Recently, Metroid Prime celebrated its 20th anniversary and, lacking any official celebration from Nintendo, it was up to the fans to pick up the slack. Released by the Outset Initiative precisely on November 18, 2022, Prime: Metroid Reimagined is a beautiful tribute to the now legendary video game.
Do not come expecting Shinesparkers’ megalomaniac approach to the Harmony of a Hunter albums — this is quite different, a tight 6-track EP by a group of four musicians. It certainly sounds like a band album, cohesive in form and style.
Five of the tracks are inspired by the different regions of Tallon IV — the Overworld, Chozo Ruins, Magmoor Caverns, Phendrana Drifts and Crashed Frigate. The final track is based on the title screen/credits theme. The group does an excellent job in bringing each of the tracks to life using a combination of mostly traditional instruments, with an occasional surprising sound keeping things different.
This is also definitely not a “remake” of the Metroid Prime soundtrack. Full of a cappella vocals, the tracks are certainly the artists’ interpretations rather than replicas of the originals. For example, Magmoor Caverns (which is itself based off a track from Super Metroid) has its main melody carried by a series of “hum-buh-dun” which is not only a fresh take on the track, it also turns it into something fun to sing along to.
I was not surprised when I came to the conclusion that my highlight track is Phendrana Drifts. The original probably stands high in most players’ memories of the OST and it’s fair to say this version of it lives up to expectations. I expect it will be in heavy rotation when snow starts hitting my corner of the world.
But honestly none of the tracks disappoint. They all sound very familiar to fans of the game, of course, while simultaneously sounding fresh compared to so many arrangements I’ve already heard in the past two decades. It being a short album seems like a positive to me — there are no dud tracks and makes it easy to put it back on when the vibes are right.
Nintendo may have skipped Metroid Prime’s anniversary, but the folks at Outset Initiative made sure the date didn’t pass by blank.
Written by Renan Greca