According to Nintendo Land producer Katsuya Eguchi, Nintendo Land originally had a plan that involved a Star Fox mini game. In fact the Metroid Blast game was originally designed the Star Fox game. Nintendo decided that the style of game was a better fit for the Metriod world.

“Generally it was easy to match the gameplay from the prototypes with one series or another. For example, a game with air and ground battles works well with Metroid.”

“There was a time when Metroid Blast was going to be a Star Fox title, but the prototype featured this vehicle that hovered around like a helicopter and we figured that’d never be a good match for an Arwing.”

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