Nintendo

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Nintendo

Dark Empire [GBA – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-12-2010
3 Comments

Dark Empire is an unreleased RPG that was in development by Marvelous Entertainment for the GameBoy Advance. This project was previusly unknown, untill an auction for its prototype was posted by Sample_Seller on Ebay in June 2009. As we can read from the item description:

DARK EMPIRE for the Gameboy Advance !!

RARE ORIGINAL SAMPLE/PROMO VERSION !!

FIRST ONE EVER FOUND !!

Will run on any US Gameboy Adance system. Original promo/sample game was never released or completed, game is playable but only around 30% complete. Very good graphics for Gameboy Advance, you have a world map, a castle you can go to and a village. Ingame text is Japanese, developer most probably Marvelous Entertainment.

It’s fun to notice how the developers used some real photos (as one of Mel Gibson from the Braveheart film) as placeholders for the characters avatars in the game, before the final ones were finished. The gameplay would have probably been like a traditional RPG / SRPG, and looking at one of the photos added in the auction it seems that there were some 3D scenes too (maybe for the combats?).

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Nintendo, Wii

Son of the Dragon [Wii – Cancelled]

monokoma
27-11-2010
No Comments

Son of the Dragon is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by Renegade Kid and that would have been published by Gamecock for the Nintendo Wii. Sadly when Gamecock had to close down for economic issues, Renegade Kid was not able to find another publisher and the project had to be canned. Only few concept arts were released and it seems that Son of the Dragon was still in early development when it was cancelled. As we can read from an interview with Renegade Kid co-founder Jools Watsham on 1UP:

JW: Son of the Dragon was a third-person action adventure title set in a heavily stylized 15th century. You were Dracula. Something happened to you, which striped you of your ability to use your awesome powers. A quick description of it is a “good” 3D Castlevania where you are Dracula, with a focus on responsive combat, solid gameplay camera, light RPG elements, and a rich world of wickedly diverse landscapes, enemies, player weapons, and abilities. […]

JW: We spent many months developing the idea with a team of very experienced and dedicated individuals. The art team created loads of superb concept images for the player character, enemies, bosses, and environment locations. The design group created a game design document that quickly grew to over 100 pages, and detailed player abilities, damage types, enemy AI, items, accessories, level designs, currency, and many other details. It was truly inspired and exciting. We were considering licensing an engine for development, and the same day we had assets loaded into the engine, the hammer came down and the project was canceled. It was a bittersweet day.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 & 64DD, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sega, Sony

D-Jump! [N64 Dreamcast PS2 PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-11-2010
4 Comments

D-Jump is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development in 1997 / 1998 by Ubisoft Paris, planned to be released for the “next gen consoles” Dreamcast and Playstation 2, and also PC. It seems that the project was canned after 1 year and half of development, but there are just few info available. Derboo was able to find an article about D-Jump! in PowerPlay magazine issue 8/1998, in which we can see a couple of target renders. As we can read at IGN:

Starring a nimble “Rastafarian” lead character, D-Jump! blends action and platforming elements with a storyline based on time travel. Players must traverse several time periods to unlock the mystery of why their character is slowly turning into wood. Originally scheduled for release as a launch title for the PlayStation 2, D-Jump was later cancelled for unknown reasons.

For more information read this Gamespot article.

Thanks to derboo, Jorge and Isatis_Angel for the scans and to Nattie for her help in preserving more screens from their lost game!

One of the below scan is from Games Republic issue3.

UPDATE:

Seems that while the main development version was for PC, initially the game could have been also planned for N64.
A preview with more real-time screenshots are in fact found in GamePlay 64 issue 9.
I’ve added to the gallery a couple real-time screenshots that show the game in a much late state of development with the bright and cartoony style (and some other renders/concept arts).
Additionally I’ve added a brief trailer below.

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Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Chalice [DS – Cancelled]

monokoma
19-11-2010
No Comments

Chalice is a cancelled shoot ’em up that was in development in 2008 for the Nintendo DS by Santa Cruz Games. The team created a playable prototype, but it seems that they were not able to find a publisher interested in this project, so it had to be canned. Chalice had a graphic style that could somehow remind of REZ for the Dreamcast, but it was played as a 2D side-scroller shooter.

Thanks to SCI for the contribution!

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Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver [DS – Beta / Unused Stuff]

U64 Staff & Contributors
17-11-2010
No Comments

Before Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver were released, there were beta pictures from CoroCoro magazine that showed Silver’s, Chikorita’s, Pikachu’s and Pikachu-colored Pichu’s beta sprites. These were changed later on. There is also a beta back sprite of Ethan. His hair is slightly different and there is a symbol on his hat.

Beta screenshots also exist, one of the Slowpoke Well that instead shows a Team Rocket grunt standing where Proton is in the final version, as was the case in the original games, and another of the Mystri Stage in Sinjoh Ruins that shows the three circles being identical instead of three different colors in the final version.

Also, Cyndaquil’s sprite in the intro is different from its front sprite in the main games.