Feature: The Famicom Failure That Almost Bankrupted HAL, But Shaped Nintendo’s Future

Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo LifeUnless you’re a dedicated Famicom collector, it’s unlikely that you’ve heard of Metal Slader Glory. Released right at the tail end of the Famicom’s life in 1991, the year after the release of the Super Famicom, Metal Slader Glory never made it out of Japan, and it proved to be a massive flop for HAL Laboratory. But the very magnitude of its failure helps to explain the close relationship that exists between Nintendo and HAL today, with the latter producing games like the first two Super Smash Bros. entries and the Kirby series exclusively for Nintendo consoles.

“It’s famous for being one of the most expensive Famicom games of its time,” said Satoru Iwata of Metal Slader Glory in a 1999 interview with Used Games magazine (translated by Shmuplations). Iwata, who became president of HAL in 1993 and then president of Nintendo in 2002, worked as a producer on the game, which took four years to finish in a time when game development was often measured in months, not years. “It’s actually kind of amazing that we stuck to it, persevered, and eventually released it,” he continued, “but from a management perspective it was a mistake.”