If there’s one Nintendo franchise that has mostly eluded me throughout my decades of gaming, it’d have to be Metroid. One of my earliest gaming memories is actually playing the original Metroid on a relative’s NES, but following that I’d only ever dabbled. A little Metroid Fusion here, a bit of Dread there (which I quite liked), and of course some small forays into the Metroid Prime series. It’s not the sort of thing where a short trailer in a Nintendo Direct has me up on the couch, hooting and hollering, is what I’m trying to say. So before this weekend, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was arguably the first-party title I was least excited about getting stuck into on the Nintendo Switch 2.
After just 20ish minutes of it at the recent Nintendo Switch 2 Experience in Melbourne, though? I think I need more.
Stationed along a series of sitting desks with large mouse pads atop them, it quickly became clear that Nintendo was keen to demonstrate the Switch 2 Edition of Metroid Prime 4’s most obvious point-of-difference straight off the bat – support for the Joy-Con 2s’ mouse mode. I do my gaming almost exclusively with a controller on a console, including shooters, so it’s a feature that I was interested enough to check out but not necessarily banking on for full enjoyment of any game on the Switch 2.
Metroid Prime 4 changed my mind.
In another piece published this weekend, where I offer a more holistic look at this Switch 2 hands-on event, I refer a lot to Nintendo Magic. Joy-Con 2 mouse mode is exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to describe when I use that term. Taken at face value, it’s a gimmick. It’s not necessarily a technical feat nor will it do anything to upset Big Gaming Mouse, but it’s so thoughtfully and seamlessly implemented that even the spiciest cynicism melts away when you actually Do It with your own hands. In the case of Metroid Prime 4, it’s the fact that there are no menus to pull up, no toggles to switch when you want to go from regular joystick controls to mouse mode – you simply turn the right Joy-Con 2 to its side, place it on whatever surface you have in front of you, and go.
The Nintendo representative attending the station where I played through the Metroid Prime 4 demo made sure to tell me about how easily I could switch between modes, in fact more than once. I assured them though, that I had understood their instructions and that I was perfectly happy with my situation. Because here’s the other thing – the game plays real nice with mouse controls.
And I guess that should be obvious? Most folks will tell me I’m ridiculous for preferencing a controller for first-person games, but it’s what I know. I don’t play twitchy, competitive FPS so it suits me just fine for a story-driven, single player joint. And I would’ve done the same for Metroid Prime 4. The few minutes I played in a standard two-handed Joy-Con configuration still played great. But damn does it feel good when you can land shots on space pirates with wild abandon, knocking them down like so many ducks in a row.
A fight against a mutated space pirate boss named Aberax at the end of the demo showcased how well the Prime series’ trademark lock-on style of play can work in tandem with the more direct aim that a mouse offers. I was encouraged to fix my gaze on Aberax with the appropriate trigger on the left Joy-Con while freely aiming within the resulting bounding box to accurately fire at its glowing weak points while also being able to strafe freely around it. Having learned to do perform this action moments earlier on a door with time-sensitive locks, it drove home how well a studio like Retro can weave what might otherwise be a simple novelty into the fabric of its tried-and-tested design.
There is one thing that’ll more than likely prevent me from playing Metroid Prime 4 in mouse mode full time when it eventually drops, and that’s the unfortunate way in which most of us with adult-sized hands will have to hold the Joy-Con 2 in order to properly utilise the mouse functions and still access the all-important face buttons. It’s just all very cramped, and you end up doing a weird little pincer grip right at the end of the controller that surely isn’t healthy over an extended period.
Your mileage will vary, and mercifully there are some important keys also mapped to the left-hand controller, but my guess is most players will opt to switch to standard controls in more relaxed moments and then flip down and lock-in for the more frantic fights. Perhaps a third-party accessory company like Hori is already hard at work on a mouse shell for the right Joy-Con 2.
And look, honestly, the rest of my time with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was marked by all the other hallmarks of the series. I was scannin’ stuff, I was marveling at the sales chops of whatever high-tech building company keeps selling people in this universe on gun-activated doors, and I was contorting myself into a small, metal orb to cosplay a pinball through ducts and divots. I genuinely couldn’t tell you whether what I was playing was “good” in the context of the other Prime games, but it certainly played well and looked as crisp and fluid as you could hope for a “Switch 2 Edition” release.
Which is all to say, if you’re a Metroid Prime fan, I reckon there’s every reason to be excited for this one, and if you’re getting it on Switch 2 I implore you to try out the mouse mode at least once – it’s just a wrist-flick away, after all.
Previewed at an event hosted by Nintendo ANZ
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