Nintendo has released a surprising new trailer for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, showcasing a brand new vehicle for Samus Aran.
Following the confirmed release dates for Pokémon Legends Z-A and Kirby Air Riders, the last big question for Nintendo’s Christmas line-up was the placement of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
The sequel has been without a specific date for months, leading to concerns about a new delay, but Nintendo has finally committed to a launch date of December 4, 2025, for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, in its latest Direct.
Better yet, it turns out Nintendo was hiding a major gimmick for the title. Beyond the previously confirmed gravity powers, Samus Aran is going full-on Biker Mice From Mars.
As shown in the new trailer, the bounty hunter will ride a motorbike (named Vi-O-La) in the sequel. The clip shows Samus roaming around a desert and volcanic environment, which appears to be open world – although exactly how big is unclear.
A later sequence shows Samus smoothly hopping between the bike and her first person view, suggesting it will play a big role in navigating around larger levels. There’s combat as well, with arcade-y like boosting, laser projectiles, and even some kind of attack drift.
It all looks like great fun,and is just the kind of shake-up Metroid Prime 4: Beyond needs to differentiate itself from its predecessors. If anything, it brings to mind Ghostrunner 2, which also adopted open bike sections into its combat sprints.
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Some of the graphics look slightly simplistic, especially in a sequence showing wolf-like creatures in an icy storm, but the has been primarily built for the Switch – so it was never going to be the graphical showcase the original Metroid Prime was for the GameCube.
Aside from the game, Nintendo also announced Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, a compendium featuring concept drawings, sketches and insight from developers on the trilogy. The book is available for £36.49 on Amazon and will be available from October 28.
Like the Super Mario Galaxy compilation, new amiibo are also in the pipeline, including another standalone Samus figure and a Samus and Vi-O-La figure, which will launch on November 6. An amiibo for antagonist Sylux lands alongside the game on December 4, 2025.
Elsewhere in the Nintendo Direct, the company announced the return of the Virtual Boy, along with various other 40th anniversary celebrations for Super Mario Bros.
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