Metroid is one of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises, with even casual gamers likely able to pick the armor-clad Samus Aran out of a lineup. The series’ most popular entry on GameCube, Metroid Prime, recently had a remaster of the game shadow-dropped. While the game has been highly praised by fans, a developer from the original Metroid Prime has taken issue with the lack of credit in the remaster.
In the credits of the Metroid Prime remaster, the developers of the original game get a single credit that says the remaster is based on the original game. One of the developers who worked on that game, Zoid Kirsch, has come out and said that he’s “let down” by the game’s lack of credit to the teams who made the original title.
The fact that it’s a remaster and not a remake means that it’s built on the bones of the original title, just updated for the current-gen console. This makes the lack of credits even more insulting since many of the names excluded likely still had their work included in the game’s final version. It’s unclear why Nintendo might want to exclude a whole developer’s worth of names unless it was purely about credit length.
The comments from Kirsch come after many other developers have been upset about the lack of credit over the last few months. One example includes developers from The Callisto Protocol, who were also angry about being excluded. This has sparked an industry-wide conversation about bigger companies making sure to list everyone who had a hand in making their games.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Nintendo will put out a patch just to include the names of the missing developers. Even if it doesn’t, this should be something that the publisher will keep in mind moving forward.
