Retro StudiosNEW.jpg

Oh Retro Studios, how we miss you! Perhaps it's a sign of these impatient times - after all, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze only arrived in early 2014 - but it's felt like a particularly long silence from what's arguably Nintendo's most accomplished studio in the West. Prior to E3 this year a lot of talk was around what's next from Retro Studios and loyal Ninty partners Next Level Games, but only the latter's project was revealed in the form of Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which went down as well as King K. Rool showing up at DK's Birthday party.

So, what of Retro Studios? It may be helping out with other projects, as it has in the past, and following its anonymity at E3 thoughts drift to its own major project potentially shifting to the NX generation. Thoughts of Metroid Prime IV are naturally ever-present - though E3 offered very little encouragement - while we can never rule out a third Donkey Kong Country title from the studio to mimic Rare's home console trilogy. Or, of course, it could be something entirely different.

The happy news is that the studio is still hiring animators and graphics engineers, for example, as a weekend tweet highlighted.

https://twitter.com/jobsatnintendo/status/630507166835740676

A look at Nintendo's jobs site returns three results for Retro Studios, all posted in July - in addition to a Graphics Engineer the company's hiring a Tools Engineer and a Technical Animator; older jobs since filled were for a Character Artist and a Concept Artist.

Quite when the studio's next game will emerge is absolutely anyone's guess; we just hope it'll be worth the wait.