Retro Studios

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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More: interview, Kensuke Tanabe, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Next Level Games, Retro Studios, top

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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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Screenshots, Wii U | 0 comments

The art above comes from Retro Studios artist Eric Kozlowsky. You can find information about each of the images here. There’s more to come, apparently!

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments

In news that is far from shocking, Retro Studios’ next game will probably have enemies and bosses. Of course, this should be hardly surprising given the company’s previous titles.

Retro Studios put up a job listing earlier today for an AI engineer, who “develops, writes and debugs code for video game software and tools with a specific focus on AI programming for enemies & bosses and various other game-play systems as required.”

So yes, expect enemies and bosses in Retro Studios’ next game, whatever it may be.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

Ken Lobb, now the creative director at Microsoft Studios, once played a prominent role at Nintendo and worked on several games. This includes Metroid Prime – a title that, at the time, stirred up some controversy for turning the franchise into a first-person adventure.

Lobb spoke about the initial fan resistance surrounding Metroid Prime as part of an interview with EDGE this month. He said:

The fight, in the pre-internet world, was that we were getting a lot of pressure from fans. Nowadays, you’d be buried under Twitter, NeoGAF — both of which I love, by the way — but those voices are even louder today than they were back then. It comes back to a lesson I learned a long time ago: always listen to your customer, but also understand that if you do focus testing what you’re going to hear is, “I want that thing you did last time, because that was awesome.” Every once in a while, you have to learn to not listen to that and go, “Actually, Metroid in firstperson we think could make more sense.” Great creatives are going to disrupt their earlier designs and make things that are new, or build completely new games or new genres.

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More: interview, Ken Lobb, Killer Instinct, Metroid Prime, Retro Studios