During the June Nintendo Direct, Nintendo finally revealed a gameplay trailer for Metroid Prime 4, now titled Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The trailer also teased a 2025 release window.
The gameplay certainly looks like Metroid Prime, a prequel series that took the science-fiction action-platformer into first-person 20 years ago.
Set between the events of the original Metroid and Metroid 2, Metroid Prime follows space-faring bounty hunter Samus as she battles the Space Pirates on different alien planets. Samus uses her arm cannon, morph ball, and other weapons and tools to explore alien facilities and defeat enemies.
To say that Metroid Prime 4 had a rough development cycle is an understatement. The long-anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Metroid Prime 3 was first announced way back at E3 2017 (remember E3?), with Bandai Namco Studios.
Nothing was announced about the game until early 2019. The infamous 2019 update mentioned that development had completely restarted with a different studio, Retro Studios. Retro Studios developed the previous games in the Metroid Prime series, along with series producer Kensuke Tanabe.
The Metroid series hasn’t been completely dormant in the last couple years. Metroid Dread released in 2021 with a return to 2D gameplay, and a plot that moves the whole story forward. And last year saw the release of Metroid Prime Remastered, a remaster of the original Metroid Prime, for Nintendo Switch.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will (tentatively) release in 2025.
