New Metroid made Sakamoto cry

By Ellie Gibson Published 12 August, 2010

Iwata asks the dev team all about it.

The next instalment in the Metroid series is so emotionally charged it brought one of the game's creators to tears.

That's according to Nintendo's Ryuzi Kitaura, speaking in the latest Iwata Asks interview. He said producer Yoshio Sakamoto was left speechless the first time he saw storyboards for the cut-scenes in Metroid: Other M. "I thought there was no hope for me, I thought I should just go home there and then," Kitaura said.

"That wasn't it at all!" chuckled Sakamoto. "The truth is that I was so inspired I couldn't put it into words. I think anyone would become speechless if they were presented with storyboards that were so far beyond their wildest dreams.

"Kitaura-san's passion was really apparent in those storyboards. That's why I decided to ask him to be responsible for all production, not just for the cinematics, but doing production for gameplay parts too."

When it came to viewing the actual cut-scenes Sakamoto was even more moved, according to Kitaura. "He stood close to me, checking the monitors. When we'd shoot a particularly moving scene, I'd ask him 'How was that, Sakamoto-san?', but he'd be completely silent - again.

"I was really worried, thinking 'Oh no, he doesn't like it...' But then when I peeked at his face, his eyes were full of tears," Kitaura said. "Well, the cinematic did show Samus in tights."

In total Kitaura drew more than 300 storyboards featuring over 2000 images. It took him more than six months to get them all done.

You can find out whether it was worth the effort when Metroid: Other M is released for Wii on 3rd September. In the meantime, there are billions of videos over on the gamepage.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RealityCheque #1 2 years ago

    Samus in tights? Sold!

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    Man the fuck up Sakamoto. Jesus.
    Edited by matrim83 at 12/08/10 @ 09:28

  • ZizouFC #3 2 years ago

    Nice heading:

    "New Metroid made Sakamoto cry Wii"

  • Golgo #4 2 years ago

    'Man the fuck up'? Now that makes ME want to cry...

  • Dolly #5 2 years ago

    Metroid: Other M(ama's boy).

    Really got high hopes for this game though, as I love my metroids :)

  • The-Bodybuilder #6 2 years ago

    "He stood close to me, checking the monitors. When we'd shoot a particularly moving scene, I'd ask him 'How was that, Sakamoto-san?', but he'd be completely silent - again.

    "I was really worried, thinking 'Oh no, he doesn't like it...' But then when I peeked at his face, his eyes were full of tears,"

    "METROID: HENTAI" CONFIRMED!
    Edited by The-Bodybuilder at 12/08/10 @ 09:49

  • mattparselle #7 2 years ago

    It made me cry, when I read the previews saying how poorly thought out the control scheme is.

  • Cheapshot #8 2 years ago

    And the naysayers say that Japanese developers have lost their motivation... nah. Samus in hosiery? SOLD! I knew Team Ninja wouldn't let us down.

  • andywilkie35 #9 2 years ago

    Will pick this up when its under £10

  • NimbusTLD #10 2 years ago

    Hah when I read the headline I imagined a Nintendo producer crying in pain when he saw the direction the new game took...

    Glad all's good then :)

  • makariel #11 2 years ago

    "Well, the cinematic did show Samus in tights."

    This being Team Ninja, I'm actually surprised she still has clothes at all.

  • MORZTAN #12 2 years ago

    "Man the fuck up Sakamoto. Jesus."

    Get some kids, matrim83, then talk about maning the fuck up.

    Hell, I had to pinch myself during the ending of Inception, to hold back the tears...

    And don't get me startet on The Orphanege...

    I lost track where I'm going with this...

  • Sonic_D #13 2 years ago

    I want this game to be awesome, why we can't have a nunchuck and wiimote control option I don't know, but until I play it I won't judge. Ninty usually know what they are doing when it comes to controls.

  • Basoy #14 2 years ago

    The controls are fine.
    http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=1...

  • MORZTAN #15 2 years ago

    OFF TOPIC:

    Does anyone elses internet die when they follow the above link?

    Mine has been doing it for some time...

    Why?

  • retr0gamer #16 2 years ago

    Samus's ass looks that good in the cutscenes it brought a man to tears. Sold!

  • 32768Colours #17 2 years ago

    I'm just hoping all this dialogue doesn't detract from the brilliantly eery atmosphere of the Metroid games, but somehow it seems inevitable. Of course, I may be wrong. I certainly hope I am because Metroid is one of my favourite Nintendo series.

  • StringBeanJean #18 2 years ago

    Yeah the above link crashed my browser as well.

  • kangarootoo #19 2 years ago

    Ok, so the cutscenes are very moving, we get that. What about everything else in the game, you know, the stuff that isn't a cutscene?

  • Muddtallica #20 2 years ago

    @kangarootoo - All that stuff is covered in the massive four-page interview, from which this article has taken one small quote.

    I'd recommend reading the whole thing, it's really interesting. I've come to look forward to these Iwata Asks pieces quite a bit, they always provide a lot of insight into the design process, regardless of your thoughts on the actual game.

  • coolbritannia #21 2 years ago

    Old Metroid made me cry. Stupid lack of strafe.

  • kangarootoo #22 2 years ago

    @Muddtallica

    Ahhhh, ok. My bad. I missed the link in the article.

    And I was thrown by the fact that EG determined the most important aspect of the interview to report on was that somebody was speechless when they watched a cutscene (I'm being a bit of a snide git here, I realise).

    I shall now read the whole interview.

  • kangarootoo #23 2 years ago

    Ok, I've read the interview. Good interview.

    Am still puzzled as to why this article exists. One big story in there is that a traditionally hardcore dev team was brought in to work in partnership with Nintendo, making a game that could be played on a much simpler control device than they were used to. Another story in there is how they worked to ensure that ibg cutscenes could be built into a game without the player feeling like they were flipping between 2 channels.

    And we got some dude being moved by early storyboards and cutecenes.

  • irve77 #24 2 years ago

    I think it will make many a Metroid fan cry that it's going to to turn out to be a bad game !

    it's certainly not the great white hope that the Wii needs

  • Slipstream #25 2 years ago

    it's certainly not the great white hope that the Wii needs

    Does it not have enough? I'd say having huge sellers every christmas since its release are those great white hopes.

  • smelly #26 2 years ago

    >it's certainly not the great white hope that the Wii needs

    Erm, needs for what? To sell more than the other 2 combined? To be so succesful that the other 2 copy it?

  • VeggieWokker #27 2 years ago

    It's going to make me cry too if it's as dumb as it seems to be. Overpopulated, cutscene heavy, badly acted emo crap. But hey, it's their game and if it sells well they'll keep heading in that direction. Time to find a new favorite game series.