Metroid Prime 4 its alive. During today’s Nintendo Direct event, the company revealed that the long-awaited sequel, now called Metroid Prime 4: Beyondis heading to Switch next year.
It’s been about seven years since Nintendo first announced the game during the 2017 E3 event with developer Bandai Namco attached. At the time, Metroid Prime 4 It was expected to close a decade-long gap between it and the 2007 Wii game. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Other titles in the overall franchise, including Metroid: Another Mwhich had a lukewarm reception, and a remastering of Metroid Primehad diminished in the meantime, but none had satisfied the desire for a new and complete metroid release. Metroid Prime 4 I intended to do that, until it disappeared.
After years of development, the entire project was scrapped and started again from scratch in 2019 after it failed to meet “the standards we are looking for in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series,” Nintendo said at the time. Retro Studios, the original developer of the series, came on board for this second chance at Samus Aran’s return, but after he began his work, news on the game’s development was scarce.
In addition to revealing that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be available for Switch sometime in 2025, Nintendo released footage of the game that includes Samus scanning aliens, shooting everything in sight, and turning into a cute little ball—the classics, if you will. A few more details were given as the game closed out today’s Nintendo Direct, which also included news of a new The legend of Zelda game, but it felt like a deluge after the five-year information drought that preceded it.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond it appears to be coming near the end of the current Switch’s life cycle. News about the console’s successor is expected with each new Nintendo event, but so far there hasn’t been any. Still, Metroid fans are ready to welcome Samus. Or, as one person on X put it with a screenshot of a receipt 2018: “My pre-order finally means something!”