Ex-Retro Studios Concept Artist Discusses More About Cancelled Sheik And Boo Projects

Earlier this week, we reported on what appeared to be concept art for cancelled Sheik and Boo projects by Retro Studios – from ex-employee Sammy Hall. While all of those sketches have since been taken down, we now have more insight into their creation!

In a recent IGN interview, Hall revealed new tidbits about both axed projects. For starters, both game concepts were apparently spawned from ex-Retro leads Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Kynan Pearson. Unfortunately, these three developers left the company eventually, which effectively shut down both projects.

According to Hall, these two ideas probably didn’t receive much attention from Nintendo either – and were treated merely as work on the side:

“I doubt many at Nintendo proper saw much of any of this stuff. I was mostly put into a room like Milton from Office Space and tasked to brainstorm between other projects.”

As discussed previously, the Sheik title would have seen players in control of a member of the Sheikah tribe – on a quest to stop the ‘Dark Gerudo’ from reviving a new iteration of Ganon. On the other hand, the Boo title appears to have been intended for a portable system, and may have been premised around a Boo learning how to scare others.

Sadly, it looks like we might not learn much more about the two projects – especially with the removal of the concept artwork in question. For now, we can only dream and imagine what could have been.