The development of Super Metroid is remembered as one of Nintendo’s most demanding projects, with director Yoshio Sakamoto later describing a work environment where the team barely went home.
The 1994 SNES classic was built by a relatively small team, and its final development period involved extensive overtime as the developers continued refining the game beyond its deadlines.
Super Metroid developers practically lived at Nintendo
In a July 2009 interview originally published by Retro Gamer, Sakamoto recalled that the Nintendo building had effectively become a boarding house for the Super Metroid team during the final six months of production. Developers worked through the night and used a dedicated nap room when they could not make it home.
The conditions eventually became particularly unpleasant. Sakamoto recalled that staff from another part of Nintendo once woke the sleeping developers and told them the room “smelled like a zoo.” A room freshener reportedly failed to solve the problem and instead made the smell even worse.
Nintendo later revisited the demanding production in an official developer interview, where Sakamoto and sound director Kenji Yamamoto confirmed that staff regularly slept in shifts. Sakamoto also remembered that there were times when they did not even know when they had last slept.
The intense schedule also concerned Nintendo legend Gunpei Yokoi, who reportedly became frustrated with the team’s overtime. Sakamoto recalled Yokoi asking whether they were “trying to produce a work of art or something?”
Despite those concerns, Yokoi ultimately became a major admirer of the finished game. Sakamoto said Yokoi would compare other action games with Super Metroid and tell developers to “go away and play Super Metroid,” showing just how highly he regarded Nintendo’s eventual classic.
