Nintendo and Retro Studios’ latest action-adventure game, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, allows players to change its open world’s background music, but only if they are in possession of the Samus Amiibo.
The latest entry in the Metroid Prime series features a sprawling new open zone called Sol Valley, a vast desert hub where players can spend long stretches cruising across the dunes on Samus’ bike, the Vi-O-La. While the area is visually appealing, it barely has any background music, relying on near silent ambient music. However, according to the official Japanese Nintendo website, there is a way to add proper music to your desert road trips in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, but only if you buy the new Samus amiibo.
When the Samus (Metroid Prime 4) amiibo is scanned, players unlock the ability to change the background music while riding Vi-O-La in Sol Valley. In other words, the only way to customize the soundtrack of the game’s largest traversal zone is to purchase a separate physical accessory.
This revelation has not gone over well with fans, many of whom find it baffling that an area the game expects players to traverse repeatedly is left largely silent by default. Even if the developers believe minimal ambiance suits the desert, locking the option to choose alternative background music behind a paywall feels rather odd, as it’s less about bonuses and more about withholding basic audio customization. That said, this isn’t the first time Nintendo has locked quality-of-life features behind amiibo.
The official Japanese Nintendo website site also confirms several additional features for each amiibo, such as changing Vi-O-La’s color, checking total mileage, improved boost recovery, and a daily shield that blocks up to 99 damage. But the background music customization stands out because it directly affects how players experience hours of open-world traversal.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2.
