Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective is set to release on October 28th. Some sites have been able to get review copies and are starting to share interesting notes from series producer Kensuke Tanabe that he wrote for the book. Here are some of the juiciest bits from the Visual Retrospective, per IGN and Polygon:
Nintendo and Retro Studios often clashed on Metroid Prime’s design. Since their relationship was based on rank, Nintendo retained the final say on decisions. While Retro approached development from a Western perspective, Tanabe had to try and help them understand Nintendo’s philosophy and how it informed his experience, asking them to trust him. One video conference about the Meta Ridley battle began one morning and ended at sunset, with Nintendo and Retro unable to come to an agreement on it.
Shigeru Miyamoto, who was a producer of the Prime series, believes that enemies should be designed based on functionality, a philosophy that he has taught to multiple Nintendo developers. Retro had to be convinced of this. That said, there were also times where Retro won in disagreements. They were able to implement Morph Ball rolling in third-person with a transition animation, and half-pipe puzzles. Retro wanted to add an ability to skip the transition, but Miyamoto nixed this since it was one of the few opportunities in Prime to see Samus in third-person. Nintendo was skeptical about the half-pipes, and relented when Retro asked them to try a prototype, which won them over. The visor system was Nintendo’s idea, and the base Power Suit was Retro’s.
Metroid Prime 2 and 3 were not planned from the beginning of the original Metroid Prime’s development. It was only after Tanabe saw the storyboard for the Secret Ending with Dark Samus’s “birth” that he proposed Retro turn it into a trilogy. Tanabe mentions the original concept for Metroid Prime 3, which involved bounty hunting missions, an idea that has been discussed in interviews, such as our own with Jack Mathews. This idea was turned down since it was not innovative.
Tanabe and his team at Nintendo had been assigned away from Retro Studios in 2014. In the spring of 2018, he and Retro Studios were asked to remaster Metroid Prime. As a direct result of their work on that, Nintendo granted them the opportunity to take over the restarted development of Metroid Prime 4. The book does not give insight into whether Metroid Prime 2 or 3 may also be remastered.
Our own review of the Visual Retrospective is coming very soon. Watch this space.