‘Third party code’ was to blame
In 2015, it came outthat we almost got aMetroid Prime Super Metroidminigame. That is: a fully playable version ofSuper Metroidinside of 2002’sMetroid Prime.
Speaking to Kiwi Talkz YouTube channel,Primedeveloper David Kirsch [Zoid] explains that originally he and the team wanted to bringSuper Metroidinbecause so many people were so passionate about it:
“I kind of missed the wholeMetroidtrain. Once the re-org happened…that was complicated and messy, I got assigned toMetroid. And holy crap I missed [Super Metroid],this game was incredible. I played through it twice in three days…now I understand why people want this game.”
He goes on to explain how that led to an attempt to put it intoPrime:
“I ported a SNES emulator to the GameCube and had it running, just for fun, and thought can we make this a thing? And we were like I don’t know we can ask. And Nintendo was like ‘hey that’s third party code’ and a bunch of other stuff, so they kiboshed that. But the gear started turning and they did have the NES emulation they had built for the GameCube, and that turned into bringing the originalMetroidinto the game with the game link…withFusion.”
It wasn’t all for nothing, though. TheMetroid Prime Super Metroidinitiative was scrapped, but the team decided to compromise, and added the first NES game into the mix. As a reminder you can unlock the original through a semi-convoluted process that involvesMetroid Fusionand a Game Boy Advance to GameCube link cable. Oh, and you need to beatMetroid Fusion.
The interview broaches a ton of subjects over the course of roughly an hour, so if you’re aPrimefan, it’s worth checking out.
