Nintendo and Retro Studios appear to be moving closer together, as designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns developer is also helping contribute to the development of Mario Kart 3DS.

“It’s thanks to Retro Studios that you can all play Mario Kart later this year,” he said.

Miyamoto said Retro is designing a number of tracks for Mario Kart 3DS.

The latest version of Mario Kart includes both underwater and kite sequences, and as Miyamoto himself pointed out, Nintendo’s set to release it sometime this year.

Nintendo and Retro Studios appear to be moving closer together, as designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed the Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns developer is also helping contribute to the development of Mario Kart 3DS.

“It’s thanks to Retro Studios that you can all play Mario Kart later this year,” he said.

Miyamoto said Retro is designing a number of tracks for Mario Kart 3DS.

The latest version of Mario Kart includes both underwater and kite sequences, and as Miyamoto himself pointed out, Nintendo’s set to release it sometime this year.

That seems kinda weird, but I'm sure they'll still be fine 

That seems kinda good, but I'm sure they'll still be weird

Good on Retro. I'm interested to see what they've come up with.

That seems kinda weird, but I'm sure they'll still be fine 

That seems kinda good, but I'm sure they'll still be weird

You can never go wrong with Mario Kart, and you can never go wrong with Retro. I just hope that's not all they're working on

Kind of pointless on the consumer side, but welcomed news nonetheless.

If it's just their artists/modelers designing tracks for Mario Kart, then there's the potential that Retro could be doing early engine-work for WiiU

Yes...this is the best use of the company that developed Metroid Prime...

I would be disappointed by Nintendo if I had any expectations of them.

That seems kinda fine, but I'm sure they'll still begood

Nintendo's been juggling studios and properties around. Not sure if that's good news or bad news.

An odd choice, but whatever, I'm sure they are up to the task...

@Xpgamer7 said:

Nintendo's been juggling studios and properties around. Not sure if that's good news or bad news.

This isn't really juggling. They just have members of the Retro staff contributing to Mario Kart. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was due to Retro's next game being at a stage where they could afford to allow members of their level design staff take a crack at track designs.

Well now we know what Retro Studios has been up to.

By designing new tracks you mean, lifting old tracks from old mario kart games right?

Good point, Patrick. Maybe Samus will find her way into this one...

sounds good, look forward to the game i love the trailer, it got me super excited to play this

To be honest, I'd rather they were working on something else, but whatever. 

Retro is the new Rare, glad to see them getting more heavily involved with the first party Nintendo stuff.

@Hailinel said:

@Xpgamer7 said:

Nintendo's been juggling studios and properties around. Not sure if that's good news or bad news.

This isn't really juggling. They just have members of the Retro staff contributing to Mario Kart. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was due to Retro's next game being at a stage where they could afford to allow members of their level design staff take a crack at track designs.

I meant with all the studios and projects being mixed around to create games like Metroid: Other M, Kario Kart 3DS, or Donkey Kong returns. Most of the studios has stuck with one franchise until now.

Great but wtf, what is Nintendo doing? Its already been confirmed they are not making Luigi's Mansion either.

I hope they are working on something for Wii U. This seems like a waste of their talent.

@Xpgamer7 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Xpgamer7 said:

Nintendo's been juggling studios and properties around. Not sure if that's good news or bad news.

This isn't really juggling. They just have members of the Retro staff contributing to Mario Kart. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was due to Retro's next game being at a stage where they could afford to allow members of their level design staff take a crack at track designs.

I meant with all the studios and projects being mixed around to create games like Metroid: Other M, Kario Kart 3DS, or Donkey Kong returns. Most of the studios has stuck with one franchise until now.

That's not realy a problem.

I definitely down with this. Especially if doing this also helps fund what ever game retro is going to do for the Wii U. But until that game is revealed, I am going to be waiting to play that mario kart 3ds. 

:>

@Hailinel said:

@Xpgamer7 said:

@Hailinel said:

@Xpgamer7 said:

Nintendo's been juggling studios and properties around. Not sure if that's good news or bad news.

This isn't really juggling. They just have members of the Retro staff contributing to Mario Kart. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was due to Retro's next game being at a stage where they could afford to allow members of their level design staff take a crack at track designs.

I meant with all the studios and projects being mixed around to create games like Metroid: Other M, Kario Kart 3DS, or Donkey Kong returns. Most of the studios has stuck with one franchise until now.

That's not realy a problem.

I understand your thoughts, but changing franchises means having to either retain or change the franchise in a way the fits their style of game making. For example Donkey Kong Returns changed a bit of art design at points but retained the style that made it so great. The only problems were things that the original developer for the series had already worked around. For other M they changed the franchise giving Samus a needy personality and making the gmeplay wholly different. This led to cool things but also landed them with a heap of problems. When making a new IP you can make it into anything. When working with an old IP you have to meet or rise the bar the franchise has set to make a good game.

Sounds good in Mario Kart perspective but Metroid Prime is one of my all time fave games and Nintendo chose the studio to design some tracks? Hopefully this is not all they're doing at the moment.

Actually Mario Kart Wii is one of the best games on the system so I'm glad this 3DS game is coming out by the end of the year. All I want is a portable Mario Kart Wii so they'd better not screw up the online play this time either =P

mario kart 7? oh what ive missed since just "super mario kart" and "mario kart 64" lmao

mario kart 7? oh what ive missed since just "super mario kart" and "mario kart 64" lmao

@Contro: After watching that video, I can't quite tell if getting blue sparks during drifting is faster that Mario Kart Wii, or are they going back to the broken snaking goodness of Double Dash?

I miss the days of Baby Park.

This is the most depressing news I've heard all day.  A studio like that shouldn't be relegated to building tracks.

@wolf_blitzer85 said:

@Contro: After watching that video, I can't quite tell if getting blue sparks during drifting is faster that Mario Kart Wii, or are they going back to the broken snaking goodness of Double Dash?

I miss the days of Baby Park.

From what I gather Nintendo have put an end to snaking, or at least made it hard to do in this game.

More footage from EuroGamer Expo:

@JasonR86 said:

This is the most depressing news I've heard all day. A studio like that shouldn't be relegated to building tracks.

They're not being relegated to doing it. They're just contributing some resources to track design while they work on their next project.

@Contro: Nice video, is there engilsh subtitle? so I can understand it.

@awadnin:

Here you go...

@Hailinel said:

@JasonR86 said:

This is the most depressing news I've heard all day. A studio like that shouldn't be relegated to building tracks.

They're not being relegated to doing it. They're just contributing some resources to track design while they work on their next project.

The news for this has been all over the place. I've heard stories from "they're developing the game", "they're developing courses for the game" to just "contributing assets".

I'm guessing the latter is true, but it's not surprising some people are getting confused.

As far as I know Retro are developing a couple of tracks.

Iwata Asks (English)