Retro Studios News, Retro Studios Features

Counting down the days

Are you dying to know what Retro Studios is working on right now? Well you won't have to wait much longer, because Nintendo's Hiro Yamada has told Official Nintendo Magazine that the company will be lifting the lid on the new Wii U title soon. Retro moved to larger offices last year, presumably to enlarge its workforce for...

And has it been working on a Mega Man game?

Back in 2008, a group of staff from Retro Studios broke away to form Armature, with the promise of creating games for platforms other than those made by Nintendo. However, in four years the company has only produced one product: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on the PlayStation Vita. Although the...

Scaling up for Wii U development?

Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns developer Retro Studios has moved to a larger premises, hinting that the company is expanding to handle significant support for Nintendo's Wii U console. According to n1ntendo.nl, the move was very hush-hush, and no press release was issued to mark t

Could be a long wait

We all wanted Nintendo to show what Retro Studios is working on, but we saw nothing of its mysterious project during yesterday's E3 conference. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has assured fans the developer is hard at work, but we probably won't get to see it for quite a while. Speaking to IGN, Fils-Aime said:...

Told you so

In our big Wii U E3 rumour round-up yesterday we gave our reasons why the rumoured Metroid and Star Fox crossover game wasn't going to happen. And guess what? It isn't happening. Originator of the rumour Paul Gale Network has revealed the game is not in development at Retro Studios and therefore will not be shown off at E3 next week...

It's an E3 rumour, prepare the salt

With E3 now only one month away we should prepare ourselves for plenty of rumours, some genuine and well-sourced and others that are more questionable. Today we give you — Retro Studios preparing a Wii U reveal of Star Fox at next month's video game industry spectacular. We'd class this rumour as one that's...

Zelda Prime?

Retro Studios has a pretty incredible development record: having developed Metroid Prime Trilogy and Donkey Kong Country Returns there's understandable excitement about what other Nintendo franchises the Texan studio can turn its magic hand to next. How about The Legend of Zelda? Shigeru Miyamoto spoke to 1Up about Retro's involvement...

Life before Metroid

Before there was Metroid Prime, Retro Studios hadn't had a bona fide hit, and several of the studio's games were cancelled before seeing the light of day. One such title was this unnamed American football game, recently featured by prominent site Unseen64. The animation shown below is undoubtedly impressive, particularly considering this game was intended for release on..

Simple in theory, anything but in practice

Nintendo has a brand image that's as solid as a rock, so what does it take for an independant studio to get backing from the company and the opportunity to develop games based on its IPs for its consoles? Retro Studios president Michael Kelbaugh highlights a few qualities needed to do just that. During a Gamasutra interview, Kelbaugh spoke about how Retro..

And relax

Ready for another batch of Wii 2/"Project Café" rumours? Of course you are. The latest round comes from Gameolosophy — no, us neither — who have gone all-out with claims of fan-favourite developers, third-party loving, storage solutions and more. The most interesting nugget of a rumour hidden at the bottom of the story is that Retro Studios is already working on a game for..

Who doesn't?

We reported recently that Retro Studios thinks like Nintendo, so it shouldn't be any surprise that Nintendo is keen to find more developers on the same wavelength. Speaking to Edge magazine, Nintendo's US liaison Kensuke Tanabe stressed the importance of fostering stronger relationships with Western developers, in addition to Nintendo's world-renowned Japanese teams: I work with other..

Two companies "share a vision"

While many of us would love to work 10,000km away from your boss, when you're creating new instalments in some of Nintendo's best-loved series, it's not ideal. That's the situation at Texas-based Retro Studios, but after years of working with Nintendo's Japanese headquarters the developer has learnt a valuable skill: how to think like Nintendo. Edge issue 227 will..

Then throw a barrel maybe

The art style in Donkey Kong Country Returns is pitch-perfect, showing respect to the gorilla's history and containing countless tiny references to his previous outings as well as other Retro Studios titles. The concept art that went into producing this unique art style is every bit as impressive as you'd expect, particularly the radically different design for DK himself;..

Retro Studios in the hot seat

Donkey Kong Country Returns developer Retro Studios recently sat down with Nintendo top man Satoru Iwata to discuss the game's development and the difficulties of long-distance relationships. The Texas-based studio spoke of the inherent troubles of 5am teleconferences with Japanese producer Risa Tabata, who often would be bright and energetic much to the team's..

Ape escapade

It's not long until Donkey Kong Country Returns bashes its way into the paths of Wii owners, riding their hearts like a minecart through a cave filled with nostalgic memories. This new trailer should help to stir up recollections of those 16-bit glory days, filled as it is with 2D platforming capers, catchy music and the series' trademark spirit. North America rolls out the barrel for..

Like the Force, only more monkey-like

Remember the controversial Super Guide from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2? If not, it's one of Nintendo's newest software features to keep gamers interested by allowing them to proceed past difficult parts of stages if they lose too many lives there. Whether you liked it or not it's here to...

And plenty of other madness too, in fact

Two gorillas walking on a whale, hopping on hippos and riding a rocket barrel: it's all here in this new trailer for Donkey Kong Country Returns. Retro Studio's upcoming revival is looking pretty sweet, and it's not long until gamers can tussle with the apes: Donkey Kong returns on November 21st in North America, and slaps Europe about on December 3rd. You..

Maybe he's finally coming back to kick some tail

Most famous for its Metroid Prime series of course, Retro Studios has been rather quiet since completing work on Samus's first person odyssey, with nary a snifter of information slipping from its Texan headquarters. Here's an intriguing rumour courtesy of IGN, however: the studio is working on bringing Donkey Kong back to Wii. Although the ape has..

Comparison confuses design director

Outside of the gaming media, videogames rarely find much airspace, and at times suffer large-scale ‘video nasty’ shock stories. However, when ABC News ran a favourable webcast, comparing Metroid Prime Trilogy to Orson Welles' renowned cinematic classic Citizen Kane, Mark Pacini, the series' design director, was shocked by the report. I found out about it..