Back in 1996, when Nintendo released the groundbreaking Nintendo 64, fans were left wondering why they didn't get any Metroid 64 announcements. This went on for a while, since Nintendo kept announcing games for other iconic series like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Kirby; yet, no news about a Metroid game being in development.
Over twenty years later, we have finally gotten an answer as to why Nintendo decided not to make a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64 — and the reason actually makes a lot of sense, especially after the massive success that Super Metroid had on the Super Nintendo.
According to an old interview with Games Radar, Super Metroid Director Yoshio Sakamoto did consider making a Metroid game for the Nintendo 64, but the problem was that he simply didn't know how to work with the hardware, namely the Nintendo 64's unique controller.
"I was actually thinking about the possibility of making a Metroid game for N64 but I felt that I shouldn’t be the one making the game. When I held the N64 controller in my hands I just couldn’t imagine how it could be used to move Samus around", explained Sakamoto by also adding that he just didn't know how to make the game work in a 3D environment like Nintendo wanted.
"So for me, it was just too early to personally make a 3D Metroid … Nintendo at that time approached another company and asked them if they would make an N64 version of Metroid and their response was that no, they could not. They turned it down, saying that unfortunately, they didn’t have the confidence to create an N64 Metroid game that could compare favorably with Super Metroid. That’s something I take as a compliment to what we achieved with Super Metroid."
And there you have it, the reason why Nintendo never made a Metroid 64 game. It is understandable that Sakamoto didn't want to work on a game when he couldn't quite figure out how, especially with all the poor-quality games that attempted to go 3D just because everybody else was doing it.
While we didn't get a Metroid 64, Retro Studios did give us a very different take with their excellent Metroid Prime series on the GameCube — so it is fair to say that the wait was definitely worth it.