Two tantalizing hours with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Wait a minute. What did that one scan mention?

Metroid Prime 4. All images and clips in this story captured by Game File from a Switch 2 at 1080p. The game was gorgeous on a big TV and can run in 4K via Switch 2 as well.

To properly convey how I feel about having recently played Metroid Prime 4, a game I’ve been anticipating for 18 years, I must first briefly tell you about two other Nintendo Switch games that I previewed just prior to their release.

There was September 2024’s The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which Nintendo invited me to play about a month before it came out. When I previewed it at a meeting room in New York City, the game wowed me because of a new system that allowed players to collect and conjure copies of myriad items and enemies found in the game world.

Weeks later, the final, released version of Echoes of Wisdom initially delighted me and my kids. But I soon found that the collecting and the conjuring that seemed so promising a few weeks before release ultimately felt like a squandered concept. The game allowed for less player creativity than I’d expected. Its a game world that felt less rife with possibility than it first seemed. My preview had been overly optimistic.

And there was May 2023’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which Nintendo invited me to play in a New York City high-rise about a month before it came out. That game stunned me during its preview because of its complex contraption-crafting system. I was also awestruck by its game world, which appeared to include the vast, altered land of Hyrule as well as islands floating in the sky. When I previewed the game, Nintendo reps advised me to just stay away from some pits I might find on the map.

Weeks later, when I had a copy of Tears of the Kingdom at home, I discovered what Nintendo’s preview personnel had been hiding: down those pits was the game’s secret underground, a massive third tier of the Zelda adventure and arguably its most interestingly designed area. Tiers of the Kingdom was even more incredible than it had originally seemed. My preview almost literally didn’t know the half of it.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which I played a week ago for two hours in New York City, largely delighted me and left me buzzing with excitement to play the full game. But I must impress upon you that I cannot discern if my session was more Echoes or more Tears.

I know Nintendo was hiding a lot of the game during the preview. I don’t think I truly know what Metroid Prime 4—out for Switch and Switch 2 on December 4—actually is.

What Nintendo let me play

First, on a Switch 2 running in handheld mode, I played Metroid Prime 4’s intro, the same chunk I sampled in April and that has been at public showcases for the system. In this part, bounty hunter Samus Aran flies her spaceship down to a planet where allied Galactic Federation soldiers in a research center wage a firefight against alien invaders. The high-action tutorial leads to the detonation of a mysterious device.

Then, on a Switch 2 docked to a TV, I played more than an hour of what I think is Prime 4’s first full area, a first-person trek on the planet Viewros through a lush jungle called Fury Green. True to the Metroid Prime series, I was able to spend that session scanning dozens of strange plants and animals (Metroid Prime games, are less first-person shooters than they are first-person-archeology/anthropology/exploration games). I gained some basic upgrades (missiles, morph ball bombs, etc) for Samus’ exo-suit. I checked my map a lot and battled a boss. Vintage Prime stuff.

I was mostly delighted by the Fury Green section of the game. Prime 4’s designers at Nintendo-owned Retro studios have built a beautiful world full of captivating scenery and lovely small touches.

For example, here, beneath a tree canopy, are little bugs carrying leaves across a log:

And here is a cool-looking door that I opened with Samus’ new psychic powers. She can see a special purple orb using her new psychic visor, then open the door using her new psychic glove: