Topic: "The Emperor Visiting the Death Star"

[Artimus]

Technically this fits in general or GameCube, but this is the more high traffic forum and it certainly affects the Rev and company in general.

It's an article about how Miyamoto worked with Retro on Metroid Prime. Quite a fascinating read.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/39/11

[TrueNerd]

Yeah! Miyamoto IS the Emperor! It makes perfect sense! Where else but the dark side of the force would Miyamoto have such crazy abilities?

Anyways, I had no idea about any of that. While it was a good read, as most stuff from The Escapist is, I feel the article skipped over a huge part of what happened. "It was bad at Retro, then it was worse, then Miyamoto stepped in but that didn't really help... but then somehow the game went on to be the finest game ever crafted! Hooray for no transition!" Maybe that wasn't the point of the article, but I wanted to hear more about the turn-around. I'm sure it is common for development studios to have awful atmospheres, but that hardly ever leads to Metroid Prime-esque results.

Maybe Retro is really just a clone army, with the original clone being Iwata. Or, even better, YAMAUCHI!

Metroid > Everything. Well, Star Wars at least.  

[Caliban]

"[Miyamoto] would rant at us in Japanese for a minute and a half, and then the translator would just say, 'He's upset." LOL!

"You fall into the dilemma where the guys up top are like, 'Are you working, or what?!' and the guys down below are like, 'See, it's the people up top! What can you do?' And the project begins to go haywire. When it gets to that point, I bust it all out in a conference. People refer to that point as the time where I 'knock over the table.' [...] When I flip out, it's because I'm being sincere in my desire to get something done with the project."  He really loves his job !

A great read indeed. Also I like it how Retro has gone to a state of clear difference between night and day. Also, if you read their next installment about hardware, I noticed (not from within the article) that Nintendo's vision that hardware has reached a milestone where visuals, physics, etc are no longer of that great an issue to sell games, now I'm not saying it isn't important at all, I'm just saying that if developers don't start being more creative we (gamers) lose in the end.

[Rancid Planet]

You do not yet know the POWER of the N-Side.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

So if Miyamato is the Emperor, would that make Reggie, Vader?




Another good Escapist issue, I especially liked the backstory on Donkey Kong.

[Rancid Planet]

I think Reggie is probably more like Tarkin.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

No he's not Tarkin was a moron, refusing to leave when he had the chance.

[BiLdItUp1]

Yeah...Tarkin = petty POS politician != Reggie.

I've never heard of "The Escapist" before...this is "Edge" quality stuff, except it doesn't cost $150+ for delivery every year.

[KDR_11k]

this is "Edge" quality stuff, except it doesn't cost $150+ for delivery every year.

Funnily the german translated version of Edge goes for 4 Euros per issue.

[Djunknown]

I'm going to assume that bilditup1 is in the Western hemisphere like the majority of PGC'ers. I see a copy of Edge at my local borders for 9.99 an issue. Now that is what a gamer mag should be. But it costs as much as 192-page manga... [/off topic]

It's a great read. I heard in passing about Retro's drama, but I never heard about it in depth. Also check out the link they provide, it covers the rise, fall, and re-birth of Retro in greater detail here.

After reading all that, I can understand why Nintendo dropped other 2nd parties like they did (though we still don't know the whole story about Silicon knights...). They won the battle to save Retro, but they lost this round of the console wars.

Remember, while Metroid Prime received critical accolades from everybody, it was too late. Splinter Cell outsold it, and the Xbox dashed by the 'Cube. Metroid Prime 2 was an excellent sequel, but had nowhere near the star power of Halo 2 or GTA:SA(and wasn't pushed hard like the former). The fact that Nintendo pushed the DS hard at the 'Cube's expense didn't help either. According to NPD, the first Prime sold 250,000 its opening week. Echoes did 17,000. And it had such a shiny box too...

To be fair, the DS is keeping Nintendo afloat, as the latest fiscal report tells us. But in some ways, the combination of Nintendo and Retro didn't work the way it planned: To lure the Halo-loving, Madden-playing gamer. Now, this demographic is overated, not as important. The non-gamer is where its at.

I also get the impression that Retro is a talented studio that is capable of so much more than Metroid. I hope they 'll get their chance to flex their creative muscle with the Revolution. Why not get some of those canned titles out of the shelf?Like this one?This can be done with the Revmote-nunchaku combo easily.

[Rancid Planet]

Quote
Originally posted by: Avinash_Tyagi
No he's not Tarkin was a moron, refusing to leave when he had the chance.

Tarkin isn't a moron. I mean sure he was acting all confident at the Rebel's chances for victory concerning the Death Star battle. But you know deep down he was probably well aware of his station's weakness. I mean he WAS in charge of the freakin thing. And he wouldn't have been promoted so far up the ranks if Palpatine didn't know he was capable. Which leads me to my point.

Tarkin couldn't just abandon the Death Star. What would Palpatine have though about that? Right he would have purple force lightning bolted his ass into ashes. He was just doing what he had to do.  

[Kairon]

Yeah, Tarkin wasn't dumb. He was ruthless and intelligent and very, very effective. I mean, heck, he was the GRAND Moff! Not just a Moff, but a GRAND one! And he didn't efar Darth Vader! He didn't fear him or his crazy religion at all! You gotta be hardcore to give the lip to Darth and not get force choked on the spot.

Of course, all that is for naught if you're on a battle station with exhaust vents what...3 meters in diameter? It's always the little things that get overlooked and can bring complicated plans down, down, down. In this case, it was a very tiny oversight roughly the size of a womp rat.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Nephilim]

Great read

[Hostile Creation]

This is a really cool magazine, awesome find.  Thanks

[wandering]

Interesting article.

It's hard for me to imagine Miyamoto getting angry. I'm not sure I'd want to be in the room during one of his 'knocking over the table' sessions.

Also interesting that all of MP's best ideas (fisrt person view, scan visor), as so often seems to be the case, came from Miyamoto himself. I wouldn't be surprised if we learned Red Steel's best ideas (the mechanic where it's advantageous to spare enemy's lives) came from Miyamoto as well....

[Kairon]

I'd KILL to have my tables knocked over by Miyamoto!

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Svevan]

Dude, sick.