As reported by Nintendo Everything, Samus is featured in one of the eShop gift cards. The gift card for Samus is valued at $150, though in our hearts she is obviously valued infinitely more than that!
The main render of Samus as she appears in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is used for the eShop gift card, and it is only available digitally for the time being.
Source: Nintendo Everything
We’ve updated In Search of Samus, a feature written by yours truly in 2023 after an extensive investigation into Samus’s actresses. Today’s update adds five unknown actors and both of Samus’s new actresses from Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – Erin Yvette, the new voice of Samus, and Krystle Martin, who provided motion capture for her. The unknown actors appeared in a 1989 Toys “R” Us commercial, the North American Metroid: Zero Mission commercial, and a commercial for Beyond that was dubbed into Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese.
If you have any leads on who these actors are, and/or who played Samus in the Japanese NES Metroid commercial, Super Metroid commercial, or her child self in the Metroid: Other M commercial, please get in touch with us!
Now that April 2026 has rolled around, we have prepared a roundup of the Metroid news we had in March. See below:
March 17 – Super Metroid added to the Nintendo Music app
March 17 – Dread and Prime Remastered on ‘Handheld Mode Boost’
We published one new feature in February, a recap of our #OperationMetroidPrime4 campaign from late 2025. On YouTube, we shared an extended cut of the live-action Super Metroid commercial, and an updated voice comparison video for Samus that features her new effort sounds in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and voiceover from her perspective in Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese commercials.
We’ll have more content to share in April and throughout the rest of 2026, so keep your eyes peeled for that! As always, we’ll see you next mission.
The new system version 22.0.0 has released for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, and for NS2 players, it is now possible to display original Switch games in Handheld Mode as if it was docked! This is possible via the ‘Handheld Mode Boost’ feature, which you can find in System Settings => System => Nintendo Switch Software Handling. It is not enabled by default.
This mode does not affect Nintendo Switch 2 versions of games, so the best way to experience Prime 4: Beyond on handheld mode would be through the NS2 version.
We have gathered screenshots from the Nintendo Switch 2 system in handheld mode, both with and without the ‘Handheld Mode Boost’ enabled.
Due to the nature of how we acquired these images, there may be some unavoidable compression, and the differences are likely more pronounced when you play for yourself. That being said, we believe that this news post will be helpful for you to decide if you should play on ‘Handheld Mode Boost’ or not!
On Switch 2, both Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime Remastered runs perfectly without any frame drops or adjustments to the resolution. Since that is the case, we will only judge the visual improvements!
This is a bit subjective. While we can say Dread looks nicer in most cases, the differences probably aren’t big enough to warrant the ‘Handheld Mode Boost’ feature.
The gist of it is that cutscenes and close-ups of Samus and the environment look better, while the main part of the game is more or less identical. Samus has gotten a blurrier look, however, which could hurt her visibility. This mode might affect battery times negatively, so based on current observations, we’d say it’s generally not worth it for Metroid Dread sadly!
Metroid Prime Remastered on the other hand… It’s a bigger difference. The helmet and arm cannon looks sharper. The textures look clearer, particularly the UI and visor graphics. The Thermal Visor isn’t as blurry as it usually does in handheld mode.
If you are playing the games on docked mode, nothing has changed, but at least for Metroid Prime Remastered, we think this new ‘Handheld Mode Boost’ feature has improved the experience of playing Metroid on the go.
Source: Nintendo
Super Metroid just got added to the Nintendo Music service! It is an app available for Nintendo Switch Online users.
The album contains 28 tracks, adding up to 1 hour and 2 minutes of music! The list of available tracks will be written below. Tracks that can be extended will be written in bold:
The soundtracks of Metroid (NES & Famicom versions) and Metroid Prime (Gamecube) can be listened to as well, since they were included with the release of the application. Metroid II: Return of Samus and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Special Release) are also available!
Source: Nintendo Music
Now that March 2026 has rolled around, we have prepared a roundup of the Metroid news we had in February. See below:
February 3 – Nintendo earnings report suggests Metroid Prime 4 has sold under 1 million (UPDATED)
February 18 – Community survey asks how you’d improve Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
We published one new feature in February, a concept for a Classic Metroid Collection on Nintendo Switch 2, and Episode 34 of our podcast, a spoilercast for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
We’ll have more content to share in March and throughout the rest of 2026, so keep your eyes peeled for that! As always, we’ll see you next mission.
Since Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was released in December 2025, some fans have expressed disappointment with aspects of the game. Now, Alta Count, a member of the Metroid community, has started a survey to gauge what players would want to see from a potential update to Metroid Prime 4. This could include quality of life improvements, changes to the Green Energy Crystal hunt, or reduced or increased difficulty settings. If you have some thoughts on how to polish Metroid Prime 4, have your say in the survey at the link below! The results will be shared on February 24.
Please note that your responses are completely anonymous. Alta Count is not collecting email addresses or other contact information in exchange for filling in the poll.
Click here to fill in the survey
UPDATE: The poll results can now be viewed here.
Our first podcast episode of 2026 is a spoilercast for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Amanda, Roy and Irene share their feelings on the game’s characters, gameplay, atmosphere and story, and where they think the Metroid Prime franchise could go next. Additionally, Amanda reads listener reviews of Metroid Prime 4 from the mailbag.
Be warned that there are spoilers for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, so if you have not completed the game yet, please consider waiting to listen to this episode until you have.
Podcast is hosted by Amanda, with team members Roy and Irene.
The drawing of Samus and Armstrong mentioned in this episode: https://x.com/KAJiRAkreations/status/2003506636070277282
The Stranger Things video with Jessica Martin mentioned in this episode (she appears starting at 2:26): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICYhaTbyQrQ
00:00 – Introductions
00:40 – Topic: Our thoughts on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
41:44 – Mailbag
48:48 – Bloopers
