Original Metroid Prime Developer Upset With New Switch Remaster

Nintendo gave fans a remaster they've been begging for this week and shadow dropped an updated version of "Metroid Prime." At first glance, the rerelease of the GameCube classic seems to be doing everything right, from updating the control scheme to giving the graphics a pretty facelift. But not all is well with the new "Metroid Prime" remaster, as one of the developers of the original release has taken issues with a design element in the new version.

David "Zoid" Kirsch tweeted, "They f***ed up the doors in the remastered 'Metroid Prime!' They have the wrong alpha level on the door shields." The former game developer, who worked as Senior Gameplay Engineer for the first two "Metroid Prime" entries, shared a side by side image of the doors from the original version and those seen in the remaster. Sure enough, the newer blast doors certainly appear less detailed than in the original. 

Before, the doors featured large clasps that met in a series of locks in the middle, giving the shields the look of a high security vault door. The newer ones eliminate most of these touches, which is apparently what spurred the complaint.

Kirsch explained, "I tend to be a [bit] picky about this since I literally spent months working on the doors. This should be fixed."

At the moment, it's unclear why the door design of the doors was changed for the remaster of "Metroid Prime." However, the response to Kirsch's tweet has been largely supportive. A number of fans have congratulated Kirsch on speaking up about his frustrations with the design alteration, although a few gamers have noted that they prefer the newer, cleaner look to the blast doors.

For his own part, Kirsch wanted to clarify that he harbors no ill will towards the remaster, which he found to be largely excellent. In a later tweet, Kirsch said, "The improvements to Samus and the boss models are awesome. I just noticed this particular change that stood out from the original. It's still a wonderful re-master and should be played and enjoyed."

Fans of the "Metroid Prime" series appear to be quite happy with the remaster overall, but purists may have a hard time letting go of this design change. For what it's worth, the tech lead on the original "Prime" trilogy, Jack Mathews, has said that the new remaster is very much the game that fans remember.

The #MetroidPrime core gameplay code in #MetroidPrimeRemastered (Cameras! AI! Bosses!) is essentially unchanged. It's a remaster, NOT a remake. It's so impressive and respectful how much of the original game is still running under the hood. https://t.co/hYTijiCyDg

— Jack Mathews (@jack_mathews) February 9, 2023