“Metroid Prime” Looks Amazing in UHD & HFR!

It might surprise you to know that Metroid Prime is a game I never really got into. Yes, I own it. In fact, I got it pretty much right after its original release in 2002 for the GameCube, but for some reason, I just never really got into the game. It’s a shame, too, because it won several awards and now that I’ve given it a try I think it’s a damn fine game.

Regardless, I’d heard many good things about the Dolphin Emulator but only recently got around to installing it and giving it a shot. And truthfully, it’s amazing what it is capable of. For the production of this video, the Emulator was internally rendering the game at 2560×2112 (four times its native resolution) at a full 60 FPS and then the video was downscaled and encoded with a very high bit-rate to 1080p60. The game was also rendered using Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering. All-in-all, the results are quite gorgeous. And, for the purposes of YouTube, we get the best of both worlds: a smooth 60 FPS viewing experience and a high enough bitrate to scale perfectly to resolutions like 1440p and 4K.

This was originally meant to be a simple hour-long showcase of what the emulator was capable of and to give an idea of what the game was like, but as you can see, this went on for nearly three hours instead. I just had such a great time playing it! So, here, we get through the introductory area (a Space Pirate frigate orbiting the planet Tallon IV) and then give chase down to the planet’s surface, where we uncover an ancient mystery involving the Chozo, a plot hatched by the Space Pirates conducting rather awful biological experiments, and more. We explore a large portion of the “Tallon Overworld” section of the game as well as the Chozo Ruins. While what I accomplish could have been done in half the time, I went out of my way to find a bunch of small secrets, and while I know this won’t be a 100% run, I will try to find the things I can and have fun doing so. We end up leaving things off as we arrive in the Magmoor Cavern, so you’ll have to stay tuned to see more. And, speaking of, please let me know if you want more!

Meanwhile, if you want to try out Dolphin for yourself, direct your browser this way and enjoy the GameCube and Wii at insane levels of quality!

Jessica Brown

Retro Games and Technology Editor. She'll beat pretty much every Mega Man game without breaking a sweat.