News Metroid Prime 4: Beyond new trailer, coming to Nintendo Switch in 2025

[Dinoman96]

Do we know if Sakamoto controls the lore for Prime at all? Seems like it would be important for this franchise... considering 2D metroid is moving the story forward and these prime story arcs just take place in between the 2D ones.

It's Tanabe's thing. Sakamoto has said in the past that even though 2D Metroid and Metroid Prime are technically in the same timeline, they're very much their own sagas seperate from each other with their own seperate set of developers, so that they wouldn't be hamstrung by each other.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

What are these "innovations" you speak of that you want so much? And are you referring to "innovations" in Metroid, or something in gaming in general?

So if Prime 4 continues having the Screw Attack like some previous Prime games had, and they bring back both the Speed Booster and Shinespark from the 2D Metroids, both of which have never been in featured in a Prime game, plus maybe some wall running/jumping ala Titanfall, that still wouldn't do it for you?

I mean, that would definitely be innovative yes, but we saw none of that at all in the trailer.

 

[R.D.Blax]

Not that I remember any of the MP lore from having played them decades ago, but I do wonder if Sylux could just be a red herring. And not the true big baddie in this one.

The true enemy will be from Beyond

 

[AngryAlchemist]

Well, my anticipation level went from 11 to about a Metroid Prime 4 after that trailer.

Watching it I was like "is this some kind of new hub area for the 2/3 remakes?" Then I saw the logo and felt the sinking feeling of all of my anticipation draining away.

No way it took them that long for us to wind up with a game that could easily run at 60fps on the Wii U. Everything from the graphics to the animations to the effects to the interface look positively ancient. My only hope is that this is the extremely pared down Wii-like "Reflex Edition" of MP4 for the Switch and the inevitable Switch 2 version looks and plays a lot better.

This is too far even for me. Wtf?

 

[VintoWin]

Yeah but it's still important to make sure things don't clash in the lore.

 

[LiC]

Do we know if Sakamoto controls the lore for Prime at all? Seems like it would be important for this franchise... considering 2D metroid is moving the story forward and these prime story arcs just take place in between the 2D ones.

The only thing Sakamoto controls at this point is budgets.

 

[Tamantayoshi]

So what could beyond mean? The subtitles in 2 and 3 were related to gameplay specific things so im very interested (and excited) at what beyond means.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

So what could beyond mean? The subtitles in 2 and 3 were related to gameplay specific things so im very interested (and excited) at what beyond means.

Based on how Tanabe doesn't seem to have changed his original vision at all when he talked about this game 9 years ago, it's probably some time travel mechanic like the Dark World in Prime 2.

 

[Christo750]

Maybe I'm easy to impress but that looked really crisp to me. And I get it's probably cross-gen but it is a Switch title first, and I didn't really see anything that the Switch couldn't do? Maybe the final game's framerate won't be as locked but it looked pretty achievable.

The suit looks phenomenal, takes some cues from Dread, a bit sleeker/less tanky

maybe the first Varia Suit i've seen that actually looks properly proportionate, like it's believable that a person is under there without 4 ft-long shoulders. agreed with you; it looks perfect.

 

[SammyJ9]

So what could beyond mean? The subtitles in 2 and 3 were related to gameplay specific things so im very interested (and excited) at what beyond means.

Early speculation is that it might be some kind of 'black hole portal' gimmick - so "Beyond" is beyond the black hole. Possible time travel or dimensions or something

 

[jt155555]

Those atmosphere moments in games really some else that ending scene with the music was just sublime

 

[GAP]

Yeah but it's still important to make sure things don't clash in the lore.

It was established earlier in the thread that the years don’t line up well at all anyways so the “clash” isn’t worth worrying about

 

[VintoWin]

do you think they are hinting at a dodge roll... or was that just for the cinematic lol.

 

[Skipper93653]

do you think they are hinting at a dodge roll... or was that just for the cinematic lol.

Maybe but Samus doing dodge rolls was also a thing in some cutscenes in Prime 1. It'll probably still be the strafe dashes.

 

[Beanstar40]

It looks just as good as prime remastered, which is probably the best looking first party Nintendo game from a technical point. Don't see the issue here.

Can't wait to play this, definitely get the sense it's a cross gen game

 

[brainchild]

although it looked a little blurry, but that might be video compression.

I think it is probably a combination of the video compression, motion blur, and whatever AA method they're using.

Did Remastered have motion blur, btw? Can't remember if it did.

 

[oldpuck]

reposting my technical analysis from the hardware thread

I'll say that I, personally, didn't love how Prime 4 looked - I've not played any Prime game but Remastered so I can't say to what degree this visual design is an extension of those games - but from a technological level it's clearly a polished product in the vein of Remastered. I will just gently remind folk that if they looked at the stream, they didn't see the footage at its best, and for me at least, that looked really rough. But that's just compression artifacts.

Model complexity is exactly in-line with Prime Remastered, and while pixel counting a YouTube video is a fool's errand, it looks like the same 900p+MSAA that Remastered used. Big open areas, but I didn't see crepuscular lighting or volumetrics. The little fires in the opening display very similar emissive properties to the same effects in the frigate in the Remastered opening.

I see one real instance of pop-in - the final baddie posing as Big Bad comes in looks like a failed animation tween, but it's a very delayed load of a higher quality model. It looks real bad. And the explosion right before looks like it runs at half frame rate? But all the other particles seem to be 60fps. It all looks really well polished.

In terms of new stuff, there are some subtle lens flares that I don't remember from Remastered. And the areas are obviously larger, but distant objects don't look like real geometry to me, and lights are mostly static, in keeping with Remastered's forward renderer.

Prime 4 does not appear to be a technological leap over Remastered in any major way (unless those hints of temporal upscaling are real), which is no bad thing, because Remastered was an absolute consummate game for the hardware it was developed for. This is peak Switch 1 technology, exactly what you would expect from a game that was designed for Switch from the first day to the last day.

Which is not to say it won't launch in the cross-gen period, or that there won't be enhancements on Switch 2. But this isn't "RTGI replaced with something else" this isn't "4k struggle bussed down to smeary 720p" and this definitely isn't "high poly models replaced with low poly models." It's Switch 1 tech through and through.

 

[oldpuck]

Strongly encourage anyone who thought it looked blurry during the stream to check the trailer upload. The stream did the footage a serious disservice.

 

[Metroid]

My partner cooked this up real quick

 

[Gotdatmoneyy]

Am I crazy or are people complaining that it looks on par with the Prime Remaster?

I think this looks way better and beyond what Remaster does. It’s not constrained to Game Cube era levels anymore. It’s probably as close to Xbox One/PS4 visuals a game can get with utilizing everything learned on the TX1. Note I’m not saying that this looks on par with AAA PS4 games but it looks leagues better than what PS360 could ever do

It looks similar to Remastered imo which makes sense giving this is that teams follow up game. There are obvious improvements which we should expect given it will come out 2 years later.

 

[LukasManak22]

 

[Shoulder]

I mean, that would definitely be innovative yes, but we saw none of that at all in the trailer.

We also didn't see shit from the very first teaser trailer with at the time, Sequel to BOTW. It wasn't until the very next trailer 2 years later did we see some of the actual game mechanics being showcased. A teaser trailer is not about showcasing all the game mechanics anyway, and what everything the game has to offer. That's what a full-fledged trailer is meant for.

 

[Shoe]

Sylux was made for TikTok

 

[VintoWin]

People were expecting it to look much better (cross gen). That's all.

If it were cross gen they probably would have waited to show it at Switch 2 presentation, or showed us the Switch 2 version first.

It's not cross gen. It's Switch only. I'm almost positive. They might re-release it. Remember Switch 2 will be backwards compatible.

It's not going to receive major graphical updates on Switch 2. It was made for Switch 1.

 

[Steve]

We also didn't see shit from the very first teaser trailer with at the time, Sequel to BOTW. It wasn't until the very next trailer 2 years later did we see some of the actual game mechanics being showcased. A teaser trailer is not about showcasing all the game mechanics anyway, and what everything the game has to offer. That's what a full-fledged trailer is meant for.

It's nice seeing Prime 4, be the last Switch exclusive, it's been a strong 7 years.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

People were expecting it to look much better (cross gen). That's all.

If it were cross gen they probably would have waited to show it at Switch 2 presentation, or showed us the Switch 2 version first.

It's not cross gen. It's Switch only. I'm almost positive. They might re-release it. Remember Switch 2 will be backwards compatible.

It's not going to receive major updates on Switch 2. It was made for Switch 1.

I mean, that would also be silly for all Switch 1 games that release after the Switch 2 as aliasing kills the image quality of most Switch 1 games and the Switch 2 can fix this with DLSS.

 

[Gotdatmoneyy]

People were expecting it to look much better (cross gen). That's all.

If it were cross gen they probably would have waited to show it at Switch 2 presentation, or showed us the Switch 2 version first.

It's not cross gen. It's Switch only. I'm almost positive. They might re-release it. Remember Switch 2 will be backwards compatible.

It's not going to receive major graphical updates on Switch 2. It was made for Switch 1.

The game was announced for Switch 1. It is weird that people were expecting it to not look like a Switch 1 game at heart. We'll have to see what they end up doing when we have more footage but this is definitely one of the most impressive looking Switch games. Switch 2 will be a 9th gen level platform. I don't expect MP4 to be arted twice so while I expect Switch 2 upgrades, I don't see them being huge outside of resolution and maybe some raytraced effects like reflections and shadows.

 

[Mr Swine]

reposting my technical analysis from the hardware thread

Took a quick glance at the Remaster launch trailer and honestly Prime 4 looks way better. Character models are better too but it’s hard to say about the space pirates

 

[brainchild]

reposting my technical analysis from the hardware thread

Great analysis and I agree that it's not a huge leap over Remastered, but there do appear to be improvements over Remastered.

Mobile emitters (like Samus' arm cannon projectiles) locally illuminate the environment now (though stationary local light sources are probably baked), normal mapped detail and resolution are higher, shader complexity gives appearance of sub-surface scattering in some of the materials, specularity is improved, motion blur is impressively subtle, and the seemingly billboarded fog and explosions give a much better illusion of volume even though they're still billboards.

Again, nothing huge, but Remastered already looked incredible on the Switch and 4 seems to have refined/added a few features since Remastered.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

The game was announced for Switch 1. It is weird that people were expecting it to not look like a Switch 1 game at heart. We'll have to see what they end up doing when we have more footage but this is definitely one of the most impressive looking Switch games. Switch 2 will be a 9th gen level platform. I don't expect MP4 to be arted twice so while I expect Switch 2 upgrades, I don't see them being huge outside of resolution and maybe some raytraced effects like reflections and shadows.

Ehh, I think people were hoping it would get announced with the Switch 2 with its Switch 2 version using DLSS to clean up all the aliasing and the Switch 2 version maybe replace the really low res textures with higher resolution textures. The aliasing and low res textures stick out (though this is true of essentially all Switch 1 games).

The art being so bad in this trailer probably contributes to some level of disappointment. The purple everywhere is bad.

 

[Síriocaz]

Sylux was made for TikTok

Maybe Sylux was the one to actually develop TikTok

 

[BumbaT BrowN]

Just shouldn't have taken this incredibly long if it's just extremely unambitious though.

The first 1:37 was there to show the "Metroid Prime" part of the game. the last 20 seconds is the "Beyond" part. You ain't seen nothing yet

Beyond how long this has been in development and how ridiculously good Dread was, the thing that probably hurt this trailer the most for me is that it was coming off the new Zelda trailer which was absolutely unreal in how ambitious it looked. That's what I'm looking for in gaming. It may not work out, but it's just a huge risk that looks great.

This trailer again just stank of Mass Effect Andromeda where nothing ever came together in development and they scrambled to just make the same game again even though it makes the universe feel so small and the game feel so dated.

did you watch this on your phone on 480p or something? Watch the full trailer again in 1080p 60fps on a large screen so you can see all the detail.

 

[Beorn]

Not really, I didn't buy Prime Remastered as I hate graphical remakes as most of what I care about in gaming in innovation. I really hope there's massive innovation here or I'll be really disappointed after so many years in development.

Maybe you should just wait a little more of a 20 second teaser before making conclusions, we have seen so little about the game.
And prime 4 feeling like a prime game is exactly what i want, just bring new mechanics and expand the scope and we are on for a good time!
(at least the final shot of the jungle area seems a big step from the prime 1/2/3 areas)
As always wait & see but i trust in retro, they are carefully making this game.

 

[omniryu]

Ehh, I think people were hoping it would get announced with the Switch 2 with its Switch 2 version using DLSS to clean up all the aliasing and the Switch 2 version maybe replace the really low res textures with higher resolution textures. The aliasing and low res textures stick out (though this is true of essentially all Switch 1 games).

The art being so bad in this trailer probably contributes to some level of disappointment. The purple everywhere is bad.

I am in the same boat, but I do realize some people will be pissed if it was assumed Switch 2 exclusive.

 

[Joe]

People seem to be forgetting that this is a teaser trailer.

 

[Secu]

This trailer shows too little, it reminds me of the early PVs of TOTK.

 

[boodream]

I’m so happy and so excited. I can’t wait to see exactly what the narrative thread is going to be. It is visually beautiful, in the vein of the work done for Prime remastered as we could expect and I am very relieved not to have an Open World that would be unnatural compared to the mechanics of the saga.

Nothing prevents retro studio to start now the pre-production of Prime 5 on switch 2. Prime 4 was announced at the very beginning of the life cycle of the switch, it would have been a huge scandal that it was thought primarily for the switch 2 , even if theoretically nothing prevents improvements given the probable backward compatibility.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

do you think they are hinting at a dodge roll... or was that just for the cinematic lol.

Imagine how disorienting that would be in first person.

 

[Mr Swine]

Ehh, I think people were hoping it would get announced with the Switch 2 with its Switch 2 version using DLSS to clean up all the aliasing and the Switch 2 version maybe replace the really low res textures with higher resolution textures. The aliasing and low res textures stick out (though this is true of essentially all Switch 1 games).

The art being so bad in this trailer probably contributes to some level of disappointment. The purple everywhere is bad.

The game doesn’t seem to have any jaggies what I can see in the trailer?

 

[ohlawd]

Imagine how disorienting that would be in first person.

that's the innovation people want

 

[Hajeman]

If someone thinks this game looks like Metroid Prime 3, I see no reason to take their opinion seriously. It is a gargantuan leap in fidelity compared to that game. It also improves on Remastered, with local light sources for particle beams, high quality specular reflections, complex material shading, and much more realistic "volumetric" effects for explosions and fog (they don't appear to actually be volumetric and have some visible artifacting but are far better than the same effects from the previous games).

This is the best looking game on the Switch in terms of visual fidelity, and it's not even close.

Yup true. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is the most amazing graphic for Nintendo realistic game EVER. I'm really want to see more gameplay of this game

 

[jt155555]

Absolutely best looking game on the Switch, although it looked a little blurry, but that might be video compression. Can't wait to see 4K Switch 2 footage.

Youtube streaming almost always capped at a low bitrate, and the 1080p60 video afterwards always capped conservatively to allow best wifi playback for averaged youtube users.

More static shots in games like Mario Party will be more crystal clear, I'm 100% sure Retro studio not letting this game get capped at any subpar resolution, you got to remember they got Donkey Kong Country Returns running stable 30 on a 3DS

Iirc of DLSS though, it going to look pretty damn similar unless you're on a big screen

This Switch 1 version though already look like it can play ball with the big dogs on the hulk consoles purely in expression limits, the world look pretty damn fleshed out from these select trailer shots

 

[VintoWin]

Imagine how disorienting that would be in first person.

True, better suited to 3rd person. She does have that jump strafing thing already which they didn't really use in the trailer for some reason.

Curious what the other 3 abilities next to missiles will be.

 

[manfromthedam]

Early speculation is that it might be some kind of 'black hole portal' gimmick - so "Beyond" is beyond the black hole. Possible time travel or dimensions or something

Thinking this too based on the final shot where Samus appears to come from a blueish portal. Could be cool if we lost access to the Gunship and had to hop from planet to planet through portals before regaining access and taking Sylux's crazy big mothership on in a space dogfight BAYBEE.

only sort of joking

 

[oldpuck]

Great analysis and I agree that it's not a huge leap over Remastered, but there do appear to be improvements over Remastered.

Mobile emitters (like Samus' arm cannon projectiles) locally illuminate the environment now (though stationary local light sources are probably baked), normal mapped detail and resolution are higher, shader complexity gives appearance of sub-surface scattering in some of the materials, specularity is improved, motion blur is impressively subtle, and the seemingly billboarded fog and explosions give a much better illusion of volume even though they're still billboards.

Again, nothing huge, but Remastered already looked incredible on the Switch and 4 seems to have refined/added a few features since Remastered.

All good catches. I think the fan reaction is somewhat muddled because of Remastered and the long development period. This is obviously a hugely accomplished game for the hardware, but the fan community somehow got it into their head that they'd see a generational leap over what Remastered brought.

This mostly shows signs of being fully arted for the new engine.

I'll be honest, if I hadn't played Remastered, this would not get me to play the game. I missed Prime the first time through, but was a metroid fan from the NES days. Dread reinvigorated my love of Samus, which got me to play Remastered, even though first person games usually make me a little sick to my stomach, and I don't have the spatial awareness for shooters generally. I really loved it, but I can see how some might be "meh" about what they saw. But technologically, this is an excellent showing.

 

[Aether]

I'm keeping a neutral/optimistic stance.

Opening scene looked kind of ... Generic in the way the battle was happening, soft low Res textures, low resolution... Worse then remaster, but it seemed as if it's showing more on screen and having more open/bigger areas. Some animations where meh.

The short clip at the end made me giddy. That was awesome.

Graphics are as expected below remaster, but I hope that a switch 2 port will be there day 1, with higher texture resolution, higher render resolution.

---
Music, was fine, a little to reliant on callbacks, but the guitar at the end was a nice twist.

---
gameplay seemed closer to 1 then 2/3,
A fresh modern Take would have been appreciated... But if not it going back more towards 1 feels like the right decision.


They showed to little for a proper opinion.
Not the biggest fan of the logo. Will be fun. Hopefully same day switch 1 and 2.

 

[Gotdatmoneyy]

Ehh, I think people were hoping it would get announced with the Switch 2 with its Switch 2 version using DLSS to clean up all the aliasing and the Switch 2 version maybe replace the really low res textures with higher resolution textures. The aliasing and low res textures stick out (though this is true of essentially all Switch 1 games).

The art being so bad in this trailer probably contributes to some level of disappointment. The purple everywhere is bad.

Nintendo hasn't announced a single Switch 2 game. The game was announced as a Switch 1 game, I'd expect that to be the version they show. If people were expecting the game to be announced for a platform that doesn't even have a name or a release date it is on them.

What they showed looked good to me. (To me before you do this whole stupid thing where you claim something is objectively bad because you don't like it) It's 2 minutes of footage though. I need to see more, especially in more naturalistic and fantasy environments opposed to what they showed.

 

[Hocot8]

the direct did the trailer a disservice. Rewatched the upload of the trailer and it looks clean.

That last shot is straight up beautiful tbh.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Nintendo hasn't announced a single Switch 2 game. The game was announced as a Switch 1 game, I'd expect that to be the version they show. If people were expecting the game to be announced for a platform that doesn't even have a name or a release date it is on them.

What they showed looked good to me. (To me before you do this whole stupid thing where you claim something is objectively bad because you don't like it) It's 2 minutes of footage though. I need to see more, especially in more naturalistic and fantasy environments opposed to what they showed.

People were expecting it to be announced later when the Switch 2 was shown as they were hoping that this game hadn't just been in development forever and was instead being held for the Switch 2 for cross-gen.

 

[Joe]

I've looked at a few different reaction videos and every one of them has been in awe of the graphics and said something along the lines of "this is a Switch 1 game???"

I feel like the "the graphics look bad" and "the graphics look like Prime 3" crowd is almost entirely situated in here.