00:09Nintendo tends to give its developers plenty of time to work, and these games are the proof.
00:15Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're looking at Nintendo games that went through long development periods before finally releasing.
00:22You know, I really love New York. My ill-behaved tourists can be quite a pain.
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00:37The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
00:48The Zelda series is no stranger to delays, but the wait for Breath of the Wild was one of its
00:53longer ones.
00:54Development began directly after Skyward Sword was released in 2011.
00:58The team already intended to make something that challenged the traditional conventions of Zelda, and things like that take a
01:04while.
01:04It was first announced at E3 2013, with an in-depth look coming the following year, and a release date
01:10of 2015.
01:11You must hurry, Link.
01:17Before it's too late.
01:18Unfortunately, it would be delayed twice, once because the scale behind the team's ideas grew, and once due to problems
01:26with the physics engine.
01:27It didn't hit store shelves until 2017, alongside the Switch.
01:31Since this promised new ground for the series, the four-year wait felt especially long.
01:36Although, as we'll see, some franchises have it far worse.
01:47Bayonetta 3
01:58Bayonetta 2 proved that the franchise was in good publishing hands, so excitement for Bayonetta 3 was through the roof.
02:04The game was announced with a very brief teaser at the 2017 Game Awards, but development would be a struggle.
02:11Platinum originally went big, toying with a semi-open world, before scaling back to something more linear.
02:17Updates were scarce until a September 2021 Direct, when we finally got a good look at the game.
02:30From there, the wait wasn't much longer.
02:33We got one more trailer in 2022 before the game launched that October, after around five years of development.
02:40Although it didn't reach the peaks of its predecessor, it was still good to see it release.
02:53Animal Crossing New Horizons
03:02Although the public wasn't aware of New Horizons until two years before it came out, it was actually in development
03:08for much longer.
03:10According to the game's director, Aya Kiyogoku, work began in 2012, soon after the Japanese release of the 3DS's New
03:17Leaf.
03:18That game was a pretty big hit, so coming up with new ideas to make the core loop just different
03:23enough to please old fans and newcomers,
03:26many of which it would turn out to have, took time.
03:36The game was announced during a 2018 Nintendo Direct, with a release planned for 2019, but it was delayed until
03:43March of 2020 in order to avoid crunch.
03:45It turned out to be the perfect game at the worst time, with many players flocking to it during the
03:51onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
03:58Metroid Prime 4 Beyond
04:10The Metroid series wasn't in a great place in 2017, which is why it was so exciting to hear of
04:16Prime 4's announcement at that year's E3.
04:18Development had started the year before, with Bandai Namco in charge instead of original trilogy developer Retro Studios.
04:25Of course, that didn't last long.
04:28In early 2019, Nintendo announced development had started over, with Bandai Namco out, and Retro back in.
04:44After that, it seemed Nintendo learned its lesson about announcing anything until it was more complete.
04:50Metroid Prime 4 was absent from every event until 2024, when a trailer at last gave us a look at
04:57the new game.
04:57Nintendo was more forthcoming with trailers and gameplay leading up to its release in late 2025, nine years after development
05:05had started.
05:06Alright, you have the map. I'm no good with this leg, so I'll have to keep an eye on you
05:11from here.
05:13Look be with you.
05:14Kirby's Return to Dream Land
05:25After Kirby 64 was released in 2000, Nintendo mostly kept the series on handheld outside of the non-traditional epic
05:33yarn on Wii in 2010.
05:35There's a good reason for that.
05:37A new console game entered development in 2000.
05:40While the franchise thrived on Game Boy Advance and the DS, this went through three different iterations that were all
05:46scrapped.
05:57One, which was shown off at E3 2005, was similar to Kirby 64 but featured multiplayer, and was cancelled when
06:04that proved too difficult to implement.
06:07It then became a 3D adventure, then a side-scroller with a different art style.
06:11After this third version was cancelled in early 2010, development restarted once more when things finally began to stick.
06:19It started as a solo platformer before Nintendo revived the multiplayer angle of the game's original incarnation.
06:25Return to Dream Land released in 2011, 11 years after development began.
06:37Pikmin 4
06:48The development of Pikmin 4 is a little bit shady.
06:52In 2015, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed it was coming and, quote, very close to completion.
06:58He stated it was still in development the following two years, but unless he was referring to the 3DS' spinoff,
07:05Hey Pikmin, which was released in 2017,
07:07his assurance that the game was close to done was premature by quite a lot.
07:12With no concrete information, a lot of people gave up on it ever releasing.
07:22We didn't get a definitive confirmation until 2022, when Nintendo finally revealed it.
07:28It was released the next year to strong reviews, a supposed eight years after Miyamoto first mentioned it.
07:54The first Tamadachi Life was a big hit, becoming one of the 3DS' best-selling games.
07:59So, the prospect of how else you could customize a life full of silly Miis was one Nintendo clearly wanted
08:06to follow.
08:07A sequel entered development in 2017, with the Switch bringing far fewer limitations when it came to the game's scale.
08:13I baked a cake, just for you, Mario.
08:17The team wanted to focus on user-generated content and how it could be included in different ways.
08:22Because they kept coming up with different ways for the Miis to use your creations and your phrases,
08:27this complex social web hidden underneath the simple visual style took up a huge chunk of development time.
08:33Living the Dream was announced in 2025 and released the next year, nine years after it entered development.
08:46Star Fox 2
08:55The way the original Star Fox replicated a 3D perspective was quite impressive in 1993.
09:01But, with actual 3D gaming on the rise just a couple of years later, Nintendo was worried that its sequel
09:07might not seem so great.
09:08Despite the game being nearly complete and set to release in August of 1995, Nintendo chose to shelve it.
09:16It wasn't until over two decades later that Star Fox 2 saw the light of day.
09:28Nintendo released the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017 with 21 built-in games, including Star Fox 2 for the
09:36first time.
09:36Although it wasn't something many were clamoring for, it was still very cool to see the game get released, despite
09:42obviously being pretty dated.
09:53Mother 3
10:03Of the Nintendo games that have only seen a Japan release, Mother 3 is by far the most commonly requested
10:09to get an official translation.
10:11Yet, even in Japan, it took a while to come out.
10:14It first entered development in 1994, the same year the second game, Earthbound, was released.
10:20Work started on the Super Famicom before the rise of 3D caused it to switch to the Nintendo 64.
10:33It swapped again to the 64DD, the Japan-only disc-based peripheral that famously bombed, which then caused development to
10:42switch back to the base console.
10:43Fans got their first look at it in 1999 when it was called Earthbound 64, but it was then cancelled
10:50in 2000 so that Nintendo could use more resources for the upcoming GameCube.
10:55Development restarted once again in 2003 before releasing on the Game Boy Advance in 2006, twelve years after development started.
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11:40Metroid Dread
11:52The Metroid series makes its second appearance, though with a much longer development cycle.
11:58Nintendo began working on a follow-up to Metroid Fusion for the DS in 2005, and announced Metroid Dread the
12:05same year.
12:05The initial plan was to build on the predecessor's antagonist, SA-X, by having something that hunted Samus throughout the
12:12game.
12:13But the team struggled implementing this with the handheld's hardware.
12:27Development started again in 2008, and a prototype was produced, but this too was abandoned as it didn't meet expectations.
12:35Dread was thought to be abandoned as the series received other games and spinoffs over the years.
12:40But in 2021, it resurfaced during a Nintendo Direct, with the robotic Emmy filling the role of relentless hunters.
12:49It was out only a few months later, and quickly became one of the most popular entries in the series.
13:00Which Nintendo game do you feel you waited the longest for? And was it worth it?
13:06Share your thoughts in the comments, and we'll see you next time.
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