Here’s a short list of things I scanned while playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in New York last week:
Terminals Monitors Crates Doors Health orbs Those floating missiles left behind by dead enemies Galactic Federation soldiers Dead Space Pirates Alive Space Pirates Gigantic Space Pirates A Galactic Federation mech named Golem Some big gnarly boss monster that closed out the demo
All told I kind of scanned a lot of stuff during what was maybe a 20-minute chunk of the game. It was literally the very first thing I did in the demo, not necessarily because I love scanning, or anything, but because I was wondering if Nintendo would try to tamp down this somewhat divisive part of the game. Metroid Prime 4 whole-heartedly embraces scanning as much as earlier Prime games did, though, so all you scanning sickos out there can relax.
If you’ve ever played a Metroid Prime before, you’re probably reacting in one of two ways: either you’re groaning at the thought of constantly shifting over to a different visor to read some dry science-y notes that are ultimately pretty superfluous, or else you’re somebody with taste and smarts who realizes that scanning is an absolutely vital part of these games—as deeply, thoroughly Metroid Prime as rolling into a ball or running back and forth through the same hallway 50 dozen times. (Don’t let me sway you, though. I’m sure there are valid arguments against scanning, somehow.)
We’re officially pro-scan here at Paste. That’s, uh, an editorial mandate—as inviolable as our ban of the word “Metroidvania.”
Not everybody agrees on scanning, of course. It might be the most common complaint about the Prime games, both when they came out and still, today, a couple decades later. There’s nothing elegant about it; you have to hit one button to change Samus’s visor, then hold down another button for a second or two to actually scan something, and apparently that is too far a bridge to cross to just read some flavor text. That text adds so much, though, fleshing out the world of Metroid Prime and also the specific stories of all three games in the series so far. You don’t need to scan every monitor to understand what’s going on, but you will miss out on a lot of finer points if you don’t. And sure, you don’t really need to scan those ammo refills or energy drops, but if you’re playing a Metroid you’re probably wired to get as close to 100% as you can, and that requires scanning everything that can be scanned.
Scanning adds something more to Metroid Prime games than words, though. It’s one of the many small touches that really connects you to Samus. You have to go through the type of mundane, repetitive action Samus would do if she were a real person actually exploring a real alien world somewhere. It’s of a piece with Metroid Prime’s more celebrated immersive flourishes, like how you can occasionally see the reflection of Samus’s face on your visor screen, or how her breath fogs that screen up in the game’s colder areas. All of them make this world feel just a little bit more alive.
The scanning process also reminds you that this is her job. Metroid Prime is not all fun and games for the star of Metroid Prime. Just like we have the dumb things we have to do at our jobs day in and day out, Samus has to swap out her visor several times a day in hopes of reading something that might be related to her job. Games have sanded away so much friction and tension as they’ve become more refined and technologically advanced that it’s easy to forget that, in many of them, what you’re doing is work for your character. Constantly scanning every time you enter a room for the first time makes it impossible to forget that Samus has a job to do and isn’t just scampering around creepy planets like it’s a vacation.
Based on the little bit I played last week, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is taking its legacy seriously. It looked, played, and generally felt like you’d expect a modern version of Metroid Prime to in 2025. And thankfully that includes the scanning, a relatively small part of these games that might be frustrating to a lot of players but is absolutely crucial to their design. I scanned a lot last week, and I’ll be scanning far more as soon as I’m able to return to Metroid Prime 4.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.
