this is what Retro needed the entirety of the Wii U and most of the Switch's lifespan to make and then never actually finish
get saddled with Metroid Prime 4, only just make it in time for Switch 1
The yakuza gonna keep them in the Metroid mines until 2050
successfully convince Nintendo to stop sending Tanabe and their execs to breathe down your neck
proceed to make this genuine dogshit
with barely any progress made in 5 years
oshitwefuckedup.jpg
start work on a prime tirlogy remake
Nintendo notices some good fucking work for once, now you're tasked with making Prime 4 as Bamco's take on it was terrible
is this summary about accurate?
I'm sad because this feels like a throwback early 00s adventure/collectathon and I'm a sucker for that stuff. Even if it was mediocre I'm sure I would have enjoyed it.
Pretty much.
I wonder what Retro's future entails, assuming Prime 4 does well. Does Nintendo intend to keep DK in-house from now? Maybe they could try a Star Fox game.
if the rumors are true (and they line up really well with the music theming of this game), then Project Harmony would actually have been a 3D RPG with a prominent singing mechanic.
No it's probably more
release Tropical Dong
???
2017-2019: hey you guys gonna release that thing or nah(the copyright on the leaked build says 2017 and since the leak was from a Switch dev kit at least something of an attempt was made to move it to Nintendo's new console)
simultaneously
Bamco and whatever was going on in Singapore fucked up with Metroid Prime 4
cut bait and just pay the fines instead of trying to double down(you'll note Ubisoft did the inverse and just kept charging forward with Skull and Bones under the delusion they could make up for sunk cost)
2019: Nintendo says enough is enough, scuttles Harmony, puts them on Metroid since the initial run was a failure
2023: Metroid Prime 1 remake is basically a WWHD-style test run on how to make Metroid Prime work on the Switch, since Metroid Prime the original was designed with a less-than-conventional control scheme and Metroid Prime 3 was on the Wii
2025: Metroid Prime 4 releases...presumably
It's more they fucked up and had nothing to show for it, Nintendo stuck them on Metroid, Metroid Prime 1 remake is more a mea culpa and it selling well at least puts a dent in the debt of Retro wasting an entire fucking decade of everyone's time.
Then what were they doing between 2014 and 2017??
Project Harmony, as shown off in OP.
There's no way that 2017 build in the OP took 3 years of work.
Considering we had to learn about this from a dev kit leak and that they were basically MIA for the 2010s outside of releasing Donkey Kong and hinting at an as of yet unannounced project, them making this game was probably so fucked up behind the scenes that whatever we've seen of it probably did take that long.
looks far more like a 3D platformer than a rpg
action-adventure where you beat shit with a staff and have NPC companions that help you navigate the environment
Basically Nintendo-branded Beyond Good and Evil and also like Beyond Good and Evil 2 never came out.
Looks like Atmosphir
I don't get how a studio that at this point had a decade of experience with making high quality games for one of the major publishers in the industry couldn't create a cohesive product that could be shipped to customers
how is it possible to fuck up like that? did they just forget the lessons learned with prime? are they retarded?
It's what happens when you don't have proper leadership. Nintendo was their leadership, so when Retro cut them off they had no planning nor clear vision on what to do.
Consider they're Americans located in part of Texas that's basically mini California and had no jap oversight for a while.
Producers actually do do things like make sure shit is actually moving along. It's the difference between
Mercury Steam under Kojima making Castlevania
and
Mercury Steam under Nintendo making Metroid
Doesn't matter how much talent you have in play if the person at the top managing the project can't move things along to making a concrete product.
Nintendo presumably gave them a lot of good will after the success of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country to pursue this but it seems like Shiggy whipping them into shape in the first place to make the first Metroid Prime didn't take.
nintendo's tard wrangling ability is second to none
Not even the power of cute and funny could save this project...
They had several more unsuccessful pitches. One was for a Wii U Star Fox game.
Retro Studios from conception always needed tard wranglers. When it started it was 4 teams making barely functional directionless demos and the boss blowing company funds on expensive cars, pool parties with hookers and hosting his porn collection on company servers. Miyamoto was so appalled Nintendo forced the boss to sell them his company and whipped them into making the first Metroid Prime.
eternal reminder that they pitched a sheik spinoff game that unironically played like whack a mole using the wiimote motion controls
I think they might actually be retarded
force retro to cancel a unique game
copy the aesthetic of girl plus big brute monster for DK
That’s fucked up. Almost as fucked up as this thread not being on the first page. Anon Babble is honestly focusing on the wrong things, as usual. I wonder whatever happened to their robot game that got canned, you know, the one reggie kept a doll of and a picture of in his office
I don't get how a studio that at this point had a decade of experience with making high quality games for one of the major publishers in the industry couldn't create a cohesive product that could be shipped to customers
They aren’t allowed to ship any games or get the ok without the japs breathing down their neck. It’s been like this since they got bought out and every one of their proposals for a new game get denied. If they had more autonomy then this could’ve been released. They are the de facto support studio, they don’t have any right to be creative on their own and that’s bullshit. 4 new games got sacrificed for Metroid Prime, 3 games concepts got denied (A X-Com Metroid game, A FF Tactics like Zelda game, and a Zelda spin-off with shiek that was a tech demo that could’ve been a pack-in). That doesn’t even account for the elusive Star Tropics pitch (that only made it to the concept art stage) they made that didn’t go anywhere. Retro is quite literally Nintendo’s bitch and Tanabe is their whip master.
Please go make a game in 3 years, come back, and let us know how it’s done. You bring in politics into it when it’s japs being controlling.
We never had confirmation of this anon.
Tanabe is a horrible tard wrangler, at least Sakamoto was able to help Mercury do something good. This isn’t about tard wrangling, it’s about not letting someone make a new ip
retro needed to get tard wrangled all the time with Metroid and DK, it's not really surprising, plus I think after DK tropical freeze they lost a lot of the legacy staff so there's that.
You bring in politics into it
I'm bringing reality into it. Ignore at your own risk faggot
they lost a lot of the legacy staff so there's that.
They’ve since lost a lot of Legacy Staff since MP1 and double as many in MP3. The reason 4 took so long isn’t just because of their small projects but because very little of MP1-3 are still at the company. They had to rehire a lot of people and the pay/benefits just doesn’t cut it compared to other companies.
I’m ignoring it because it has no basis here anon
This is just what happened with Rare and Kameo, except Rare actually released Kameo and it was a platinum hit.
Nintendo is infamous for saying no to a lot of bullshit in the pitch room. The fact that this got as far as it did meant someone okayed it.
now you're tasked with making Prime 4 as Bamco's take on it was terrible
japan is such a shit hole. Had to have the Americans fix their mess.
copy the aesthetic of girl plus big brute monster for DK
Nah come on dude thats not even a unique concept if anything its a fucking trope, a based trope mind you, but a fucking trope. Small kid plus big monster can be found in a lot of(based) media
First time I’ve seen this, thanks. Only heard about the alleged racing game which goes to some Twitter dude that Anon Babble hates and has had a few controversies on his own so I didn’t know
I don't get how a studio that at this point had a decade of experience with making high quality games for one of the major publishers in the industry couldn't create a cohesive product that could be shipped to customers
You have to understand, the nip side of nin are excellent tard wranglers, the western side of Nintendo has only ever been good with their support. Without it they're absolute Sony tier shit.
namco are japs and they fucked up metroid prime 4.
Starfox Racing?
That was a hoax / fake leak that spiralled out of control. But there is some evidence that Retro pitched a Starfox game in 2012.
japan is such a shit hole. Had to have the Americans fix their mess.
They were contractors in Singapore anon, many of them aren’t japanese and are from SEA
If they had more autonomy then this could’ve been released.
They had complete autonomy for more than a decade, they didn't release shit.
Yo is this fun? I looked up the trailer after seeing the pic and it looks nice in an old school cheap kind of way
They had complete autonomy for more than a decade, they didn't release shit.
They’ve never had autonomy anon. Every little thing goes through a live conference with tanabe and he dictates if it gets the green light. There are dev interviews with former MP1&2 staff on YouTube if you search them, each one admitted tanabe is the de facto decision maker as he is their liaison. They can’t do jack shit without his approval. They have since went to greener pastures. The problem here is the job listings, they aren’t transparent that they’ll be a support studio. If they just stated such they’ll get more suitable applicants
Harmony?
They asked and obtained more independence after Tropical Freeze, so Nintendo removed Tanabe from the studio. The result was half a decade of jackshit being accomplished.
There are dev interviews with former MP1&2 staff on YouTube if you search them, each one admitted tanabe is the de facto decision maker as he is their liaison.
You understand that they're recounting a time years before they produced next to nothing for the Wii U and switch, correct?
Those interviews mean absolutely nothing in relation to what we know now which is that they were given complete and utter freedom.
Tropical Freeze released in 2014
Paper Mario schizo lashing out at every figurehead at Nintendo and can't entertain the idea of them doing good work sometimes
why are papermariospergs like that