Report names Bandai Namco as the developer behind ‘Metroid Prime 4’

By Gabe Gurwin Published February 9, 2018

Nintendo shocked and delighted Samus Aran fans back at E3 2017 with the announcement of Metroid Prime 4 for Nintendo Switch, but shortly afterward, the company revealed that longtime Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios would not be working on the project. According to a new report, that job is being handled by Bandai Namco instead.

Eurogamer reported early Friday morning that Bandai Namco Studios Singapore is the lead studio responsible for developing Metroid Prime 4, and it’s composed, in part, of former LucasArts Singapore staff who had worked on Star Wars 1313. The information initially came to light because of developers’ LinkedIn pages mentioning an unannounced first-person game for Nintendo Switch.

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Series producer Kensuke Tanabe will still be involved with Metroid Prime 4, but it isn’t clear what Retro Studios is working on instead. It’s rumored that the Texas-based developer could be involved in developing something “non-gaming,” possibly Nintendo Labo. The last project Retro worked on was the Wii U game Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which is making its way to the Nintendo Switch in May.

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In addition to Bandai Namco’s work on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the company — as Namco — was also responsible for Star Fox Assault on GameCube. This would undoubtedly be the most ambitious partnership between Bandai Namco and Nintendo thus far, and seeing as it has been more than 10 years since the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, they’ll have to hit it out of the park.

Nintendo has outsourced work on the Metroid series on a pretty regular basis in the past. Last year’s excellent Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS was developed by Spanish studio MercurySteam, and Team Ninja worked on the Wii’s Metroid: Other M. The spin-off multiplayer game Metroid: Federation Force was developed by Next Level Games, a studio that has worked almost exclusively with Nintendo over its lifetime. Since 2014, Next Level Games has only worked on Nintendo games.

Metroid Prime 4 doesn’t have a release date yet. We’re expecting to hear more information about the game during Nintendo’s E3 event in June, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the game’s developer remains a “secret.”

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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Our 5 biggest predictions for the September Nintendo Direct: Metroid, Zelda, and more

Samus gives a thumbs up in Metroid Prime.

Following months of Nintendo-related leaks and a third-party showcase in June, the second full-fledged Nintendo Direct of 2022 is finally happening. February's show had neat reveals of games like Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Mario Strikers: Battle League, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Nintendo Switch Sports. Now, Nintendo Switch players hope the September 2022 Nintendo Direct will give a clear idea of what to expect throughout the rest of this year and into the first months of 2023.
Ahead of the showcase's announcements, rumors about a couple of key Nintendo classic remasters heavily circulated. There are also delayed Nintendo Switch titles that we hope finally get release dates. Although there's a chance that none of the following predictions will come to fruition tomorrow, it's still fun to guess what might pop up. As such, here are five announcements we hope to see at the September 2022 Nintendo Direct.
Metroid Prime returns

Metroid fans ate well last year with the release of Metroid Dread, but they've still waited since 2017 for the long-delayed Metroid Prime 4. Although there's nothing to suggest that Metroid Prime 4 will pop up here just yet, a remaster or remake of Metroid Prime seems much more likely. A Nintendo Switch version of the GameCube classic was subject to rumors for years, but rumblings of the game's existence really ramped up in 2022.
From Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb to prolific Nintendo leaker Emily Rogers, the more reliable parts of the gaming rumor mill say that some sort of Metroid Prime rerelease project is in the works at Nintendo. Grubb even claims that it's coming this year, so Nintendo would need to reveal it very soon if that's true. If it is real, the biggest question surrounding Metroid Prime on Nintendo Switch is just how much of a reimagining it is. Will it be an HD port, a more substantive remaster, or a from-the-ground-up remake? Hopefully, we won't have to wait much longer to find out.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess get rereleased

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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R improves an already great fighting game

Jotaro Kujo stands before a battle in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R.

While Street Fighter 6 was the talk of the show floor at Summer Game Fest Play Days, another fighting game also managed to impress me at the event. That title was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R, a fighting game based on the popular and heavily-memed anime and manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The original JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle was first released in Japan in 2013, scoring a rare perfect score from the popular Japanese outlet Famitsu. Anime fighting games vary wildly in quality, but this was considered one of the better ones thanks to its thoughtful and rewarding gameplay.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R continues that game's legacy as an enhanced remaster that does more than visually update the game and turn servers back. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R adds in new characters, voice acting, and gameplay tweaks that almost make it feel like a different game. In the years since the 2013 game this is based on came out, both JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the fighting game genre got a lot more popular. Thankfully, my demo showed that this fighting game has only gotten better with age.
To be continued
Although JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R didn't get a remake-level visual overhaul, fans should still appreciate many of the graphical tweaks and just how pretty this game is. Even though I was playing a PS4, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R was one of the best-looking games at Summer Game Fest Play Days. The anime already has an extremely distinct art style and features a cast of overly-muscular characters, so it transitions to a fighting game almost perfectly. Pulling off special moves that you've seen in the manga and anime or calling out a stand yourself is super satisfying, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R will show them in all of their extremely detailed glory.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R - Early Access Demo
Even the voiceovers and character models got updates to match the voice acting and styles fans will remember from the anime. We don't get many video games based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so it's nice to see this one put in extra care to respect the source material and improve upon the original release. That said, graphics will only get you so far in a fighting game. It's the gameplay mechanics that really ensure a fighting game lives or dies.
Thankfully, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R is a lot of fun to play.
The 2013 original was a 3D fighting game that plays more like Virtua Fighter than Jump Force. The standard attacks, combo, block, and dodge moves to be expected from fighting games are here, but characters can also summon their stands and basically get a second fighter to attack and zone with. Fights also have some other cute oddities, like having an assist character to strengthen some of your attacks or being able to taunt the other player when they are knocked down to take away some of their special meter gauges. That taunt feature specifically is not only hilarious but feels very JoJo and adds palpable benefits to what's usually just a visual gag in fighting games.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R does add a couple of new gameplay additions that players will definitely notice, including hit stops and jump dashes that give that game more competitive depth, as well as flash cancels that let players quickly cancel their current combo if they don't want to change their approach or the moves they are using

I didn't have enough time to kit out and learn combos and how to string them together, but I can clearly recognize just how these features will positively deepen JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R's meta. With auto combos for new players and revitalized online play too, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R hopefully won't have a problem attracting new JoJo's Bizzare Adventure fans to this fighting game. Whether you enjoyed the original release or want to see what a good JoJo's Bizarre Adventure game looks like, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R should be on your radar. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R launches for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on September 2. If you want to try it before then, a demo is available on PS4 and PS5 until June 21.

Gaming

Metroid Prime 4 developer reveals new art featuring Samus

Closeup of Samus from Metroid Dread.

Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios updated its Twitter banner with new art featuring series protagonist Samus Aran. While this is just another tiny breadcrumb on the trail to Metroid Prime 4's release, it's the first piece of art from Retro's version of the game that we've seen.

The image, which you can see below, doesn't reveal much. We see the silhouette of Samus, which is casting a large shadow, and what seems to be a space station's hallway. Blue light showers the room, and it's hard to make out much detail because of it.