Nintendo

Chalice [DS – Cancelled]

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

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. 

Aspect Warriors [GEN MD SNES – Cancelled?]

Aspect Warriors is a cancelled action game / RTS based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Genesis / Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. The game was previewed in some european magazines, but in the end it seems that it was never released (or was it published under a different name?). Only few screens remain to preserve the existence of Aspect Warriors.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scans!

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Sonic Colors / Colours [Wii – Beta]

Sonic Colors or Sonic Colours is a platform game developed by Sonic Team for the Wii. Tehe video below is from the e3 demo of Sonic Colours, there are some minor differences between this and the final.

-The music has much more bass than in the final.
-The announcer shouted “POWER UP” whenever a wisp was collected.
-The announcer shouts “SPIN” when the yellow wisp is used, while in the final he shouts “DRILL”.
-Music doesn’t change when using the green wisp (the laser wisp).
-Some of rings and wisp power-ups are in different locations than in the final.
-The announcer’s “good, great, awesome, outstanding, amazing!” is different in this version. It was re-recorded for the final.

Thanks to Slashy for the contribution!

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Aerogauge [N64 – Beta]

Marcel sent us a couple of screens from an early version of Aerogauge, an F-Zero clone that was released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64. It seems that the HUD was different, but as we never played the final game, we dont know if there are other interesting beta differences. Maybe someone else will be able to notice more differences!

A video from the retail version, the same stage: we can notice the hud changes and different textures. The “car” seems almost the same as the beta version