You might be wondering, “Wait, there was a Metroid 64 in development?” Well…no, there wasn’t actually. But that in and of itself was odd. Because many of Nintendo’s biggest franchises had an appearance on the fan-favorite system. Except for Metroid. And for a very long time, many have been wondering why that is.
Well, Lava Lump Content actually found a very older interview with Yoshio Sakamoto, and he revealed why it never came to be:
“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…
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 favorably with Super Metroid. That’s something I take as a compliment to what we achieved with Super Metroid.”
That makes sense given the timeframe and what was going on in the gaming world. And besides, that absence led to the arrival of Metroid Prime, which helped reinvent the series. And now, Switch fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Metroid Prime 4. Sure, we have to wait a few more years, but at least we know it’s being made by Retro Studios this time around.
