Metroid Developers Seek Help

Apparently it's all too much for Retro Studios, the company to develop the GameCube version of Metroid, as they publicly seek help via our friends at IGN (whose review of the Electronic Arts toilets is still up in the air apparently). It seems that the company is after Sound Engineers and Programmers to head up the development on "next-generation products", something which will do little for the confidence of fans who treasure the Metroid series, which made its name with the inexplicably popular Super Metroid on the SNES five years ago. To be frank, this is a rather enigmatgic and altogether worrying cry for help from a GameCube second-party. Several days ago we questioned the sensibility of Nintendo revamping all of their classics for the GameCube after such limited success on the N64 with the likes of Mario Kart and Yoshi's Story. Surely attempting to reinvigorate such archetypal brands as Mario and Metroid once again is a little risky for the Japanese giant. After all, there is only so much more that can be done in each case. It would appear to be very easy to sit in an office in Tokyo and say "we need a new Mario game for the GameCube", but actually creating another exemplary title and living up to the legacy that is Mario or Metroid is another matter entirely. This sort of pussy-footing around with no particular brief other than "new Metroid game" is incredibly perillous, and the fact that the company doing the development itself hasn't the staff to do it yet does no good at all for its credibility. We'll watch the way this one unravells with baited breath.