‘Metroid Prime 4’ Added Desert Hub For Fans Who Wanted ‘Breath Of The Wild’-Style Sequel, Kept It Small Because “The Series’ Core Element Is Not Very Compatible With Open Worlds”
In confirming what practically every player had assumed after just a few minutes behind the wheel of the Vi-O-La, Nintendo has revealed that the decision to greenlight Metroid Prime 4‘s open-world desert hub was made in direct response to fan demands for a free-exploring Samus adventure akin to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
This insight into the game’s most-agreed upon worst aspect was provided by members of the game’s development team during a recent post-launch interview given to Famitsu for their upcoming January 2026 issue.
Per a translation provided by the developer-centric news outlet Nintendo Everything, the discussion began with the team providing a brief overview of the game’s tumultuous dev cycle, starting with the particularly interesting reveal that “The project started as a request from Nintendo of America.”
“It was a request to make a new mainline game in the numbered Metroid Prime series. We thought about how to make a game that kept the Prime-ness while also delivering a new experience. At the same time, we made the relationship between Samus and Sylux the main thread for the story, something we had wanted to do at some time.”
Turning to the surprise reassignment of Prime 4 from its original dev team at Bandai Namco back to the series’ original stewards, the Nintendo devs recalled, “Partway through, the development company changed, and the project was restarted with Retro Studios. However, at that time, Retro did not have the structure to make a Metroid Prime game, so first we had to begin by making that structure.
“Furthermore, we outsourced some of the background model and movie creation to external companies – particularly the background data required a lot of external support – so first we had to start by selecting those companies, and then following that, further management was necessary. The progress management staff were very helpful while considering both the schedule and quality. I have a lot of gratitude for them. I also have great appreciation for everyone at the studio who helped make the data.
“As for things we paid attention to, I suppose it was making sure that new staff understood our design plan. This wasn’t just making a game, it was making an experience for the player, particularly it took time for everyone to understand the feel of ‘ma’ of Metroid Prime.
“In the end I think they understand it, as well as the Japanese concept of ‘ma’ (the idea of the space between, for example between objects, time, sound, people etc. By appreciating that gap, people can better understand the passing of time, sense of beauty, etc.)”
From there, the Nintendo devs finally broached the topic of the game’s desert hub, whereupon they explicitly detailed just what went wrong and why with the motorcycle-overworld gameplay, with the key conflict coming from the fact that “at the start of the project, perhaps due to the influence of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we saw a lot of comments on the internet saying ‘we want to play an open-world Metroid’,” they knew that “Metroid’s core element of ‘increasing the amount of explorable areas by unlocking powers’ is not very compatible with the ‘freedom to go anywhere from the beginning’ of open worlds.”
“Thus we thought to design a limited area that could be freely explored, and have that be a hub that could connect to other areas. Then we thought that if one could move around on the bike in a satisfying way in that area, it could be a segment that mitigates the tension from exploration, and paces the whole game.
“In the end, the game took much longer than expected to finish, and we realized that players’ impressions toward open-world games had changed. That being said, development had already been reset once before (when we started again from scratch with Retro Studios) so backtracking development again was out of the question, and we resolved to move forward with our original vision.
“During this time, shooting games and action games went through evolutions, with an increase in game speed in particular, but taking in those changes would have made it difficult to construct the tempo of an adventure game, so we actively chose to not take them into account. Therefore, I think this game is pretty much divorced from the changing of times.”
All in all, while not the 10/10 masterpiece most fans were hoping for, the colloquial consensus argues that Metroid Prime 4 is still a prime pick-up for anyone lucky enough to have unwrapped a Switch 2 this Christmas.
