Last night, Nintendo Treehouse: Live presented us with 17 minutes of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond gameplay on the Nintendo Switch 2. Releasing later this year, Metroid Prime 4 figures to be one of the Switch 2's biggest titles and the gameplay deep dive shows off just how well it runs on the new system.
As a quick reminder, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will also be available on the original Switch, but the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition offers multiple upgrades, including enhanced resolution, textures, and load times, support for the Joy-Con 2 controllers' mouse controls, and two display modes (Quality Mode and Performance Mode).
In the gameplay demo, we're seeing it run in Quality Mode which is 60 frames per second at 4K resolution. Just to note, Performance Mode runs at 120 fraes per second in 1080p.
The demo starts at the beginning of the game as Samus Aran is calld into action by the Galactic Federation. A bit of text is used to set up the premise, revealing that Sylux and his army of Space Pirates have launhed a series of attacks on Federation Research Facilities. It's also revealed that the Space Pirates are being controlled by Metroids that have the ability to fuse with other life-forms and control their minds.
Samus is dispatched to the Planet Tanamaar where a Federation Research Facility is being attacked. After an impressive opening sequence, we're droppd into action and the gameplay begins. Samus is tasked with locating and securing a sensitive artifact and it's through this mission that we see many of the gameplay features for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, including various eney types, navigation and a focus on exploration, and more.
In addition to the gameplay itself, the Treehouse presentation also gives us a look at the Switch 2's mouse functionality. The demo begins with the presenter playing with a split Joy-Con style; however, at around the 6:38 mark, they switch to mouse controls. We can see that the left Joy-Con to move and lock onto enemies with the ZL button, while at the same time using the right Joy-Con to fine-tune his aiming.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is due to release in 2025 for both the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Specific pricing has not yet been revealed although we've sen with Mario Party World that games on the Switch 2 can cost upwards of $80 for digital and $90 for physical. I wouldn't be surprised to see Metroid Prime 4 adopt this new higher price point on the Swich 2, with the original Switch version possibly priced at $70 as we saw with Tears of the Kingdom when it first launched.