Wii

Eduardo the Samurai Toaster [Wii – Beta]

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!

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Here’s a video from the final version:
 

Sadness [Wii, WiiU- Cancelled]

Sadness is a cancelled horror game that was in development by Polish video game developer Nibris for the Wii. Frontline Studios had previously signed a deal to co-produce Sadness. However, as of March 17 2007, the companies parted ways due to “artistic differences”. Set in pre-WWI Eastern Europe, Sadness would have followed the story of Maria, a Victorian era aristocrat who has to protect her blind son Alexander after their train derails in the countryside. Their subsequent adventures were based on Slavic legends. [Info from Wikipedia]

After years of development issues, in February 2010 Sadness’ website was closed and the game was officially cancelled, probably because they never found a publisher interested in the project.

Some music tracks created for the game were leaked online, as we can read on Polish Music Blog:

Polish game music blog Gramuzyka has come into possession of thirteen unreleased tracks by composer Arkadiusz Reikowski from Sadness , proving there was actual work done on the game. It seems this music was to be included in a demo version of the game that never saw the light of day.

Some more details were translated by Olga from different Polish sources, such as Gry Online, My Nintendo & Gram:

– Started as a wii game, but the development moved to wiiU after Nibris was disbanned in 2010. It was picked up by two american development teams, HullBreach Studios and Cthulhi Games, who had „some part in making the original”. They wanted to keep the game close to the original vision, but the work was practically started from scratch, changing a lot of technical aspects.
– Maria’s (the protagonist) full name was Maria Lengyel
– The train derailment takes place „somewhere in eastern Europe”, but another source states it was specifically Ukraine.
– Aleks wasn’t blind from the start; he lost his eyesight in the derailment, which also caused him to suffer from narcolepsy, schizofrenia and nyktophobia (fear of darkness).
– Aleks’ behavior was supposed to get more and more unsettling as the game progresses
– The game’s visual style is described as „gothic” and „lacking in color”, using only shades of gray.
– Actual fights with monsters were rare; instead, the player would have to use stealth, exploration and „other actions” that would help in the protagonist’s survival.
– Wii version was 3D and made on the gamebryo engine, while the WiiU version was made in 2D on the unity engine.
– The WiiU version put greater Focus on puzzles and „RPG-esque elements”
– Maria Lengyel was a polish-hungarian aristocrat
– Maria was supposed to lose conciousnes after the derailment. When she wakes up, she sees men dressed in black killing off the other survivors. Her husband and two other children are dead, her third child, Aleksander, is missing. Grieving Maria goes to find her son.
– Apparently, there were multiple plot synopsises: One is the above one, the second one has Aleks losing his sight, and the third one stated that Aleks was Maria’s brother, not son.
– Frontline Studios based in Bydgoszcz was allegedly to co-produce the game
– Nibris apparently didn’t have a publisher chosen
– FOG studios from Kraków was responsible for marketing.
– Game was planned for the end of 2007, but was pushed to 2009. There were periodic updates about the development going well.
– The game was allegedly supposed to be featured on E3 2009
– After removal of the site, a part of the team started Bloober Team, while the rest of the team is coordinating the European Game Center (Europejskie centrum gier) in Kraków
– The train at the start was heading to Lvow
– Some sources say the game took place before WWI, but this source says it takes place during it.
– Everything was done with the wii remote, forsaking menus for a seamless experience
– There was a rumor that the music was to be composed by Piotr Rubik, a fameous polish composer.
– Aleksander was eight years old
– Cutscenes were planned, but its unclear if they were made on the game engine.
– NPCs that the player could talk to were planned.
– Eight endings were planned, each one with a different message. Player’s actions were judged, the most important were ones concerning Aleks, how the player treated him and took care of his physical and mental well-being.

Thanks to Unvaluablespace, UserdanteAndrew, Olga and Anonymous for the contributions!

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Tournament of Legends [Wii – Beta]

Tournament of Legends (previously known as Gladiator A.D.) is a fighting game  developed by High Voltage Software for the Wii. The game was aiming for a highly realistic and mature look and contained high amounts of blood and gore, including bloody finishing moves.

In February of 2010, it was announced that Gladiator A.D. had secured a publisher, Sega, and had its name changed to Tournament of Legends. The visual style was changed to feature mythological features instead of the highly realistic look the game had originally. The amount of blood and gore was also apparently greatly reduced as the game’s look was altered to aim for the ESRB’s T rating, rather than the M rating Gladiator A.D. had been aiming for. [Info from Wikipedia]

The gameplay now looks more fast and arcadish than before.

Thanks to Robert for the contribution!

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For comparison, here’s a video from the “final” version:

 

Little King’s Story [Wii – Beta]

Little King’s Story​ (originally known as “Project O”) is a simulation / strategic RPG co-developed by Town Factory and Cing, released for the Wii in 2009. The game was first shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007 and in the early screens we can notice some interesting differences:

  • Some enemies were never implemented in the game, as a papercraft bird that could have been able to transform itself into a paper airplane.
  • The beta city had a completely different layout than the final one, with buildings and rivers in different places.
  • It seems that the king was able to guide more than 30 people at once.
  • In the beta the edifices were build by the town folks and you were able to see them work on their new houses while they were in development (as it happens with bridges in the final). In the final game, you just chose which new building you want to create from your throne, and when you came out from the castle, the new building is already finished.
  • In one of the screens we can notice the king at the top of an house’s roof, from where he talks to his crowd. You can’t go over roof in the final game.
  • There are a couple of images with Verde and a weird character (with a yellow head) that seem to be from a cutscene that was removed from the final game (or did i miss it?).
  • A red dragon was  on the beach too, but it’s never in there in the final version.
  • In the final game every Animal Hunter has a “cat cap” on their heads, but in a beta screen we can see one of them that doesnt wear any cap.
  • In one of the screenshots there are 2 “wooden-totem” enemies, but in the final we meet just one of them in a quest (or did i miss them in some other quest?)
  • Howser was able to join the king army too, to battle along the other people.
  • In the first trailer from Tokyo Game Show, the intro of the game was different.

Also, from a postmortem  article on Gamasutra we can read about a removed chapter that was planned for the beginning of the game and other unseen features:

In the original code, there was an introduction chapter where you could play Corobo (Little King’s Story protagonist) in pajamas looking for the crown. It took you around 40 minutes before you could find the crown, and it actually hindered the tempo. That’s why we decided to cut this and replace it with the opening you can see in the final game.

We had to scrap the multiplayer feature: A local two-player feature was implemented in the code but had to be removed. I also had to abandon the idea of having a network feature.

In the original concept, we were considering having a system in which the NPCs would develop automatically through their life simulation in the kingdom without requiring the user to grind. However, we started to realize that by using such a development system, the NPCs couldn’t keep up with the later enemies or became far too strong, ruining all the level design created to that point.

In an interview by Cubed3 with Marvelous Entertainment’s Yoshiro Kimura we can find some more info on the removed Multiplayer mode:

There were interesting multiplayer modes where the player could shoot cannons and control Pancho, but unfortunately due to time constraints we weren’t able to implement them into the game. I’m really sad we couldn’t have that in the game.

Milestones:

2006 June: Game Concept
2006 November: Evaluation of the prototype
2007 March: Full development start
End of February 2009: European master submission
End of April 2009: US and Japanese master submission
April 26, 2009, European release
July 21st, 2009, US release
September 3rd, 2009, Japanese release

Thanks to JulianCJ for the contribution!

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De Blob [Wii – Beta]

De Blob is platform-puzzle game developed by Blue Tongue and published by THQ in 2008. The game was originally developed as a free downloadable game for the Windows PC by students of Game Design & Development and Game and Media Technology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

THQ noticed the game and was very impressed with the team’s work, acquired the rights and handed over the project to Blue Tongue Entertainment to develope the Wii version. [Info from Wikipedia]

MrRetroGamer96 found a video of an alpha/ near beta version of De Blob from E3 2007:  the hud is entirely different, and the other heroes besides De Blob are not the same. Billboards all have the same image in this version, wheras in the final game they are diverse in the image that shows up on them.

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