Metroid Prime 4 was one of the first big teases after the Switch launched back in 2017. Ever since, fans have been desperate for a taste of what Retro Studios has been working on. The result was years of “no news” on the upcoming first-person shooter with the exception of that one time Nintendo revealed that development had been re-booted. Then today, fans received not just a gameplay trailer and 2025 release window, but over a dozen screenshots full of clues for them to spend the next several months devouring like a pack of rabid Zoomers.
The trailer showed space pirates and what looked like a Galactic Federation base. It’s unclear what everyone’s doing there or what new powers Samus will wield this time around. Today’s brief look mostly teased the existing arsenal the bounty hunter’s had all throughout the previous entries in the Prime subseries, including beam weapons, missiles, environmental scanners, and her iconic Morph Ball ability. For the most part, Metroid Prime 4 definitely looks a whole lot like Metroid Prime, with some shots buzzing with space alien possibilities and others feeling surprisingly bland and muted for a game that’s been in development for close to a decade.
Will Metroid Prime 4 be one of the first cross-gen games to appear on Switch 2 as well? Maybe even with a few visual enhancements, including better framerates and some ray-tracing-lite feature? We’ll find out as its 2025 release window gets closer. In the meantime, here’s a look at all of the screenshots Nintendo curated from Metroid Prime 4's triumphant return to the online showcase hype-cycle.