Metroid Prime 4 has finally been given a proper unveiling, now renamed Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and with an announced release planned for 2025. With the long-awaited release finally on its way, it’s worth taking a look back at the story of the other Prime games. And for more, be sure to check out all the biggest Nintendo Direct announcements.
It’s been more than five years now since Nintendo shockingly revealed it was restarting development on Metroid Prime 4. In that span of time, the company has announced and released two high-profile Metroid games for Switch in Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime Remastered, keeping the series in the spotlight.
Although we currently know very little about the story of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, one thing we can infer is that it will go in a different direction from previous titles. The first three installments in the Metroid Prime saga all revolved around Phazon, a mysterious radioactive substance capable of destroying the galaxy. Over the course of the original trilogy, Samus traveled to multiple planets afflicted by the mutagen to eliminate the corrupting substance and prevent it from falling into Space Pirate hands, culminating in a climactic confrontation against recurring nemesis Dark Samus on the Phazon homeworld.
With the Phazon saga firmly wrapped up, Metroid Prime 4 will likely pit the bounty hunter against some new galactic threat, but there are a few lingering story threads from previous games that may give us a hint as to what–or who–that could be. In the meantime, here’s a recap of the entire Metroid Prime saga up until now to refresh your memory as we await more news on Metroid Prime 4.
Spoilers for the first three Metroid Prime games follow.
First Encounter (Metroid Prime)
Though we don’t yet know where Metroid Prime 4 will fall in the series’ timeline, the entire Metroid Prime saga thus far takes place between the first Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus.
The story begins shortly after the events of the original Metroid. Several months after defeating Mother Brain and halting the Space Pirates’ operations on Zebes, Samus intercepts a distress signal from a derelict frigate orbiting the planet Tallon IV. Upon arriving, she discovers the ship is actually a Space Pirate research vessel, wherein the Pirates had been conducting experiments with a strange, newly discovered mutagen known as Phazon. In the course of her investigation, Samus comes face-to-face with one of these test subjects: the Parasite Queen, a monstrous creature that escaped captivity and has been wreaking havoc aboard the frigate. Samus is able to subdue the monster, but in the process inadvertently triggers the ship’s self-destruct sequence.
En route back to her gunship, the bounty hunter encounters her nemesis Ridley, revived and cybernetically augmented since their confrontation on Zebes. She pursues the dragon to Tallon IV, a lush natural world once occupied by the Chozo–the highly advanced bird-like race that raised Samus and developed her Power Suit. As with the Space Pirate frigate, Samus arrives to find Tallon IV eerily deserted. The Chozo, ravaged by some unseen force, have since vanished from the planet, with only the remnants of their once great civilization left to mark their presence.
The murals left behind by the Chozo chronicle the arrival of a great “poison” that reached Tallon IV via meteor and seeped into the very heart of the planet. Though the Chozo did their best to contain the corrupting force within the meteor’s impact crater, their efforts were ultimately futile, and the substance–Phazon–slowly spread and decimated their civilization. Lured by the prospect of harnessing this mutagen for their own ends, the Space Pirates arrived on Tallon IV some time before Samus and established various facilities across the planet to further mine and experiment with Phazon. Come from Sports betting site VPbet
During the course of her mission, Samus eventually gains a Phazon-enhanced Power Suit, allowing her to enter the impact crater and confront the source of the mutagen: Metroid Prime. Partway through the climactic final battle, Samus destroys Metroid Prime’s exoskeleton to reveal its core form–a nebulous being made of pure Phazon. Samus ultimately defeats the creature, but in its death throes, it latches onto and absorbs her Phazon Suit as the impact crater begins to cave in.
The bounty hunter flees the site before it collapses, her mission to rid the planet of its corruption finally accomplished. However, this isn’t the last she’s seen of Phazon or Metroid Prime. After Samus departs Tallon IV, the scene shifts back to the impact crater, where a hand is seen emerging from Metroid Prime’s bubbling remains–confirming the creature survived by reconstituting with the stolen Phazon Suit.