Wave Race: Blue Storm is a jet ski racing game released as a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube on November 18, 2001. It was a sequel to the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Wave Race 64 and was developed by Nintendo-owned development studio, NST. [Infos from Wikipedia]
When the new Wave Race project for the Gamecube was first shown at the Space World 2000, Nintendo presented a small tech demo with a different graphic style than the one used in the final game, more similar to the Nintendo 64 version. Probably this was just an early concept for the title and the final character design was still undecided.
Also, as noticed by Rusko Star, if you look in the booklet in the released game or in the old videos you can see that Serena had a ponytail in the beta version!
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.
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.
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]
Zero Racers (G-Zero) is a cancelled game for the Virtual Boy that was in development alongside F-Zero X that was close to completion. A prototype exists, since the game was previewed by Nintendo Power and has been seen at E3 1996. Gameplay differs in one important point from its predecessor and all F-Zero games released afterwards. In Zero Racers another dimension is being made use of. It is possible to speed through the three physical dimensions of space in the turning tunnels. – [source: Wikipedia]
Virtua Hamster is an unreleased racing game that was in development for Sega’s 32x, designed and produced by Eric Quakenbush. The player would have controlled a series of rodents on wheels, to race in 3D mazes, trying to avoid an huge Mechanical Snake. The project was cancelled when Sega discontinued the 32X before production could be completed. Some playable prototypes of the game still exist and they were sold in various auctions on ebay. An early alpha of Virtua Hamster was finally released in August 2009 by SEGASaturno.
The game was later ported to Saturn but cancelled again when the game was almost complete. Sega still owed payments to the developer of Virtua Hamster, David A. Palmer Productions. David A. Palmer revealed to Unseen64 that “the entire intellectual property of this game and code” was signed over to his company as part of a legal settlement.
As we can read from the original pre-production design document:
High Concept: A maze game in which the player assumes the role of a rocket-powered hamster test pilot who must navigate a gigantic habitrail from hell in order to thwart the plans of an evil scientist and regain his rodent freedom.
Hook: The look and fast paced action of Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter combined with an amusing puzzle strategy game and an unlikely group of heroes and enemies.
Setting: The majority of the game takes place in a mad scientists lab facility. The scientist has assembled a truly humongus habitrail-type maze in order to test his rocket powered rodent experiments.
Characters: Player One is a test pilot hamster from a rival lab and was stolen by the mad scientist. Player One’s goal is to retrieve all of the stolen blue-print pieces and escape from the lab. The hamster pilot has to navigate the complicated maze as well as fend off evil rocket riding rodents, a mechanical snake, and the scientists voracious cat.
Thanks to Ryan Jacques and David A. Palmer for the contribution!
You can read more info on Virtual Hamster at Sega 16.
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