Donkeykong

Stephen Dupree, who was credited as the lead designer on the wonderful Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, has reportedly returned to Retro Studios after two years away.

The news comes from VGC, who say that the ex-Retro employee will now return to work at the studio as a principal game designer. At present, the only title known to be in development at Retro Studios is the upcoming Metroid Prime 4; while it's possible that he'll therefore be a key figure for that project going forward, we can't rule out the possibility that Retro has other goodies in the works, too.

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Dupree's work doesn't stop at only Tropical Freeze. Recently, he had a hand in the development of Playful Corp's New Super Lucky's Tale on Switch, and he was also credited on both Donkey Kong Country Returns and Mario Kart 7 at Retro.

You might remember that in October last year, it was revealed that Halo series character modeller, Kyle Hefley, had also been snapped up by Retro. It would appear that the studio is working hard to add to its talented workforce as it chips away at Nintendo's latest shooter, which will no doubt come as a positive sign for fans who were left wondering what would come of the game after its development overhaul.

In our eyes, the game can't come soon enough.

[source videogameschronicle.com]