Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – The Final Preview | Metroid Prime 4: Beyond puts the ‘Metroid’ in ‘Me…

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond puts the 'Metroid' in 'Metroidvania'

The genre heavyweight returns for its crown, with a side of slapstick

For about 15 minutes, I thought Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was messing with me.

The first-person sci-fi game opens with a firefight. As longtime protagonist Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter, you fly a spaceship (shaped like Samus’ helmet, by the way) into a warzone outside a research facility. Within seconds, you’re blasting enemies with your primary weapon, an energy cannon built into the arm of your spacesuit. You lob barrages of missiles and turn into a somersaulting ball that can drop bombs. At one point, you fight alongside a giant robot Samus, who creates even more explosions. The whole sequence is badass and certainly more like Halo, Killzone, or Titanfall than any Metroid I’ve ever played.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Preview – Metroid Prime 4 With Mouse Controls Is Mind-Bendingly Good

After eight long years, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is nearing a real launch. I got the opportunity to both stand and sit down to play some of it on the Switch 2, and it feels like it hasn't missed a step in the interim.

My first playable section was a run back through the opening of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, shown off in last year's Nintendo Direct; intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran arrives at a research station under attack from space pirates, and leaps off the top of her ship to assist.

After working my way through tutorials and several dozen space pirates, I eventually hit the cutscene introducing Sylux, the Metroid Prime Hunters baddie who's taking a more central role. He's important, it seems, but this is the only portion of the demo where I see much mention of him, the space pirates, or the Metroids that strangely follow his commands.

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