Metroid devs on creating the original game – being different from Mario, choosing Samus’ name and gender, more

The final entry in Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition interview series has gone live. The last one highlights the original Metroid, with director Yoshio Sakamoto and character designer Hiroji Kiyotake participating.

During the interview, there was talk about how the team set up to make something different from Super Mario Bros., and focused on movement. We also hear about how Samus Aran got her name and how the team decided to make her female.

Head past the break for the full interview.

Helping out at Department Stores

Sakamoto-san, it was your second year at Nintendo in 1983 when the Famicom system was released.

Sakamoto: Yes.

As a young employee, what did you think of the Famicom?

Sakamoto: One time, I had the chance to go observe a developing partner’s factory and that was when I saw the molded article for the first time.

A Famicom before its release?

Sakamoto: Yes. The Famicom before mass production. Someone from that company expressed thanks to Nintendo, but I didn’t know what that person was talking about. (laughs) I was in Research & Development Department 1, which wasn’t directly involved with development of the Famicom, so I didn’t know much about it.

Even though you were a Nintendo employee. (laughs)

Sakamoto: Yeah. (laughs) I only learned about the release of the Famicom after some time had passed, so I was a little late in becoming aware of it.

Kiyotake-san, the Famicom came out the year you entered the company.

Kiyotake: That’s right. I was in Research & Development Department 1, which was mainly working on Game & Watch (1), but I joined the company right when the Famicom went on sale, so I went to a department store during the Christmas season.

1. Game & Watch: A line of handheld game devices with LCD screens, each of which contained one game. The first game was released in 1980, and the line went on to sell a total of 43.4 million devices worldwide.

Sakamoto: To lend sales support. (laughs)

Kiyotake: Yeah—at retailers. (laughs) And when I went to the department store, the Famicom was selling well and even selling out. Then I would recommend other companies’ products! (laughs)

Even as a Nintendo employee?! (laughs)

Kiyotake: Uh-huh. (laughs)

Sakamoto: I went to lend support, too.

Oh, really.

Sakamoto: I was told that I should and that it would be a learning experience, so I went to help out at a certain department store in the Kansai region, and all I remember is people asking for discounts. Someone said, “I took a train from far away to buy this, so if I do, throw in a couple free games.” (laughs)

(laughs)

Sakamoto: So I’m not sure if I really learned anything by going to help out at retailers! (laughs)

What Super Mario Bros. Doesn’t Have

Today’s topic is Metroid. Congratulations on its 30th anniversary!

Sakamoto: Thank you. Has it really been that long?

Kiyotake: 30 years have passed, huh?

Metroid was originally released for the Family Computer Disk System (2). How did you come to develop this game?

2. Family Computer Disk System: A peripheral product for the Famicom system released in February 1986. The floppy disks used with the system had greater memory than ROM cartridges, allowing players to save game data.

Sakamoto: Development began with just Kiyotake-san and another new employee. My boss at the time was Gunpei Yokoi (3)—whom I mentioned in our discussion about Balloon Fight—and he believed that if you can draw, you can make games.

3. Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997): During his time at Nintendo, Yokoi-san worked on game devices such as Game & Watch and Game Boy, and he was an integral figure in development of such products as Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) and Dr. Mario.

And you left development to these two new designers?

Sakamoto: Yes. But while they had both made Game & Watch titles, they didn’t have any experience developing video games for a television.

Kiyotake-san, did you feel like saying “Don’t be ridiculous!”

Kiyotake: No, but maybe that was only because we had no clue what development of a video game would be like. Besides, we were told to throw it together any old way, so we didn’t sweat it. (laughs)

You worked at your own pace.

Kiyotake: Right. And we knew guidance would come in at the end, so we felt like we’d be fine as long as what we had begun making didn’t get canned.

Ah, so what did you two new employees have in mind as you began making the game?

Kiyotake: As we were working, the Super Mario Bros. (4) boom hit. So we wanted to make something that had what Super Mario Bros. didn’t have.

4. Super Mario Bros.: A platform game released for the NES system. Originally released in Japan in September 1985.

What Super Mario Bros. didn’t have? Like what?

Kiyotake: As a simple example, you know how Mario slides a little before stopping?

Uh-huh…

Kiyotake: So we tried to make a dead halt.

You began with movement?

Kiyotake: Yes. We wanted to make actions that Mario didn’t have. And then…

Sakamoto: Aren’t you forgetting something important?

Kiyotake: Am I?

Sakamoto: Super Mario Bros. is about avoiding enemies.

If you touch one, you lose a turn.

Sakamoto: In response to that, Kiyotake was complaining, saying, “Why do we have to avoid them?!” (laughs)

(laughs)

Sakamoto: When you began making Metroid, you wanted a technique called a Screw Attack for doing a spinning jump to defeat enemies. Isn’t that right?

Kiyotake: Oh, that’s right! (laughs)

Bare-Bones Metroid

How long did it take for the two of you new employees to develop the game?

Kiyotake: Not quite ten months.

As you were working, could you see the end? Did you have a vision of its final form?

Kiyotake: Rather than worry about finishing up, we had never made a complete video game before, so we had absolutely no idea of the final product.

You didn’t have any experience with regard to how to polish up a game like that.

Kiyotake: None at all. At the time, we were just thinking about how we could make it an enjoyable game.

Sakamoto: I didn’t join development of Metroid until about the last three months. (laughs)

So for nearly ten months, two new employees worked on development, and you joined the team to polish it up in the last three months.

Sakamoto: I wasn’t the only one to join. Everyone in Research & Development Department 1 joined at the end.

Earlier, Kiyotake-san mentioned guidance coming in at the end, and that really happened—via mass mobilization of the department.

Sakamoto: That’s right. Everyone in Research & Development Department 1 contributed to Metroid in some way.

How far along was the game when you and the others joined?

Sakamoto: To be honest, it was hardly done at all! (laughs)

Oh… (laughs)

Sakamoto: Everywhere had the same backgrounds and you could only do the same things. The characters were moving, but the rest of the game design was mere bare bones.

At that point, was the Metroid aesthetic in place?

Sakamoto: Yes. It was dark, with a well-built player-character who hurls through enemies. That was all there.

What did you and the others work on?

Sakamoto: The first thing I worked on was the main character Samus’s movement.

Kiyotake: I had specialized in character design, so I had Samus moving in a variety of fine-tuned movements. But that ate up memory.

And if you then added backgrounds and sounds…

Kiyotake: It would never fit. So Samus’s movements got drastically reduced. (laughs)

Did you think, “No way! I spent almost ten months making those!”

Kiyotake: I was practically in tears, but everyone was helping out, so I didn’t mind them being reduced as long as we were able to complete Metroid.

Sakamoto: Then we added all sorts of things, like changing the color of the backgrounds so players could tell when they had progressed.

Kiyotake: Yeah, we did…

Sakamoto: But I can’t criticize Kiyotake-san and the other designer. They had jumped straight from Game & Watch into the world of software development for the Family Computer Disk System.

That’s like asking someone who has only driven a go-kart to drive a car.

Sakamoto: It was just like that! Yokoi-san had said, “If you can draw, you can make games,” to a couple newbies with no experience making video games, and they had done the best they could.