Retro Studios

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii | 38 Comments

Mark Pacini acted as director for Nintendo and Retro’s three Metroid Prime games. Then in 2008, he went on to co-found Armature Studio.

Pacini is now directing the Xbox One title ReCore – a game that actually takes a decent amount of inspiration from the Metroid Prime series. GamesBeat took a brief trip down memory lane with Pacini while interviewing him about his new game, and asked if he’s surprised by the longevity and how people still play the titles he made back with Retro.

He said in response:

“For sure. I was thankful to be part of the team that made those games. When we were making those, that was never one of our goals. We were just trying to make something cool. It was an unexpectedly great thing, that people started to do that. It’s awesome that people are still playing those games, but it’s a big surprise to us.”

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 58 Comments

Emily Rogers has returned with some new speculation about Retro Studios’ new project. As one would expect, this new title would be on NX.

Rogers wrote on Twitter a short while ago that the title in question isn’t Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, or Diddy Kong Racing 2. She adds that the project is planned for 2017.

Below are Rogers’ tweets:

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 44 Comments

Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe has long been associated with Retro Studios. While working with the company, Tanabe acted as producer (or co-producer) on all of its games – the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country titles. Now, however, the two sides “are allegedly no longer on good terms,” according to a report from Liam Robertson.

Here’s one excerpt from Robertson’s report:

“Last year, I was investigating Tanabe with regards to this. This involved speaking to a number of developers who had worked alongside him. The way in which they all described Tanabe’s directorial style was fascinating. Their words built up a portrait in my mind of a Gordon Ramsey esque figure who strived for perfection and berated anything short of it. It’s difficult for me to fully convey my impressions of him without explicitly detailing the anecdotes shared with me in confidence, which could compromise those involved; but I will try my best to elaborate.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 29 Comments

Metroid Prime maker Retro Studios has finally updated its website with a new design. You can see it for yourself here.

If you saw Retro’s site previously, you could tell that it was really in need of a makeover. Thankfully, this new one employs a more modern design, and a number of the individual pages have been updated.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 28 Comments

Retro Studios has worked on three Metroid games and two Donkey Kong Country titles. Could their next project be something entirely original? That’s what the latest speculation is pointing to.

Liam Robertson, who is known for digging up information about cancelled games as well as ones still in production, recently appeared on Gamnesia’s Nintendo podcast with some insight. According to him, Retro Studios tends to have three chances to pitch a project to Nintendo. If the concept isn’t greenlit after this, they’ll be assigned a project that NCL deems more likely to sell well.

Robertson went on to state in the podcast that Retro’s new game is something that they did indeed pitch. Pitches were submitted to Nintendo throughout 2014, one of which was eventually accepted by Nintendo.

Robertson ended with the following about Retro possibly working on an original IP:

“… And you were saying, ‘could it be an original property?’ I think, actually, the time is now for Retro to do an original property. They’ve done two established Nintendo franchises, they’ve done Metroid and Donkey Kong, and I think now is the time to let them take hold of the reins a bit more for themselves and do that. And I think if it is something that they pitched themselves, then that does make it more likely that they pitched something original.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 30 Comments

Believe it or not, interviews with Metroid Prime: Federation Force producer Kensuke Tanabe are still popping up. USgamer published its piece today. In this interview, Tanabe addressed topics pertaining to amiibo, the initial backlash, timeline, story, and even Retro Studios.

We’ve rounded up a number of excerpts below. For the full interview, head on over here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Nintendo developer Retro Studios published a statement about the passing of Satoru Iwata on its Twitter earlier today. This is what was shared by the company:

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii | 0 comments

Unseen64 recently updated its comprehensive article about the development of Metroid Prime. The site has plenty of details about what was cut and changed in the game, ranging from bosses to power-ups. There’s also information about various redesigns for Samus, the change from third-person to first-person perspective, and more.

Here’s one notable excerpt concerning a Kraid boss battle that was removed from Metroid Prime:

As mentioned above, Kraid was a part of the original plan for Metroid Prime. We understand that he was slated to be added to the last act, as he was cut towards the end of development. At the time, he had come a long way from the more traditional route that was first being considered.

In this 3D model by Gene Kohler, he was redone with a metal helmet, masking the majority of his face. Due to this feature, fans have taken to calling this infamous render ‘Meta Kraid’, although, in truth, no such title had been assigned.

Contrary to certain speculation, Kraid was, in fact, very early along when work on him ceased, as one ex Retro employee recounted:

“Kraid was really just some ideas and a first pass model. We were about to start work on him when he was cut. The overall idea was to have Kraid at one end of a large cavern, and some rickety platforms at the other end that Kraid could reach out to and tip over. He would also fire missiles at you from his belly ports. As I recall you would have to climb to the top and trigger something to collapse on him several times. There were probably other stages but I don’t remember them.”

Despite appearing in the Phazon Mines in Kohler’s image, it was never defined whereabouts in the game he would actually be encountered either. Speaking to MythicaHQ in 2004, he explained that Kraid’s absence was a casualty of time restrictions:

“I had completely finished modelling and texturing Kraid. The level that he was to be included in was well underway to being designed. There just was not enough development time remaining to fully implement all aspects of the scenario that were needed to pull off a highly polished\fun gaming experience… animations\effects\programming\etc. It was decided that Kraid was not imperative enough to the Metroid Prime project to run the risk of pushing up the release date in order to fit him in.”

Unseen64 also posted several clips of things such as cut creatures:

For plenty more on Metroid Prime’s development, head on over to Unseen64.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Images, Wii | 7 Comments

What you see above is an unused ad for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. A live action Samus model is featured in the shot. We don’t know why this one wasn’t used, sadly!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

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