Key quotes:

"I was trained to look at \[*Metroid*\] from a different perspective," Tanabe said. "I'd never seen anything that focused on the Galactic Federation against the Space Pirates. I thought that would be an interesting idea to explore."

"Are you familiar with the ending of *Prime 3*?" he asks. "You might remember the scene where Samus gets on the ship and you see the planets, but after that, there's another ship that lands in that place. That was actually Sylux, who appeared in *Metroid Prime Hunters*. In my mind, I still have that idea where Sylux is going after Samus. So to continue that story is something I'd love to work on."

As for where *Federation Force* fits in, Tanabe says it's sort of like *The Avengers*. "Just to watch the movie *Avengers* to see what it's all about, I watched the single \[movies\] that focused on each hero," he says. "While there has been some negative feedback," he says, "this is something that will be very important in the plot, the whole idea of the *Prime* universe."

"When \[other Nintendo employees\] see the games I create, they might be unique, and people may not agree with them," he says. But in the end, they let him run with it, because they know Tanabe delivers quality. "Otherwise," he says, "I wouldn't be able to make games that focus on [Tingle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshly-Picked_Tingle)."



After seeing how this game turned out, I must say it's really funny and sad looking back at this interview with Kensuke Tanabe circa 2015 when Federation Force was first announced