Super Metroid 64 nearly happened

By Fred Dutton Published 15 September, 2010

Mystery third-party dev turned it down.

A 3D Metroid game for the N64 very nearly got off the ground, according to Metroid co-creator and Nintendo veteran Yoshio Sakamoto.

Sakamoto told GamesTM that he couldn't figure out how to make the game so Nintendo asked a third-party developer to try.

"I was actually thinking about the possibility of making a Metroid game for N64 but I felt that I shouldn't be the one making the game. When I held the N64 controller in my hands I just couldn't imagine how it could be used to move Samus around. So for me it was just too early to personally make a 3D Metroid at that time.

"Nintendo at that time approached another company and asked them if they would make an N64 version of Metroid and their response was that no, they could not. They turned it down, saying that unfortunately they didn't have the confidence to create an N64 Metroid game that could compare favourably with Super Metroid. That's something I take as a compliment to what we achieved with Super Metroid."

We'd love to know what that third party was, but Sakamoto wouldn't name names.

Sakamoto's collaboration with Team Ninja, Metroid: Other M, arrived to measured acclaim earlier this month.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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