Opinion: Metroid Prime 4 Reminds Me Of Gears 5, And It’s Making Me Nervous

I’m starting to feel nervous about Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Let me explain. During the most recent Nintendo Direct, the long-gestating game finally received a release date for 4th December 2025 on Switch and Switch 2. That’s not all, though; the accompanying trailer also revealed that Samus would now be rocking her very own Akira-inspired motorbike called Vi-O-La.

After a handful of environmental shots to set the mood, the trailer showcased a series of close-ups of Samus revving up Vi-O-La before storming off into a vast desert landscape at speeds that would make Captain Falcon break out his best Mr. Miyagi nod of approval.

I couldn’t quite gather my thoughts when I watched the trailer for the first time, but after a second viewing, a comparison entered my mind that I’ve not been able to shake ever since: Metroid Prime 4 reminds me of Gears 5.

Now, I know the two games probably aren’t even remotely comparable on the surface, but Gears 5 actually delivered fans their own sense of whiplash when it delivered its take on the open world back in 2019 (which came, curiously, mere months after development on Metroid Prime 4 was completely restarted under Retro Studios).

Following a fairly linear prologue sequence, Gears 5 revamps the series’ structure by offering up a vast open space that can be traversed via a wind-powered vehicle called ‘The Skiff’. Essentially, key locations are be scattered throughout the world and you have to hop in your Skiff to make your way from one to the other.

So it wasn’t an open world in the sense that, say, The Witcher 3 is. Yes, you can “go anywhere”, as the saying goes, but it was more or less a means of reaching your intended destination, with little in between. These destinations then provide the ‘traditional’ Gears of War experience that fans are accustomed to. Nevertheless, it gave the game a real sense of scale, far more so than any of the previous entries, and I appreciated it for that.

But here’s the thing. Gears 5 is not Metroid Prime 4. The latter is the next mainline entry in a series that, in both 2D and 3D, has famously focused on dense, interconnected environments that can be wholly explored on foot (with the odd elevator here and there, of course) – this, along with a similar approach in Castlevania, led to the coining of the term ‘Metroidvania’. The minor exception here is Metroid Prime 3 which featured multiple planets, but the sequences in which Samus would travel from one to the other was essentially just an elaborate elevator cutscene.

So while open spaces worked in Gears 5, I’m not sure yet if the same can be said for Metroid Prime 4. It’s still early days of course (yes, even after eight years of waiting), but the short gameplay segment in the recent trailer did enough to convince me that Retro’s latest effort is taking more than a few cues from Gears 5. You can see key locations off in the distance, but bar a few pesky enemies, the more immediate surroundings look pretty barren.

I really want Metroid Prime 4 to try something new; it’s been eighteen years since the last mainline Prime game, so I’m not going to be satisfied with “more of the same” in this instance. But I also don’t want Metroid to lose what makes it, well… Metroid. What a conundrum. We’ve only got about two-and-a-half months to go until its release, so hopefully Nintendo will share a bit more information in that time and assuage my fears.

At the very least, we know the company is able to pull off some pretty amazing open worlds with the likes of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Xenoblade Chronicles 3; my guess is they won’t let Retro Studios deliver anything less than spectacular. Here’s hoping, anyway.

What are your thoughts on Metroid Prime 4’s more open-ended spaces and vehicular gameplay? Do you think it will work, or will it dilute the series’ core identity? Let us know with a comment down below.