Developers are often harshest on their own projects. The men and women behind the games we’ve all come to love know what could have been done differently if time, or money, allowed for it, but it’s rare to hear a studio’s director publically say that his past work “sucks.” Ex-Retro director Mark Pacini did just that recently, claiming that all he sees from the Metroid Prime series are the bad things.
Speaking with Game Informer, Pacini talked about everything from the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate – which his team, Armature Studios, is currently developing – to past works at Retro. His former game development home was most known for the critically acclaimed Prime trilogy, but when asked about the GameCube products, Pacini didn’t seem to have fond memories.
“I think everything we do sucks. But that’s just me because I thought all the Prime games suck. At the end of the day all I see are all the bad things” he said. “Prime 2 was a blur to me. It was so quick, it was so fast. That thing just went out the door and it was a very divisive game. People either liked it or thought it sucked, and I can completely agree because I couldn’t tell you what that game was because it happened so quickly. Prime 1 was the best-designed game. Prime 3 I feel is the most fun one to play. Prime 2 is divisive. You either like it or you don’t. That’s kind of the way I look at it.”
It’s an attitude that Pacini has carried over to Armature. Never satisfied with the state of his current project, the director is doing everything in his power to not disappoint the millions of players that may eventually consume the product.
“It is the same thing here with the Arkham game. All I see at this point, because we are knee deep, we’re in the woods right now in development, and all I see is all the crap that’s wrong with it,” he continued. “In my gut I feel like, yeah, it’s going to be cool. I’m excited for it. But at the same time, I hope we don’t disappoint people and I hope that they like it. We’re trying our hardest. I would like to play a game like this, so hopefully everyone else will, too.”
Blackgate will be making its way to the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS Oct. 25. The console versions, titled Batman Arkham Origins, are slated to hit the PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 on the same day.
