MercurySteam

How many developers can you count that have worked on both Castlevania and Metroid? If there’s any company that can lay claim to that feat, it’s certainly MercurySteam.

Of course, the Spanish company wasn’t without its fair share of troubles. American Mcgee Presents: Scrapland was a decent first start by the developer, but its next project, Clive Barker’s Jericho, was a painful disappointment.

Nevertheless, the studio would pick itself back up and collaborate with Konami to produce Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Though this first game in the Lords of Shadows trilogy made great dividends for publisher Konami, the later two sequels didn’t end up as well-regarded.

Regardless of the outcome, knowledge in making Castlevania games would no doubt serve to help when MercurySteam eventually landed a new partner, Nintendo. Following its final (and critically panned) entry in the Lords of Shadows trilogy, the company began working in earnest with Nintendo on a Metroid project.

Ideas and pitches were tossed around, and MercurySteam’s sheer passion for the series and genre eventually landed it on Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus. Garnering love from critics and fans alike, the positive reception of Samus Returns led to the greenlight for the company to work on a brand new Metroid title, Metroid Dread.

A direct sequel to the Metroid Fusion, Metroid Dread was the long-awaited return of a classic side-scrolling format that hadn’t been seen in nearly 20 years. The game flew off shelves, loved by players new and old, and instantly became among the best-selling titles in the Metroid franchise, if not already the best, what with it selling at a rapid rate of 2.7 million copies within just four months.

The company’s devotion to the Metroidvania genre, through both bad and good, no doubt played a huge part in making Metroid history. And of course, the title of Metroidvania game developer (quite literally) is theirs too. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

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