What You Need To Know Before Prime 4: Beyond

As I’m sure you know, Metroid Prime 4 is finally arriving next week for Nintendo Switch 2. Given that it’s been an eye-watering 18 years since the last Metroid Prime game, you’d be forgiving for wanting a little bit of a refresher.

Fortunately for you, dear reader, that’s exactly what I’m here for. We’re going to go over the story of the last three Metroid Prime games to get you properly up to speed. I’ll even dig into Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime: Federation Force, because I love you.

Where Do The Metroid Prime Games Fit In The Timeline?

It’s not all so straightforward

Mercifully, the Metroid timeline is far more straightforward than The Legend Of Zelda timeline. But that’s probably because there have been half as many games.

If you’re interested in Metroid Prime 4, the good news is you don’t have to catch up on all your Metroid history. In fact, the entire Prime series takes place between the original Metroid and Metroid 2: Return Of Samus, so there’s a lot of Metroid lore you don’t really need to know.

Here are the basics from the very first Metroid game, though: Samus Aran is an intergalactic bounty hunter who has traveled to the Planet Zebes to take down the Space Pirates. The Space Pirates, naughty crab-things that they are, have attempted to harness the power of the Metroid, a life-draining alien creature.

Their plan fails when Samus kills their commanders Ridley and Kraid, before destroying the Space Pirate leader Mother Brain, eliminating every last Metroid in the Space Pirate facility, and then blowing the whole thing up for good measure. Things tend to blow up around Samus.

The Events Of Metroid Prime

It’s not a phazon mom, it’s who I am

2002’s Metroid Prime kicks off not long after the events of the original Metroid. Samus Aran investigates a distress signal sent by the space frigate Orpheon. She quickly discovers the Space Pirates have hijacked the station to experiment with a strange substance they call Phazon.

Upon further investigation, Samus discovers Ridley is alive and has been cybernetically enhanced. The Orpheon ultimately falls out of orbit and crashes onto the planet Tallon IV, leaving Samus stripped of most of her abilities (this happens to her a lot).

As Samus explores the various biomes of Tallon IV, she uncovers the truth behind Phazon. The deadly miasma began to infect the planet when it arrived many years before, inside a huge meteor. The worst of the phazon was contained at the impact site by the inhabitants of Tallon IV, a peaceful bird-like race called Chozo (the same race that took Samus in and raised/trained her as a child).

Between the meteor and the Phazon, the Chozo were ultimately wiped out. They were able to leave a message for Samus, however: gain entry to the impact crater, and defeat the monster at the heart of the planet.

Samus ultimately takes out Ridley (again), and encounters the Metroid Prime deep underground. The Metroid Prime is a Metroid that has spent years feeding on the Phazon in the impact crater, and has evolved into a horrifying monster. Samus manages to destroy it and escape before everything blows up (again). Although, a post-credits scene shows the Metroid Prime survived, and has reshaped itself into a twisted clone of Samus.

The Events Of Metroid Prime: Hunters

Gorea? I barely know her

Metroid Prime Hunters isn’t particularly important to the overall story since it’s primarily a multiplayer game, but it’s worth mentioning for one very important reason that we’ll get to. Samus has been drawn into a race with six other bounty hunters in search of an “ultimate power” hidden within the Alimbic Cluster.

Samus goes toe-to-toe with each of her rival hunters: Weavel, Trace, Sylux, Spire, Kanden, and Noxus. The only name you need to remember from this bunch, however, is Sylux. This mysterious hunter is set to play a huge role in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and his hatred of Samus and the Galactic Federation is established in this game.

Samus and the other hunters are forced to briefly work together when it becomes clear the “ultimate power” is, in fact, a horrifying monster called Gorea that was sealed away. Who could have seen that coming? The galaxy is saved, and the hunters go their separate ways.

The Events Of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Samus it ever was

After the Galactic Federation loses contact with troops who have been sent to explore the planet Aether, Samus is called to check it out, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes begins. It soon becomes apparent that Aether is absolutely drenched in Phazon, with dead Federation troops reanimating to attack Samus. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she encounters the Metroid Prime again, who has now rebranded as Dark Samus.

Samus follows her doppelgänger through a portal to a dark mirror version of Aether called Dark Aether, eventually learning Aether was split into two parallel dimensions when it was hit by a meteor containing Phazon.

Obviously, this poses no problem for Samus, who is able to make Aether whole again and whup Dark Samus’ ass. That’s our girl.

The Events Of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Mother brain may I

The big finale of the core trilogy kicks off in explosive fashion. It emerges that Dark Samus didn’t die (obviously) and has, in fact, managed to use Phazon to corrupt the Space Pirates and bend them to her/its will.

This newfound force takes Samus by surprise at the start of the game, and she’s taken out in an explosive battle. She wakes up from a coma around one month later to discover that things have not exactly been going well in her absence.

Dark Samus is planning to overrun the cosmos with Phazon by striking as many planets as she can with the same kind of meteors that wrecked Tallon IV and Aether. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Samus has herself been infected by Phazon and needs to wear a special suit to keep it in check or risk being… corrupted.

Samus does what she does best, reclaiming her abilities via lots of backtracking, before shutting off the Phazon at the source: planet Phaaze. It’s here she has her final confrontation with Dark Samus, and destroys the entire planet of Phaaze, causing all the Phazon in the galaxy to become completely harmless goop. Someone still has to mop it up, presumably, but that’s not for Samus to worry about. She flies off to find another bounty to hunt, a mysterious spaceship on her tail that has since been confirmed to belong to Sylux.

The Events Of Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Yes, it’s canon, I’m sorry

The 3DS‘ Metroid Prime: Federation Force is about as welcome among fans as a fart in a lift, but unfortunately, it does have some important plot points, so we do need to deal with it.

Okay, when I say “some” important plot points, I mean one. Samus is barely in this game, leaving you to play as Federation troops. Our hero only really features in the story when she’s kidnapped by Space Pirates at the end (as if) and brainwashed to become the game’s final boss.

Incredibly, we will never be able to forget Federation Force because of the fact its final scene sets up the entire story of Metroid Prime 4. The very last cutscene shows Sylux stealing a Metroid egg, using some kind of weapon that causes it to grow at an alarming rate. Sure enough, trailers for Prime 4 have shown Sylux backed by his own army of Metroids. That’s bound to cause some headaches for Samus.

Will Sylux be the true big bad of Prime 4, or is someone else pulling the strings? Is Dark Samus really gone? Is Phazon no longer a threat? We’ll find out for sure when Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches next week on December 4.

Released

December 4, 2025

ESRB

Teen / Animated Blood, Violence

Developer(s)

Retro Studios

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Engine

RUDE engine

Prequel(s)

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption