Topic: Retro Studios Bringing Donkey Kong to Wii

[BeautifulShy]

Does anybody think this is Retro's way of getting ready for another upcoming title. Perhaps a sequel to Super Metroid? 2D Metroid on a home console.

[noname2200]

Does anybody think this is Retro's way of getting ready for another upcoming title. Perhaps a sequel to Super Metroid? 2D Metroid on a home console.

Don't play with my heart man; that's just cruel.

[ThePerm]

Does anybody think this is Retro's way of getting ready for another upcoming title. Perhaps a sequel to Super Metroid? 2D Metroid on a home console.

ummm thats Metroid other M, notice the trend towards 2d as of late, im not saying its a bad thing.

as was said this looks like pretty formulaic Donkey Kong. Its DKC without the pixelation of prerendered sprites, with dynamic lighting. IT'll be great, and its nice to see after years of absence, but not much new here.

Considering what Retro has been capable of, and what they are doing now, it seems a waste that they would be making updated sequels to old games(although given their name that is exactly what they should do)

Now lets extend our "what is Retro doing? hype." to "what is Armature doing? hype", lets just hope that whatever they are doing ends up on the Wii. I hate it that every time something like this happens, the leaving group goes and jumps ship. 

[broodwars]

IMO, this game is a colossal waste of Retro Studios' talents.  A 2D Donkey Kong Country game is something I'd hand to the "Wario Land Shake It!" developers, not to developers who had shown considerable talent making graphically-impressive 3D First-Person Adventure titles.

[NWR_insanolord]

The Wario Land: Shake It developers were too busy making Kirby: Epic Yarn to make this.

Personally, 2D platformers are probably my favorite genre of games, and I'm ecstatic that Nintendo is bringing them back in force. Bring on Yoshi's Island Wii at E3 2011!

[NWR_Lindy]

Maybe Retro just wanted to do something different instead of making the huge, grand, Zelda-like games all the time.  Eight years of doing that would certainly grind on your whole team after a while.

[Peachylala]

Konami should get that memo for Hideo.

[ThePerm]

Maybe Retro just wanted to do something different instead of making the huge, grand, Zelda-like games all the time.  Eight years of doing that would certainly grind on your whole team after a while.

yeah Retro wanted to do something different? Well the head designers and directors all did...they formed another studio.

[Peachylala]

And we haven't seen anything yet from that studio, which is being funded by EA.

Man the life boats...?

[ThePerm]

im sure they'll be a good studio, like i said though....THEY BETTER MAKE GAMES FOR NINTENDO OR ELSE....
i wont buy their product

[King Bowser Koopa]

This game does indeed look incredible, but am I the only one slightly disheartened by the apparent lack of Kremlings? It looks like that flying tiki ship thing has stolen DK's banana  hoard, I hope somewhere K. Rool is controlling it.
I'm also surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything to pick up and throw around. We see Barrel Cannons (that all look like the automatic kind, no button-pushing or timing shown yet) but the only way to fight enemies looks to simply be jumping on them.

[noname2200]

And we haven't seen anything yet from that studio, which is being funded by EA.

Man the life boats...?

It's only been, what, a year?  That's about half as long as a decent game takes to develop when you already have a studio up and running.  Give them time.

[KDR_11k]

Does anybody think this is Retro's way of getting ready for another upcoming title. Perhaps a sequel to Super Metroid? 2D Metroid on a home console.

That would be perfect and probably leave them with an engine that could also be used for DKCR.

[NWR_insanolord]

Does anybody think this is Retro's way of getting ready for another upcoming title. Perhaps a sequel to Super Metroid? 2D Metroid on a home console.

That would be perfect and probably leave them with an engine that could also be used for DKCR.

I am a little let down that this is what Retro is doing, but I'd be considerably more let down if it turned out that they were doing Metroid yet again.

[Louieturkey]

Maybe Retro just wanted to do something different instead of making the huge, grand, Zelda-like games all the time.  Eight years of doing that would certainly grind on your whole team after a while.

yeah Retro wanted to do something different? Well the head designers and directors all did...they formed another studio.

You realize the original head designers were removed from Retro as well back when they were working on Metroid Prime.  They had four games they were working on at the time and no real focus.  It was hard to work there but then Nintendo stepped in and got rid of the original head guys and cleaned shop on all games except Metroid because they needed focus.

People who leave Nintendo studios to form another studio always seem to have horrible games.  I won't trust whatever they are working on until reviews are out about the finished game.

[noname2200]

People who leave Nintendo studios to form another studio always seem to have horrible games.  I won't trust whatever they are working on until reviews are out about the finished game.

This is not necessarily true: Sakurai (Meteos) comes immediately to mind, Free Radical went on to create Timesplitters, Zoonami's made Bonsai Barber (albeit Nintendo-published), etc. 

[Stratos]

I suppose the three staff members who left to form Armature Studios was a direct result of saying no to Donkey Kong.

According to the Iwata Asks involving Retro the decision to make DKCR was made after those people left.

[TJ Spyke]

Not to mention that Nintendo didn't force Retro to make it, they asked Retro if they were interested in making it. The current president of Retro said he wanted to do it since he worked on the DKC games for SNES (which is also why Retro was recommended to Miyamoto for it). Speaking of Armature Studios, I think the last time we heard from them was when they were formed several years ago.

[Stratos]

Studios like that where they form because of some bizarre personal conflict or are 'heralded' members of a respected team tend to fizzle out quickly I've noticed. Zoonami has been MIA outside of small oddities. There are a few who make it but I wonder if because these studios are born of disagreement they continue to struggle with that after reforming.

[Peachylala]

Platinum is kind of one. They have made several games, but none of them (outside of Bayonetta) have been a million seller. Though Bayonetta only sold over a million combined on both HD systems.

[Caterkiller]

This game does indeed look incredible, but am I the only one slightly disheartened by the apparent lack of Kremlings? It looks like that flying tiki ship thing has stolen DK's banana  hoard, I hope somewhere K. Rool is controlling it.
I'm also surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything to pick up and throw around. We see Barrel Cannons (that all look like the automatic kind, no button-pushing or timing shown yet) but the only way to fight enemies looks to simply be jumping on them.

There will be no crocodiles in the game which I believe instantly means no Kremlings. As for the barrels I played the game quite a bit at E3 and there are moving barrels that you have to sit in and time to shoot. Not just auto blasters. One can also pick up the barrels lying around carry them around until it is ready for the throwing. You can bet steel barrels will make a return as well as other objects to pick up and toss at baddies.

[Peachylala]

Ironically, just as Cater brought up the barrel blasters I just played through and lost a life in Tree Top Town in DKC1 on VC. Guess my DKC2 sugar high made my DKC1 skills a tiny bit rusty (which is kind of weird considering they both share the same engine excluding mild differences).

[ThePerm]

Maybe Retro just wanted to do something different instead of making the huge, grand, Zelda-like games all the time.  Eight years of doing that would certainly grind on your whole team after a while.

yeah Retro wanted to do something different? Well the head designers and directors all did...they formed another studio.

You realize the original head designers were removed from Retro as well back when they were working on Metroid Prime.  They had four games they were working on at the time and no real focus.  It was hard to work there but then Nintendo stepped in and got rid of the original head guys and cleaned shop on all games except Metroid because they needed focus.

People who leave Nintendo studios to form another studio always seem to have horrible games.  I won't trust whatever they are working on until reviews are out about the finished game.

Jeff Spangenberg isn't running Armature
its game director Mark Pacini, art director Todd Keller, and principal technology engineer Jack Mathews. So the lead designer, tool designer, and artist of Metroid prime 2 and 3, and to some extant 1

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/12/the-man-who-never-wanted-to-make-the-citizen-kane-of-games/#more-371797

i'd imagine it would be depressing for those 3 to work at Retro though, considering the head programmer died of Pancreatic cancer. They all left 4 months later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haigh-Hutchinson

[Stratos]

Wow, Mr. Haigh-Hutchinson made a good number of my favorite childhood games. He will be dearly missed.