Acclaimed Super Metroid director Yoshio Sakamoto recently opened up about the grueling working conditions the development team endured to deliver the 1994 Super NES classic. Speaking about the crunch period at Nintendo's former Higashiyama headquarters, Sakamoto described the building as feeling like a boarding house where team members rarely went home.
Quick Facts
- Game: Super Metroid
- Platform: Super NES (SNES)
- Release Year: 1994
- Director: Yoshio Sakamoto
Inside the Overworked Super Metroid Development Team
During the final stretches of production, between ten and fifteen staff members stayed in the office through the night, forcing team members to take turns sleeping in a designated nap room. Because the room was in constant use, it was left uncleaned and unmaintained.
Sakamoto recalled one particular morning when a staff member from another department came to wake the sleeping developers and remarked that the room smelled like a zoo. An attempt by another Nintendo employee to fix the issue with a room freshener backfired, reportedly making the odor worse and drawing amusement from other staff across the company.
Sakamoto also shared memories of section chief Gunpei Yokoi reacting to the exhausting hours. Yokoi frequently expressed anger upon seeing the team completely absorbed in crazy overtime work, asking at one point whether they were trying to produce a work of art. Despite being past their deadline and struggling to meet their objectives, the team ultimately produced a celebrated title for the SNES.