Miyamoto: Retro Studios “a very high priority” for next Metroid game

Shigeru Miyamoto Photo

Nintendo’s incomparable Shigeru Miyamoto has shared his belief that Retro Studios are “a very capable studio” that would be “a very high priority” as the potential team to once again take on the company’s currently dormant sci-fi action-adventure series.

Such discussion emerged within the pages of Official Nintendo Magazine, in which Miyamoto sat down to chat with the publication in helping to celebrate its 100th issue milestone.

“Retro is a very capable studio and can design a lot of different types of game and I know that because I produced Metroid Prime,” Miyamoto explained. “But when it did Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii, apparently it had a lot of fun making that title and from what I’ve heard it put in a request and said that it wanted to do a new Donkey Kong Country game on Wii U themselves.

“In particular the company built up quite a lot of knowhow in that specific style of gameplay and as a consequence felt that it could leverage that again in creating something new in that same style for Wii U.

“I think Retro has really come to a point at which it’s possible for it to have multiple lines running at the same time and having different projects in development. I totally think there are possibilities to see different projects from Retro in the future.”

Whilst Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze looks sublime, many were disheartened that Retro’s project didn’t turn out to be their return to the Metroid series. Although Miyamoto sees them as “a very high priority” to take on such project if Nintendo ever decided to see Samus back in action.

He continued, “Certainly the Metroid franchise is one that, when you talk about really bringing the world to life, we feel that Metroid and the characters established are really important for Nintendo. So important that they were included, obviously, in Nintendo Land.

“I definitely think it’s a franchise that we value and we certainly want to see what we can do with it in the future. And, obviously, Retro is a very high priority in terms of the potential team that would be considered for working on a Metroid game.”

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  1. I’m not really sure I want Retro doing another Metroid game. The only way I could see it working is if they go against fan expectation and NOT do something resembling the Prime series. If anything, they should go like Other M and have it be a third person action game with more focus and narrative and character.

  2. @ Aiddon: Focusing primarily on narrative and character is absolutely the wrong path for Metroid. Metroid defines one of the most gameplay-centric genres there is, the Metroidvania. It’s exploration incarnate, and Other M absolutely ruined that by toning down the emphasis on discovery (along with the fact that its writing was terrible – though even if it wasn’t it still wouldn’t be “Metroid”).

  3. Other M was not what i was expecting, the game is not perfect but i had a great time playing the game and i didn’t mind the story like most Metroid royalists.

    It’s stupid to beg Retro for another Prime game, hell why even a Metroid game at all? It’s time for Retro to come up with their own ip and prove us that they’re talented without Nintendo’s guidance.

    IF Retro gets to make another Metroid game it should be something fresh and new. Prime games are great but 3 is enough.

  4. The metroid prime series was phenomenally good. I would love another first/third person in the prime vain. I would also like to see Retro make their own ip. 🙂

  5. Metroid: Other M was bad and disappointing. The voice acting, dialogues and the perspective. PFFFF.

    They should either release another Prime game or.. a platform-like game, like the older Metroid games? That’d be awesome!

  6. I’ve looked at plenty of the comments on the internet, and I don’t think a lot of people have suggested this, it’s pretty much down to team ninja or retro. call it a crazy radical idea, but what if NINTENDO made the next Metroid game?? R&D1’s been disbanded and Gunpei is no longer with us but I mean they could get some of the Super Metroid team together and at least give it a shot. The prime games were good, but they were not the super Metroid successor I waited like 9 years for. Other M lacked the exploration, open world feel, and being set on an actual planet but it had the look and controls I had waited for for so long perfect, whereas Prime didn’t. I remember how disappointed I was when I found out Nintendo was passing Metroid on to another company to devote more time to a cel-shaded Zelda game (in all fairness I did like wind waker, but at the time, that was a low blow), and that it was going to be first person. Prime got the open world and exploration close, but even that wasn’t perfect. the sluggish speed, the lack of true, intentional sequence breaking tricks (scan dashes were no wall jumps or shine sparks, they were glitches, exploits), and the lack of imaginative enemies (give me draygon or kraid over a pile of rocks, and ridley over “meta” ridley any day, at least other m gave us a real purple/red ridley and the surprise inclusion of phantoon) didn’t quite cut it. combine the look and smooth controls of other m with the open world and exploration of the primes and super metroid, and have it made by the company that started this series, and maybe i’ll finally have the follow-up to my all time favorite game that I’ve waited almost twenty years for. I’m sure Nintendo is working on ANOTHER Zelda game and a new installment to each of their like 12 Mario subseries’, but i’ll wait. but I guess that’s just me, most people seem to find the primes way more flawless than I did.

  7. @Ryan I totally have to agree. I think other M was a heck of a lot closer to the Super Metroid experience than anything in the Prime series. Prime was awesome but it didn’t speak to me the way NES Metroid and Super Metroid did. I played Prime and sometimes I just wanted to explore and blow up a pile of enemies.

    I am one of the few people that actually enjoyed the story Other M / Fusion told me. Who doesn’t like growth in a character you grew up loving? Oh yeah… those darn FPS fanatics 😛

    I take Other M on it’s own merit and I find it to be really enjoyable.

  8. What I think is that retro should make the next game, keep the style and beam functions of prime but do it in third person. I loved other M even though the story was a little…*meh*… I would just love to see phazon return in another installment!

  9. I would love to see retro return to the franchise, they contributed to metroids finest hour by far! I’m a huge fan of the series and tbh other m is a great game, the gameplay style is very smooth and effective and the story was intriguing. A lot of people just listening to the moaners and just agree for no solid reason when in reality other m is very good. Maybe they could keep a similar gameplay style but make it longer, a huge final boss which other m lacked, and don’t worry so much about narrative. Metroid games trademark is that isolated atmosphere where it’s just you and an alien world to explore, so I think in terms of gameplay other m was on the right track but just needs to be tweaked here and there, and I believe retro are the right team for the job because they understand how metroid works 🙂

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