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New Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Footage Shown

by Donald Theriault - March 27, 2025, 10:39 am EDT
Total comments: 12 Source: Nintendo

Samus taking a page out of Ness's playbook now.

Although it didn't provide a release date, gameplay for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was shown in today's Nintendo Direct.

The gameplay showed Samus doing the traditional Prime scanning of objects on a planet called "Viewros", but also making use of psychic powers to manipulate objects in the environment and blaster fire.

The trailer ended on a "2025" date and a cutscene with a red-suited Samus.

About 15 new screenshots of the game have been released. You can view these as part of the article or check out the profile on the website.

Images

Talkback

broodwarsMarch 27, 2025

NGL, little disappointed that the "new abilities" shown off in this trailer were mainly glorified keys to unlock doors. Still, what they showed looked solid enough

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterMarch 27, 2025

I really enjoyed the first 3 Prime games and I'm looking forward to this but so far I am not impressed. There is one particular thing I look for when it comes to Nintendo franchises and that is traversal and movement options.

I 200%'d Donkey Kong Country Returns HD because the fluidity in Donkey Kong's movement and momentum is extremely addictive for my tastes. I went for 900 moons because I love the way Mario feels bouncing around all over the place, launching him to and fro with Cappy. I found 900 and 1000 Koroks because Link could get around climbing, gliding and horse riding in a way that felt very satisfying. If I like my movement options I can be in heaven.

I've stopped midway through Prime Remastered because I'm just slightly bored of Samus's speed and agility. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved Prime 1-3. So much so that I have 4 big ol' high end Metroid Prime statues displayed in my home. Say what you want about all the wackiness of Other M but I LOVED the way Samus controlled beyond the first person moments and despite the sideways Wiimote. When I play Dread I feel like a space ninja that is nimble as heck.

The last FPS I played was one of the Doom titles and I loved how fast the dude was jumping around climbing and ripping those monsters apart. I look at this and for the most part I see the same relatively slow paced battle mechanics and movement options. It's still very early but I've basically been waiting for more movement options that are speedier and higher energy.

Ian SaneMarch 27, 2025

I was not expecting both this and Pokemon Legends Z-A to not have firm release dates shown.  I'm assuming the date does exist but that both titles will have some cross-platform release on the Switch 2, either a separate Switch 2 version or performance improvements when playing the game on Switch 2.  So they avoided revealing the release dates because that would reveal details about the Switch 2 release date and they're saving that for next week's Direct.

Luigi DudeMarch 27, 2025

Quote from: Ian

I was not expecting both this and Pokemon Legends Z-A to not have firm release dates shown.  I'm assuming the date does exist but that both titles will have some cross-platform release on the Switch 2, either a separate Switch 2 version or performance improvements when playing the game on Switch 2.  So they avoided revealing the release dates because that would reveal details about the Switch 2 release date and they're saving that for next week's Direct.

Yeah the fact this new trailer hardly showed anything and didn't even say a release date, points heavily to showing more of it on the Switch 2 Direct.  This will probably be the big showcase on how playing certain Switch games on the Switch 2, will have improvements to them.

This makes a lot of the negatively online right now look all the more embarrassing.  It's like seriously, some people can't wait less than a week for more information.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterMarch 29, 2025

I would agree that the negativity online is bit over blown. However when it comes to gameplay and animations, what we have seen so far does look very dated. It's not necessarily a bad thing either, if what people want is more Prime they certainly have it. Seemingly anyway.

As far as I'm concerned this is par the course for a Nintendo trailer. We first see what we generally know and love. It's very safe. Months later just before release we find out a major hook and gameplay loops that have half of us screaming in delight.

The arm cannon and morph ball gameplay look to play and animate exactly as we remember. Granted there are additions shown. It looks like she can dash backward and controlling shots like the Beatle from Skyward Sword will definitely change things up.

Add that to the somewhat slippery and jittery animations of the 4 armed enemies along with the relatively closed off environments I can see why people are disappointed for now. After 16 years I would just say it looks a little too similar to what came before.

Now I'm personally expecting all this footage to be only the tutorial. Not to mention Retro is a 5/5 studio. Between Donkey Kong and Metroid they haven't missed yet. I have full faith they'll wow me like every other time before.

Luigi DudeMarch 29, 2025

Quote from: Caterkiller

I would agree that the negativity online is bit over blown. However when it comes to gameplay and animations, what we have seen so far does look very dated. It's not necessarily a bad thing either, if what people want is more Prime they certainly have it. Seemingly anyway.

As far as I'm concerned this is par the course for a Nintendo trailer. We first see what we generally know and love. It's very safe. Months later just before release we find out a major hook and gameplay loops that have half of us screaming in delight.

The arm cannon and morph ball gameplay look to play and animate exactly as we remember. Granted there are additions shown. It looks like she can dash backward and controlling shots like the Beatle from Skyward Sword will definitely change things up.

Add that to the somewhat slippery and jittery animations of the 4 armed enemies along with the relatively closed off environments I can see why people are disappointed for now. After 16 years I would just say it looks a little too similar to what came before.

It's less than 3 minutes of footage from what's obvious the opening part of the game, from what's also an unfinished build of the game.  For all we know once Samus gets that new Ladybug suit, she gains a ton of new abilities that radically change the way she controls.  Some thing with the environments.  The early part is smaller and more closed off, then suddenly you get some giant open area's that are much bigger than anything in the original trilogy.

This is what makes much the negativity beyond pathetic and stupid.  It's nothing more than a teaser trailer for a game that none of us even know what the release date is yet.  This is like when people seriously thought Mario Odyssey was going to be an auto-runner based on 3 seconds of footage, or how many we're complaining that Breath of the Wild wouldn't have any towns or NPC's to interact with because none of the early trailers showed them.  Even the original Metroid Prime had people calling it a generic FPS when it was first revealed with many saying they had no faith it could possibly turn out any good.

You'd think people would have learn by now after being proven wrong for the one billionth time, but nope, it's the same shit every single time.  It's one thing for people to want to see more footage, but when many are already declaring this a soul less rehash of Prime 1 based on less then 3 minutes of footage, that is beyond ridiculous.  Especially when we'll more then likely get more information on the game in the Switch 2 Direct, which is less then a week away.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterMarch 29, 2025

I mean people are going to judge one way or another. I don’t blame anyone for “yawning” at this first impression any more than I get on others for being super excited. On both accounts I can see where each side is coming from.

Luigi DudeMarch 29, 2025

Quote from: Caterkiller

I mean people are going to judge one way or another. I don’t blame anyone for “yawning” at this first impression any more than I get on others for being super excited. On both accounts I can see where each side is coming from.

I have no problem with what you said, where you find the footage right now not very exciting, but are hopeful that later footage will bring more to the table.  That's a reasonable thing to say, and opens up discussions on the kind of new things that Retro might do.

But a lot of the people that are not excited are already jumping to the most negative conclusions possible based off of only a few minutes of early footage.  If they think it's ok to act this shitty over something we hardly know anything about, then it's no surprise many of them will then go on to harass the developers of the final product if it's something they don't like, or harass other people in the videogame industry as well.

Plus there's a certain irony to many of these so called Metroid fans losing their shit over something that looks too close to the first 3 Prime games, when they literally sent death treats to Next Level Games over Federation Force.

KhushrenadaMarch 31, 2025

Quote from: Luigi

This makes a lot of the negatively online right now look all the more embarrassing.

There's been a lot of negativity? Glad I haven't seen it. I was happy with what I saw for MP4. Sure, it didn't seem like it was doing much different from the previous MP games but that's alright with me. I still replay those games and enjoy them and getting more of that experience is all I was looking for which seems to be what this game will do also. Perhaps people were expecting some kind of BotW level game for MP4 but that's not what this series is.

There are times when it is easy to get bored of something or question if it is worth releasing so many similar titles. It can happen in games where you had 6 Professor Layton games in 6 years. But the same thing can happen in movies. There was 6 movies comprising of the "Thin Man" series made from 1934 - 1947. Sean Connery made 6 James Bond movies in 9 years. At the time, it would be easy to get bored with such things. Diminishing returns and such. Yet, now, years OR decades later, one wishes there were more things made of that type of media. You go from thinking it's too much to not enough. For those that discover these things after, they'll wish there was more of that thing. The similarity is now a plus instead of a negative.

That's why, I'm all for it if this game plays very similar to the previous Prime games. I'll still take another 6 games like that. The formula works for me. It is comforting gaming. Bring it on. I'm happy to still get another round of Prime. It took so long to get another one and who knows if we'll get another.

broodwarsMarch 31, 2025

Quote from: Khushrenada

Quote from: Luigi

This makes a lot of the negatively online right now look all the more embarrassing.

There's been a lot of negativity? Glad I haven't seen it.

Nor have I, really. I've seen some criticism along the line of Caterkiller's, aka "they've been working on this game so long, and THIS is what they have to show for it when shooters have evolved so much?" That said, I haven't seen anyone outright hating on the game.

Ian SaneApril 02, 2025

As expected this is also going to have a Switch 2 version.  But there is still no release date.  I really figured they were just holding it off for the Switch 2 Direct.  So is there a possibility that this could still get delayed into 2026?  Why would they not give this a date at this point?  We don't even have a season or quarter associated with it yet.

Luigi DudeApril 02, 2025

Quote from: Ian

As expected this is also going to have a Switch 2 version.  But there is still no release date.  I really figured they were just holding it off for the Switch 2 Direct.  So is there a possibility that this could still get delayed into 2026?  Why would they not give this a date at this point?  We don't even have a season or quarter associated with it yet.

If it's coming out this Fall, Nintendo usually waits for their June Direct to announce the date of games that come out in the last quarter.  When Metroid Dread came out in early October 2021, they didn't even announce the games existence until the June Direct that year, about 3 months before release.  So yeah, the earliest I'd expect this game is October, with them saving the really big hype trailer for the June Direct.

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