Metroid Prime 4 has a secret gameplay element that the Japanese box just spoiled

There may be a reason why the trailers for Metroid Prime 4 have been so lacklustre, as an entirely new aspect of the game is accidentally revealed.

It has been a long wait for Metroid Prime 4, with its predecessor on the Wii being 18 years ago now and the game itself having first been announced in 2017. Development was famously restarted from scratch in 2019 and now finally it’s scheduled for release on Switch 1 and 2, on December 4 this year.

What we played of the game in April was great, but it was a very small demo, featuring elements from the first trailer, and in gameplay terms not very different from the previous titles, even if the new mouse controls were neat.

There’s been concern from many fans that, while they assume the game will be good, the trailers so far have been underwhelming and poorly made. There may be a reason for that though, as the game seems to be hiding a secret feature, one that may be considered a spoiler – so read on at your peril.

Not only have fans been complaining that the Metroid Prime 4 trailers are poorly constructed, but they’ve been very vague as to what the story is and who the main villains are. Sylux has been featured prominently, but since his only major appearance was in multiplayer game Metroid Prime: Hunters it’s not clear what that implies.

It seems these problems may be an attempt by Nintendo to hide the fact that the game features time travel as a key element of the story and gameplay.

Officially, this has never been hinted at before but images of the Japanese box for the game have surfaced online and it mentions it prominently.

Some of the text is obscured but it seems to state: ‘Having been transported across space and time to the unknown planet Viewros, Samus must [carve a] path with her newfound powers in order to return to her original world.’

The initial trailer, and the playable demo we experienced, take place on a research centre on the planet Tanamaar. However, the planet Viewros seems to be where the majority of the game will take place.

During the demo, an artefact Samus is supposed to be protecting gets damaged and it may be this which causes the timey-wimey problems, although where Viewros comes into it isn’t clear.

So far, the only thing Nintendo has highlighted is new ‘psychic’ powers for Samus, which is not something she’s previously had. Whether that includes time manipulation abilities though, isn’t mentioned by the box description.

Metroid Prime 4 was only featured briefly in the recent Nintendo Direct and it’s widely assumed it will get its own dedicated Direct at a later date, although given the game’s not out until December it might be a while until that happens.

The recent Direct suddenly revealed an open world element, and a motorbike for Samus to use when traversing it, so it’s entirely possible that there are other important aspects that haven’t been mentioned yet… like time travel.

However, whether this is a gimmick limited to the new planet of Viewros, or something that’s going to be altering established Metroid lore, also remains to be seen.

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