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Nintendo Fans Treat Metroid Prime 4 As 'Final Mission' And Say Goodbye To Their Switches

Some are wondering if Samus’ next adventure might do their old systems in

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Mario mourns the Switch.
Image: Nintendo / Kotaku

With a new Nintendo console looming over 2025, the Switch is in its twilight year. It looks like it’s going to have a pretty great send-off, but it’s always bittersweet leaving an old system behind for the next new thing. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will likely be one of the last big games Nintendo puts out for the Switch. Fans are considering the first-person action-adventure game to be the console’s “final mission,” and are paying tribute to the nearly eight-year-old device in the only way the internet knows how: shitposts.

The trend originated with a tweet by @Mlickles, which reads “8 year old nintendo switches are going to be running prime 4 like it’s their final mission.” Indeed, a lot of late-generation games put day-one hardware through the wringer. My launch-day PlayStation 4 sounded like it was about to take off into space when I played The Last of Us Part II. The Switch isn’t a loud device, so it’s more likely the thing could run hot while playing Metroid than sound like a handheld jet engine. But Nintendo fans have taken the idea and run with it.

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Not every response was darkly comedic. Some were more wholesome, like they’d be saying goodbye to an old friend after one final game together.

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Hopefully, Switches will be able to run Metroid Prime 4: Beyond just fine, but the system has been known to run hot on intense games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Not to mention the trouble the Switch has just generally dealing with overheating issues because the world is on fire and temperatures are rising.

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is launching in 2025, but was almost definitely playing on an original Switch in the footage. Nintendo also showed a lot of games coming out between now and then at its June Nintendo Direct.

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