In 2007, THQ-owned and now closed Locomotive Games developed a Wii game called Stuntman: Demolition. While both PS3 and Xbox 360 got Stuntman: Ignition, the Wii console was to get its own iteration. Due to mediocre sales of the Xbox 360/PS3 version, THQ decided to cancel the project and instead retired the whole franchise.
Stuntman: Demolition was the first title in the franchise which should have got an ongoing story and characters. You will find some character and vehicle art below.
Images:
Yoshi’s Island DS (which was initially referred to as Yoshi’s Island 2) was originally going to be compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi. Also, one early screenshot showcasing a battle with Big Guy the Stilted seems to suggest that Big Guy was once going to be organic, as he had no patches on him in that picture (although one patch was visible near his right foot, which may merely mean his graphics were slightly incomplete). Finally, one screenshot of an unknown origin shows a Black Yoshi traversing a flowery area with Baby Peach. The particular event illustrated in the picture doesn’t seem to be left in the final game. Baby Peach’s cry was also going to sound more adult- like. [Info from Mariowiki]
Hiccup noticed more differences in the beta videos below:
Video 1:
Different Colour Yoshi’s Maybe?Big Guy is red like normal shy guys
Video 2:
Classic sound for baby getting on Yoshi
Jumping on bouncy spring Yoshi does different noise
Different jumping Yoshi voices
Quicker egg swallowing?
Pop noise for egg?
Different sound for talking block?
Different sound for red steps appearing?
Different sound for turn pink wheel platform?
Car horn sound for stork stop
Different sound for baby peach crying
Yoshi cant stomp shy guys
Pipe leading up in underground area instead of hole
Different sound for going through middle ring
Different sound for defeating puritan plant
Different enemy, talking block, and flower placement
Completely different end level jingle
Different noise for counting up scoreVideo 3:
Different Level name display
Different level beginning drums
Different Placement of arrow at beginning with giant tapVideo 4:
World 1-8 Gilbert The Gooneys Castle (final version) has a different the over music (probably because they haven’t finished the music so every level has the same)
The boss of that level has over music tooVideo 5:
3D coins and different Yoshi voices (jumping on bouncy jump board)
Also Kieranmay noticed some more differences in the beta:
Video 6:
when yoshi’s got hurt with baby peach on his back, her cry was different like a childs voice
when you swap babies there is a siren which is not in the final version
at the end the music is different when you reach the goal and then when the score is shown (no music is playing)
right at the start, the bongo music sounds different from the final version
baby wario wasn’t present in
on the title screen the birds eye view of yoshi’s island is just stood still but in the final version it shows you all around each side of the island
And adanfime noticed that on video 4 it is shown that Yoshi can run with Baby Peach, when on the final game, Yoshi can only run with Baby Mario!
Images:
Videos:
Thanks to Gone is Gone Blog we found out that Saint Row, a sandbox-style action game for the XBOX 360, was also planned to be released on the Wii. Developed by Californian Mass Media Inc, the game should had the same gameplay of the 360 version, but with less graphic details. The game was cancelled, probably for porting problems. A couple of screens from the Wii proto can be found at GiG, archived here for preservation purpose.
Images:
When Pokèmon Platinum was announced, lots of scans and screens came out on the net and Nintendo also put online a website about the game, with a screen of the battle vs. Giratina Origin. Howerer, the Giratina Origin sprite that we see in this screen is not the same one as the final version.
Beta :
Final :
Also, there was a beta sprite of Shaymin Sky form that was dropped before the release. There are also some beta items in Platinum that are also in D/P:
They have no function in the game but they can be found by hacking the game or cheating.
(Source : Bulbapedia)
Another thing just discovered : Pokèmon Platinum has a test music that’s just a remix of the Pokèmon R/S/E opening. Howerer, the music is unused in the game.
Update: most of the Pokemon Gold and Silver references could be used in the new G/S remakes, since it’s intended to be compatible with Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum.
Glover was a 3D platformer game developed by Interactive Studios Ltd and released for the Nintendo 64 and Playstation in 1998. A sequel was announced for Nintendo 64, Playstation and Dreamcast with a launch originally slated for mid 1999, but was later cancelled.
In 2010, NESworld recovered a playable beta of the Nintendo 64 version of Glover 2 and by October 2011, the ROM was leaked online.
Thanks to Nesworld and Goomther for the contributions!
On February 25, 2015, James Steele, a programmer formerly of Interactive Studios, released a blog entry detailing the unusual circumstances which led to the cancellation of the game. According to the developer, a huge misstep at Hasbro involving one worker severely over-estimating the amount of cartridges required for the game blemished the Glover name at the company, ultimately resulting in the discontinuation of its sequel:
“…as far as we were told, Glover 2 had been canned because of Glover 1. Now this seems strange, because the first Glover has sold fairly well for a non-Nintendo N64 title. And it was on the back of those sales that Glover 2 had been given the go-ahead at Hasbro in the first place.
But Hasbro had messed up. They had screwed the pooch big time. You see, when ordering the carts for the first game, the standard production run was something like 150,000 units. And this is what the management at ISL had advised Hasbro to order – because the N64 wasn’t really fairing that well compared to the PS1 at the time and non Nintendo titles tended to sell poorly. They thought that Glover was a good game in its own right, and a moderate 3rd party success would sell around 150,000 units. And that is exactly what happened. Hence the go ahead for the sequel.
So Glover was a money maker for Hasbro, right? Right? Nuh-uh. As it happened, Nintendo had a special on N64 carts at the time the game was being schedule for production. Some bright spark at Hasbro thought it would just be absolutely SUPER to order double the normal amount – so they put in an order 300,000 units at a slightly reduced cost.
The problem was that none of the retailers wanted to take that stock off Hasbro’s hands. The game had been moderately successful, but the demand just wasn’t there. And thus Hasbro was left with 150,000 or so copies of Glover for the N64 that nobody wanted. That’s something like half-a-million dollars worth of stock that they can’t shift. And with Hasbro Interactive not being in the best of financial shape Glover became a dirty word around the company, as it became apparent over the course of Glover 2 development that they were stuck with all those carts.
Of course, the blame was put on the game and brand itself rather than the idiot who ordered the extra 150,000 carts from Nintendo. And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Glover 2 had been cancelled.”
According to Steele, who we later caught up with, the game was around 80-85% complete at the time development ceased.
Images:
Videos: