Metroid Prime 4 is finally due to launch in 2025, 8 years after it was first revealed

Metroid Prime 4 finally resurfaced as part of today's Nintendo Direct, and it's due to launch in 2025.

Officially titled Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the brief trailer shows series protagonist Samus Aran landing at a Galactic Federation base under assault from Space Pirate forces. Samus's ship appears to be a new design, but the action looks very familiar to previous Metroid Prime games - there's still a lot of lock-on targeting and circle-strafing, as well as the opportunity to scan the environment for bits of lore and hints on what to do next.

I'm guessing that the Space Pirate assault is going to be the game's opening set-piece action sequence and tutorial. This part of the trailer closes with a mysterious character who I didn't initially recognize flanked by a pair of Metroids - this is Sylux, a bounty hunter who first appeared in the spin-off game Metroid Prime Hunters. The trailer then ends with Samus exploring a vast alien landscape, seemingly an assurance that the game's not moving away from the exploration the series is known for.

Metroid Prime 4 has been a long, long time coming. The game was originally announced way back at E3 2017 - remember E3? - but in 2019, Nintendo announced that development had restarted as the project moved to Retro Studios. Retro, of course, is the Texas-based developer that made the original Metroid Prime series back in the GameCube and Wii era, so it certainly has the pedigree for this new game.

Today's Nintendo Direct brought a hot finish to the Summer Game Fest 2024 season.