While this week’s Nintendo Direct was full of surprises, perhaps the biggest was finally getting a release date for Metroid Prime 4 and, more importantly, our first real look at the gameplay seven years after it was first announced. It was enough to send some fans in meltdown and it’s with equal parts relief and excitement to know that the long-awaited sequel is finally coming in 2025.
But once the dust settled, some parts of the internet started asking the question: Was Metroid Prime 4 running on Switch 2? The release date certainly lines up with everything we know about the Switch successor, and there are moments in the trailer where it seems like a step up from what we saw on the original Switch hardware. Of course, Nintendo would never come out and say what the demo was running on, so IGN sought the advice of the next best thing: the tech experts at Digital foundry.
Digital Foundry has been analyzing video game performance at an unprecedented level for years and recently released a dive deep into what we can expect from Nintendo’s next generation of hardwareso it’s better placed than anyone to provide reliable insight into Metroid Prime 4’s gameplay reveal.
So, did Metroid Prime 4 run on Switch 2?
Digital Foundry technology editor Richard Leadbetter gave us the definitive answer: “It looks great and there are some nice effects in there that we took a closer look at, but ultimately all evidence points to this game being on the original Switch turns. The internal display resolution is 900p, which is the same as Metroid Prime Remastered. And as good as it is, there are some aliasing issues and even some very minor frame rate drops. Everything about the visual makeup is consistent with a really well-made Switch game, with Retro having an excellent track record. I imagine the development studio is very happy that people are connecting to Switch 2, you know.”
So while many were convinced that our first look at a Switch 2 game was in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the truth is that it will likely run on existing hardware. While that’s disappointing to some, it’s also not surprising; I expect Nintendo to pull out all the stops when the Switch successor is finally revealed, rather than dropping our first look at the end of an (admittedly surprising) Nintendo Direct.
That said, developer Retro Studios is to be congratulated, because making a game look this good using technology that’s over seven years old is no small feat, and Leadbetter explains how Retro was able to achieve this: “There’s a few things, but ultimately it is the skill of the developer working on a fixed platform that he has learned over a long period of time. That singular focus makes great things possible. Another great example is Halo 4 on Xbox 360 – at the end of a console’s life cycle you see the hardware being pushed in ways you never imagined before.”
Another reason why the gameplay demo could look so good is because it could be representative of what the final game will look like and not exactly how it will turn out. It’s certainly not uncommon for this to be the case with early looks at games, and it’s not the first time Nintendo has done something similar, as Leadbetter reveals: “Nintendo has released a number of trailers that looked better than the final games. There is the now legendary ‘Too big for switch‘ trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and a trailer for Bayonetta 3 which ran consistently at 60fps, where the last game certainly doesn’t. However, in this case, with this developer and a game that has been in development for so long, the instinct is to say this is Switch 1 and representative of the actual console experience. If it were on Switch 2, we’d expect anti-aliasing via DLSS – there’s none in this trailer at all – and a higher output resolution, for starters.”
While all evidence points to Metroid Prime 4’s gameplay running on original Switch hardware, given its 2025 release, there’s no doubt it will eventually make it to the Switch 2. Indeed, cross-gen games have long been part of every new console cycle. for years and it would make sense for Retro to develop an improved version of Metroid Prime 4 for when Switch 2 finally releases. That begs the question: what improvements can we expect over Metroid Prime 4 on the original Switch? We can only theorize at this point, but Leadbetter has his thoughts: “It’s a tricky issue, because it’s as much about Nintendo’s cross-gen strategy as it is about the capabilities of the hardware. One thing that always stands out when running Switch games on PC emulators is how scalable the artwork is. The quality of the art itself benefits greatly from higher resolutions, while the gameplay benefits from higher frame rates. At the very least, I would expect any remaining performance gaps to be ironed out while running at a higher resolution, possibly supplemented with DLSS. If there are any noticeable load times, you would expect them to be shorter as Switch 2 has faster storage plus a hardware decompression block to lighten the load on the CPU.”
Of course, faster loading times and improved visuals are common for cross-gen games running on more powerful hardware, but personally I’m still excited about it – not just for Metroid Prime 4, but for Nintendo’s other back catalog as well. I would buy a Switch 2 in a heartbeat if enhanced versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were released, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
But we don’t know at this point what Nintendo’s approach will be with Switch 2. Many are hoping for backwards compatibility, myself included, but what about cross-gen games running on Switch 2? “The question is whether Nintendo will go for ‘easy wins’ such as higher resolutions, higher precision effects and so on, as we have seen before on Sony and Microsoft consoles,” says Leadbetter. “Or will it expand on the Switch 2’s features and push for more groundbreaking effects. After all, it supports ray tracing.”
If Nintendo’s past has taught us anything, it’s that it doesn’t like to follow in the footsteps of others, so I hope Nintendo pulls out all the stops with Switch 2.
Alex Simmons is IGN’s features director.