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GAME · 2025 · JAPAN

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

11 archived facts 3 topics

A look at Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the 2025 entry in Nintendo's sci-fi series, through the small design choices and frustrations one Kotaku writer ran into while playing.

11 Interesting Facts About Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Interesting Facts (9)

  1. #001

    Nintendo first announced the game in 2017, with Kensuke Tanabe returning as producer. The project began at the request of Nintendo of America, which wanted a new mainline entry in the Prime series. Unlike the previous three games, however, it would be developed not by Retro Studios but by Bandai Namco Studios. Despite regular assurances that development was progressing well, Nintendo announced in 2019 that it had scrapped the early version because Bandai had failed to meet Nintendo's standards. Work then moved back to Retro Studios and started over from scratch, with a target of late 2020. That deadline was missed as well: at the time, Retro lacked the structure needed to make the Metroid Prime game Nintendo wanted, and while that structure was being built, some background models and cutscenes were outsourced to outside companies. The game was finally completed in 2025, eight years after its first announcement.

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  2. #002

    The first three Metroid Prime titles were all set, chronologically, between the original Metroid (1986) and Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), the second entry in the main 2D line (or between their remakes, Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) and Metroid: Samus Returns (2017)). Nintendo has said Metroid Prime 4: Beyond sits later on the timeline, following Super Metroid (1994), the third main 2D game, and preceding Metroid: Fusion (2002), the fourth. According to the developers, Beyond's planet Viewros lies in another dimension, done "to create a free and original setting for [the game] without affecting the 2D Metroid series." Because Metroid: Other M (2010) continued directly from Super Metroid's events, Beyond likewise falls between Other M and Metroid Fusion.

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  3. #003

    Metroid Prime 4: Beyond requires players to gather a large number of green crystals before the final mission unlocks; the Kotaku writer hadn't collected enough and spent about 30 minutes driving around to find more.

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  4. #004

    Metroid Prime 4 has many filler cutscenes that replay whenever Samus travels between areas; they can be skipped, but only once loading has finished, and the game gives no cue for when that point comes.

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  5. #005

    On Switch 2, the Kotaku writer found load times so quick that they fell into the habit of mashing A during transitional cutscenes to cut them off the moment loading ended.

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  6. #006

    Stuck on a puzzle in Metroid Prime 4, the Kotaku writer's rule was to try every ability, beginning with the most recently unlocked one, even when using a bomb, missile, or charged blast on a lock or item felt silly.

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  7. #007

    Of Metroid Prime 4's several elemental blasts, the ice shot became the Kotaku writer's favorite: it freezes most enemies in place for a few seconds and knocks flying enemies out of the sky.

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  8. #008
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    While the Galactic Federation members who assist Samus rest at Base Camp in Fury Green, the player can simply stand nearby and listen to their conversations. The soldiers originally had far more dialogue, as shown by over 30 minutes of unused voice-over found in the game's files. Among it are VUE-995's thoughts on how much it can bench, its missiles and cooking tips; a new breach technique from Nora Armstrong plus stories about her pet dog; and Ezra Duke recalling an unpaid debt back on the planet Tanamaar.

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  9. #009
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    In the finale, before the last battle with Sylux begins, Samus glimpses telepathic fragments of his memory. Finishing the game at 100% completion unlocks not only the full ending but also an extra gallery video showing the complete memory, which reveals Sylux's backstory: he was a high-ranking Galactic Federation soldier fighting to recover a Space Pirate weapon, but when he recklessly ignored his superior's orders to wait for Samus's assistance, his entire team was wiped out and he was the sole survivor. Because Samus finally arrived and saved the day, Sylux has always held a grudge against her and the Federation.

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Easter Eggs & References (1)

  1. #010

    The name notwithstanding, the original Metroid Prime/Dark Samus neither appears nor is fought, since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) destroyed it for good. The Metroids themselves have only a small part: a handful turn up briefly in the prologue, and later mentions note that Sylux used them to bend Space Pirates and various other creatures to his will.

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Deeper Meaning (1)

  1. #011

    Metroid Prime 4 lets players tag locked doors and unreachable spots on the map with several different icons, so they can locate those places again hours later.

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