The latest trailer for Metroid Prime 4 shows Samus on the new planet of Viewros and some new psychic abilities, but it’s all giving off some heavy Echoes vibes.
It’s been a while since we had anything new to see for Metroid Prime 4, and the latest trailer (shown below) reveals the world of Viewros to be both amazing and suitably mysterious.
The original Metroid Prime trilogy felt very neat in a bookended kind of way. The whole Dark Samus arc as an antagonist worked wonderfully, but it’s the second game in the Prime series that’s really pertinent here.
In many ways, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was almost a side story from the main quest. Yes, it dealt with Phazon and its corrupting effects, but the story was more self-contained.
Taking place on the planet Aether, an indigenous race called the Luminoth was being hunted to extinction by the Ing from a Phazon-induced dark dimension of sorts.
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While that light and dark duality is seemingly absent in Metroid Prime 4, the planet of Viewros and its ancient alien population are definitely giving off strong Luminoth vibes.
They’re obviously not the same, but the new upgraded suit for Samus that’s teased in the trailer (shown above) also bears stylistic hallmarks to the Light Suit from Echoes, especially with the sleek armor and the three lights in the center of the chest.
The new psychic abilities that Samus can wield also come across as almost Aetherean in nature. It’s hard to place how and why, but there’s a certain Echoes vibe here. An echo of Echoes, if you will.
While Sylux wasn’t present in this trailer, it has been revealed that Sylux will be one of the game’s primary villains, which will be interesting to see how that resolves as well as what Sylux’s motivations are for hunting Samus in the first place.
Considering that Retro Studios has been working on Metroid Prime 4 since 2019, it’s clear that this extended development cycle has birthed something probably quite remarkable.
Here’s hoping that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond can finally deliver on that once it is released on Switch later this year.
In the meantime, you should definitely play the remaster of the first Metroid Prime also on the Switch. It’s incredibly good.
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