Nintendo, Wii

Eduardo the Samurai Toaster [Wii – Beta]

monokoma
12-07-2010
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As we can read from Wikipedia, Eduardo the Samurai Toaster is a run and gun side-scrolling action game developed by Semnat Studios and released in 2009 for the Wii’s WiiWare digital distribution service. As noticed by Jaimen, originally the project was called “Eduardo the magical toaster” and instead of firing pastries you used a long stick to fight. A beta video found by TheSuperSonic111 shown this early beta (there’s also a removed ninja powerup).

In an interview by Gamasutra, the developement team talks about the early development of Eduardo:

What inspired Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, and why did you decide to make it?

DeMaria: After my freshman year of college I finished work on a really terrible turn-based strategy game. After a little time went by I felt like making another game. The intention was to learn how to make a larger game than the few that we had worked on before and to see if we could make a really excellent game. I asked Daniel if he had any ideas and he jokingly suggested that we work on a platformer where you play as a toaster that fights magical fairies. After a minute we both realized that his idea actually sounded pretty fun and we began development.

A little less than a year went by and we had made a game that was not very good, but we saw the potential in the concept. We started over from scratch and Daniel rethought the character design. It was at this time that Eduardo became a samurai with a sweatband. […]

How long did development take?

DeMaria: We spent roughly one year making the first version of the game before Eduardo was a samurai. We then started over from scratch and spent about a year on that version. This is when Daniel re-worked the character design. After that, we switched to the Torque Game Builder from an engine I made. It’s been a little less than a year since we switched engines. So we’ve been working on Eduardo for about three years.

Also, in the blog of Ian Bowie (from Semnat Studios) there are some more info:

First I should give a quick recap of the history of Eduardo. There have been three versions prior to this WiiWare game. In 2004 we started work on Eduardo the Magical Toaster, and started over again sometime early 2005, I believe, with Eduardo the Samurai Toaster. And pardon me if I get my dates wrong(the past five years of development have turned into a big blur) but I believe it was in 2006 when we started on yet another version of the game, this time using the Torque 2D engine.

Thanks to Jaimen for the contribution!

Videos:

Here’s a video from the final version:
 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Sky Gods [PS3/X360/PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
11-07-2010
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Sky Gods is a cancelled shooter based on HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) Special Forces operations. The project was in development at BlackFoot Studios in 2008 for the  Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. As we can read in the official press release, in a typical HALO exercise, the parachutist will jump from the aircraft, free-fall for a period of time at terminal velocity, and open his parachute at a low altitude. The combination of high speed downwards and minimal metal and forward air-speed serves to defeat radar, enabling a stealthy insertion.

In Sky Gods players would have been in full control of their character during HALO freefall as well as while under canopy and were required to properly steer to a landing zone and land without injury or fatality. Once on the ground, players would have been tasked with various missions based on real life SOF experiences, observing and engaging targets through various terrain environments.

The game was planned to have 8 Coop missions playable with 1-8 people, customizable weapons and kit, a training scenarios playable solo or Coop and mod capabilities out of the box.

Sky God was officially cancelled when BlackFoot Studios went through some internal restructuring. As we can read in their official website:

BFS has been operating as a virtual company for some time now and we have had some good people move on to other ventures as well as those still with the projects finding themselves in need of other income sources and/or other outside influences effecting their involvement.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images: 

Arcade, Others

The King of Fighters ’99 [Arcade – Beta / Concept]

monokoma
11-07-2010
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As we can read from Wikipedia, The King of Fighters ’99: Millennium Battle is a 1999 head-to-head fighting game by SNK released for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform. The King of Fighters ’99 initially meant to remove Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from the series due to the introduction of the new lead character, K’. However, due to negative fan response in location tests, they decided to readd them.

The SNK staff wanted to create a Robo Army Team. However, this idea was abandoned but they later made it a tribute in The King of Fighters 2000 by introducing Rocky, a character from Robo Army as a striker for Maxima. The character from Whip was originally meant to star in The King of Fighters ’96, but due Leona’s introduction in that game, the staff decided to wait until K0F ’99.

Developers also found troubles with the large number of young characters appearing in the game; as such the staff also designed older character such as Maxima and Vannesa to balance the game. In contrast to this Bao was added to the game in order to reduce the average age from the Psycho Soldiers Teams. Bao had many different design before its final one, as you can see in the gallery below.

Here’s the final Bao sprite to compare it with its early designs:

Thanks to Saga Darvulia for the contribution!

Images:

 

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Rayman [SNES – Cancelled]

monokoma
10-07-2010
16 Comments

The original Rayman is a 2D platform game developed and published by Ubisoft on September 1995 for the PlayStation and Jaguar. Early in its development, Rayman was planned for the Super Nintendo and the game featured a 2 players coop mode and different graphics. It seems that Ubisoft decided to move the project to the new CD-Rom consoles and they hired animators from a cartoon company which has considerably improved the graphics. [Info from Wikipedia]

TYKUN found some images from the unreleased Super Nintendo version in french magazine Pix’N’Love #13. In the article we can read:

Long before the Jaguar and PlayStation versions, Michel Ancel and his team were working on Rayman for the SNES. Even if it was  in advanced development, the game was stopped in favor of the CD support. As exclusives, here are a few pictures from this aborted version

The original story was going to be about an eleven-year-old boy named Jimmy. Jimmy takes advantage of the realms that he discovers within his computer to create a fantasy world called Hereitscool.

Thanks to Adamis and TYKUN for the contributions! A few more details on the cancelled SNES version of Rayman can be found in Pix ‘n Love book “L’Histoire de Rayman” (french only) by Michaël Guarné, you can buy it from Amazon FR, Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Amazon IT.

Images: 

Nuon, Others

aMaze [Nuon – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
10-07-2010
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aMaze was among the first known titles to be announced for the NUON DVD game system but like most of the games announced for it, aMaze never saw the light of day. The premise was based upon those old marble balance board games where you tried to get a small ball to the goal, avoiding the many holes along the way. It also was notable at the time as the game employed real-time raytracing to draw objects such as the ball. The official description goes as follows:

aMaze is based on the classic board game that challenges you to tilt the board in order to roll a steel ball through a nerve-racking maze of trap holes. Simple in theme yet elegant in graphic nature, aMaze is best described as an overall experience that is highly addictive, yet surprisingly relaxing. From the outset, aMaze was designed to be attractive to all types of gamers – from hard core to mainstream. aMaze is an engaging game for everyone.

Some screenshots and a couple of videos can be found at NUON-Dome.

Thanks to Adam for the contribution!

Images: