Metroid Prime is making a comeback in more ways than one this year, but it seems another delay has surfaced. In this particular case, we're actually referring to Piggyback's art book 'Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective'.
This book, developed in collaboration with Nintendo and Retro Studios, was originally scheduled to launch in Summer 2025 and then narrowed down the date to 24th June 2025, but has now been pushed back to 28th October 2025. Pre-orders have also gone live since our last update.
When this art book eventually releases, Metroid fans can look forward to a 212-page visual retrospective that goes behind the scenes on the series' development including a foreword by Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe.
This book will retail for £39.99 / €44.99 and you can find out more about it in our previous coverage on Nintendo Life.
As for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, it's currently set to arrive at some point in 2025, with Nintendo also recently revealing a Switch 2 version which will enhance the experience and also add some additional features like mouse control.
Would you be interested in a book like this? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 13
Oh, boy. Can't wait to see all the cool art of Metroid.
'Opens book'
Who the heck is this lady?
Hey a picture book, heck yes because I can't read.
It will probably end up like the hyrule historia I have somewhere in my home, I flipped through it once and never touched it again.
And there you have your release date.
@Erigen That lady is named Mother Brain, smh she's in the manual. There's also a backstory for the cool robot man.
I love that art and guide books (guide books in particular) are coming back in print. I am sure there is some cool artwork for Samus and her armor.
Unfortunate that it got delayed, but what matters the most is that it's still coming - happy for those going for it (me included at some point)!
Shame there’s not much text (from what I can tell). I much prefer a book that has lots of lovely artwork AND lots of text to read, talking about the art, the artists, the development of the games or whatever.
There is a really good art book for Fighting Fantasy gamebooks called Magic Realms which gets the mix spot on in my opinion. There are loads of full page, full colour pieces of artwork, as well as multiple pages containing lots of smaller illustrations, but crucially it also has pages of text talking about the artists themselves, their background, how they got the commissions, them talking about specific artworks, the books themselves etc. It makes it a much more appealing book and it lasts longer too.
Other good examples are the Visual Compendiums or Box Art collection books from Bitmap Books. They have loads of lovely artwork, pixel art, scans of book art etc, but again there is a fair amount of text to read about it all as well.
Although I usually enjoy Piggyback's works and love Metroid Prime, I fail to see any reasons to get this book. I mean, it looks cool but there's nothing more.
@GravyThief
From the pre-order page:
Includes a foreword by Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe
Comes with exclusive Retro Studios-penned introductions to each game
Dozens of producer‘s notes offer commentaries, insights, and anecdotes on the featured artwork
So it's really not like it's just a picture book with nothing to read.
@VVLV_Music yeah I read that. It only sounds like it will be a few pages of text at best, not enough for me to be interested in it anyway.
I wonder if this is a sign for game release timing so like September for Prime 2+3 and then 2026 for Prime 4.
@TanukiSan7x A late October release date for MP4 makes a lot of sense.
Oh damn I forgot about this. Going to pre-order mine now.
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