Bitmob interview with Nintendo’s Nate Bihldorff…

Bitmob: Why Samus? Relatively few Nintendo characters are made to be “real.” You don’t hear Link talking about Ganondorf or Mario wondering what Bowser is up to…yet you hear Samus talking about the Mother Brain, Ridley….

Nate Bihldorff: I don’t think it’s a matter of the folks at NCL [Nintendo Co., Ltd., the Japanese headquarters] going into a room, looking at a dartboard of all their major properties and saying, “That one! That’s the one we’re going to grow!”

It’s more that there’s always been in [Super Metroid director Yoshio] Sakamoto-san’s head a big story and a big background for Samus. You can take a look at some of the manga, which isn’t necessarily related to the games, but there’s clearly more story to Samus than has ever been shown in the games.

I think it’s very appropriate in this case. I think Samus, more than anyone else, is someone whose story we’ve always wondered about, whereas, for various reasons, you don’t really wonder about Mario’s past all that much. And with Link, there have been so many Links over the years, you can get lost looking at all those.

Bitmob: Was it difficult figuring out who should voice Samus?

NB: It was tough, certainly…but no tougher than with any of our other properties. We went through the same casting procedures like we usually do. We had a ton of auditions….

Bitmob: Who is the voice actress? Someone we should know?

NB: I don’t think she’s worked in video games before. Her name is Jessica Martin. She’s done a lot of dramatic work…a lot of stage work. She’s a local actress up in Seattle. She did an amazing job and was great in the studio.

After the game launches, we may make her available to you [media], but I don’t think we’re allowing any contact before that, just because we don’t want her dropping plot points….

Full interview here