Metroid Prime 4 is finally due to launch in 2025, 8 years after it was first revealed

Metroid Prime 4 finally resurfaced as part of today's Nintendo Direct, and it's due to launch in 2025.

Officially titled Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the brief trailer shows series protagonist Samus Aran landing at a Galactic Federation base under assault from Space Pirate forces. Samus's ship appears to be a new design, but the action looks very familiar to previous Metroid Prime games - there's still a lot of lock-on targeting and circle-strafing, as well as the opportunity to scan the environment for bits of lore and hints on what to do next.

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I'm guessing that the Space Pirate assault is going to be the game's opening set-piece action sequence and tutorial. This part of the trailer closes with a mysterious character who I didn't initially recognize flanked by a pair of Metroids - this is Sylux, a bounty hunter who first appeared in the spin-off game Metroid Prime Hunters. The trailer then ends with Samus exploring a vast alien landscape, seemingly an assurance that the game's not moving away from the exploration the series is known for.

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Metroid Prime 4 has been a long, long time coming. The game was originally announced way back at E3 2017 - remember E3? - but in 2019, Nintendo announced that development had restarted as the project moved to Retro Studios. Retro, of course, is the Texas-based developer that made the original Metroid Prime series back in the GameCube and Wii era, so it certainly has the pedigree for this new game.

Today's Nintendo Direct brought a hot finish to the Summer Game Fest 2024 season.