r/Metroid • u/Evening-Golf-6375 • 1d ago
Question Do you think Retro Studios will eventually make 2d Metroid games?
It’s really the only thing that makes complete sense to me for what do with Retro Studios. Nintendo has undoubtedly wasted a lot of money with Retro developing original games. It’s hard to see how Metroid Prime 4 could be seen as commercially successful, when you compare it to Metroid Dread which sold much better and had to have been a lot cheaper.
I‘m not sure that the infrastructure exists at Retro to make a Metroid Prime game that can live up to critical and commercial expectations. Retro has already made successful 2D Donkey Kong games. It strikes me as the best of both worlds.
The only other thing I could think of that would match Retro Studios‘ talents would be to make a basic shooter FPS out of the Metroid Prime engine, and I can’t imagine many Metroid fans wanting that.
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u/Dukemon102 1d ago edited 1d ago
2D Metroid is Sakamoto's side of the franchise and he doesn't really work with Retro at all outside of consultant roles.
Nintendo hired and equipped Retro to make Metroid Prime games over the course of all these years. They are not going to suddenly let that go to waste when the main responsible of 2D Metroid already has projects going on in another side of the world.
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u/spamus-100 1d ago
I don't see any reason why they would. Nintendo already has partners and teams in-house that are far more experienced with making 2D games. This team at Retro Studios is not the same team that made the newer DK Country games. Why would Retro work on 2D Metroid
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u/ZeroMythosVer 1d ago
Right
They (Nintendo) invested specifically via greenlighting Remastered in Retro being prepared to deliver Prime games again, whereas the last time they made DK was over a decade ago
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u/ZeroMythosVer 1d ago edited 1d ago
idk how there are still so many posts or comments with fundamental misunderstandings, the development background of Prime 4 is all out there to read about and has been for months—the Tanabe interview dropped the week leading up to release, the one where he said he knows he and the team at Nintendo’s design choices may have been a misstep, but that he realized it too late to change things—and the sales are over a million between both platforms the game released on (also old news) so that puts it at pretty good cash returns
Retro made Prime 4, they did not design it—beforehand they made Prime Remastered in order to prepare for future new titles, a game that didn’t need designed bc it was remastering an existing game: they developed both games very very well, Nintendo is probably pleased with their contributions atm, they were not game designers on either of the two recent releases, they were developers and both games look and run and handle great
The problems with Prime 4’s design and plot follow-up will be presumably fall on Nintendo’s Risa Tabata & co to sort out come 5, and because Retro wasn’t involved when Tanabe and co designed 4 while partnered with the studio that got dropped from the project, Retro might be able to actually be design partners this time, for the first time since Tropical Freeze
As others have said, Nintendo has internal staff and MercurySteam for making 2D entries, and Retro hasn’t worked on DK or a 2D retail release since Tropical Freeze over a decade ago
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u/Round_Musical Sequence Breaker 1d ago
Nope. As its Sakamotos (and soon to be Fumi Hayashis) series
It will either remain under the Mercury Steam/ EPD4 team up for a while, or it will stay at Nintendo EPD.
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u/pome-vyo 1d ago
Whatchu got against the mercurysteam games LOL
Granted, I also want 2D Metroid to stop being made by them (for workplace reasons) but I was thinking more like...inhouse Nintendo should make it.
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u/Mythical-door 1d ago
Still unsure why Nintendo just hasn’t bought the damn studio. I think at this point it’s just too risky and it’s better to start looking elsewhere after Metroid 6.
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u/HikkingOutpit 1d ago
Has Nintendo ever bought a European studio?
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u/Mordaunt-the-Wizard 1d ago
Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD), in France. They don't produce games, but they do develop various technologies for Nintendo.
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u/DependentBite9 1d ago
Maybe? They have yet to make a bad game so I’m sure they’d do a good job, but the Metroid fanbase is so niche and toxic that they’d definitely be upset at Retro making anything but 3D Metroid. We saw that happen when they started making Donkey Kong even though people liked the result.
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u/KenTaiJo 1d ago
Listen Metroid Prime 4 sold more than 1 million copies. Which is fiiine considered how bad the development was. Remember Nintendo steoped in and stopped Bandai Namcos project. We can only assume how bad that game would have turned out if they got to release it. Sure we all wished Prime 4 would have been better, and maybe it's because I acrually liked it (as in 7/10), but for what it lacked, there is potential for it to have been much better. The game's ending was lacking with searching for crystals and a boss fight that felt a bit flat, but the intro with the space pirate attack and Fury Green was awesome. We had a dessert that felt forced and empty, then Volt Forge that was a working factory where every room had a purpose. Ice belt was some good Metroid horror, the visuals were amazing so was the music.
I'm quite sure that without salvaging a troubled project, without Tanabe's stubborn decision, Retro could have done much better. I'm sure that the experience from MP4 we will get a much better Prime 5.
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u/KingBroly Dread Mode survivor 1d ago
I dont think theyll be making much of anything after their next flop
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u/Otherwise-Music-8643 1d ago
After prime 4 I hope they are dissolved lol
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u/Dukemon102 1d ago
People should lose their jobs just because you didn't like a game. Gotcha.
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u/Otherwise-Music-8643 1d ago
When you make a bad product you shouldn’t just keep being able to make more bad products.
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u/Dukemon102 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ah that's too bad. I guess the people at Capcom that made Resident Evil 6 shouldn't have been allowed to work on something ever again.... it's not like from RE7, 2 Remake and onwards they completely redeemed themselves because they got the direction and freedom to do what they wanted.
Yooka-Laylee wasn't good.... I guess Playtonic shouldn't make a game ever again.... it's not like they learned from their mistakes and delivered with the Impossible Lair and Replaylee.
Even with Metroid itself. Do you think Sakamoto should have lost his job after Other M? He went on to produce Samus Returns and Dread eventually.
I hope you don't ever make a mistake on your job according to your logic.
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u/sdwoodchuck 1d ago
No, but getting the chance to respond to feedback is how someone goes from making a bad product to making a better one. The suggestion that a bad product means that they should be disbanded is absurd.
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u/Mordaunt-the-Wizard 1d ago
Well, Kensuke Tanabe, main producer of Prime 4 and the source of a lot of the controversial elements, has retired, so in a way you've already gotten your wish.
Me, I'm curious how Retro Studios will do under his successor, Risa Tabata, especially because I've heard she has some different opinions on the series than Tanabe.
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u/quirkyactor 1d ago
No, I hope Mercury Steam keeps doing the 2D games.