A portion of a CGMagOnline interview with Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto...

CGM: It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a 2D Metroid game, and in that time since, the Metroidvania genre has completely exploded specifically on the indie scene. With a lot of different ideas coming out from there I was wondering if you’ve been keeping tabs on that, or if you think that was one of the founders of that genre, it’s up to you to push kind of push it forward more?

Sakamoto: Yeah I’m well aware of…the abundance [of games in the] the Metroidvania genre. I know there are a lot, but I haven’t played them, it however, one thing I think we’ve learned from that is, there’s a need for this there’s a thirst for that genre. People are excited about the genre, and so from a marketing stand point, understanding that that market exists, it’s been helpful to have all of those people clamoring for them. And it really solidified the ability of this desire to creating another 2D Metroid game.

CGM: Could tell me a little bit about the process of kind of making this game kind of come to life? Because it’s been a while pretty much since Federation Force, it’s been a while since we‘ve seen anything from Metroid franchise, and I read that you had a desire to bring back the 2D style, and you just mentioned that the indie scene verified that there is a desire from players for something like this. I was wondering if Can kind of tell me a little bit about this kind of presenting this to Nintendo, and how you brought this to life.

Sakamoto: Basically, as we talked about it, it’s been something that’s been in the back of my mind for a long while, and I think at some point you know recognizing that there’s a popularity for 2D style [Metroidvania] games, perhaps from the indie scene, and from other channels as well. Then, looking at Nintendo’s over all strategies in the industry, and, of course, Metroid is a very important IP for Nintendo. But timing is something that needs to be taken into consideration when we are going do this. So, basically I have this image of what I want to do, there’s a timing thing, there’s a strategy, and then there’s the question of “do I have hardware available for me to bring what I want to life?” In this case Metroid: Samus Returns, the 2DS and 3DS was the platform we were looking at, and then we first look at the overall industry needs and… [it gave] me the momentum to say “hey look at this thing I have been talking about! Well I think this is the right time.” It’s a much more organic start, rather than say some sort of process. And I think this title fulfills all of those conditions. This is the title that hit everything we are looking at.