Almost 20 years after its release on the GameCube, Metroid Prime is still looked back on by many fans as a classic game that helped redefine the Metroid series. The game was the first installment to make the jump to 3D, following Samus Aran as she took on dangerous threats on the planet Tallon 4. Despite this drastic improvement to technology that added new life to the franchise, the developers apparently had intentions of including a past 2D game in the final version of Metroid Prime as well.
Recently, a developer who worked on Metroid Prime revealed an intriguing detail about the game’s development. In an interview with Kiwi Talkz, David Kirsch, a former developer at Retro Studios, talked about his attempt to include Super Metroid from the SNES in the game. Kirsch, also known as Zoid, said his motivation to add Super Metroid in Metroid Prime was due to playing the SNES title at the start of development.
While speaking with Kiwi Talkz, Kirsch admitted that prior to starting work on Metroid Prime at Retro Studios, he had never played Super Metroid. However, once he checked out the retro title, he was hooked. Not only did Kirsch play through it in only three days, he also replayed it during that period. Due to this newfound appreciation for the game, he attempted to add it to Metroid Prime. Amazingly, he revealed that he successfully loaded Super Metroid into the GameCube title and had made it playable.
Unfortunately, Kirsch noted that this version of Super Metroid included in Metroid Prime never saw the light of day, as Nintendo eventually requested that it be removed. According to Kirsch, the reason for Nintendo blocking the addition was due to the unofficial emulation that he had used to get the SNES game running on the GameCube hardware. However, it was not all bad news, as he revealed that this failed attempt to include Super Metroid ultimately resulted in the original Metroid from the NES being added to the game.
In addition to revealing that Super Metroid was almost included in Metroid Prime, Kirsch provided several other details about the development of the title. One interesting note was that he was referred to as “Zoid-O-San” by Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto. Furthermore, he revealed that he sometimes ended up working 100-hour weeks during development. As a result, this caused him to later leave the company during the making of Metroid Prime 3. Despite now being retired, Kirsch’s accomplishments were many during his career. Besides the Metroid Prime games, he had worked on World of Warcraft, Portal, Quake, and Dota 2.
Metroid Prime is available for Nintendo GameCube.
Source: Nintendo Life