In celebration of Official Nintendo Magazines 100th issue, legendary producer, developer, and overall video game guru Shigeru Miyamoto discussed how Retro Studios are “a very capable studio” in regards to the inevitable next console Metroid.
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. 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.
To say there was a collective disappoint when Retro’s next game turned out to be Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and not a new entry into the Metroid universe would be a gross understatement.
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.
Considering the last console Metroid produced was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption back in 2007 on the Wii, we can optimistically hope a Wii U title is deep in development.