Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches on Nintendo Switch 2 later this week. Nintendo fans have been waiting for years for the next game in the fan-favorite series. They’ve had to deal with several stops and starts along the way, but critical reviews point toward this being another great game in the Metroid Prime lineage. Nintendo is looking to build on the hype around Metroid Prime 4 in the last few days ahead of launch by dropping a few new goodies on the Nintendo Switch Online service. It’s nothing major, but fans of the Metroid series will love these new icons.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The rewards will let fans soak in their nostalgia for Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid 2: Return of Samus. There are five icons for both games, bringing the total icon number to 10. Each icon will run you 10 Platinum Points on the My Nintendo shop and features a different character from the respective game. These icons are “play to unlock” rewards, which means you’ll need to jump into both games before they’re available in your store.
Zero Mission is available on the Game Boy Advance app in Nintendo Switch Online, while Return of Samus can be played in the Game Boy app. Once you boot up a game, you’ll automatically get 50 Platinum Points, so you can fund the price of every icon by opening both games. Essentially, the icons are free, but with a few extra steps.
It’s cool to see Nintendo bring some synergy to this release. Zero Mission is a remake of the original Metroid, while Return of Samus is the Game Boy-exclusive sequel. It was remade in 2017 for the 3DS, but this is the original version in all its glory. Regardless, jumping into these old games to get some of the history for Metroid is a good idea, if you can spare the time before getting into Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
Of course, if you wanted to be a completionist, you’d want to also play through the three previous Prime games and potentially Hunters and Federation Force. Those side games are a strange bunch, but they help set up Sylux, who appears to play a major part in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It’s not all required playing, as Nintendo should help catch you up, given how few players took the time to play through Hunters and Federation Force, but it can’t hurt.
Thankfully, we’re only a few short days from the launch of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. As mentioned, MP4 has gone through the wringer to get here. It was originally announced in 2017 at E3. After two years in production, it was announced that development had to be restarted in 2019 under Retro Studios. It’s taken some time to get here, and likely a lot of late nights from Nintendo developers, but Metroid Prime 4 is performing well with critics. It’s not getting the acclaim earlier entries received (seemingly thanks to the open-world sections), but MP4 still seems poised to be a huge hit with the fanbase.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of HBO Max -
©Yukinobu Tatsu/SHUEISHA, DANDADAN Production Committee
