For the first fifteen minutes I was half convinced Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was playing tricks on me.
The game opens with a breathless first-person battle. You pilot a ship — literally modeled after Samus’s helmet — into a combat zone surrounding a research installation. As Samus Aran, an interstellar bounty hunter, you immediately unleash your arm cannon, rain down missiles, and even curl into the familiar morph ball that can drop explosives. There’s a sequence where you fight alongside a hulking, mech-like Samus that detonates everything in sight. The opening plays with the cadence and spectacle of Halo, Killzone, or Titanfall more than any Metroid I’ve previously experienced.
Then, as if to remind you this is still a Metroid game, Samus is stripped of most abilities, an alien hologram dubs her the “chosen one,” and you’re sent on a deliberate, puzzle-driven journey to reclaim those lost powers. It’s equal parts frustrating and exhilarating.
Metroid Prime 4, due Dec. 4 for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, caps off an already busy year for Nintendo — Samus joins the ranks of other flagship characters who received new entries in 2025. The title’s development has been unusually public: first revealed in 2017, the project was restarted in 2019 after Nintendo judged the initial work didn’t meet its standards, and Retro Studios — the team behind the original Prime trilogy — was brought in to finish it.
From a hands-on preview Polygon attended, Metroid Prime 4 isn’t merely a reverent retread of Retro’s earlier games. It shifts tone in places — occasionally more playful, at times more visceral — while still faithfully delivering the franchise’s signature gameplay beats.
Image: NintendoThe preview — played on Switch 2 and lasting about 90 minutes — was split into two distinct segments. The first is that fast-paced combat opener: Space Pirates assault a Galactic Federation facility, Samus drops in, and chaos ensues. Some moments land harder than expected — wounded enemies strewn across the ground still aim and fire as if refusing to yield. The sequence reads like a straightforward FPS set piece: you take cover, you fire, you survive.
The second segment leans into classic Metroid exploration and is the more compelling half. After narrative beats Nintendo asked the press not to spoil, Samus arrives in Fury Green — a lush, verdant jungle on the planet Viewros. Fury Green brims with color and life: bulbous purple blooms spring from dense emerald ferns, amber sunlight filters through humid mist, and massive vines coil around weathered stone structures that suggest an ancient civilization. Visually, the game makes a persuasive case for what a native Switch 2 title can look like, even while launching on both console generations.
At this point Samus has been stripped of many of her usual tools. I tried to double-jump at a cliff edge and hit nothing. Missiles were unavailable. I could morph into the ball and roll through tight corridors, but I couldn’t deploy morph-ball bombs. The only functions at my disposal were the arm cannon’s basic energy beam and the scan visor — an alternate view that reveals environmental clues and lore.
Image: NintendoTrue to the Prime formula, the scan visor quickly becomes indispensable. Instead of stumbling aimlessly at every locked door, the visor flags what you can’t yet pass and often hints at the ability needed to proceed. Early in Fury Green I encountered a Lamorn door that pulsed with electricity — clearly requiring some form of shock-based interaction I didn’t yet possess. The visor also revealed nearly invisible purple platforms I couldn’t stand on, and an amber barrier described as susceptible to “explosive force.” I was desperate for something explosive. Missiles, maybe?
Exploration soon rewarded me with the Psychic Glove upgrade. The moment felt cinematic: a surge of purple energy accompanies the upgrade and Samus shimmers with newfound potential. But the glove doesn’t translate into a blunt-force solution to every problem.
Image: NintendoThe Psychic Glove doesn’t let you punch through everything. Instead, it enables Samus to capture and hold ethereal psychic motes revealed by the scan visor. Those motes can be slotted into orb-shaped receptacles that animate nearby mechanisms and unlock doors. Puzzles built around these receptacles open alternate routes through Fury Green and create satisfying opportunities for backtracking once new tools are acquired.
Shortly after, I found a Galactic Federation transport ship tangled in the jungle vines — and met the demo’s surprising comic relief: Myles MacKenzie, a self-styled engineer whose panicked antics feel almost absurdly out of step with Metroid’s usual gravitas. He flails, drops a pistol, and generally behaves like a slapstick supporting character. After dispatching a swarm of six-legged predators with razor-toothed maws, I freed Myles and lowered the ship. Inside: a cache of missiles. Guess which amber wall didn’t stand a chance after that?
Image: NintendoThe demo continues to alternate between exploration and upgrades. The Control Beam — despite what its name might imply — doesn’t let you commandeer foes; it fires a guided projectile that can be steered to hit switches or travel through narrow gaps. That mechanic adds clever puzzle possibilities and plays a critical role in the area’s first boss encounter: a circular arena battle against Carvex, a writhing, tentacled mass bristling with spikes.
This design is where Metroid’s mastery shows: you learn incremental mechanics, apply them, and then learn more. The game teaches without resorting to heavy-handed tutorials. Combat and navigation are balanced so progression feels earned rather than arbitrary — just enough mystery to intrigue, not so much that it becomes punitive. After an hour with Metroid Prime 4, it’s obvious why the term “Metroidvania” includes the genre’s namesake.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is out Dec. 4 for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.
Source: Polygon
