One of the biggest surprises in Nintendo’s storied history came in June 2021 when Metroid Dread was finally unveiled for the Switch. Up until that point, the game had fallen into legend, with many fans conceding that it simply didn’t exist.
One of the most significant catalysts for fan anticipation came via Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, released for the Wii in 2007. Although series producer Yoshio Sakamoto had already been attempting to create a sequel to Metroid Fusion, with apparent evidence cropping up via internal documents, it was Retro Studios’ third Prime entry that really set pulses racing. A piece of lore from the game stated “Experiment status report update. Metroid project ‘Dread’ is nearing the final stages of completion”.
In a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz, Echoes and Corruption producer Bryan Walker corroborated previous reports that the in-game message was merely a coincidence. That didn’t stop desperate fans, however, as some actually turned up to Retro Studios’ headquarters in Austin, Texas, requesting that the team share what they know on the elusive project.
Bryan Walker: “I honestly lost count how many times we would have people literally showing up at our front door asking what we know about Dread.”
Kiwi Talkz: “Really?!”
Walker: “Oh yeah. Several occasions, we would have people knock on our door who were huge Metroid Prime fans who wanted a tour or who had some questions, wanted to win a bet and so forth. It was fun.”
KT: “Would you let them in?”
Walker: “Usually, they got to the lobby and that was as far as we could take them.”
KT: “Is that because of that message that was in Prime 3? I think I remember Mark Pacini (lead designer – Prime series) saying that was a coincidence.”
Walker: “Absolutely a coincidence. We’ve said it a million times, and people still refused to believe it. As I’ve said in an interview going way back when, we’re just not that clever, we can’t be that subtle.”
Naturally, with hindsight, it’s obvious that Retro Studios had nothing to do with Metroid Dread. The team would go on to work on two Donkey Kong Country games before eventually commencing development on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Dread, meanwhile, was developed by Spanish studio MercurySteam with assistance from Nintendo EPD.
It’s worth checking out the full interview with Bryan Walker on Kiwi Talkz’ YouTube channel; the producer goes into development costs, his favourite boss from Prime 2, and his thoughts on how Nintendo might handle Sylux in Prime 4.