Metroid Interview

The Metroid series is one of those franchises that has a ravenous and loyal fanbase, but doesn't always have the best of luck. It's been in something of a slump lately, with the middling Metroid Prime: Federation Force being something of an anticlimactic comeback after 2010's Metroid: Other M. Still, it's difficult to dispute that many of the games in Metroid's past were generation defining games, and the developers of the debut entry recently reflected on their experiences.

Nintendo's been hosting a series of developer interviews in the wake of the NES Mini launch, and this week's edition was with Yoshio Sakamoto and Hiroji Kiyotake. Interestingly enough, Metroid wasn't directly begun by Sakamoto – as many would believe – but it was the work of Kiyotake and another unnamed employee. The two worked on the game for close to ten months, having virtually no experience developing video games aside from a couple Game & Watch projects. After this initial period, the rest of Nintendo R&D 1 joined the project and it became what it was today.

Another interesting point was the origin of Samus' name. Kiyotake was the one who named her, and as a massive fan of soccer, he chose to named her after one of his favorite players. The player's name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but Kiyotake thought it was Samus Arantes Nascimentos, and the rest is history.

You can find the rest of the interview here; it's full of fascinating insights about the origins of Metroid and there's plenty of (laughs).

What do you think? How has the original Metroid held up after thirty years? Have you gotten the best ending? Drop us a comment in the section below.

[source nintendo.com]