REDMOND, Wash. – Nintendo is facing strong criticism from fans after a video depicting a metroid left in a hot car went viral earlier this week. The car in the video, allegedly owned by a Nintendo employee Doug Stevens, was left unattended for 20 minutes on a day when temperatures reached a high of 95 degrees. We caught up with Fletch Hendricks, the man who recorded the viral video after seeing the unattended metroid from across the parking lot.

“The poor guy was bouncing off the windows when I first saw him,” said Hendricks, who admitted that he thought about breaking the window, but decided against it because he didn’t want to end up in Nintendo Jail. “You can’t just leave your metroid in the car like this. I mean, I know they don’t like cold temperatures either but leaving that precious little thing in a hot car and just ignoring it is a crime.”

Hendrick’s video continues with him entering the nearby Target from the parking lot and approaching Stevens.

“He was just strolling through the store, like he had all the time in the world,” Hendricks recalls. “The worst part of it all was he had a cart full of pikmin, goombas, and chuchus. I saw red and just exploded on him. I screamed, ‘Why the fuck is that metroid in the car? Are you trying to kill the metroid? Why can’t you bring it in here with the rest of your critters?’ He just ignored me and walked away. It really felt like he did not care about the metroid.”

In response to the backlash, Shigeru Miyamoto took a moment during the latest Nintendo Direct, to address the concerns of fans.

“On the metroid in the hot car, I can assure you, it was safe and cared for with the utmost love,” Miyamoto said with a smile. “We take the handling of our critters very seriously. Anyone who has raised critters will tell you that each one is different. Some need all the attention, like those pesky little pikmin. Others just need you to poke your head in every once in a while. Trust me, we take really good care of our critters at Nintendo.”

At press time, Stevens was fired from Nintendo for a separate incident in which he reportedly sat on and killed a nintendog.