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.
https://t.co/g6nCDBsPYg pic.twitter.com/UzRaNJxZRE
— Mlick (@Mlickles) June 18, 2024
My 2017 switch when Samus fires her canon https://t.co/d2qp0fFbgO pic.twitter.com/YyXtVtrFGd
— Stargazer (@HeWhoGazes) June 18, 2024
Looking at my Nintendo Switch after beating Metroid Prime 4. https://t.co/Pb1RL8NbMb pic.twitter.com/LPYXk6fEJa
— ArbiterSkyward (@ArbiterSkyward) June 18, 2024
Launch Switches gonna be hearing this as those last sections load up: https://t.co/MyU3P9DpSo pic.twitter.com/0ajxTEQC2h
— M.o.D (@Master_Of__Dark) June 18, 2024
8 year old Switches when they boot up Prime 4 https://t.co/VcS00Saj8W pic.twitter.com/AGJGMXiGoa
— -Inari- (@ReaperInari0) June 19, 2024
A small bug waltzing inside a 8 Year Old Switch playing Prime 4 pic.twitter.com/e7pB5HyGsK
— Dunno (@ZetaDunno) June 18, 2024
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.
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1803088237109399949
Goodbye to my Nintendo Switch after beating Metroid Prime 4. pic.twitter.com/OJtaIiIzGD
— Vikas (@thunderxstorm07) June 18, 2024
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1803109257312870868
my 8 year old switch starting prime 4 pic.twitter.com/SehRnMJpl3
— Espion 🕵️🍉 (@MrEspion7) June 18, 2024
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
