Miyamoto’s “bug head” Samus question led to the visor system in the Metroid Prime series

This comes from the developer’s voice interview with the developers of the Metroid Prime series over at Retro…

“Mike Wikan likes to tell a story about Mr. Miyamoto asking us during the early design phases of Prime 1, ‘What would it be like if Samus had a bug’s head?'” – Brian Walker, Senior Producer

“And at the time, I remember going back to our office and saying, ‘Switching heads? What does that have to do with Metroid?'” – Mike Wikan, Senior Designer

“He wasn’t asking if she had the head of a fly…” – Walker

“…He was talking about the mechanic of altered perception as a whole.” – Wikan

“And from that, the visor system came to be, where Samus could see different things with different visors and use that as a puzzle-solving element.” – Walker