Nintendo’s Metroid Prime 2 producer wants more players to experience multiplayer mode
Kensuke Tanabe alludes to potential Metroid Prime 2 rerelease in new art book
Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe says he’d like more players to be able to experience the second game’s multiplayer mode.
Although there’s been no official announcement, Switch Remasters of the second and third GameCube entries in the Metroid Prime trilogy have been expected ever since Nintendo shadow-dropped Metroid Prime Remastered in 2023, especially with Metroid Prime 4 on the horizon.
In a new artbook, Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, Tanabe alludes to the possibility of a Metroid Prime 2 rerelease, in a section commenting on the game’s local multiplayer mode.
“Retro finished the multiplayer mode without compromising on quality even under such challenging conditions,” he wrote. “Being of its time, it was designed for local play, so the number of players who actually experienced it might not have been very large. If it is remade, I’d be delighted for more people to have the chance to experience it.”
In the book, Tanabe also reveals that a full Metroid Prime multiplayer game was initially pitched as the follow-up to the original Prime, partly due to the quick turnaround mandated for a sequel.
“After finishing Metroid Prime, Nintendo directed Retro Studios to complete the next project in as short a time as possible,” he wrote.
“Initially, there was a proposal to develop a multiplayer-focused Metroid Prime ‘1.5’ (and ultimately, multiplayer was realised in Metroid Prime 2). However, Retro expressed a desire to create a robust, standalone sequel in Metroid Prime 2.”
Tanabe explains that the development of Metroid Prime 2 took place “under circumstances where schedule extensions were not permitted”, so in the game’s final three to four months of development, it had to make decisions at “an incredible pace”.
On some days, Nintendo would have multiple translators read different sections of Retro’s English design materials at once, so that it could understand them as quickly as possible and make decisions, he said.
Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective is available to purchase from Tuesday, October 28.
