Quote:Hicks with pickup trucks?

GR, you know them?

Quote:January 30, 2004 - Earlier this week, Nintendo of America gave the gaming press the opportunity to participate in a roundtable discussion with the director of Metroid: Zero Mission, Yoshio Sakamoto. Along with having an assortment of Nintendo classics under his belt, Mr. Sakamoto has been involved in the Metroid series since the very beginning.

The following is the full transcription of the roundtable. You can also check out our media pages for a brand new Metroid: Zero Mission trailer.



Good morning. I'd like to start by introducing myself. You may call me Mr. Sakamoto. I am with Nintendo's Research & Development 1 department, and I've been working on the Metroid series back on the NES where I became involved in that project after experiments by the programmer. Although I was not involved in the Game Boy version of Metroid II, I was the main director on Super Metroid for the Super NES, director on Metroid Fusion and on Metroid: Zero Mission which we'll be talking about today. As for Metroid Prime, it was more of a producer role, looking over the progress on that game.

I'll start off by talking about my involvement in the game. Typically with the Metroid games, I will convey a strong message to the staff about what we want to do with the game, and this time with Zero Mission we kind of went about it in a different process where we brought the staff together and I listened to some of their ideas, and it was more back and forth between them about the direction we wanted the game to go.

So, to answer the question on why Zero Mission is based on the NES version of Metroid: our basic development concept was that we wanted to return to the roots of Metroid gameplay. I'm sure that you're aware that Metroid Fusion was a different style of game from all the Metroid titles up until then. We wanted to show people who had never played a Metroid game prior to Metroid Fusion, the roots of the Metroid franchise, that this is what Metroid is, this is the style of gameplay that Metroid sprang from...at the same time, retell the story of Samus' original mission.

We can now go into a question and answer session.

Q: In the last Metroid games on the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance, players had the ability to connect the two games to each other. Are there any plans to connect Zero Mission to either Metroid Prime or the upcoming Metroid Prime II?

Actually, no, there is no connection to the GameCube versions of Metroid. We wanted to have some sort of connection with Metroid Prime II but as you're aware the release date of Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Prime II are fairly far apart. Because of the timing of that we weren't able to implement any connectivity features. However, there is connectivity with Metroid Fusion on Game Boy Advance where you can link the two games together using the link cable and two GBA systems, and you will be able to get a little something out of that connectivity.

Q: Metroid Zero Mission features gameplay elements that are new to the series. Can we expect to see such innovations in future chapters?

Of course, we want to expand the Metroid franchise in different ways. In the 2D games we haven't seen any real change in the Metroid gameplay. So that's something we want to challenge ourselves to do, add new elements to the Metroid franchise, and find new gameplay styles that we can give to the players in order to expand the franchise.

Q: With Zero Mission behind you now, would you be interested in redoing games like Metroid II on Game Boy or Super Metroid for the Super NES. If not a full remake, do you think Super Metroid would be ported to Game Boy Advance?

While I can't tell you that we have concrete plans to do either of those games, with Zero Mission we had the game concept of getting back to the roots of Metroid, and at the same time reworking that game by implementing newer features. In that sense it was a challenge for us to recreate the game. Going with Metroid II or Super Metroid, simply transferring it over to another platform, wouldn't offer us much challenge or challenge our creativity in any way. So unless there was a real need to do something like that I can't imagine that we'd want to do that. Obviously if we found something we can add to those games that would change them and make them fresher and newer we might be interested in doing something like that. Maybe if the fan base in the US decided it really needed to have Super Metroid as-is on the Game Boy Advance, then we might look at doing something like that.

Q: Since Metroid Zero Mission is based upon the NES Metroid, I was wondering if the team would be implementing the "Justin Bailey" code that unlocked an alternate costume in the original game.

Zero Mission does not use a password system for back-up data, so the "Justin Bailey" code is not a part of Zero Mission itself. Although we have announced that it is possible to gain access to the original NES Metroid game on the Zero Mission cartridge. So, playing through that, yes, you'll be able to use the "Justin Bailey" code.

Q: With the recent announcement of the Nintendo DS system, I was wondering if there are any plans in the future to take the Metroid series to the new system.

This is a very difficult question to answer at this point in time, but with any hardware usually what we like to do is look at the system and how we can take advantage of the hardware to add new gameplay elements to a series and freshen it up. So if we're able to find something with any hardware that allows us to do that, then we'll consider bringing the Metroid series to that hardware.

Q: Metroid Zero Mission is the first remake in the Metroid series, and the most significant addition is the addition of cinematics. Do you see this as a trend in adventure games today, the need for a more fleshed-out storyline?

Yes I am noticing trends to that extent. It's important to have a story to complement the game, and working on the story, in a game like Metroid that doesn't use a lot of language, it can be very difficult to convey the plot accurately and in a way that the player can understand. This time, the one thing we tried to do was, while fleshing out the story with cinematic scenes we retained a certain amount of mystery to the story in order to maintain the player's interest. I do agree that nowadays in videogames, without a story to go along with it, I think it's difficult for gamers to maintain interest.

Q: Samus is described as a "Bounty Hunter," but the one thing we've never seen her do in any game is hunting bounty. She's also got a great spaceship that doesn't get a lot of use. Will we ever see Samus in a more non-linear adventure game that focuses on these elements?

It's true that Samus has been described as a bounty hunter in all of the Metroid games until now, and we haven't really followed up with that in the storyline. A lot of that had to do with trying to present Samus with a cool bounty hunter background. Obviously if we tried to take that into another game, it would be an entirely different style of gameplay. If we were interested in doing something like that, we could potentially go in that direction. But just because she's described as a bounty hunter isn't generally the focus of what she does, and it's certainly not the defining characteristic of Samus Aran.

Q: Metroid Zero Mission is the first Metroid game to give the player the opportunity to select the difficulty level at the start of a game. How is this implemented in the adventure?

We tried to change how much the player takes damage from an enemy, with the easier mode offering less damage. There is also a hard mode to Metroid Zero Mission which is unlocked after clearing the normal mode. In this mode, we go into greater lengths to adjust the difficulty and balance it, adjusting how much energy is recovered after grabbing an energy tank, to balancing the save points and stuff like that. There are a variety of different elements.

Q: What's the approximate length of Metroid Zero Mission, and how does it compare to Fusion or the original Metroid?

Fusion was a very linear game, whereas Metroid Zero Mission gives the player much more freedom. And in that sense it's difficult to compare the two games. Because of the way people play, one player might go straight through whereas one person might explore around. There approximately the same size, with Metroid Zero Mission being just a bit larger. In terms of hours, the first time through, three or four hours would probably be impossible...good players might take about six hours or more.

Q: Is it a conscious decision to keep "sex appeal" away from the Samus character even though she's female? And in developing the original Metroid game, was it thought of from the start to have Samus be female?

It is true that in developing the original Metroid, we were partway through the development processes when one of the staff members said, "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?" So that's how we decided on that. We've tried to express her femininity a little more without trying to turn her into a sex object. There's actually a part in Zero Mission where you'll see Samus operating outside of her suit in the latter stages of the game.

Q: Does Zero Mission share technologies or engines with Metroid Fusion that might have accelerated its development?

We used Metroid Fusion as a base for Metroid Zero Mission, but in the process we rebuilt portions of that engine. We added some new parts, and did a lot of fine tuning. It was a little more efficient than to create this game from scratch, but it wasn't quite as fast as we'd like. We still spent quite a bit of time with it.

Q: Is there anyone besides yourself from the original NES or Super NES Metroid teams on the project?

Not anyone who's still directly involved in the development. We do have one person that was involved in bringing up some ideas when we transferred it over to the GBA, but he's no longer involved in game development.

Q: Have there ever been plans to incorporate a cooperative multiplayer aspect to the series?

We're always looking at ways to expand the Metroid franchise and find new types of gameplay that we can implement. Multiplayer has always been something that could bring something to the table for the series, so in that sense we always think about it. But at this time we don't have any concrete plans for how we'd implement multiplayer.

Q: How much of Zero Mission will be playable after Mother Brain?

Probably about 25 to 30% of the game takes place after the defeat of Mother Brain.

Q: Besides the extra adventure beyond Mother Brain, what would you say are the major differences between Zero Mission and the original NES game?

We've added new enemies, new items, and new puzzles to the game. So if we were to say it was a completely new game we wouldn't be entirely off-base. Obviously we used the original Metroid as the base for Zero Mission, and the concept was to take that original gameplay and rework it into something that felt fresh and new, while still keeping elements from the original game that people would be familiar with.

Q: Are you a producer on the Metroid Prime sequel as you were for the first one? Can you give us an update on that title?

Yes, I am working on Metroid Prime II in a supervisor role much as I did on the original Metroid Prime. However, the staff that created Metroid Prime is very familiar with the Metroid universe and the Metroid concept, so I'm not quite as involved in the sequel as I was on the original. I think you'll want to wait until E3 when we can give you some precise details on how things are coming along.

Q: In your mind, what has been the greatest challenge in the development of Zero Mission, and how was it overcome?

Any time you do a remake there's always the possibility that it could be taken negatively as a mere port other than a truly remade game. One of our biggest challenge was to add enough elements to make the game feel like something that's new, while not straying far from the original Metroid, to lose the meaning of what we were trying to do. We spent a lot of time balancing those two elements in addition to actually working in elements that we hadn't seen before in a Metroid game, finding a way to implement them in Zero Mission...and then finding a way to balance this gameplay and make it into something people would enjoy.

Q. What are you most pleased with in the game now that it's drawn to a close?

We had a lot of challenges to face, but the biggest one for me was finding a way to implement this new style of gameplay at the end of the game. We spent a lot of time working on that, and I feel that it was something that turned out to be very good, and something new that feels like Metroid. So I'm glad we were able to get that into the game, in a form that we felt was complete and well done.

Q. What challenges did you face in reworking or reinventing a new storyline for the character in Zero Mission?

I wouldn't necessarily call it a remaking of the backstory. We've taken this opportunity to explore the backstory a little bit more.With Metroid Zero Mission not using text-based messaging or language in the game, we've used more visual cinematics to express the story through her recollections or memory. Through that, we've created a story that is open to interpretation to the player, and as people play I think they'll interpret Samus' past based on what they take on those cinematics. So I think in a way it's expanding on the story at the same time retaining some of the mystery of it.

Q: There's a big gap between Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion. Does Nintendo have any plans of building up the franchise to be as big as Mario or Zelda?

I can't say we're at the point where we'll regularly update the Metroid series, but I think if you look at what we've done with the recent Metroid games, you'll see that we've been really building on the series and the gameplay, and offering new experiences. Metroid Prime was obviously a change in the Metroid gameplay, and allowed both people who played Metroid games before to experience it again, as well as the people who may have never played a Metroid game before. And with Fusion what we tried to do was take the Metroid gameplay and use that in a more story-based game. This time with Zero Mission We really wanted to go back to the roots of the Metroid series, and introduce it to those people who are newer to the franchise, while at the same time building that experience and offering a new style of gameplay. I think what we're going to continue to do is to look at different possibilites with the Metroid franchise, ways that we can expand upon it. We don't have any precise plans, but I can definitely say that we are looking at ways to continue to advance the franchise.

Q: How is the gameplay going to be based around Samus without her suit?

It's actually hard to understand without actually playing it, but she has very limited capability and because of that, she's in extreme danger. This type of gameplay is Samus trying to find a way to get through the hazards with her limited abilities and to reach the end of this challenge.

Special thanks to Nintendo of America for providing the opportunity to speak with Mr. Sakamoto.
-- Craig Harris