Metroid Prime 4: Beyond preview – Nintendo’s finally won me over

Domagoj Belancic

14.11.2025

Translation: Katherine Martin

Support: Cassie Mammone

Now that I’ve put Metroid Prime 4: Beyond through its paces, my scepticism about the space adventure has vanished. Samus Aran’s back, baby!

Nintendo recently gave me the opportunity to play intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran’s latest adventure. After crashing on the alien planet Viewros, the game’s heroine has to find a way out of her misery with the help of newly acquired telekinetic abilities.

When I came back from the Nintendo offices, my fellow editor, Cassie, gave me quite the grilling. Let me start off by saying one thing: I went into the preview event feeling massively sceptical. Now that the demo’s over, however, I can hardly wait to get my hands on the finished game.

Cassie: What expectations did you have going into the preview event?

Domagoj: I was sceptical, not least because of the turbulence surrounding the game’s development. Neither the trailers nor the demo I played in April managed to impress me either. It all looked too familiar, as if the development team at Retro Studios had been afraid to try anything new.

The few new gameplay mechanics shown in the trailers didn’t blow me away either. Samus’s new motorbike, for instance, looks out of place in the Metroid Prime universe. I’m not sure about zooming around on that in a massive desert. After all, the Metroid series is known for its slow pace and labyrinthine, almost claustrophobic levels. I had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

And how do you feel now that you’ve played Metroid Prime 4: Beyond?

The new demo completely won me over. I feel reassured now. Metroid Prime 4 exudes the magic of old Retro Studios games, all while building on its familiar principle with exciting new gameplay mechanics. Nintendo lovers should mark 4 December, the release date, in their calendars.

So you’ve been converted! Did you get a chance to try the motorbike too?

Unfortunately not. The motorbike is a mode of transport in the central hub, which connects the planet Viewros’s various worlds. Sadly, I only managed to explore one biome in the demo – the jungle world, Green Fury.

With this in mind, I’m still sceptical about the motorbike and the central hub. Will there be anything exciting to discover in the hub? What will it be like to ride the futuristic bike? Will the expansiveness of the world ruin the intimate atmosphere? I’m curious to see if I’ll be sold on the concept in the finished game.

What did you particularly like about the preview?

If I had to limit myself to one thing, I’d say the atmosphere. In the sci-fi genre, there’s sooo much repetitive blah that I quickly get bored. Metroid Prime 4 stands out from the crowd with its beautiful, coherent art style. Everything about this world feels otherworldly – from the ornate alien architecture, to the hideous crawling creatures that attack you incessantly, to the oversized vegetation worth pausing to admire.

It’s all consistent – and stunning.

And then there’s the music, which plays a huge part in creating atmosphere. Alien choirs sing melancholic melodies in an unknown language, accompanied by strange synthesiser sounds. Combined with familiar sound effects coming from Samus’s weapons and gadgets, it feels like finally coming home after a long journey. No other game feels like Metroid Prime.

What didn’t you like about it?

A key element of the Metroid Prime series is that feeling of isolation. Of feeling lost and alone as you explore alien planets. In the demo, however, I unexpectedly bumped into a member of the Galactic Federation, who’d crashed on the same planet as Samus. He was an oddball engineer named Myles MacKenzie.

He joined me for the rest of the demo, giving me hints about where to go, pointing out hidden items and babbling away, barely pausing to take a breath. At one point, I had to protect him from a horde of murderous aliens. If he took too much damage, I even had to revive him. It felt like the antithesis of Metroid Prime’s solitary concept.

During the relatively short demo, I found Myles quite funny. Mind you, I really hope he and any other chatterbox allies won’t get on my nerves too much with their ramblings during my adventures. I want to be alone, so I can think about the story, world and puzzles in peace. But hey, at least Samus is mute in Metroid Prime 4, unlike in the cringeworthy spin-off Metroid: Other M.

Will there be optional collectibles, such as energy or missile tanks, as there were in the other Metroid games?

Heck, yeah! The world’s full of hidden items. And as is typical of the genre, many of them are only accessible once you’ve learned certain skills.

Scanning’s also back. The whole world can be scanned with Samus’s helmet – even small, inconspicuous plants or birds flying by. Perfectionists will have their work cut out for them.

Which of Samus’s familiar abilities are returning?

Since I only got to play a small part of the game, I can’t give you a fully fledged answer on that. What I can tell you is that Samus’s beam weapon is back. Complete with infinite ammunition and missiles for tougher enemies at the start. She can also transform into a morph ball and lay bombs to clear obstacles.

Did you get a peek at any new skills?

Yeah, and I feel really good about them! The Lamorn – the mysterious inhabitants of the planet Viewros – give Samus a psychic crystal and a psychic glove. These can be used to move or levitate certain objects from a distance.

But my personal favourite is the psychic beam, an upgrade for Samus’s beam weapon. If you fire a shot, time slows down. You can also steer the projectile to hit up to three targets in succession.

There were two moments in the demo that really blew me away. In the first, I was standing in front of a broken door that wouldn’t open from my side. I spotted a little gap in the wall, then shot the psychic beam through it to find out what was on the other side. There, I caught a glimpse of a suspicious-looking mechanism, which I managed to manipulate using the psychic beam. And voilà, the door opened! I’m stoked to find out what other cool puzzles the game has in store for us.

The second moment was a boss fight against a giant plant monster. To defeat it, I had to fire missiles to expose the weak points in its tendrils first. After that, I had to hit all those vulnerable spots in quick succession with the psychic beam to inflict damage on the monster. Flying through the chaos of a boss fight in slow motion just feels freaking cool.

The psychic beam reminds me a little of the flying beetle from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Do you remember that? You could use it to fly around and activate switches in a dungeon from far away. The psychic beam’s even cooler because of the slow-motion aspect. It’s almost like the sniper bullet from that indie game, Children of the Sun. Which, by the way, is a seriously cool game. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s into more unusual puzzle concepts:

Which console did you use at the preview event and how did Metroid Prime 4: Beyond run on it?

I played the game on the Switch 2. In quality mode in 4K at 60 fps, to be exact. There’s also a performance mode in 1080p at 120 fps.

Seeing as Metroid Prime 4’s essentially a Switch 1 game, it runs flawlessly on the Switch 2. To be honest, I was amazed that a game like that could work on an old Switch too. Retro Studios has done a great job there.

What are the controls for Samus like?

There are various control options to choose from. At the preview, I decided against traditional stick or motion controls. Instead, I used the new mouse function on the Switch 2 Joy-Con controllers to shoot and puzzle my way through the demo.

I’ll definitely play the finished game with mouse controls. This involves holding the left half of the Joy-Con in your left hand to dictate where Samus should walk. At the same time, you place the right Joy-Con on a flat surface and use it like a regular mouse to aim. However, don’t expect typical first-person shooter controls. As we’ve seen in previous Metroid games, Samus’s beam weapon automatically focuses on enemies when you press ZL. That way, you can aim precisely at specific body parts.

It’s all very accurate and fast. There’s also a kind of nostalgic feel to it because it reminds me of Metroid Prime 3. I played that with the Wii Remote in my right hand and pointer controls. Ah, those were the days!

Would you be okay with using mouse controls for thirty hours or more?

At the moment, I’d say yes. When I was playing the game, I soon got used to the slightly odd grip technique. But who knows? Maybe it takes a few hours to get uncomfortable.

Will we see any special enemies again? Maybe something along the lines of the indestructible E.M.M.I.s from Metroid Dread?

No overly powerful enemies like that ventured into the crosshairs of my beam gun during the demo. That being said, I was surprised at how hardy some of the aliens were. I got attacked mercilessly from all sides. Metroid Prime 4 will probably turn out to be a tough game – and that’s a good thing!

Okay, last question. Metroid Prime 4 will be released shortly before Christmas. Who would the game make a good Christmas present for?

I won’t be able to fully recommend the game until I’ve tested the whole thing. Based on the demo, however, I can tell you that every Metroid and Metroid Prime fan will feel right at home playing this new title.

I’d also recommend the game to fans of recent Metroidvania titles such as Hollow Knight: Silksong or Animal Well, purely so they can experience a contemporary version of one of the genre cofounders. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Metroid Prime 4 to shooter fans. The game might look like a shooter, but it doesn’t feel like one at all. Especially because of the lock-on mechanics, focus on puzzles and slow-paced exploration.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be released on 4 December for the Switch and Switch 2. Nintendo invited me to the preview event.

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Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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