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Shantae 2: Risky Revolution [GBA – Cancelled]

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A Shantae sequel was planned for the Game Boy Advance, and screens resembled a port with updated graphics. However, all news of the game stopped and nothing became of it. It is assumed to have been cancelled. As with the original game, Shantae Advance was developed by creator Matt Bozon on his own time. This may be part of the reason for its cancellation, as without an official corporate backing, finding a publisher would be prohibitively difficult. A DS and/or PSP game may be released in the future. – [info from Wikipedia]

Another Shantae project was originally in development for the Nintendo DS in 2006, but it was later canned for some reasons. You can check our page for Shantae DS 2006 for more info and screens! In 2009, a new Shantae was announced for the DSiWare and probably it uses some of the concepts from the unreleased GBA and DS 2006 projects.

Thanks to Icefire2626 for the contribution!

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Donkey Kong Plus [GBA – Cancelled]

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Donkey Kong Plus is the name of an unreleased game demo developed by Nintendo as a demonstration at E3 2002. Nintendo had planned for the game to be an extension / sequel of the Donkey Kong Game Boy game. The player would have the ability to design and create levels on the GameCube, and play them on the Game Boy Advance using the GameCube cable. The user-created level could be tested out on the GameCube, then saved on a memory card.

Although the game was never released, it did inspire the gameplay of Nintendo’s Mario vs. Donkey Kong, for Game Boy Advance. A level editor was not officially available in this game, but it was included in the sequel, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis for the Nintendo DS. [info from Wikipedia]

An hidden level editor was found by Martboo48 in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, but to unlock it you’ll have to edit one single byte in the games memory code. It’s unknown why Nintendo hidden this editor from the final game, but it seems that Donkey Kong Plus and Mario vs. Donkey Kong could really be seen as the same project.

Thanks to Hiccup for the contribution!

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Project BG&E (Beyond Good & Evil) [Beta]

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Beyond Good & Evil is an action-adventure for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, designed by Michel Ancel, developed by Ubisoft and released in late 2003.  In early development the game was referred to as “Project BG&E” and only later the complete title was revealed to the press. In these beta screens and video, we can see some major differences in the character design of the main protagonist (Jade) and in some screens there are even a couple of enemies and rooms that seem to have been removed from the final game.

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Thornado [GameCube – Cancelled]

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Announced shortly after the release of the Nintendo 64, with the more familiar name of “Turrican 64“, Thornado was meant to be the first 3D game in the Turrican series, but with a different name because of some copyright problems. From the first N64 concept, which development was confirmed several times by Factor 5 in different interviews, there are not many informations, apart from the rumor that it was  going to be even more inspired by the exploration-structure of Metroid. Like several other N64 titles, Thornado 64 was soon cancelled and its development  started again for the new Nintendo console, at the time still known as the”Project  Dolphin“.

At the Space World 2000 Thornado was finally presented in a real time demo-video at closed doors for few gaming journalists. In that video, the hero of the game was trying to escape from an explosion, running on a huge bridge while the cars and the street itself were flying in the air. Unfortunately this video was never released and neither has any screenshots from the game: only some concept arts were saved to preserve the existence of this cancelled project.

Few details on the game are available: as announced for the 64-bit version, Thornado should have been inspired by Metroid, combining  a third person shooter action with exploration, two playable characters (a man and a woman), the return of  the “hookshoot” and futuristic setting from the classic Turrican. As noted by Ross Sillifant, Thornado WAS planned to be a GameCube LAUNCH title after N64 version was cancelled, see ‘whatever happened to Turrican?’ Arcade Mags Timewarp July 1998 feature.

Is still unknown why Thornado was never released, but maybe the various Star Wars projects that Factor 5 developed for the GameCube were one of the reasons. F5 were too busy to work on those profitable Star Wars games, to think about finishing Thornado.

An interesting note: in a level of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3 (Defenders of Ralltiir) for the GameCube, Factor 5 have added a small tribute to Thornado. Infact the great bridge in this mission is the same bridge that was modeled for the Thornado Tech Demo! Below  you can see some screenshots of the Ralltiir bridge, so we can have a vague idea about the Space World 2000 Thornado video.

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Luigi’s Mansion [GC – Beta / Tech Demo / Unused Stuff]

In its beta E3 2001 version, Luigi’s Mansion featured different ghosts than the final version. The 3 main ghosts (Orange, Pink, and Blue) were very different looking than their present day forms. The Orange ghost used to be a pink colored ghost featuring smaller eyes and mouth. The tall and thin pink ghost was once an orange lanky ghost with a huge nose. The blue ghost was originally a purplish colored ghost with smaller eyes and mouth. There was also another ghost that was scrapped from the final. It was colored dark purple, had a similar look to the pink beta ghost, and was only found in the hallways of the Mansion. Of what the ghost did was come up behind Luigi and scream; causing Luigi to yell in fear and fall to the ground. This would cause 50 HP to be drained from Luigi’s health and temporarily shrink his total HP to 50 as well. If the ghost still exists, it would have the same behavior as a ReDead.

In very early screenshots (all being the E3 version), there were shots of a timer in the Game Boy Horror, possibly hinting that the game was either going to have a challenge mode or a time limit, but was scrapped in the final version. It is said that if Luigi did not save Mario within the 24 hours he had, the mansion, along with mario, would vanish. In other builds, the Gameboy Horror also feature a Gameboy Camera-like effect, so it showed everything it could “see”. It is suspected that the Gameboy Horror had at first the time keeping function, and then the Gameboy Camera-like mode, and the onto a different version of the final’s GBH. The near final build had more of a cartoony icon set, while the final build has the more realistic icon set.

The Poltergust 3000 once featured a “heat meter”, showing of how hot it would get from sucking objects and ghosts up. Its gauge went from a level of 1 to 10. Once it got to 10, the Poltergust 3000 would burst into flames, and cause Luigi to collapse onto the floor, also having Luigi lose some of his HP. On the side note, the Poltergust 3000 was more squarish compared to the final’s version.

Other differences include slight changes in room designs, a beta coin meter, and many other objects. – [info from Wikipedia]

The ending screen would probably unlock to your file a “congratulations” image, or probably just an image for the ending, such as a picture in the wall. Three unused different looking sprites were found by Gabrielwoj, as can see below:

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“luigi_b.bti_color/alpha”, probably with Bad ending, with low money. (B = Bad)
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“luigi_g.bti_color/alpha”, probably with medium ending, with a good quantity of money. (G = Great)
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“luigi_V.bti_color/alpha”, probably with perfect ending, with all the money caught. (V = Victory)

Thanks to SteamingBulletMatthew Burke and Gabrielwoj for the contribution!

Miyamoto recently spoked about the Nintendo 3DS system, and said that the Nintendo Gamecube was capable of playin stereoscopic 3D video. He said too that they made a compatible version from Luigi’s mansion that with an accessory is able to display in special LCD TVs the game in 3D.

According to a issue in nintendo power,there was going to be a hidden boss ghost that was a generic austrailian hunter guy,and had dialogue that was on the lines of saying he wanted to Kill you and mount your head on the wall. He shot his rifle at you as you ran around the Safari Room.

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