Metroid Designer Talks Metroid Prime II, EyeToy

Thanks to C+VG for their interview with Yoshio Sakamoto, a key designer on the Metroid titles, and now manager of Nintendo's notable R&D1 development studio. He talks about Sony's EyeToy USB camera game ("...if it's quite a unique product it's a shame Nintendo didn't come up with that kind of idea"), Retro's in-development Metroid Prime sequel ("my involvement with Metroid Prime II is like my involvement with the first one - I am advising them as to what kind of flavor they have to adhere to, and the kind of storylines possible"), and makes it clear that Nintendo are actively working on follow-up hardware ("Nintendo is always working on the next generation of systems, be it handheld or console game machines.")

Comments

Metroid Creator?

[Locky]

The creator of Metroid is none other than Gunpei Yokoi, who left Nintendo in 1996.

He was killed in a car accident in 1997.

Re:Metroid Creator?

[simoniker]

Hey - you're quite right, Yokoi is generally thought of as the 'father' of Metroid, so I've changed the article to reflect this. I believe that Sakamoto was the character designer on the original Metroid, though, and according to Dylan Cuthbert, who's worked at Nintendo in Japan:

"[Metroid] has always been developed by R&D1 (the dept. Gunpei Yokoi headed up) and designed by the teams who mostly make gameboy titles. Samus was thought up by a friend of mine called Yoshio Sakamoto who is also developing the latest gameboy version Fusion, and also helped direct Prime."

Guess it all depends on producer vs. character designer vs. etc, but I think the amended text better reflects this. Thanks for the heads-up!

Eye Toy?

[PaleZer0]

Didn't nintendo have something similar to the eye toy at E3? like a game where using a camera would map your face on the characters? I'm so confused...

Re:Eye Toy?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's T.H.U.G. (Tony Hawk Underground)