Nintendo recently announced and shadow-dropped Metroid Prime Remastered, a remaster of the original 2002 game. However, some of the developers that worked on the original game have now openly criticised Nintendo for excluding them from the remaster’s credits.
A new article from Axios reveals that a handful of developers that worked on the original Metroid Prime were omitted from the credits in the latest remaster. A title screen in the remaster reads, “Based on the work of Metroid Prime (Original Nintendo Gamecube and Wii Versions) Development Staff.” None of those original developers were mentioned by name, though.
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Metroid Prime technical lead engineer Jack Matthews was one of the names excluded from the credits, who took to Twitter to criticise the decision to leave out several key staff involved in the creation of the original title. “When my son plays Metroid Prime on the Switch for the first time, the fact that he won’t see [my] and my colleagues’ names in the credits as the original creators is a punch in the gut,” said Matthews to Axios.
Guidelines from the International Game Developers Association states “ports, remasters, remakes and re-releases must retain the original names that worked on the game.” Unfortunately, the association doesn’t have the power to enforce these guidelines so it’s mostly ignored by some publishers.
It’s unclear why Nintendo chose to blanket the entire original development team in the credits without mentioning individual names. Judging by the replies to the article, most fans seem to agree that key developers should at least be given credit for their work on the original material, even if they weren’t directly involved in the remaster. The credits for Metroid Prime Remastered do mention the various studios and individual developers involved in the remaster, but it’s strange to not mention the team that actually made the game in the first place.
Metroid Prime Remastered is currently available on Nintendo Switch.
Source: Axios
