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.
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.
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.
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.
.