Metroid fans have been released from a prison of uncertain anticipation: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond's gameplay has finally been unveiled, alongside a release window. Metroid Prime 4 development has been rocky, with Nintendo essentially scrapping the game and starting from scratch back in 2019. So it should go without saying that when Metroid Prime 4 took the virtual stage during the recent Nintendo Direct, it alleviated the concerns of many excited players.

This is helped by the fact that the game looks great. It would have been easy for Nintendo to simply show off a cinematic trailer and call it a day, but the company opted instead for a very gameplay-centric reveal, showing off a handful of in-game environments and abilities, which all appear to be realized with a surprising level of detail and polish. Metroid Prime 4's framerate, per the trailer footage, also appears to be remarkably consistent in spite of its impressive visuals (something that is particularly surprising given the choppy FPS of Tears of the Kingdom last year). This could be chalked up to Retro Studios simply working some tech wizardry, but the ostensible performance and fidelity of the game, relative to the Switch's hardware, has raised some eyebrows.

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Metroid Prime 4 Would Make Sense as a Switch 2 Launch Title

Nintendo Switch 2: Leaks, Rumors and Confirmations

There's no shortage of rumors swirling about the Nintendo Switch 2, but a lot of them have real merit, as Nintendo itself has acknowledged the existence of the Switch successor. While much discussion has been tossed about regarding what specs the new console may have and what new games will launch on it, the only concrete information Nintendo has released about the Switch 2 is that it will pull back the curtain on the console before the end of this fiscal year. This means that Nintendo will probably unveil the Switch 2, perhaps alongside its full name, specs, and launch titles, before April 2025.

Though the Switch was released two years after its initial launch, it wouldn't be unreasonable for the Switch 2 to be announced in late 2024/early 2025, and then released in late 2025/early 2026. Metroid Prime 4 is slated for a 2025 release, and if it launches toward the far end of that broad window, it could coincide with the launch of the Switch 2. If this were to happen, it would only be natural for Metroid Prime 4 to be a cross-gen release.

Metroid Prime 4 Could Shine On the Switch 2

Last year's Metroid Prime Remastered proved that the Switch can run games with impressive visuals, and smoothly at that, so it's not at all impossible for the Metroid Prime 4 trailer footage to have been captured on current Switch hardware. At the same time, if Nintendo already has a functioning Switch 2 prototype, as many rumors and leaks have suggested, then it would make a lot of sense to use it to show off the next Metroid Prime—a series that has been known as one of Nintendo's most visually impressive and ambitious.

Metroid Prime 4 will almost certainly come to the current-generation Switch, but it's hard to imagine how the console could go beyond it, from a technical standpoint; based on the reveal trailer, Metroid Prime 4 seems to be pushing the Switch to its limit and punching far above the console's graphical weight class. There's still plenty to learn about Metroid Prime 4, and if it were to be revealed as a cross-gen Switch 2 launch title, it would not come as a surprise.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Franchise

Metroid

Platform(s)

Switch

Developer(s)

Retro Studios

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Genre(s)

Action

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