Well supernatural forces haven't been entirely ruled out in the Metroid universe. We've had literal Chozo ghosts, and now Samus has psychic powers. Maybe Ridley could come back via his twisted soul lingering and being reborn into a brand new body. How? Not sure, but he's come back before. He even shed his own cybernetic implants in Prime 3 thanks to a creepy healing factor he developed.

Time travel is speculated for MP4, so no problem for Ripley to make an entrance. Also I fully expect those Metroids/Mochtroids to latch on Ripley and make him bat shit crazy.

You mean he wasn't before?

Then again, the Ridley we know and love to hate has been openly described through data logs as a vicious killing machine, and subsequent Metroid media have expanded on his personality to show he thrives on all the mass murder he's spread throughout the galaxy. He's like Thanos as a creepy space dragon.

Prime 4 does look nice on the Switch 2 and a lot better than the Switch 1 version though there is a feeling of disappoint with the Switch 2 version still being outdated due to just being an enhanced version of a Switch 1 game. Prime 1 was one of the best looking games ever when it released and Prime 3 released early in the Wii's life and looked great for that console so it's a shame the series has lost that aspect with this entry. In general I wish the leap over 3 was bigger considering that game is nearly 20 years old but I'm sure it'll still be a good game and hopefully it becomes the best selling game in the series by a significant margin.

At the end of the day, we have to remember that both Switch 1 and Switch 2 are handhelds at their core, and that comes with important technical limitations. You can't expect MP4 to become an industry standard in graphics and visual fidelity when the nature of its platform prevents it from catching up to current gen home consoles and PCs.

Within the limitations of the Switch 1, Metroid Prime 4 is easily one of, if not the best looking Switch game ever. 900/60fps and 640p/60fps on such a visually stunning game it's no small feat. Likewise, on Switch 2 they are pushing the base version as much as they humanly can: 4K/60FPS and 1080p/120FPS docked - 1080p/60 and 720p/120FPS handheld while showing better textures, lightning and shadows. All of this is very impressing for a handheld device.

Keep in mind that I mentioned Prime 3 as well since even though the Wii had weak hardware it was still a showcase for it. The Switch 2 pushing the base version that hard is really nice though it's still a shame to me that the next Prime game is a late release on an old system that has an enhanced version for the new one instead of it being an early title build from the ground up for the new one that really takes advantage of its capabilities. At least the huge install base of the Switch will help out sales a lot.

I think that, because this is apparently after Prime 3 but before Super Metroid, there's still a chance Ridley's gonna show up.

Crazy that they didn't put that intro ship sequence into the Switch 2 reveal. It's the first thing Nintendo have shown that truly looks like a visual generational leap from swicth, it's like they want to keep people's expectations & excitement as low as possible lol

*Super Missiles Otter right in the face*

Wouldn't be the first time. They've deliberately undersold many of their games with early trailers for around ten years by now. Then they release more trailers leading up to release and the games look better each time.