During last month's Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo showed off the Vi-O-La motorcycle in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. However, fans have been wondering how it would actually work in the game. Thankfully, a new article published on Nintendo Japan's website provides detailed specifics about how the Vi-O-La vehicle is used.
Samus acquires a motorbike called the "Vi-O-La" that is equipped with advanced features. By riding Vi-O-La, you can quickly travel across the vast expanse of the unknown planet, Byrus. Additionally, you can use special actions while aboard to fight enemies and destroy ores scattered across the ground as you make your way through uncharted territory:
Boost
Temporarily boosts your speed, knocking enemies back and shattering ore.
Power Slide
By using the "power slide" technique, which involves sliding Vi-O-La sideways while boosting, you can blow away a wide range of enemies, ores, and other objects.
Projectile
You can fire projectiles that track targets. The projectiles can lock on to up to five enemies at once, and after attacking the enemies, they return like a boomerang.
You can summon Vi-O-La whenever you're in an available area in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Dismounting Vi-O-La will return you to Samus' perspective and allow you to resume your exploration.
It sounds like the vehicle won't be available just everywhere, thus reassuring those fans who worried about it trivializing the traversal experience in the game.
As a reminder, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally has a release date: December 4, 2025. It will be available on both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. The latter version will offer better visuals, 4K@60FPS or 1080p@120FPS presets, and even optional mouse-like controls with the Joy-Con 2 controllers.
Based on his hands-on experience earlier this year, Wccftech's Nathan Birch reckons this will be a sound new entry in the sci-fi franchise, if perhaps not too revolutionary.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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