Nintendo

Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic [NES / Famicom – Cancelled]

Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic (迷路大活劇ぱたぱたパニック) is a cancelled puzzle game that was in development by Varie Corporation for Nintendo Famicom / NES. It’s quite an obscure lost game and there’s no information about it online, but a promotional poster was sold sometime ago on Yahoo Auction Japan, so at least we can see artwork and some tiny screenshots. Varie officially announced the cancellation of their game in Famitsu magazine (December 22, 1989).

If you can find something else on Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic in old japanese magazines, please let us know!

  

Jibaku-kun: Zero no Ki no Kajitsu [Game Boy Color – Cancelled]

Jibaku-kun: Zero no Ki no Kajitsu (ジバクくん 零の樹の果実 ワールド) is a cancelled Action RPG that was in development by Enterbrain and Media Factory for Game Boy Color. The game is based on a manga / anime series by Ami Shibata and gameplay is kinda similar to the Tales Of series: players can explore the world and its cities, talking to NPCs and resolving quests, while fighting monsters in side-scrolling combat.

This is one of the playable GBC prototypes that was found in the Nintendo Gigaleak in September 2020, so luckily it was preserved: a few  screenshots and gameplay footage are available online.

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War Monster [Nintendo DS – Tech Demo, Cancelled]

Wicked Witch Software is a video game developer founded in 2001 which created a few original IPs for their projects. One of these IPs was “War Monster”, a medieval fantasy world similar to Warcraft that could have been used for many different kinds of games, such as RTS, platform, action adventure and even MMORPG. This Nintendo DS tech demo was created by the team to pitch their skills to different publishers, hoping to find someone who could be interested in supporting their ideas.

Details about this War Monster DS demo were shared by WWS on their old website:

“We would love to see an awesome multiplayer RPG on handheld. Imagine while traversing the open world you come across a dungeon: you could enter alone or connect to other players to explore the dungeon together. Each dungeon would increase in difficulty and adjust the challenges as more players join your team!

  • Deeply immersive 3d world and a varied cast of characters from tiny fairies to massive giants!
  • Unlimited random levels and scripted quests to complete and achieve!
  • Immersive RPG elements with customizable characters, weapons, abilities and attacks.
  • Unlock and explore worlds and seek out mystical items to aid in your adventure.”

As with their Game Boy Color version of War Monster, unfortunately the team was not able to get funds to work on this Nintendo DS project, so it had to be canned. The War Monster IP was later reused to create a RTS released (?) for Cell Phones.

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Winnetou: Wild Land [Nintendo DS – Cancelled]

Winnetou: Wild Land is a cancelled side-scrolling action game that was in development by Snapdragon Games for Nintendo DS around 2007 / 2008. It was based on a fictional Native American hero created by German author Karl May, but at the moment no other details are available about this lost game. As far as we know Winnetou: Wild Land was officially announced by the team, possibly to find a publisher interested in funding the project. Unfortunately it seems they were not able to sign a contract and Winnetou: Wild Land was soon canned. Today only a bunch of screenshots and mock-ups remain to remember it was once in development.

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Wicked! (VIS Interactive) [Nintendo 64 – Cancelled]

Wicked! is a cancelled action adventure that was in development by VIS Interactive for Nintendo 64. The team also worked on “Earthworm Jim 3D” and “Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry” for the N64, but Wicked would have been one of their few original IPs. It seems the game could have been an action adventure with magical settings, inspired by such TV series as “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”.

Images from a VIS Interactive pamphlet shown some of the characters designed for this canned game:

Huge thanks to Kirk Ewing and Iain Roberts for the contribution!

The project was never shown to the public, but a design doc was found by video game collectors some years ago (if you have a copy of this document, please let us know!). There’s also an updated concept art for Wicked!’s protagonist (Jenny), drawn by Paul Simms with the following note:

“Jenny’s not bad, she’s….. Wicked. An old, old N64 demo character brought up to date”.