In a recent interview with Famitsu Magazine, Retro Studios was asked a litany of questions regarding Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’s development. It’s a rather fascinating read, but one of the key details revealed during the interview was about 4: Beyond’s placement in the Metroid timeline. While hardly the most important detail, it’s interesting where the dev team wound up.
I would say this maybe constitutes as a light spoiler, though it shouldn’t ruin the game for you to know ahead of time. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond reportedly takes place after Super Metroid, but before Metroid Fusion. This is the first Prime game to not be in its own kind of pocket universe where an entire series of events happens between two games.
The dev team said, “The setting is after Super Metroid and before Metroid Fusion. However, in this game, Samus has traveled through time and space and jumped into another dimension, so from now on, you won’t have to worry about the timeline.” The goal was for Retro to create an original setting so that lapsed fans and new ones alike could explore the game without worry. The team also wanted to put Samus somewhere that wouldn’t impact the narrative of the 2D games too much.
Like many Nintendo franchises, Metroid’s overall timeline is a bit convoluted due to the series beginning in an era where story consideration wasn’t a main priority. This has led to a somewhat winding overall plot where new games might be prequels to one entry, but sequels to others. Case in point, the Metroid Prime games. The original trilogy, its DS spinoff, and even the maligned 3DS game take place after Metroid 1, but before Metroid 2. Wild.
I guess for now, we finally have a definitive answer for when Metroid Prime 4: Beyond takes place. It will be interesting to see if any future Metroid games deal with that directly.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
