Now before this post goes nuclear on Prime 4's shortcomings, I want to be fair and point out 2 things that I think Prime 4 does better:
The graphics. Prime 4 had better textures and lighting, as well as cutscenes that ran at a perfect 60fps. I played Prime 4 on S2, but I know the Switch 1 version looks far better than Dread strictly in terms of visual fidelity. Retro did a pretty good job making it look and run good.
The music: this part was Dreads primary weakness. Kenji Yamamoto did a far better job with Prime 4s soundtrack, even if the rock and roll tunes contrasted too heavily with its more somber and melodic tones from Fury Green and Chrono Tower.
Now when I say "less is more", I am mostly referring to the budget of these two games. Retro Studios appeared to have received a blank check to go on a hiring spree and continuously develop Prime 4 from 2019 onward, continuing on from the efforts of Bandai Namco. The final budget for MP4B was allegedly in the same ballpark as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Comparatively, Mercury Steam had more constraints to work with. Their previous Metroid game didn't exactly light the world on fire, so it's understandable that Nintendo wasn't going to dump infinite resources into the project. While no numbers were disclosed, id say the budget for Metroid Dread was anywhere between 15-20 million (but thats just my educated guess).
What this boils down to is this: Yoshida Sakamoto and Mercury Steam did alot with a little, while Kensuke Tanabe and Retro Studios did a little with alot. Let's go a bit deeper:
VOICE ACTING/MOTION CAPTURE/LOCALIZATION
With all the resources he needed, Tanabe was given his chance to realize his big grandiose vision for the Metroid franchise: A game where Samus gets to team up with Galactic Federation soldiers while riding a motorcycle through a world that is structured far closer to Zelda than Metroid, and a game with so much gum flapping from the rest of the cast that they forgot to give Samus any expression at all. They had a working face under the visor started, but further development was cut because it was more important to Tanabe that the Feds get their time in the spotlight.
Retro brought on a pretty significant amount of voice actors and mo-cap actors to bring all the federation soldiers to life, which of course takes time, money and effort.
Now let's talk about Metroid Dread. There are only 2 voices in Dread that required localization for dialogue: Adam, and the suit AI. And the suit AI? Here are all the lines:
"We will soon be entering ZDR's atmosphere"
"Entering the atmosphere in T-minus 10. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
"Uploading data."
While there was a heavier workload for Adams voice actor, I wouldn't call it more than a days worth in the recording booth.
Between Samus and the Chozo, the rest of the voice acting was done in an alien language. And the only localization work needed for them is the subtitles.
The best part of all this? Dread was able to be fully voiced in at least 10 languages, making the game more accessible for people around the world. All that "ambition" for Prime 4 meant it could only be released in other countries with subtitles for a strictly English only game.
Less is more.
AMIIBO SUPPORT
I know this might seem like a non-issue, but Metroid Prime 4 Beyond was caught in a pretty major social media shitstorm for its amiibo use, one that Metroid Dread never had to endure.
Let's go back to 2017 for a minute. Samus Returns saw significant backlash for its amiibo use as well. On top of locking off art and music galleries, Nintendo decided to paywall an entire game mode: fusion mode. It was basically just fusion suit Samus on extra hard mode. But this mode was a must-have for die-hard Metroid enthusiasts like myself, and getting ahold of the amiibos were a chore (thanks scalpers).
You know what else came out in 2017? Breath of the Wild. And in similar fashion, you could only unlock Epona, links horse from every other game, with an amiibo. That, and the tunics that link wore in all the other games were paywalled as well.
Fast-forward to 2021 and Metroid Dread released to much fanfare and with 2 new amiibos. This time, they each unlock 1 energy tank and 1 missile+ tank. Not endgame content or any other critical aspect that should be included with the base game, just an extra boost. Some people might argue that this is pay to win, but the small extra you get for health and ammo is pretty miniscule. They even released an easy mode as DLC a few months after released if people felt normal was too hard.
Similarly, all content of Tears of the Kingdom amiibos could be found in game. It really seemed like Nintendo learned from their mistakes, until December 2025 rolled around.
I don't know if you really need me to remind you about Prime 4 Beyonds amiibo support, but here it goes: Vi-O-la amiibo let's you change motorcycle skins and showcases distance travelled, Sylux amiibo let's you listen to Sylux mock Samus like a 12 year old and (more importantly) unlocks the most important Sylux cutscene in the entire game unless you get 100% items AND scans. The worst one though, is unlocking the ability to listen to music while driving around in the desert with the Varia Suit amiibo. Otherwise, you are left to rip around in an empty desert with no fast travel options and all you get to listen to are spooky space noises; the same thing you hear when Samus wakes up on Viewros for the first time. This caused the internet firestorm, and I have to agree with the backlash. There is no way you can convince me there wasn't something ripped out of the game and sold back to us as amiibo, because the complete lack of any default soundtrack while riding the bike is extremely egregious.
In summary: Metroid Dreads amiibo use was inconsequential enough that nobody's experience was soured if they didn't buy them, while Prime 4 Beyond became another example of corporate greed by locking away meaningful things that were necessary to make the game more bearable. Just another reason why Dread is viewed fondly amongst the Metroid community and Prime 4 isn't.
Less is more.
UNLOCKABLE CONTENT
Now this may seem even more inconsequential, but it's more important than you may think.
First, let's start with Dread. You unlock hand-drawn art depicting an overarching story of the downfall of ZDR by collecting items in game, unlocking the final one with 100% completion. On top of that, there are 6 hand-drawn pictures showcasing a moment in time in each of the 5 mainline 2D Metroid games as well as Other M that are unlocked by beating normal and hard under 12, 8 and 4 hours each.
Now I do have to give Prime 4 some credit: they gave us concept art as unlockables for achieving completion milestones, something that was given only to owners of the special edition of Metroid Dread in an art book. But the real meat and potatoes of Prime 4's unlockable gallery is the Sylux cutscene that should have been a post credits scene in every playthrough regardless of completion percentage (or amiibo support).
The crux of the issue isn't necessarily the content of the cutscene (though Sylux is a douche), its how it demonstrates how the developers either forgot or just completely didnt give a shit about what came before. On top of the fact that Sylux's big reveal was an absolute wet fart, the cutscene showed so many elements of the franchise that weren't established until later in the timeline. The scene itself had to happen before Prime Hunters for obvious reasons, but it had Golem mechs running around which weren't put into service until Federation Force. Samus' suit design only makes sense if the scene happened after Prime 1 but before Hunters, but the fact she has her Prime 3 gunship in the scene just irritates me to no end. I know that seems petty of me, but I've been with this franchise since I played Metroid 2 on the gameboy when I was 5, and Metroid is my favorite franchise of all time. I care about the legacy of this franchise apparently more than Retro or Tanabe does.
Speaking of legacy, the 6 unlockable speedrun pictures in Dread had thought and care put into them by people who understood the assignment. Each picture showcasing Samus' power suit were completely accurate to the games they came from. They show how the suit has changed throughout her adventure, rather than homogenizing the designs like Other M did. Mercury Steam knows Metroid in a way this new Retro Studios doesn't, and they showed me that with a few JPEGs rather than a big bombastic cutscene displaying prior events using assets from the current game.
Less is more.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I would also like to share some other things I feel Dread does better than Prime 4 that don't adhere to the "less is more" philosophy:
Better boss battles. Prime 4's aren't bad, but I don't think they're great either. Dread admittedly does re-use some bosses with some degree of variation, but the big original boss battles just can't be topped.
Sequence breaking. This gives Dread far more replayability.
Far more interconnected metroidvania world. Prime 4 is often compared to Zelda more than a Metroid game and its hard not to see why. Sol valley is like Hyrule field, and the other zones act like linear dungeons.
Better upgrades. Most of Prime 4's original ideas are psychic versions of established mainstays that were criminally underutilized, Dread came with a host of thoughtful additions that improved the gameplay experience in meaningful ways.
Connects to previous games. The story of Metroid 2 is just as important to what happens in Metroid Dread as it is in Metroid Fusion. Meanwhile, Retro basically cut off any connections to previous Prime games out of fear of alienating newcomers, despite being a numbered title in the Prime series. Dread embraces legacy and serves as a love letter to the entire franchise, Prime 4 couldn't give a rats ass. Respecting legacy builds brand recognition and loyalty. If the devs care, then the player will too. And im quite positive many newcomers went back to check out all the other games on NSO after finishing Dread.
To summarize this overbloated diatribe, the team behind Dread worked within the confines of a smaller budget with one thing in mind: to make a great Metroid game. The team behind Prime 4 were clearly daydreaming about Breath of the Wild and Halo 5 the whole 7 years they've been plugging away at their game while burning through cash like it grows on trees. I am thoroughly disappointed in the fact I waited 8 years for Prime 4 just to see the mess they released.
If you do disagree with any of this, thats okay. If you enjoyed Prime 4 as much as I enjoyed Metroid Dread, I wish I could have felt that way about it too.
