Kensuke Tanabe expresses his delight at Retro Studios' ability to "think like Nintendo"...

While Nintendo may have taken a risk in plunging a ton of money into upstart developer Retro Studios in the early noughties (despite the studio not having completed a single game at that point), the reward has been one of the brightest gems to be born from the Nintendo brand, and undoubtedly one of the best western developers working in the industry today.

Over the years, Retro have given gamers some of the best entries in two of Nintendo's classic franchises, namely the sublime Metroid Prime games and the stellar Donkey Kong Country Returns. Nintendo's own Kensuke Tanabe, who spends most of his days liaising with Nintendo's first and second party studios in the west, recently spoke to EDGE about Retro's evolution in coming to terms with being a Nintendo developer.

"The job itself hasn't changed so much, but when we worked on the first Prime I was focused on the controls, and the visor system was something I thought up with Retro. So I would do a lot of brainstorming, firming up specs with them. Moving onto Donkey Kong, we were doing a lot of the same things. But one thing that really has changed over the years for us is that Retro has gradually come to really think like Nintendo. So there's been a lot less need for explanation and supervision."

The relationship seems to pose a contrast to the one that existed between Nintendo and Rare. During the development of Donkey Kong Country Returns, it was revealed that technology proved to be invaluable in keeping a firm contact between Retro and the producers in Japan. Lengthy video meetings were regularly held during which Tanabe could examine the game's current build in intricate detail. Tanabe remembers that Shigeru Miyamoto had no such luxuries in the 90's with Rare; most communications between the studio and Japan happened via fax. "It made it really difficult for him to relay his vision and experiences the same way", he explains.

The full interview with Tanabe and Retro's Michael Kelbaugh can be read in the upcoming issue of EDGE.