The N64 thread got me thinking about some of the impressive late-lifetime games for various platforms that just didn’t make it. Often they got released on later platforms (like shenmue) or canceled altogether, but they make you wonder what could’ve been if those games had been released in the console’s lifetime.
Starting with the amazing Saturn version of Shenmue. Just astounding for that platform, but there was no way they were going to finish this game to this level of quality there.
then there’s this 32X tech demo (the makers of which went on to make games like Amok for saturn):
Then there’s Dinosaur Planet on N64. Frankly this thing should’ve gotten released.
Any other examples of games that would’ve pushed the limits of an aging console, but then never got released?
The Dinosaur Planet prototype leaking a couple years ago was such an emotional rollercoaster to me. I’ve always been a Star Fox Adventures defender, but seeing the early version really revealed how the finished game was practically just spending two years taking all the scattered bits they had and redoing them for the Gamecube. Not to mention how they completely butchered Krystal’s role. Oof!
I would’ve taken the ambitious Nintendo 64 game over the pretty standard Gamecube game any day of the week.
I really like the look of the footage we have of Ico on ps1. kinda amazing how the sensation the visual style provokes is almost the same on these videos as in the last guardian.
This is a mockup trailer somebody made with all the footage there is.
And this was released by genDesign for Ico’s 20th anniversary
I also feel like the fact the it ended up on PS2 but running natively at 240p and being on cd-rom instead of dvd leaves some of the PS1 soul in there. the most PS1 game on the PS2?
I was really looking forward to Megaman Legends 3 and when I do go back and look at those gameplay protoype videos I do still wish we could have seen what MML would play like with what looked like more modern/varied (modern for 2011 lol) traversal while retaining that lock the player character holds on the camera’s perspective.
Re-reading the op and realized we’re not including all cancelled games, just ones that would have been released late in a console’s life and MML3 would have been the opposite of that hehe
Has anyone here heard of a game called Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo? Probably not; it was a Bandai-published RPG set to be released some time in 1998, only to get canceled shortly before release. What makes this interesting is HOW shortly before release. Not only did it receive an official serial number like every other PlayStation release, but the box art surfaced on social media a few years ago. All this suggests it was in a complete enough state that Bandai considered releasing it; maybe even that a near-final copy of the game survives somewhere.
Not sure where this would’ve gone in the chronology of N64, but I’ve always liked the look of this Fire Emblem 64 that eventually got scrapped in favor of / molded into Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi - what we now know as Fire Emblem: Binding Blade in the West, though it still hasn’t been officially released here.
I came to the 360 / PS3 era just as it was ending and really didn’t want to jump to PS4 / XBO to play games I was excited for. So that’s why I was bummed Killer Instinct didn’t make the cut fer 360
Mortal Kombat X was also in that position, but there is no footage of it out there.
I briefly considered emailing Bandai to ask them what the hell happened with the game. I tossed the idea aside when I couldn’t find any email address for the company.
(If you’re wondering why I thought I could get away with this: I emailed NanaOn-Sha about Vib-Ripple (maybe Mojib-Ribbon) back in 2015 and actually got a response.)
While it did come out eventually, there was a direct sequel to NiGHTS called Air NiGHTS apparently in development for both the Saturn and then the Dreamcast, which became Journey into Dreams on the Wii.
There’s next to no information about it around, but one possible exciting could have been is the controller for the Dreamcast, as it apparently had tilt controls and was designed for the game.
This reminds me of how Lost Odyssey was kind of a PS2 game (or a original Xbox game I guess). I wonder how it would look like in a 6th gen console, or if they were to remake it today.
“The game design went smoothly as the game’s staff were used to the genre, but other aspects did not: development began without access to the Xbox 360 hardware, and starting development with a large staff caused aspects to be changed upon the console’s release.”
Curious how much of that unfinished Kurosawa script made it into the final version of Nioh, and what it might’ve looked like on the PS3 even if I’m more than pleased with what it ultimately became.
