MercurySteam was fortunate enough to work with Konami on the Castlevania series, which saw Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate crack a whip on Nintendo 3DS. And now, they have had the chance to closely collaborate with Nintendo on Metroid: Samus Returns.
That rare opportunity hasn’t been lost on MercurySteam co-owner Enric Alvarez who has spoken about working with Nintendo, a process that was “extremely demanding” but has, ultimately, allowed them to become “a better developer.”
“It is an incredible achievement for a Spanish studio,” Alvarez admitted to GamesIndustry.biz.
“Nintendo is a one-of-a-kind publisher that make one-of-a-kind games. They’re special. They are unique. They care about games. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that after two years, 80 or 90 percent of all the conversations we’ve had were about stuff that gamers care about. Only the remaining 10 or 20 percent were about business or usual publishing stuff. That ratio is unique to Nintendo.
“When you deal with them at a close distance, you understand why they are who they are. I’m not going to lie to you; they are extremely demanding. They require the very best constantly, all the time, and beyond. But it’s been a great experience.
“We’ve worked in the past with other publishers, with Codemasters, with Konami, and they were very different experiences. We had a great experience with Konami, but Nintendo is another thing. There are many, many Nintendo fans who don’t like any other games except for their games. Now I fully understand why that is.
“It has been a pleasure, we have learnt a lot. Honestly, they have made us a better developer.”
Metroid: Samus Returns will release exclusively for Nintendo 3DS worldwide on September 15th.
