New icons for Nintendo Switch Online users are now available. If you player Metroid II: Return of Samus or Metroid: Zero Mission this month, you’ll get to unlock icons for the respective games!
Here’s the full list of icons:
Metroid II: Return of Samus
Samus Aran
Samus Aran (boxart)
Queen Metroid
Gunship
Screw Attack in item form
Metroid: Zero Mission
Samus Aran
Zero Suit Samus (crawling in a vent)
Ghost of the Chozodia Ruins trial
Mecha Ridley
Mother Brain
Each icon costs 10 Platinum Points, and the full collection is 100 Platinum Points in total. Playing the games is required, and they both give you 50 Platinum Points, which will give you enough points for the collection!
In the final month of 2025, we have one more feature to share, but we’ll be taking a break from working on future Shinesparkers content until January so we can enjoy Metroid Prime 4. We hope you all enjoy it, and avoid spoilers!
Four years ago, we put together a special video to commemorate the release of Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch. Members of the community shared photographs of their newly acquired game and merchandise. The response was overwhelming, and for the release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, we would love to try this again!
We are asking Metroid fans to contribute to a new video Shinesparkers are producing, and to capture the moment they received their new game and products in an effort to preserve it for the future, so people can look back and see what happened on the day Metroid Prime 4 was released. We would love to include as many entries as we possibly can from all parts of the world! It’s also our aim to share the video with Nintendo and Retro Studios in an effort to show fan support for its release!
Examples of what you can share could include the following:
Photographs of your new game, special edition, amiibo, and other promotional items purchased on the day of release, even your digital products.
Video footage (No more than 30 seconds) of the moment you collect your video game, or an unboxing)
Video footage (No more than 30 seconds) sharing a personal message of how much the release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and the Metroid series means to you.
Fans should email Shinesparkers before December 15th 2025 and provide one or more of the following, along with their Bluesky or other social media username so they can be credited in the video:
Photograph of their Metroid Prime 4-related products (Special, standard editions, any merchandise, all within one image) as an attachment
A link to some clear video footage (Uploaded to Google Drive, one file, no more than 30 seconds long) with no effects added.
A short message in text of around around 20-30 words with a message to include within our video.
Please note: All of this will be compiled into a single video and uploaded to our YouTube channel at a later date, and shared via social media using the #SamusIsBack hashtag. We may not be able to include everyone if we become inundated with entries, but we will try to include as many as possible! We reserve the right to make changes and edits to content shared to fit within our scope of the video.
Here’s an example of a previous video we put together to mark the release of Metroid Dread!
Some retailers have reportedly broken the street date for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. We advice anyone that cares about spoilers to log out of social media! For YouTube, there exists extensions for all kinds of browsers that let you block certain channels without having to find them on the recommended page.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond releases in less than a week. We hope you get to experience it unspoiled.
Nintendo have finally unveiled what the three amiibo do in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Although their gameplay benefits were previously shared at the end of the Overview Trailer, Nintendo have expanded on what you get from each one.
By tapping the Samus amiibo, you can change the background music while riding Vi-O-La in Sol Valley. Once a day, you can activate a shield that will block up to 99 units of damage by tapping the amiibo, and this also fully restores Samus’s energy.
By tapping the Samus & Vi-O-La amiibo, you can change the bike’s color scheme. Once per day, tapping the amiibo increases the regeneration rate of Vi-O-La’s boost energy. Every time you tap the amiibo, you can see the total distance you’ve traveled with the bike.
By tapping the Sylux amiibo, you can see the full versions of cutscenes shown throughout the game once you’ve completed it. However, if you don’t have the amiibo, you can still see these cutscenes by collecting 100% of items and scans. Notably, every time you tap Sylux’s amiibo, you’ll hear a random line from him. Does this mean he’ll speak?
As for what previous Metroid amiibo do when tapped, a random sound will play.
Have you got either of the Samus amiibo? Will you get Sylux’s? Let us know!
A new commercial for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has been shared by Nintendo on YouTube, on the channel for their South Africa Distributor. The commercial shows an office employee (played by British actor Sam Rees-Baylis) playing the game at work during his 1pm break. He demonstrates Beyond’s Mouse Controls on a handheld Switch 2 as he fights Aberax, before looking at the clock and returning to work. Once he’s home at 7pm, he resumes playing, this time fighting Carvex and several Jungle Grievers, collecting a Psychic Ability and solving one of the psychic puzzles. At the end of the commercial, Beyond’s release date of December 4 is reiterated, and its quality modes are highlighted.
Although this ad has been shared on the South African YouTube channel, it is possible the commercial will air elsewhere in Europe online or on TV, since the main actor is British. Let us know if you see it anywhere else!
Several Reddit users have reported that a demo of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is now playable at Nintendo Switch 2 kiosks in Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers. It has a 20 minute time limit, and showcases the opening sequence of the Tanamaar invasion that we are all familiar with by now.
If you’re in America and able to get to a store to try it out, let us know how you liked Beyond! For the rest of us, we’ll have to wait one more week.
Recently, Nintendo of Japan released two new commercials for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Notably, one of them features potential spoilers: never-before-seen footage of Samus with the Galactic Federation troopers, including an encounter with Sylux! The same ad has narration from Samus’s perspective, voiced by an unknown actress. Our translator Darts has graciously translated the narration of both commercials into English, which we’ve transcribed below. Thank you Darts!
Become Samus, and fight.
With mouse controls, find your target and strike the enemy.
Return home alive.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.
I was transported to this place alone.
Or so I thought.
5 soldiers were also dragged into this.
Together with these comrades sharing the same fate, I will escape from this planet.
If you’re in North America, My Nintendo has announced a new Metroid Prime Legacy Sweepstakes! By spending 10 points, you could win a copy of Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective and the Gravity Suit PVC Statue from First 4 Figures. You can spend up to 50 points for a maximum of 5 entries into the contest.
The sweepstakes ends at 3am Toronto time on February 17, 2026 and is open to residents of the United States and Canada (except in Quebec) who are 13 and older. 5 winners will be chosen at random.
