It still feels surreal to type this, but Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally exists in a playable state and I’ve actually played it. After nearly a decade of waiting, worrying, doubting, hoping… I’ve spent close to two hours with Samus Aran’s new adventure on the Nintendo Switch 2. And honestly? It exceeded every expectation I still dared to hold onto.
Handheld gameplay
My session opened with the same demo I had tested before at earlier events the familiar slice of Prime 4 where I originally tried Nintendo’s new mouse input option. Except this time, Nintendo dropped the mouse and placed a Switch 2 in my hands. And wow. Handheld Prime hits different.
Metroid Prime 4 absolutely glows on the Switch 2 screen. Particles float with impossible clarity, environments breathe, and the action feels dangerously fluid. I played at 120fps, which drops resolution to 720p, but the trade-off is worth it. Samus has never moved this smoothly on a handheld, and honestly, it still feels like science fiction that a Nintendo portable can even target 120fps. But here we are.
The handheld perspective also pulls you physically closer to Samus’s visor. You feel the weight of her suit in every subtle rumble, you notice tiny reflections as you turn corners, and exploration becomes strangely intimate. Compared to the mouse controls I tried earlier, handheld felt more comfortable for longer sessions, even if I already know I’ll play most of the game docked for maximum spectacle.
And trust me: spectacle is coming.
Welcome to Fury Greens
The second half of my preview is where the game truly woke up. Nintendo sent me to Fury Greens, a lush new region on the planet Viewros, and immediately, Retro Studios made it obvious why this sequel took so long. Fury Greens is a masterclass in environmental design. It’s a dense alien jungle, vibrating with life, danger, and history. Everything feels handcrafted: the overgrown ruin walls, the shifting mist, the predators hiding just a bit too quietly in the vegetation.
As always in Prime, you start underpowered. You walk past ledges you can’t reach yet, doors you clearly aren’t meant to access, and suspicious architecture that practically screams, come back later with something new. That’s when you know you’re in a real Metroid game. The rhythm of scanning, observing, puzzle-solving, and combat is exactly what fans want and Retro hasn’t missed a step.
But here’s the real surprise: presentation. This is Prime evolved. Lighting is richer, depth is stronger, colors feel alive, and even small objects cast meaningful shadows. More than once, I stopped moving entirely just to absorb the world around me. It’s atmospheric in a way Metroid has never been before. At one point, while scanning ancient artifacts to progress toward the area’s boss, I realized I had fallen right back into that old familiar Prime zone, quiet focus, curiosity, and immersion. It felt like coming home, only in a world rebuilt for 2025 instead of 2002.
Pure Metroid fun
And then the upgrades began.
Even in this short slice, Retro Studios let me unlock several new add-ons for the Varia Suit, including the new physic abilities, which are instantly one of the most exciting mechanics in the game. With one ability, you can grab raw energy and launch it into specific slots to activate pathways. With another, you can steer a charged shot in real time, bending it around corners or lining it up with distant switches.
It’s brilliant.
It’s useful.
And it feels incredibly Metroid.
These abilities reshape combat and exploration without betraying the classic formula. You still transform into the Morph Ball, still scan every inch of a room before stepping into it, still rely on your own curiosity to find the correct route. Prime 4 trusts the player in the same way the trilogy did. The game gives you breadcrumbs, not answers. Everything feels familiar, but never old.
Halo Prime?
Even though the structure is unmistakably Prime, something else stood out to me during Fury Greens: scale. Retro Studios is clearly aiming bigger with Beyond. There’s more cinematic flair, more atmospheric tension, more environmental storytelling, and yes, more characters.
For the first time in a Metroid Prime game, I genuinely felt like Samus wasn’t entirely alone. A companion character joined me during parts of the demo to help with certain puzzles, adding a dynamic the series never explored before. It didn’t make the game feel less isolating, instead, it made the world feel more alive. Like Samus was part of something larger, a moving piece in a greater conflict.
The combination of towering ruins, alien warfare, and newfound companions occasionally reminded me of the golden years of Halo, the sense of wandering through ancient structures, uncovering remnants of civilizations, and stumbling upon survivors with their own agendas. Not because Prime 4 imitates Halo, it doesn’t, but because it finally embraces cinematic world-building on a similar scale.
Everything is louder, bigger, sharper, more confident. It still feels like Metroid, just… amplified.
Conclusion:
It feels like a fever dream, but Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is finally almost here and based on my hands-on session, Retro Studios absolutely understands what made the Prime series so legendary. Fury Greens alone is proof that the team knows the heart of Metroid Prime and isn’t afraid to evolve it where needed.
There are still so many mysteries I want to unravel. I haven’t reached the Vi-O-La bike, I haven’t tested the open HUB world, and there’s clearly a lot of story being held back for launch. But from the first minute of my session, I was home. And by the end of it, I didn’t want to leave. The wait was long, but if the rest of the game matches what I played here, it’ll be worth every year of silence.
