New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards [N64 – Beta]

Kirby 64 had a long and complex developed cycle, with many delays. The project was developed by HAL and it was designed to be a real sequel for Kirby Dreamland 3 for SNES. The beta screens in the gallery below shown an early version of the game, in which it seems that other playable characters (as Dedede) could have been used in many more levels. If you have more info on the differences in this beta, please let us know!

[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Kirby 64 ha avuto uno sviluppo piuttosto complesso, subendo ritardi su ritardi, cosa del resto poco sorprendente vista la storia del Nintendo 64. Ad occuparsi del gioco fu HAL, della quale è anche una sorta di mascotte. Venne pensato fin dall’inizio per essere un vero e proprio seguito di Kirby Dreamland 3 per SNES: in breve niente salto in 3d, ma formula classica riproposta con grafica poligonale in stile Klonoa. Dalle prime immagini mostrate, fino alla versione finale, non è che cambi molto, tutte le aree che si vedono nelle foto sono state proposte anche al momento della commercializzazione, così come i personaggi giocabili, seppur per brevi periodi (ad esempio Dedede, quello celeste e obeso).

La differenza principale, oltre alle varie rifiniture ed alla maggiore pulizia grafica, sta nell’interfaccia: se le stelle sono state rimpiazzate da alcuni blocchi rappresentanti l’energia di Kirby, i semicerchi dorati, così come i tre piccoli contenitori quadrati sulla sinistra, sono scomparsi nella versione finale (anche se i semicerchi, forse, sono stati sostituiti da una semplice barra orizzontale, che quando è riempita dona una vita); per il resto il contatore delle vite (il numero a sinistra) e le abilità combinate (a destra), sono rimaste immutate nelle sostanza anche se migliorate nella forma.

Per finire vi proponiamo una foto trovata recentemente (l’ultima, in basso), che rappresenta una fase realmente presente in Kirby (dotato di spada laser di Darth Mauliana memoria), ma mostra un’interfaccia che non esiste nel gioco finale: più schematica, quasi futuristica, ma uguale nei dati segnalati.[/spoiler]

[spoiler /Cliquez pour lire la version en français/ /Click on link to read the french version of this article/]

Kirby 64 eu un cycle de développement long, coûteux, complèxe, avec beaucoup de retardement. Le projet était développé par HAL et il était conçu au départ pour être une suite au jeu Kirby Dreamland 3 de la SNES. Les captures d’écrans du stade beta qui se trouve dans la gallerie en bas de cet article, montrent une version antérieure, dans laquelle il semble possible de contrôler plusieurs autres personnages (Comme Dedede), dans plusieurs niveaux différents. Finalement, le seul personnage qui ne semble pas pouvoir être contrôlé par le joueur, c’est Adeline.
Si vous avez plus d’information sur les différences entre la version finale et la version beta, s’il-vous-plaît veuillez nous le signaler!

(Ceci est une traduction intégrale de la version de l’article en anglais plus haut)[/spoiler]

Thanks to Joe Long, FullMetalMC, Nick, ToadTReborn, Hydrozor & Ultraman82 for the contributions!

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Eternal Darkness [Nintendo 64 – Cancelled]

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Created by Silicon Knights, Eternal Darkness was an interesting game for the nintendo 64 that seemed to be able to bring new life to the Survival Horror creating the first “psychological thriller”. However, it was later ported to the Gamecube. Was it really never released for the Nintendo 64 or it was just an insanity effect ?

For more information check our article about eternal darkness

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Carnivale [N64 – Cancelled]

Carnivale is an animated film which because of its particular style and its lack of success, had only a limited release in certain European countries in 2000. A game based on this film was in development by Vatical Entertainment for the Nintendo 64 and it was even shown with an incomplete build at E3 1999, but the project was later cancelled.

The game plot would have follow the story of the film: a group of kids stuck in an amusement park in another dimension, along with a strange woman that never ages. The graphic had the same style of the film, a simplified design that was well suited for the limited 3D capacity of the N64.

The 128-megabit Carnivale 64 was supposed to have 3 modes of play. The first option included a classic Adventure Mode, with 5 scenarios available (or at least that was the number of the areas completed before the cancellation), including a ghost train and a rat-infested sewer trip. The player was able to explore the weird amusement park with the help of many available power-ups, playing several mini-games with platform / shooter sections – among them “test your strength” machines, a duck shooting gallery with ascending and descending obstacles, and a Punch & Judy show. The player would have to collect a certain amount of coins to access new locations and mini-games.

For those looking for a more immediate fun, in the second mode we would have been able to directly play all the mini-games, probably after unlocking them in the adventure mode. A “Racing Mode” was planned too, in which to race against the computer or in 2-player mode with a friend, complete with Mario Kart-style weapons.

Sadly Carnivale’s development team, Terraglyph, was being reorganized at that time and many employees were fired and the game vanished without traces until May 2009, when a playable prototype was found by NesWorld. You can read an interesting article on the game in here!

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Caesar Palace 64 [N64 – Cancelled]

Caesar Palace 64 is a cancelled “casino simulator” that was meant to be released for the Nintendo 64. Play slot machines and card games could not seem an interesting concept for a 1999 game, but Crave Entertainment and Lobotomy Studios though to create an adventure mode that was set in a Casino, where the player would have been able to explore the 3D scenario to interact with NPC as in a RPG, to win games and complete the final mission (to own the casino?). Caesar Palace 64 could have been an interesting project, but it was never released, maybe because it was economically a risk to release it when the N64 was almost dead.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Dragon Sword (Storm) [N64 – Cancelled]

Dragon Sword, officially announced in early 1998, is another cancelled game for the Nintendo 64. More precisely, it was a coop action-adventure / hack & slash developed by Interactive Studios / Blitzgames (the creators of Glover) and set in a fantasy world called Avantaria, where a group of four heroes had to stop the evil plans of Xyrus the mage.

It seems that originally Dragon Sword had a strong emphasis on exploration and adventure elements, but in the latest builds (shown in the screenshots below) it became a frenetic action game, similar to many memorable arcades of the past, as Gauntlet or Golden Axe. In fact Dragon Sword was supposed to play a lot like Gauntlet Legends 64, with generators that must be destroyed in order to  avoid the respawn of the enemies.

One or two players were able to play together and to chose from 4 different characters (Cutter, Kailan, Gouranga and Aisha)with which fight hundreds of soldiers. Each character had its own set of attacks and abilities.

Some features betrayed clearly a greater ambition than the usual hack &  slash, such as the presence of different weather conditions, large and  varied enviroments, a rpg-like experience system and many different magical weapons.

Other than the 2 players coop in the story mode, there was a fun 4 players deathmatch mode, that was more enjoyable than many of the standard fighting games released for the Nintendo 64. A “Time Trial” mode was also available!

Dragon Sword was basically finished, but unfortunately, like many other N64 titles, it was destined  to never see the light of day:  it seems that the game was cancelled because MGM Interactive (the publisher) though that it would have not sell enough to gain profit.

Supposedly the english 64 Magazine was able to play an almost-final build of Dragon Sword, which got 93% in their review. They liked the game so much that they tried to organize a petition in order to convince the  MGM to release it,  but sadly their effort didn’t work.

In the gallery below you can see many screens from the latest Dragon Sword build and some early target renders that look very different from the “final” game.

In April 2010, thanks to an anonymous collector, a playable beta of Dragon Sword was shared online: there are 7 levels available and even the deathmatch multiplayer mode is working! There are some bugs, but for an unfinished N64 game that was in development more than 12 years ago, the game is fun enough, especially if you can play it in coop mode with a friend.

From the internal HEX code, it seems that they planned to have 9 levels for Dragon Sword, but after you finish the 7th level in the beta, the game crashes. We still dont know how to load the 8th level or if it’s in the game at all. It’s possible that only level 1 to 7 are playable. A test-level could be hidden in the beta too.

You can see a lot of concept arts created for Dragon Sword in Ohnhai’s DA Gallery. In there, you can notice many scenes that were never developed into the “final” game, as a town filled with people, magic system and the possibility to ride a dragon to explore the world.

Edward Kirk was able to find some codes to access to all the playable levels and some test-areas, you can find more info at his website!

I looked at complete levels and found the following Gameshark code (after checking some fifty or so addresses): 801249B3 000X. X denotes the different level value. The Level Section Select code has been found. Gameshark code 801249B7 000X, where X is usually a value from 0 to 3, but this may depend upon the level. As you cannot progress beyond the first part of Level 8 if you use just the Level Select code, use this code to see the other parts of the level

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Thanks to Christian Mohr Jensen for some of the videos below!

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