News on Cancelled Video Games & Lost Media

The new Mario Kart for the GameCube was first showed at the E3 2001 with a seven seconds long trailer. The clip featured Mario and Luigi driving their karts on a bump mapped 3D surface with no background. At the time MK was still early in development, and the working title of the game was simply Mario Kart. This video was created by Nintendo only to let the players know that there would have been a new racing game with Mario on the GameCube, but the final concept was still not decided.

In April 2003, Nintendo released the first pictures and details of the real game, as well as revealing the title, which was Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart and different styles of karts, had been implemented. While the tech demo was more similar to the old Mario Karts, the final game was different from what we can see in these screens and video. Those Mario and Luigi models seems to be the same from Super Smash Bros Melee.

Thanks to DRMARIOX for the contribution!

[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Il gioco presentato in questo video si rivela drasticamente differente da quello che sarà poi l’effettivo episodio della serie “Mario kart” uscito su Gamecube. Quest’ ultimo, infatti, innova con kart personalizzati ed ospitanti due personaggi contemporaneamente, uno adibito alla guida, l’altro al lancio di oggetti. Come è possibile constatare nelle foto invece, la versione preliminare si presentava come una normalissima conversione della normale formula di gioco su game cube, con kart standard e monoposto. Impossibile tuttavia dire altro a riguardo, dato che gli unici personaggi mostrati furono Mario e Luigi e data l’assenza di un vero percorso di gioco.

Intro by Anonimo [/spoiler]

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GameCube, Nintendo

Donkey Kong Racing [GameCube – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

3 Comments

A tech demo for a Donkey Kong game on the GameCube was shown at SpaceWorld 2001. The game was called Donkey Kong Racing and shown various characters, including Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Taj the Genie racing on Ellie, Expresso, Rambi, Enguarde, and Zinger, and presumably, Necky, Army, and Chomps Jr. that had been introduced in previous Donkey Kong games by Rare. This project was going to be a spiritual sequel to “Diddy Kong Racing”.

Following the sale of Rare to Microsoft in 2002, Rare announced that they were concentrating their efforts on Xbox games. [Infos from Wikipedia]

From some rumors it seems that the Donkey Kong Racing concept was somehow ported to the original XBOX, minus the Nintendo characters. The game so became know as “Sabreman Stampede Racing“, with the Sabre Wulf cast of characters. The XBOX version evolved in something more than just a racing game and the “adventure style” that you can feel in Diddy Kong Racing was even more expanded. Sadly not much infos are available on the subject, and in the end even the XBOX version was cancelled. An XBOX 360 port was started too, but never finished. Some of the concepts of Sabremen Stampede 360 were reused as initial ideas for Banjo & Kazooie Nuts & Bolts.

As we can read in an interview with Lee Musgrave:

It was a pure racing game, the underlying software mechanics were actually based on car physics, but it also incorporated the idea of riders jumping between different animals mid-race, to always be riding the ones that were bigger or faster . . . we had some awesome gameplay in place, and it was lots of fun – we even had a multiplayer version working – and when you fell off, you had to tap-tap-tap (HyperSports style) to run on foot and catch up with an animal. Fun, but it lost some appeal without the DK universe around it, and Microsoft were unsure of its potential with Xbox gamers I think.

[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Presentato per la prima volta sotto forma di filmato all’E32001, questo gioco sarebbe dovuto essere il seguito del lodato Diddy Kong Racing su N64. Come si può ben vedere dalle foto i mezzi non sarebbero stati più kart o veicoli convenzionali, ma animali presi in prestito dagli archivi dei vari giochi Rare, Donkey Kong Country, 64 e Racing compresi. Purtroppo il titolo a causa delle vicissitudini che travolsero Rare non ha mai superato lo stadio di filmato, almeno in pubblico. Non è chiaro neanche se parte del progetto sia stato inserito nel racing per GBA Donkey Kong Pilot, ma le somiglianze sono veramente minime e tutto lascia presagire che questo gioco non abbia lasciato tracce di se in altre pubblicazioni Rare. Piccola curiosità: le foto beta di DKR si possono addirittura trovare sul retro delle confezioni dei primi GameCube! [/spoiler]

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GameCube, Nintendo, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Killer 7 [Proto / Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

4 Comments

Killer 7 is an adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Capcom. It was released in 2005 but it was first announced in 2002 as one of the original “Capcom 5” games. In 3 years of development the game changed a lot from its original concept trailer and when Killer 7 was finally released many parts of the story were removed.

None of the scenes from the first Killer 7 Trailer ended up in the final game. Garcian and Kaede smith look totally different from their final forms, and Harman Smith is wheelchair-ridden in the final game and only playable for a couple of sections throughout the entire story. The scenes with Dan Smith shooting the woman and Con Smith are never seen. We shudder to think what lost plot points and further story we would have gotten if that stuff would have stayed in there.

For more informations you can read the Killer 7 Beta Analysis Article

Thanks a lot to Dr. Swank for the contribution!

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GameCube, Nintendo

Dead Phoenix [GameCube – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

2 Comments

Dead Phoenix was a video game for the Nintendo GameCube that was never released. It was announced as one of the Capcom Five, a set of five Capcom-developed games originally planned as GameCube exclusives. The failed to make an appearance at E3 2003 and was subsequently removed from Capcom’s website and release schedule.

Very little is actually known about Dead Phoenix. The game was cancelled before sufficient development had taken place, so details, such as those regarding the story or gameplay, are virtually unknown. It was said to be set in a somewhat mythical world, full of demons, and dragons. Early screenshots show the player character flying through large, open-ended environments and doing battle with numerous monsters.

Although the game was cancelled, rumors of it being brought back into development are common within certain circles of gamers. One rumor that has become infamous is IGN’s theory of Dead Phoenix being the next generation of Kid Icarus, which began with an article covering GameCube rumors.

While fans have hoped for a continuation of the Dead Phoenix project, Capcom has refused to comment on the possibility of a resurrection. As further confirmation of the game’s demise, the trademark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office was listed as “Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response” in 2004. Therefore, it is unlikely Capcom will ever return to the project. [Infos from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to Matt Gander for the Art Title!]

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GameCube, Nintendo

P.N.03 [GC – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

2 Comments

P.N.03, short for Product Number Three, is a 2003 video game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube. P.N.03 is a third-person shooter featuring a dexterous, cybernetically-enhanced woman named Vanessa Z. Schneider who the player controls to destroy a series of robots.

The game was designed to have a “classic” feel through use of use things such as point combos for destroying multiple enemies in a row. Originally, during the planning stages, P.N.03 was a wargame known simply as “Robot War Game”. Five days after starting development, graphics were put on-screen and Shinji Mikami felt nothing from how the game was turning out.

He then decided to change the direction of the game to its current form, with the female protagonist. Later during development, Mikami felt that the game’s name should be Jaguar to reflect Vanessa’s cat-like agility. However, other staff members did not like the name; some claimed that it didn’t describe the game well enough and others thought that White Jaguar would be a better title. Mikami then forced himself to come up with the name Product Number 03, which he shortened to P.N.03 to give it a more mysterious feel. Even after the name was changed, a staff member made Vanessa’s crouch pose on her hands and knees to resemble a jaguar, saying that the game would always be ‘Jaguar’ to him. [Infos from Wikipedia

In these early screens we can see Vanessa using “real” weapons, while in the final version she just shoot energy from her hands.

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