I regret not giving this game a chance when it first came out. No, I didn’t sign the petition for Nintendo to scrap it and make a real Metroid game (which was a real, and very stupid petition). I didn’t lament the art style or Samus not being the focus. In fact I was in favour of Tanabe’s justification that it would expand the universe of the series. My issue was more that with Splatoon still on everyone’s lips, and Tri Force Heroes being around the same time, that Nintendo was just releasing too dang many multiplayer games.

I do feel guiltily like an entitled fan that it took this E3’s announcement of two new Metroid games to prompt me to reevaluate this maligned title. But I’m glad I did. More than the other two multiplayer games I mentioned, a solo player can have a perfectly good time with this, and as far as I’m concerned Next Level games have done a spot-on job making this feel right; it feels Prime. Even with chibified characters and working as part of a Federation team and having a locked-down mission format, it fits.

More than the previous Prime handheld game, Hunters, they’ve also made the game fit the portable format. Breaking it up into missions with briefings and loadout customisation in between works for the 3DS and it works for multiplayer. The missions’ objectives and setpieces have pleasing variety. As you progress you learn more about the three planets in the Bermuda system, and become more powerful not through acquiring upgrades and abilities but by collecting and improving randomised perks, and becoming more familiar with the limited sub-weapons that are provided. The scoring system is also addictive, although to get the best results there’s only one right answer for each mission; I wished for more leeway or options. Some exploration is encouraged but at odds with this, speed is demanded for good scores.

Every part of the game works in single player, but obviously it was designed for teams of up to four. I was fortunate to have a play session with one and then two friends (thanks Gibbon and Sun-Wukong), and had a blast. Playing with friends really does improve the experience, with plenty of opportunities to work together… as long as you have some external voice chat client like Discord!

As a way to revisit the Prime universe, the game acts as a refreshing antidote to Other M’s brazen, sour, profligate boondoggle. I would have appreciated more fleshing out of the faceless characters involved or a central villain, but the pirates were a credible threat and having Samus flitting around being awesome was an amusing and welcome addition—especially when *spoilers* (she gets brainwashed, although the fight with her is disappointing as she’s in morph ball the whole time). The idea of the Space Pirates embiggening themselves and you fighting back with big ol’ mechs is a jolly novelty, but you don’t always get this sense of scale in the levels so it was occasionally jarring.

Federation Force is absolutely a worthy Metroid game… as a spin-off. I hope it can be accepted as such, seeing as the franchise has been promoted to “not actually dead”. The planets you explore are well themed and have interesting backstories and designs. The core gameplay is very different to other Metroid games, yes, but the way the game world is constructed and the attention to detail make it feel very much like a Metroid Prime game. The control scheme is also decent, and even the small amount of motion control is well-implemented. As for Blast Ball, I didn’t really enjoy it at all, but it’s a neat little extra I suppose. Give Federation Force a chance!