Sylux is the final boss of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and while I didn’t quite expect him to be the big bad, in hindsight it was kind of obvious. I mainly remembered him as one of the playable characters in the classic online multiplayer mode of Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo DS. But this time he actually feels like a canon character, and he’s definitely a threat to worry about.

Back in Metroid Prime Hunters, I didn’t really pay much attention to the story, so I had no idea he was technically a villain who hated the Galactic Federation. They expand on that here by revealing that he was once a Galactic Federation soldier who got caught up in some pretty sketchy events before eventually crossing paths with Samus Aran herself.

While you do fight two fake versions of Sylux earlier in the game, you don’t truly face the real one until the final boss battle at the top of the tower. Honestly, that was probably to be expected because getting home was never going to be that easy in a video game.

I’m glad I played on Easy Mode because this fight seems like it would be a nightmare on the harder difficulties. For one thing, you have CPU allies with their own health bars, and that usually spells trouble once you go above Normal difficulty because AI companions tend to become more of a liability than a help. Sylux is also roughly the same size as Samus, which ironically makes the battle more difficult than fighting a gigantic monster like Mother Brain or Kraid.

Sylux takes on some pretty crazy forms during this boss battle. Most of them revolve around the elemental powers you’ve acquired for your blasters, such as fire, ice, and electricity. Even without looking up a guide, it was fairly easy to figure out the right strategy for each phase.

At the end of the day, I thought he was a pretty decent final boss. What I didn’t like was that, even after you clearly defeat him, he survives and remains a threat. Samus’s friends stay behind so she can escape to safety, making it abundantly clear that Nintendo intends for Sylux to remain the main antagonist for future games, much like Metroid Prime itself was throughout the original trilogy.