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Kensuke Tanabe is a producer at Nintendo. He has frequently served as a communicator for international projects, such as the Metroid Prime series.
Metroid Prime series[]
Tanabe was assigned to produce Metroid Prime with Retro Studios after they gave a conference about it following E3 2001. Before this, he worked in Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis Department (EAD). Tanabe flew to Austin, Texas, where Retro is based, at least five to six times a year, and had telephone and video conferences with the development team almost daily. He was deeply involved with the quality assurance and localization phases of production on the Prime series. Outside of working hours, Tanabe spent Thanksgiving with Michael Kelbaugh one year, played Go or tennis with Retro staff, and had jamming sessions in Retro's unused motion capture studio.[1]
An interview with Tanabe, Kenji Yamamoto and Yoshio Sakamoto was published in Nintendo Dream volume 85 in March 2003, and republished on the Metroid Official Site soon after. An unofficial English translation was released by the Metroid Database on December 15, 2011[2], and can be accessed here.
Tanabe left a message in the transmission console in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and participated in the Developer's Voice featurette promoting the Metroid Prime Trilogy. He urged Retro to remove most Sequence Breaking techniques in the Trilogy version.[1] In an interview, Tanabe described Corruption as his favorite entry of the Prime series, due in part to its control scheme.[1]
Tanabe directed Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and spoke during a Nintendo Direct presentation to explain why the game belonged in the Metroid Prime universe. He stated that he had ideas for a fourth Metroid Prime game, which was officially announced on June 13, 2017. IGN confirmed via Nintendo's Bill Trinen in a group interview that Tanabe would be overseeing the project.
Nintendo Dream/Metroid Official Site interview.
In 2016, rumors surfaced that Tanabe and Retro Studios were no longer on good terms.[3] Jack Mathews said in a 2018 interview that he and Tanabe always had a good relationship, and that any souring of Tanabe's relationship with Retro would have occurred after Mathews' departure from Retro.[4] It was announced on January 25, 2019 that Tanabe would be working on Metroid Prime 4 with Retro once again, putting such rumors to rest.
Bryan Walker described Tanabe as having a "super genius level" of capability when it came to boss design, and said his involvement benefitted the boss fights in the Metroid Prime series and Retro's subsequent Donkey Kong Country games.[5] Tanabe would playtest boss fights during development and give Retro Studios staff his notes afterwards. The changes he requested usually led to an improvement in the battles' design.[6]
Credits[]
This copy of Trilogy signed by numerous Retro Studios artists, Tanabe included, was auctioned off on Amazon, with all proceeds being donated to relief efforts for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Pokémon Snap
- Magical Vacation
- Metroid Prime
- Geist
- Metroid Prime Pinball
- Super Mario Strikers
- Mother 3
- Coloris
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
- Magical Starsign
- Super Paper Mario
- Mario Strikers Charged
- theta
- Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland
- Art Style: CUBELLO
- Punch-Out!!
- Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
External links[]
References[]
- ^ a b East, Thomas (28). Making Of Metroid Prime Trilogy (Interview). Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009. Retrieved on 2022-07-14.
- ^ https://www.metroiddatabase.com/old_site/news-archive.php?year=2011
- ^ https://www.patreon.com/posts/4501013?alert=1 (subscription required)
- ^ "Interview: Jack Mathews", Shinesparkers, 2018-01-20. Retrieved on 2018-01-20.
- ^ Reilly, Reece. "#109 - Bryan Walker Interview (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart 7, Project Management)" (starts at 8:29). KIWI TALKZ. October 2, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
- ^ Kiwi Talkz. "#138 - Paul Tozour Interview (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Boss Design, A.I., Leadership, Four Swords etc.)". YouTube. June 25, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022. (starts at 6:14)