Looking back now, the development process of “Super Metroid” didn’t feel like making a game at all, but more like participating in the Nintendo version of survival challenge. Director Yoshio Sakamoto recalled that the last six months of the game had almost become a long-term stay in the company. Nintendo’s old headquarters at the time was even used as a dormitory by the “Super Metroid” team. He was so busy that he couldn’t remember how long he had not been home.
The room stinks like a zoo!
At that time, the team often had 10 to 15 people staying in the office at night, and they had to take turns to take a nap. The problem was that everyone was using the break room all the time, and no one had time to clean it properly. It ended up being so smelly that when employees from other departments came to wake them up, they described the room as “like a zoo.” Some people even put in aromatics to save it, but the result is not an improvement, but a more exciting taste. This development environment seems ridiculous now, but it was a daily reality for the team back then.
Are you making art?
What’s even more interesting is that even Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi can’t stand it. At that time, he saw the team working overtime crazily, and even directly asked everyone if they “wanted to make a work of art.” Because “Super Metroid” has already exceeded its original deadline, and the development team seems to be getting further and further away from the goal, making Yokoi more and more angry every day. It can only be said that even the big bosses in the company are beginning to think that your overtime work is too exaggerated, so this class is probably not an ordinary class.
The masterpiece remains, but what the director remembers is the smelly lounge
The most ironic thing is that “Super Metroid” eventually became a recognized classic, and even became the standard against which many subsequent action games are compared. But when Sakamoto looked back on this experience many years later, he lamented that what he left behind were mostly memories of “stinky lounges, not going home, and working crazy overtime.” Fortunately, Yokoi later became a fan of “Super Metroid” and would even use it as a reference work to recommend other developers. The masterpiece was made, but the cost, looking back now, is really hard to laugh at.