Metroid Prime 4: Beyond launches December 4, 2025, on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. The game adds a Lamorn-designed motorbike called the Vi-O-La and Samus Aran’s new psychic abilities to the series’ signature exploration and combat systems.[1][2]
Vi-O-La Motorcycle Overview
Samus can summon the Vi-O-La within designated open-zone areas on the planet Viewros. Summoning shifts the camera to a third-person view behind the bike; dismounting returns immediately to first-person for detailed exploration.[3][4][5][6][7]
Core Motorcycle Functions
The Vi-O-La integrates traversal with offense through three key actions:
- Boost: A short speed surge that knocks back small enemies and shatters ore deposits.[4][5][3]
- Power Slide: While boosting, Samus can slide laterally to scatter larger foes and obstacles.[6][8]
- Homing Projectile: Fires an energy shot locking onto up to five targets before returning like a boomerang for long-range crowd control.[9][10][3]
These abilities enable rapid movement across plains, dunes, and caverns while engaging or bypassing threats.[11][12]
Lamorn Technology and Psychic Synergy
The Vi-O-La traces its design to the Lamorn, an extinct spacefaring race native to Viewros. Their technology fuses mining, combat, and navigation into a single platform. Samus’s psychic powers, revealed in the October Nintendo Direct, let her adjust projectile trajectories, activate ancient mechanisms remotely, and manipulate environmental devices. Together, bike abilities and psychic skills support dynamic sequences: boost across chasms, power-slide through debris, then dismount to use telekinesis on machinery.[7][8][13][14][15][16][3][4][6]
Maintaining Metroid’s Exploration Focus
Motorcycle segments are confined to specific zones to preserve the series’ measured pace and puzzle-driven exploration elsewhere on Viewros. Outside these areas, players rely on Samus’s suit upgrades and on-foot traversal.[5][12][3]
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond combines high-speed traversal with strategic combat and psychic finesse, delivering a fresh yet faithful Metroid experience.
