Correct me if I’m wrong — and I could very well be wrong… (Gaming)

by Revenant1988 , How do I forum?, Tuesday, January 06, 2026, 14:23 (1 day, 11 hours, 6 min. ago) @ Coaxkez

…but I thought Prime 4 was a square-one reboot from the Namco Bandai version. A lot like Toy Story 3 was a square-one reboot from the Circle Seven version where Buzz was supposed to be recalled by his manufacturer or something. They trashed everything and started all over again.

Prime 4 is what it is because of Retro. For good and for bad. It’s been almost twenty years since they made one of these things and it’s very possible that a) they wanted to shake up the established Metroid formula for the sake of innovation, and b) they kinda forgor how to make a Metroid game.

With regard to the Bandai stuff, I don't think so in terms that it was a square-one type thing. I'm pretty sure some of the top level plot stuff was kept at the insistence of Nintendo. I could totally be wrong. There isn't exactly a lot of info out there about it but some of the post release interviews have been interesting. Also in that vein, I got the art book for the prime series retrospective and there are many footnotes where both Nintendo and Retro indicate they had to compromise on this and that just because Nintendo said so (not a complaint from me, just fascinating when you have have a studio like retro while Nintendo sometimes dictates creative control from on high).

I'm not sure they forgot, it seems like they both had a little of the 'Breath of the Wild' open-world fever and realized too late it doesn't translate to what Metroid games tend to be. I saw some interesting fan theories around a time-travel mechanic that seem plausible as well.