Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Revives Sylux and Tanabe’s Time Travel Vision

A decade ago, at E3 2015, Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe floated one of his most intriguing ideas: a Metroid Prime game built around time travel. Back then the Nintendo Switch was still just a codename, NX, and the notion of a single planet explored through different eras sounded almost like a sci-fi thought experiment.

Now, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond set to arrive this December, fans are realizing that Tanabe’s old vision may finally be taking shape.

Tanabe told Eurogamer at the time, “Instead of broadening it to more planets I would have one and would focus on the timeline, and being able to change that.” His reference to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was deliberate, since that entry experimented with a dual-world system where players moved between light and dark versions of the same landscape. The concept was divisive – some found it challenging, others thrilling – but it clearly left an impression on him. A time-shifting mechanic could take that experiment even further, letting Samus change history itself.

Fast forward to today: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond brings back not only Tanabe’s time-travel tease but also bounty hunter Sylux, a rival many casual fans barely remember. First introduced in the Nintendo DS spin-off Metroid Prime Hunters, Sylux had been lurking in the background for years. In fact, Tanabe himself confirmed way back that the mysterious ship seen in the cliffhanger ending of Metroid Prime 3 belonged to Sylux, hinting at a future confrontation with Samus. That long-promised duel finally takes center stage in Prime 4, with Sylux even getting the spotlight treatment of an amiibo figurine.

And then there’s the logo. Fans quickly latched on to the black hole design framing the game’s title, speculating that it might symbolize some kind of time dilation or rift through which Samus could travel. Supposedly leaked box art adds fuel to the fire, claiming that Samus finds herself stranded on the planet Viewros after being pulled through space and time. Whether that’s authentic or just wishful thinking, the chatter is deafening: time travel may finally be here.

The fan community hasn’t been shy about drawing parallels. Some compare the possible mechanic to Echoes’ Dark Aether, imagining portals not just to mirrored dimensions but to past and future versions of the same environment. Others joke about Samus needing to hit a certain speed on her new motorbike to “go back to the future,” complete with DeLorean vibes. What unites all these voices is excitement – after years of waiting, speculation is no longer idle daydreaming but grounded in trailers, art leaks, and interviews.

It helps that the most recent Nintendo Direct offered more than a teaser: it delivered a firm release date and the reveal of Samus’ open-world motorbike. While some fans grumbled that the footage didn’t look as groundbreaking as they had hoped, others pointed out that visuals have never been the heart of Metroid Prime. The thrill lies in atmosphere, exploration, and clever mechanics – and a fully integrated time-travel system could redefine those elements in ways the series has never dared.

Of course, there are still caveats. The official release date is December 4, 2025 – not December 7th, as some outlets mistakenly circulated. And there’s the hardware question: with the Switch successor looming, some fans wonder whether to upgrade or stick with their original consoles. For those who never played Tears of the Kingdom or Metroid Prime Remastered, there’s plenty to catch up on before Samus’ next journey begins.

Looking back, it’s striking how many threads Tanabe seeded in that 2015 conversation that are now flowering in Prime 4: the focus on Sylux, the single-planet setting, and above all the possibility of bending time itself. Fans half-jokingly call it “Metroid Prime: Ocarina of Time,” imagining a world where every puzzle and every battle shifts depending on the era. Whether or not it truly lives up to that label, one thing is certain: anticipation has never been higher. After ten years of waiting, players finally feel like the clock is about to strike.

So here we are, less than three months away from the long-awaited release. Nintendo has set the table, Tanabe’s old ideas are resurfacing, and Samus stands ready to step into both the past and the future. December can’t come soon enough – unless, of course, we could time travel to it ourselves.