by While most developers are in a rush to release games, Nintendo could have been sitting on Metroid Prime Remastered for years, new developments suggest.
While most publishers are in a rush to release their games, Nintendo might be waiting. Metroid Prime Remastered for years, new developments suggest. The giant of Japanese games treated Metroid Prime Remastered for a surprise release on February 8, following the game’s announcement on the same day during the latest Nintendo Direct.
As unconventional as the possibility of Nintendo delaying the release of Metroid Prime Remastered sounds, this is not the first occasion on which the company employs such practices. the recently released Engage Fire Emblem was supposedly finished in 2021, an established Nintendo insider claimed last year, three months before the long-awaited strategy RPG was announced.
According to some recently released regulatory documents, it appears that Metroid Prime Remastered it was possibly also put on ice after Retro Studios and its sister companies completed their work on the game. German content rating agency USK rated the title in July 2021, 18 months before its surprise release. The Australian arts ministry also lists the game as a 2021 production, although its own classification was only finalized last November. None of the regulators are in the habit of disclosing the original filing dates of rating requests because publishers attach short-term confidentiality requests to their game rating submissions whenever they precede official announcements, which is a frequent occurrence in the industry.
This newly emerging context adds more credibility to the 2021 reports that suggested the Metroid Prime trilogy Switch port announcement is just a matter of time. According to the latest rumours, the yet unconfirmed Switch versions of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes It is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will be direct remasters. In contrast, the newly released “remaster” of the original game turned out to be more like a remake, with Retro Studios committing to a complete overhaul of the assets, as well as delivering new controls and a few other quality of life improvements.
It’s worth noting that game rating boards don’t always look at finished products. For example, both the USK and Australia’s entertainment ratings agency allow submissions of playable demos, although even those are not required under their official policies. Instead, regulators only require final game design documentation — including narrative scripts, character dialogue, asset descriptions, and the like — to rank a product.
That is, the only fact that Nintendo has started to present Metroid Prime Remastered for content ratings two years ago does not necessarily guarantee that the game was completed at that time. Especially considering this wasn’t a new title, but based on design documentation from over 20 years ago.
Metroid Prime Remastered is available now digitally on Nintendo Switch, while the physical edition of the game is set to release on February 22, 2023.
Source: Australian Classification
