After over 6 years of eager waiting, Nintendo has at last lifted the veil on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the hugely anticipated next installment in the iconic first-person Metroid Prime series. A gameplay reveal trailer premiered during this week’s Nintendo Direct showcased two minutes of the titular bounty hunter Samus Aran’s return to alien worlds full of hostile life, environmental puzzles, and secrets to uncover.
The footage highlighted Samus’ signature arm cannon blasting alien creatures, her visor scanning objects for intel, and the ability to morph into a spherical form to roll through tight spaces. While brief, it represents the first substantive look at Metroid Prime 4’s evolution of the atmospheric exploration and combat that defined previous entries.
“The gameplay trailer gives us a solid, but brief, look at the typical first person combat, scanning, and exploration featured in the series,” described Blake Woof, games editor at Polygon. “Though the fidelity of the gameplay has many wondering if the game was running on the still unannounced Nintendo Switch 2.”
Corroborating those visual fidelity suspicions, a technical analysis by Nintendo World Report discovered the trailer footage was captured at 720p resolution and an almost locked 60 frames per second – specifications that align with the original Nintendo Switch hardware, not an expected performance boost on new equipment.
“All the gameplay sequences featured in [the trailer] ran at 720p resolution, effectively confirming how they were captured on the current Switch and not on its more capable successor launching next year,” the report stated.
Regardless of platform, Metroid Prime 4’s re-emergence onto the scene provides massive relief for the patient fan base, especially after its complete restart andhandoff to Retro Studios delayed the project for years beyond its teased 2017 unveiling. With an expected 2025 launch, the long wait is finally nearing its end.
