After years of waiting, I’ve finally tried Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – and after just two hours of play, I’m seriously excited for release day

Here's what I made of one of this century's most anticipated games

14 Nov 2025, 14:00 · TechRadar

Features By Harry Padoan published 14 November 2025

(Image credit: Nintendo)

I don’t think it's even a slight exaggeration to say that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is one of the most anticipated video games of the 21st century. It's been close to two decades since the last entry in this beloved series, but soon, fans will finally be able to continue Samus Aran’s adventure.

Luckily, I’ve already managed to get my mitts on the latest Metroid Prime game – well, for a couple of hours at least. I visited Nintendo’s UK HQ in the beautiful town of Windsor, where I spent an hour or so with the upcoming release. During this time, I made sure to scan everything in sight, try out Samus’ exciting new psychic powers, and take on an intensive boss fight.

So, what did I make of my time with the game on Nintendo Switch 2? Does it appear to be living up to all of the anticipation? Here’s what I made of my hands-on experience with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

New, but the same

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Despite arriving 18 years after its predecessor, I was struck by how faithful Metroid Prime 4: Beyond felt to previous entries in the series.

I played through the game’s introductory segment, as well as an area called Fury Green, and was treated to a carefully measured cocktail of ambient, hypnotic background music, beautiful otherworldly visuals, and frightening enemy encounters. As someone who really enjoyed the original Metroid Prime on the GameCube, it was wonderful to find that atmospheric, engrossing, and sometimes unsettling audio-visual experience truly intact.

And even in gameplay terms, a lot remains the same – the Morph Ball, Missile Launcher, and Scan Visor remain crucial parts of your arsenal. But Nintendo and Retro Studios have kept things fresh with new psychic powers, and these are incredibly fun to make use of.

With these psychic abilities, you’re able to do stuff like manipulate the position of certain objects and interact with technology left behind by a race known as the Lamorn. But I was loving a new ability which enables Samus to control the direction of a psychic beam in slow motion – crucial for opening locked doors and defeating particular adversaries.

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