Metroid Prime Series Recap: Prepare for Metroid Prime 4 with This Complete Guide
Metroid Prime Trilogy, the Wii compilation of Retro Studios’ first-person take on the Metroid series, launched in North America on 24th August 2009, exactly 15 years ago. In honor of that sparking release (well, a little less sparkling than the originals in some places due to a few missing effects), we’re taking the opportunity to recap Samus’ story so far in the Metroid Prime games while we wait for the fourth numbered entry.
After several years of radio silence from Nintendo regarding the next installment in the Metroid Prime series, the company finally revealed Metroid Prime 4: Beyond during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct broadcast.With its release set for 2025, this would mark a staggering 18 years since the last mainline entry: 2007’s Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. That’s a significant amount of time for any entertainment property, not just video games. To put it in perspective, there are just under 16 years separating the theatrical release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, and we’d wager that most would assume that time gap was a lot wider than Metroid’s. Catching up on the story of Star Wars is pretty easy these days when you consider how widely available those movies are, but the Metroid Prime series is an entirely different beast.
Subheading: Metroid Prime Series Overview
Switch players can easily play through the first entry via Metroid Prime Remastered, but Prime 2: Echoes and Prime 3: Corruption are effectively stuck on the Gamecube and Wii. The entire trilogy was made available for download on the Wii U, but unless you had purchased it before the closure of the eShop, you’re out of luck now. The same goes for Metroid Prime: Hunters and Metroid Prime: Federation Force, too. Those games were designed specifically for the DS and 3DS respectively and, as expected, are not yet available on any other platform (although you can still track down the cartridges secondhand, of course). As rumors have suggested, there’s every chance that Nintendo could release HD versions of every entry on the Switch before it unleashes Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but just in case it doesn’t, we’d like to run through the story so far so that you’re as prepared as possible before hopping back into that iconic Varia Suit in 2025. This overview won’t be exhaustive, but it will cover the main story events of the Metroid Prime sub-series, who the main characters are, and what to expect — potentially — in the upcoming entry. So, let’s get started with Samus’ journey onto the mysterious planet of Tallon IV. Spoiler alert, obviously.
Metroid Prime – The Story So Far
Metroid Prime launched around the same time as Metroid Fusion, and while the latter pushed Samus’ story forward after the events of Super Metroid, Metroid Prime (and the rest of the Prime series) nestled itself in between the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. With the recent cinema release of Alien: Romulus, the old term ‘interquel’ is being bandied around to describe its place in the wider Alien timeline. In our opinion, it’s a goofy way of simply saying, “This takes place between X and Y,” but it does describe Metroid Prime and its place in the franchise’s timeline quite nicely.
Metroid Prime kicks off on the Space Pirate frigate known as ‘Orpheon’ after Samus receives a distress signal. She explores the frigate and finds most of its Space Pirate inhabitants to be either dead or seriously wounded. Discovering the source of the distress signal, Samus finds a monstrous Parasite Queen chilling out within the frigate’s depths. After wiping it out, the frigate begins a self-destruct sequence, requiring her to hightail it out of there and back to the safety of her ship. Before she does so, however, an explosion robs Samus of her core abilities, and she also stumbles across one of the game’s main antagonists, Meta Ridley, who flies away to the surface of the planet Tallon IV.
Subheading: The Discovery of Phazon
Samus lands on the surface of Tallon IV and begins to explore its various biomes, including the Chozo Ruins, Magmoor Caverns, Phendrana Drifts, and Phazon Mines. But hold up – what’s Phazon? Great question. See, during Samus’ journey across Tallon IV, she discovers that the Chozo race had once inhabited the planet. Unfortunately, a meteor carrying the deadly Phazon substance poisoned the Chozo and wiped them out. Meanwhile, the Space Pirates have been conducting experiments with Phazon and even brought a bunch of Metroids along with them – those cheeky so-and-so’s. In a remarkable stroke of luck, Samus stumbles across upgrades littered throughout Tallon IV that drastically strengthen her abilities. She defeats Meta Ridley and travels into the meteor’s Impact Crater. Once in there, she discovers mutated creatures — primarily Metroids — that became horrendously changed as a result of the Phazon. Eventually, she comes face-to-face with the game’s final boss: a huge monstrosity called ‘Metroid Prime’. She engages in a ferocious fight that reveals Prime’s true form. After discovering that she can utilize pools of pure Phazon as a source of energy, Samus defeats Metroid Prime by going all Super Saiyan and entering ‘Hypermode’.
As it’s dying, Metroid Prime absorbs Samus’ Phazon Suit; an enhancement that she obtained after an earlier battle with an Omega Pirate. Samus reverts back to her Gravity Suit and sprints back to her ship as the Impact Crater collapses, purging Tallon IV of the deadly Phazon. As Samus escapes, however, it’s revealed that a small pool of Phazon survived. Within, a black hand resembling Samus’ emerges, and the game ends.
Metroid Prime: Hunters (DS)
The Galactic Federation receives a mysterious telepathic message alluding to something known as the ‘Ultimate Power’ within an area called the Alimbic Cluster. So, naturally, Samus is sent to find out what’s what, but the problem is that a group of similar bounty hunters from other factions also come along for the ride. These bounty hunters are Weavel, Trace, Kanden, Spire, Noxus, and Sylux. It’s the latter we’re most interested in here, however, since Sylux is presumably going to be a major antagonist in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond after its appearance in the debut trailer. Sylux is a formidable foe who, for reasons unknown, harbors an intense hatred for both the Galactic Federation and Samus. After its appearance in Hunters, Sylux crops up again at the end of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and the end of Metroid Prime: Federation Force.
Back to Hunters, though. Samus sets off to prevent the ‘Ultimate Power’ from falling into the wrong hands and, along the way, she discovers the history behind the Alimbic race. It turns out that they were made extinct by a creature known as Gorea. When Samus and the other bounty hunters discover a weapon called the Alimbic Cannon, they open up an other-dimensional structure called the Oubliette. It turns out that this thing kept Gorea locked away, but the creature had sent the original telepathic message out as a ruse to lead to its eventual escape. Samus witnesses all the other bounty hunters fall against Gorea, with their signature abilities absorbed by the creature. After an intense battle, Samus defeats Gorea and effectively saves the bounty hunters, but this supposedly does nothing to alleviate Sylux’s hatred toward her.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube, Wii)
Samus is sent to Aether, yet another mysterious planet, after the Galactic Federation loses contact with Squad Bravo. When approaching the planet, we see that it’s constantly shifting in color, and it turns out that this does absolutely no favors for Samus either, whose ship gets caught in storm clouds and is struck by lightning. She manages to land safely regardless (well, about as safely as you can by crashing through a roof).
It’s not long before Samus encounters an unnerving doppelganger known as Dark Samus. (Spoiler alert, this is the same thing we saw right at the end of the first game, so it’s in essence the titular Metroid Prime itself, albeit in a form closely resembling Samus.)
Samus eventually finds herself hurtling through a portal into Dark Aether, a parallel world that plays host to a lethal race called the Ing. She is attacked, but she just about manages to escape, albeit while losing the majority of her abilities. Samus soon becomes aware of another race known as the Luminoth (which bears a slight visual resemblance to the Chozo) and, after encountering its leader, U-Mos, learns that a meteoric collision caused a dimensional split on the planet of Aether. She works with U-Mos to make her way into the Sky Temple, Dark Aether’s parallel to the Great Temple. There, she confronts and defeats the Emperor Ing, thus effectively completing her mission and initiating the destruction of Dark Aether.
However, that nasty scamp Dark Samus prevents Samus from escaping back to Aether, and it’s here that Samus learns of its true identity given that its face bears resemblance to the nuclei of the Metroid race. Samus and Dark Samus face off, with the former emerging victorious. Samus escapes just as Dark Aether collapses, and upon her return to Aether, she witnesses the revival of the Luminoth race. However, as she makes her way off the planet in her ship, the once-disintegrated remains of Dark Samus begin to reform.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
Samus, alongside three other bounty hunters called Gandrayda, Ghor, and Rundas, are called upon by the Galactic Federation to repair organic supercomputers called Aurora Units. However, those ruddy Space Pirates attack a nearby planet called Norion and so the bounty hunters are forced to launch a counter-offensive. During the attack, Meta Ridley — the goon we supposedly beat during the first game — makes its return and attacks Samus. Rundas saves our bounty hunter as Meta Ridley plummets to its apparent death (ha, yeah right). It’s then that the team discovers a Phazon-laced meteor called a Leviathan hurtling toward the planet. As they race to activate a defense mechanism, none other than Dark Samus returns with a vengeance. Dark Samus renders all bounty hunters bar Samus unconscious, with the latter able to activate the defense laser just in the nick of time, which destroys the Leviathan.
Around one month later, we learn that Samus is slowly being corrupted by Phazon, and so the Federation bestows upon her a new suit that will allow her to control the Phazon (to a certain extent). She learns that the other bounty hunters had previously departed to planets where Leviathan activity was observed, but the Federation had since lost contact with them. Samus departs to prevent more Leviathans from causing a massive ruckus, but in doing so, she has to face off against her once-friendly bounty hunter pals, who are now corrupted by Phazon to the point of becoming enemies. She eventually winds up on the Space Pirate Homeworld, which is heavily infected by Phazon. Here, Samus once again encounters Ridley, but the creature is now enhanced by Phazon and thus known as Omega Ridley (much like the original Omega Pirate in the first game). Samus defeats Omega Ridley, however, because of course she does.
Finally, Samus heads to the planet Phaaze, which is discovered to be the origin point of the Phazon and the Leviathans. Once she arrives, she begins absorbing dangerous amounts of Phazon, but is able to alleviate the effects by locking herself into a permanent Hypermode. She eventually discovers Dark Samus yet again, who proceeds to fuse with a stolen Aurora Unit linked with Phaaze’s core. And so kicks off the climactic battle between Samus and Dark Samus, with the former emerging victorious, purging the Phazon within her own body and causing Phaaze to self-destruct. She manages to escape and spares a moment to remember her fallen comrades. After venturing off into the depths of space, we see a mysterious gunship follow Samus. Sylux is back.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS)
Federation Force doesn’t star Samus, but rather a team of Federation soldiers bolstered by mechanical suits based on Samus’ Power Suit. After the events of Corruption, the destruction of Phaaze and subsequent eradication of Phazon greatly weakened the Space Pirates, and so the Federation Force commences a mission to wipe them out entirely. Samus is hired to effectively gather information for the Federation Force and discovers a huge battleship known as Doomseye, controlled by an entity known as Master Brain. The Force loses contact with Samus and later discovers that she was taken captive by the Space Pirates, who force her to fight against the Federation Force. She is defeated and subsequently buried under rubble, but when the Federation Force confronts Master Brain, Samus returns to assist and she proves to be pivotal in the eventual defeat of Master Brain. After completion of the game, Sylux is seen infiltrating the Galactic Federation to locate a Metroid Egg. The egg hatches into a Metroid Infant as Sylux looks on. This small nugget of information may be crucial in understanding why Sylux is flanked by Metroids in the Prime 4 trailer, though it’s also believed that these creatures could be ‘Mochtroids’, creatures that originated as part of the Space Pirate’s plan to clone the Metroids.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to play every Metroid Prime game to understand Metroid Prime 4: Beyond? This remains to be seen, though we suspect that given the amount of time since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Nintendo will want the fourth mainline game to be as approachable as possible. Corruption tied up a lot of loose threads quite nicely, so there’s a good opportunity with Beyond to introduce a completely new plot untethered from the previous games’ narrative. You won’t need to have played the previous games, but you’ll obviously have a better appreciation of the narrative if you do.
Will Dark Samus show up in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond? Possibly. After all, Metroid Prime itself is a primary antagonist, so it makes sense that a fourth game in the series would feature the creature in some form. Whether it shows up in the guise of Dark Samus is up in the air right now, but it would be cool to see it again.
Will the Phazon play a role in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond? Honestly, we think the whole Phazon plotline is done at this point. Even if Metroid Prime returns, we suspect it won’t be reliant on Phazon at all. The destruction of the planet Phaaze in Corruption effectively rendered the Phazon extinct, so we’d be very surprised to see it come back. Having said that, there are rumblings that Beyond could deal with time travel, so who knows?
Should I play the previous games to understand Sylux’s role? Honestly, no. Everything you need to know about Sylux is either in this article, or in our previous article going over the character in detail. Its role in Hunters is pretty significant, but its appearances in Corruption and Federation Force are little more than short cameos.
So there you have it, folks. Hopefully you’ll feel relatively caught up with the story of Metroid Prime so far, but if you have any further questions, then do let us know and we’ll do our very best to answer them.
