Descriptions suggest Wii U project

What's Retro Studios working on? That question has been common since development ofDonkey Kong Country: Tropical Freezebegan to wrap up towards the close of 2013, while it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the talented studio will have begun work on its next major endeavour while DK's adventure was still in its latter stages. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo with an outstanding track record with its games, it's not unreasonable to expect that the studio's next project will be an important release.

It seems the Texas-based company is beginning to ramp up on its current efforts, with five recent job postings appearing; though they've been on Nintendo's recruitment site for a short while, we stumbled across these due to them all being uploaded to respected industry website Gamasutra over the past few days, suggesting the company is taking its recruitment effort further afield. There are five high-profile roles currently being advertised, with the high level descriptions below.

Senior Tools Engineer

Senior level engineer responsible for driving the development, maintenance and support of proprietary Windows PC applications and libraries necessary for the creation of Retro Studios’ games.

AI Engineer

Individual contributor that develops, writes and debugs code for video game software and tools with a specific focus on AI programming for enemies & bosses and various other game-play systems as required.

FX Artist

Retro Studios is looking for a Visual Effects Artist

Tools Engineer

Individual contributor that designs, implements, tests and maintains tools for a broad range of functions

Gameplay Engineer

Individual contributor that develops, writes and debugs code for video game software and tools with a specific focus on gameplay programming for player, camera, gimmicks and various other game-play systems as required.

While the descriptions generally steer clear of specifics — listed platforms are 3DS / Wii U for four of the roles, with 3DS / Wii U / Wii in one — there are some elements that point to a home console project. The FX Artist entry states "next-gen shader technical expertise preferred", while incorporating varying styles to "produce FX with a strong and appropriate sense of timing, color and drama". The Gameplay Engineer role necessitates "prior experience working on game-play systems for AAA video games".

Thoughts on what Retro Studios is producing are only speculation at this point, though we'd hope that Nintendo is entrusting one of its best teams with a major project. What would you like Retro Studios to be developing? Let us know, as always, in the comments below.

source: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/08/retro_studios_ramps_up_recruitment_for_a_variety_of_vital_roles

Diddy Kong Racing 2.

Dear God let it NOT be Diddy Kong Racing 2...

Unfortunately, that's what it's looking like. All the roles are WiiU/3DS which suggests a cross platform game, which is what the rumored DKR2 is going to be >.< 

Another DKC already then? Fine!

Well one is Wii U/3DS/Wii so that doesn't really prove anything at all, unless they intend to release the game on Wii as well. XD

As disappointing as that too would be, I'd take it over Diddy Kong Racing 2. :p

Seriously though, Mario Kart 8 renders the need for such a game non-existent.

I'm fine with a sequel to diddy kong racing, that game was great! BUT I would also like to see them do something more... mature/darker/adult - whatever you wanna call it. Maybe a new IP. Maybe a Star Fox. Maybe Zelda?!

That's probably true, but the original Diddy Kong Racing sold really well next to mario kart.

Mario kart obviously got bigger since then, but i doubt Diddy Kong Racing 2 would be a game that takes them a lot of time to make.

Maybe another metroid is being developed at the same time, who knows.

I'll take a 2D Metroid please.