Post game report: Retro Studios talk Metroid Prime 2 Echoes

In 2003, Metroid Prime landed on GameCubes across the UK and absolutely blew everyone away. Developer Retro Studios turned a classic 2D Nintendo series into an awesome 3D first-person adventure game. So, it came as no surprise that Retro would once again be reunited with everyone's favourite bounty hunter in Echoes. Here we talk exclusively to Retro Studio's President and CEO Michael Kelbaugh and Senior Producer Bryan Walker about how they approached one of the most anticipated games ever...

When you were designing Echoes did you go back through the old Metroid games and think of what elements could be borrowed from those and how to implement them?

Bryan Walker: The Screw Attack and the Kick Jump capability came from the classic Metroid titles. The fans' demand was such that we had no choice but to include them this time.

Michael Kelbaugh: There were a couple of elements that we really wanted to incorporate in the first game, but we just didn't have the time. So, we just put them on the back burner and said we'll try them in the next one.

We bet when you were making Echoes, you were damning the original creators for making the Spiderball. For the second one that must have been a nightmare because you can roll anywhere?

Bryan: The Screw Attack is actually more challenging from an engineering standpoint.

Michael: If you think about three dimensions, the Screw Attack has a potential to completely bounce out of the environment, so that was really challenging. I shouldn't really say this, but our engineers didn't want to do it from a technical standpoint.

There was a point when we just went and said we were going to go ahead with the idea and the engineers weren't too happy. We weren't popular. The game hadn't been tested, but it was a feature we really wanted. It's working well now, so we're glad we did it.

The actual delay between Prime and Prime 2 has been uncharacteristically short for a Nintendo game. Why was that?

Bryan: Retro is a youngster and a small group of 45 people. We decided right after we wrapped up the first one that a sequel would be in our best interest. We had an exceptionally aggressive development time, especially for a group that small. We wanted to take advantage of the market penetration for the GameCube.

We were asked to step up and make that happen and we committed to it. Hats off to the guys in Austin. We worked exceptionally close with the guys from Nintendo, so it's really a co-development situation. Even some of the old guys from the original Metroid were still around. It was a monumental effort, but it was the challenge we were tasked with and we managed to pull it off.

When it was announced a Western developer was bringing Metroid to 3D, everyone almost expected you to fail, but you came out with a landmark GameCube game. How was the pressure different going into the second game?

Bryan: This time everyone expected us to succeed. There is an old saying in the games industry... "if you think failure is hard, try success"! Metroid Prime had the luxury of taking people by surprise. There was no expectation from a troubled developer that was initially committing a sacrilege with a much-loved franchise. Everyone had already written it off, but then it turned out to be an excellent game.

Now we don't have that element of surprise anymore, so people expect excellence in all aspects of Prime 2. This only makes the challenge even greater.

The lack of time we had to make Prime 2 was a very significant aspect. But thanks to the incredible engineering skill at Retro, they developed a set of tools that were so strong and so powerful, it makes creating top-notch content very easy. Actually I shouldn't say easy, because it's still difficult. But we can do it much quicker than with any other tool set.

Michael: One thing to really highlight is that it's all new, there's nothing we rehashed or re-used. We didn't start ripping out the guts of Metroid Prime and say we are going to use this and base the game around this. Everything you see and touch, with the exception of the controls, is brand-new content.

Bryan: We wouldn't even use tiny creatures that are really small on screen. Even though we had time constraints, the artists didn't want to re-use anything. They were really dedicated to the project.

Do you think you get the credit you deserve for Metroid Prime? It's obviously a landmark first-person game, but it's on a console where those games are less prevalent than on the PS2 and Xbox. Creatively, is that frustrating?

Bryan: There is credit in what we do. I'm fortunate to be able to work with the best people. I have worked with almost every developer Nintendo has had in the last 20 years. There's not another group like this on the planet. That's the satisfaction of walking into work everyday. Whether or not we feel in the least bit overlooked, we still got Game of the Year last year.

We walk into work every day, see the plaque on the wall and we want to continue making games with great content. It's nice working with a world-class team that doesn't have a prima donna attitude. What usually happens to teams like that, is that they get torn apart and end up in ten different studios. 95% of the Prime team has stayed for Prime 2.

Michael: The quality of Prime really worked to our advantage. It was a great project for us and we were able to bring in new people who have been incredible additions to the team. That's very gratifying.

In the GBA Metroid games they've started to tuck away the old NES games as hidden extras. Did you twist anyone's arm to put Super Metroid in Echoes?

Michael: It was discussed! Let's just leave it at that. We didn't have enough time in the tight schedule, but we really wish we could have. We were so focused on the new elements like multiplayer and Screw Attack and refining elements from the original to the sequel. I'm personally a big Easter egg fan. I like all the fun stuff you find that's not supposed to be there. About three months ago I questioned whether we could squeeze something in there, but as it turns out we just didn't have time.

Now that you mention the multiplayer, it seems to us there was a lot of people complaining the first game didn't feature a multiplayer mode. This time around you have obviously built that in. But what multiplayer games, if any, did you look at as an example of how it should be done?

Bryan: We didn't. The primary reason is that Metroid Prime is not a First Person Shooter, it's a first-person adventure game. So we couldn't look to any other game out there as an indication about how to make multiplayer.

The thinking behind the multiplayer elements of Echoes was: "How do we make a multiplayer experience that fans of Metroid games will instantly know and recognise. How will it feel top to bottom like a Metroid game?" I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

What percentage of your resources were split between the main game and the multiplayer? Was it 50/50? Or was the focus on the main game?

Bryan: I'd say about 25% of our time was spent on the multiplayer.

One of the big changes for this version is the increased use of cinematics. Why did you take that decision?

Michael: Well we wanted to spend a lot more effort this time on the story. Last time around it was more: "Can we make this a realistic situation and can we bring Metroid to this powerful new platform while still making it true to the long-running series?"

We knew we could do it this time, therefore we thought we needed to spend more time telling a story in this game. Part of how we did that as to increase our efforts substantially.

What a ride that's been! Our number one challenge was to meet the schedule and to meet those demands. We did a fantastic job, considering we only have one cinematics guy. The attention to where cinematics sat on the radar of this project was increased. We wanted to make sure this was a critical aspect of the game. It was a priority and we really wanted to stress a story this time. So really the increased use of cinematics was based on our desire to tell a bigger story this time around.

Did you have complete autonomy to brainstorm the new plot, along with the Light and Dark Worlds? Or was that Nintendo?

Michael: We have a very unique relationship where they will come up with an idea and we will fire back to them with a variation of that idea. It's an evolutionary process between two groups of very passionate people to arrive at the best possible solution.
I've been really happy with the way we have been able to combine the Japanese sensibilities and the Western sensibilities. We've brought them into a product that is, to me, bigger than the individual parts. The feeling of Metroid Prime 2 is a unique experience and it's a much more powerful one than in the original Prime.

It's a very clever device to use the Dark and Light Worlds. How did you come up with that concept?

Bryan: There were a number of concepts in the beginning that we contemplated. We really thought the Light World and Dark World proposal gave us a lot of opportunities, especially for puzzle solving and to develop an ammo system which would be dynamic, but impact differently in both worlds.

It gave us the broadest capacity to expand on different gameplay styles especially in the puzzle solving aspect of it, which is always important in any Metroid game. It just seemed to be a natural thing.

Some of the brand-new bad guys in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes are genuinely horrible.
Did you see some people being blown up when you were young? Sometimes we worry about you guys!

Michael: You have to meet our concept artist!

Bryan: Our concept artist is exceptionally talented and has got quite an imagination. Today in the office his hair is blond with a black arrow dyed into it, but who knows what it'll be like tomorrow. All this stuff starts in design and we have an exceptional artwork group. We are lucky to have the concept guy we have.

Michael: He's basically a free spirit. He's an incredibly hard-working guy. His name is Andrew Jones by the way.

The AI of the enemies in the new game seems to be particularly good. But if all the alien races in Metroid are so intelligent, why do they leave all the upgrades scattered around for Samus to pick up?

Michael: It's like one of those Star Trek questions!

That's not an answer. Maybe the bad guys are just challenging themselves? They think "Oh yeah, Samus is pretty tough. But let's give her guns that are twice as powerful and then see what happens!"

Michael: We think it's actually Bill and Ted who are travelling in time and leaving things around for her to collect.

So Metroid Prime 3 will be called Samus in Time?

Bryan: Yeah, we'll think about it.

Is this the last game you're working on for GameCube?

Bryan: Honestly, at the moment we are just focused on getting the US game finished. We've then got to do the European and Japanese versions. They're both going to last us until the end of the year. After that we'll regroup and sit down with our friends at Nintendo to decide what the next step is.

NOM Staff