Retro Studios is one of Nintendo's greatest subsidiary studios, with it being the studio that brough forth the beloved 3D Metroid Prime series. Thanks to that game's success, it led to the studio working on two sequels, as well as being involved with other projects for Nintendo. These games only helped to strengthen the partnership between Retro Studios and Nintendo. However, the story behind how Donkey Kong Country Returns came to be was a bit roundabout, according to former Retro Studios member Bryan Walker.

Walker was a key staff member who had worked on the last two games in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, with his role being the senior producer. He noted that the team working on Metroid Prime 2 had a desire to focus on a different Nintendo IP, where they were all feeling a sense of franchise fatigue. In an interview with Kiwi Talkz, he discussed how this led eventually to the pitch for Donkey Kong Country Returns and the challenges that came with it.

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Walker was looking at the IPs that were under Nintendo's umbrella, with Donkey Kong coming up as a potential candidate. This request was forwarded to the late Satoru Iwata. He requested that the team develop Metroid Prime 3 in order to show off the Wii Remote's capabilities in a first-person adventure, to which Walker and his team agreed. After the completion of the game, several key members of the original team that helped developed this game then left the studio.

This caused a huge setback for the studio, where the team felt they wouldn't be in a good spot to move onto a new Prime game immediately. However, this led to the conversation where the studio could work on a new property, this being a new Donkey Kong Country game. With the green light given by Nintendo, Walker and his team began working on this new game, with him describing it as a high point of his career.

The game's early development involved an art direction more similar to Metroid Prime, such as palm trees that were more dark and menacing. This pivoted into a different direction, where the team then added more saturation and whimsy to the trees, solidifying a new look. Shigeru Miyamoto himself met with Walker and the team during development. He noted that Miyamoto's leadership and guidance were integral, where he could tell that they both wanted the game to shine through, evidenced by his multiple demands. Walker even noted a quote that encompassed the love they had for this game, where Miyamoto said in English "Please take care of DK. He is my friend."

Donkey Kong Country Returns is available now for Wii and 3DS.

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