has to scrapped and remade from scratch to satisfy its developer, and hopefully, this game can get past its awkward years and become what it's meant to be.
Metroid Prime 4 is in development for Nintendo Switch.