Nowadays, that twist probably wouldn’t fly, but in 1986, this was groundbreaking and novel. In fact, the original Metroid game ended with Samus taking her helmet off, revealing you were playing as a woman the whole time (gasp).

It wouldn’t be the first time a Metroid game surprised us with some sort of big character reveal. Or perhaps you play as a “good” clone of Samus sent by the Galactic Federation Army. Better yet, the big twist could be something like we get in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… where the villain and hero are essentially the same characters reincarnated. It’s possible Nintendo could revisit this general idea in the next Prime game.īut with Samus as the villain, who would you play as? What if you could take on the role of another bounty hunter whose goal is to defeat Samus? This would be a switcheroo on the same level as Metal Gear Solid 2, subverting expectations and putting us into the shoes of another protagonist. There’s obviously also Dark Samus and SA-X, both of which are evil doppelgängers of the character. But in this game, space pirates temporarily turn Samus into the villain by using mind control. It’s one of the worst games in the series, so many players skipped it. Interestingly, Nintendo toyed with this idea briefly in Metroid Prime: Federation Force.

So what if that Metroid power overtakes Samus, turning her into the antagonist in Prime 4 at a point in time after the events of Dread? That’s right, she not only has Metroid DNA in her body, but she is a Metroid. Metroid Dread ends with Samus unleashing her true Metroid powers. This would be an unexpected twist, but could certainly make sense. With that in mind, it’s perfectly reasonable that Prime 4 could take place after the events of Dread, which is the newest game in the timeline.

A lot happens between those two points, and since it’s unclear when Prime 4 will actually take place, we can’t assume it will pick up right after the events of the third Prime game. The Prime series canonically takes place shortly after the very first Metroid game, but before the second mainline installment, Metroid II: Return of Samus. At the end of Dread, Samus’ Metroid powers come through with full force.

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