Nintendo has earlier let a new teaser reveal the upgraded armor of the main character Samus Aran in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and the online reaction was as expected. The very first tweet of Nintendo of America said ‘New suit, new powers’ which could be interpreted as a sign that both the current console Switch and the future ‘Switch 2’ will have this game; yet the main issue is in the after-comments where players criticize amiibo paywalls or even question if the game is ‘woke’ at all.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a top-performing title and the announcement couldn’t be more unambiguous; all colors of the Ninendo Switch family, including the next-gen model, are gelled up; after all, the game will be available for both current and next-gen consoles. The teaser introduced a new, edgier, and sharper Samus suit along with a hint of new powers. However, for a community that has anxiously waited since 2017 for this game, a simple suit reveal was never going to appease them. The topic was immediately escalated to the classic gamer discussions.
A gamer with the name Shinobi was the first to ignite the debate, he came back to Nintendo saying the pretty commonplace complaint: ‘I wish we could re-challenge bosses. During Carvex’s fight, I missed two scans and was left out of getting 100%.’ This would be regarded as a flaw in the game, however, it is the most enjoyable kind of flaw to have. Yes, it is! The scan logs are likely the biggest source of the game’s story and being able to claim 100% is something many take pride in. Not being able to retry a boss for a missed scan? That’s simply not fair, dude.
But that was merely the edge of the storm. Another user, Zenitsu86, dropped a bomb into the comments with: ‘Twitter says this game was woke. Can’t understand it lol.’ And just like that, the nonsense of the culture wars intruded a talk about a galactic bounty hunter in a powered suit. Apparently, someone by the name of ‘demon rumi’ had already given the game the label ‘woke’ and that led another user, directora, to react with: ‘with that fucking profile pic you talk bout woke?lmao.’ It’s the same old tale, my friend. A new game features a female the main character—which has been Samus’ role since the very beginning—and the backlash follows. It’s quite tiresome.
An even bigger argument concerns the amiibo issue. A user named The Hypist voiced his dissatisfaction with the mechanics and even posited that an amiibo was necessary to unlock the music for the ride areas in the game while he also likened it to Mario Kart Wii’s jukebox feature and painted it really negatively. This was the cause of a lot of noise going back and forth. DredgenShinobi (who looks to be all over this thread, honestly) answered: ‘They did. There isn’t any pay wall or new tracks. You just play 2 other tracks from the game on a radio. Do your research.’ The back and forth continued with users like Digby11082012 and others debating if locking the ‘true ending’ behind the Sylux amiibo was a legit reward for completion or a scummy move. This is the Nintendo dilemma of today, isn’t it? Physical toys that grant access to digital content. Some players oppose it while others are cautious and gradually build up a complete collection.
And now comes the existential gamer rage, the more in general and wider a user called Michael Le Creuset had an epic rant after being pushed back for his criticism of the game’s NPCs. ‘lol you triggered the fandom,’ he opened. He associated media creators who complained about NPCs being a ‘major drawback’ with his canceling of pre-orders and even called Switch 2 the ‘only console I ever regretted buying.’ He finished with ‘Gaming today sucks and so does the community and it will only get more and more expensive.’ Ouch. That is a mood but at the same time it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn’t it? When you come in that angry, it is hard to get any enjoyment out of anything.
The fighting did create some really nice and pure moments though, even amid it all. ThePurpleYam just said: ‘This is a nice suit, even though I like Dread’s base suit the best.’ Such a peaceful, personal opinion about armor design! What a new concept. Also, Bango’s comment gave rise to a friendly yet somewhat complicated lore debate with Shinobi around whether the Dread suit could even be there as ‘prime takes place between metroid 1 and 2. Dread is 5.’ See? Gamers might shout sometimes but they still discuss the consistency of the timeline. The gaming community spans platforms like PlayStation and Xbox, but the passion is universal.
