N64 Week Day 4: The Vaporware

So Tuesday I briefly mentioned some of the games featured in EGM's Nintendo 64 magazine that ended up never seeing the light of day. Today we'll take a look at a few titles that were cancelled or shelved until the next console generation, including one particular title which I shall forever pine for.

Robotech: Crystal Dreams

This was one of the first games to be announced for Nintendo's Ultra 64, and it was one that I was extremely excited for. The action looked to take place mainly in the cockpit of your Veritech fighter in a first person point of view as you fly for the Robotech Defense Force. A neat effect early on shows your character reflected in the cockpit glass if you're in a dark area and you fire your weapons, not unlike the effect of seeing Samus' face reflected in her visor in the Gamecube Metroid Prime games. Not much is known about this title, although in addition to the outer space battles, you were also able to walk around the SDF3, the large mothership that pilots and others lived on. Inside the SDF3 you could shop for upgrades to your ship. Robotech was eventually revived in videogame form, but not until the next gen consoles, on PS2 and Gamecube, and while I excitedly snatched up the title, I felt ultimately let down as each level began to feel the same. Also, no walking around inside the Super Dimensional Fortress! I'm still waiting for the Robotech game of my dreams.

Kirby Air Ride

This racing title was shown off early on in the Ultra 64 hype, but was eventually cancelled, then "revived" for the Gamecube. I put revived in quotes because the Gamecube version seems to bear little resemblance to the N64 original besides the name.

Dinosaur Planet</font

This was to be Rare's last big title on the Nintendo 64, and with the reputation they had made for themselves, everybody was chomping at the bit to get their hands on this game. Much like how Rare's Banjo-Kazooie is inspired by Mario 64 and Diddy Kong Racing is inspired by Mario Kart, Dinosaur Planet was Rare's version of a Zelda epic. The game was eventually delayed onto the Gamecube with some major changes. Apparently since the main characters were fox-like, that was a good enough reason to throw out the majority of the storyline they had designed for this game and instead replace the main male character with Fox McCloud of Starfox. Unfortunately in doing so, the back story about the main character's father, and his relationship with Krystal, the female lead, were completely taken out, making the end result on Gamecube feel pretty stale in its storytelling. Not good for an epic. Also, judging by the old screenshots of the N64 version, Krystal would have played a much larger playable role in the game, maybe even as big as the male character, instead of being relegated to the introduction, then frozen in a crystal.

Freak Boy

I'm not sure if I like the look of this game, or if the crazy colors would have driven me absolutely insane after a short amount of playtime. Regardless, this was supposed to be a fun action-adventure title in which you, Freak Boy, could absorb and integrate various weapons you find into yourself to fight the multicolored baddies attacking your world.

Mother 3

Mother 3 the sequel to what was called Earthbound for the Super Nintendo in the US, had a rough start. Originally it was supposed to appear on the Nintendo 64's add-on device, the 64DD (or what was earlier named the Bulky Drive). The 64DD would have made space limitations on the cartridge N64 games less of a problem with its bigger storage capacity, and the ability to write to the games meant that the worlds could be constantly changing and evolving. At least, that's what was promised to us. It was eventually released in Japan but discontinued a year later, and never arrived in the states. Mother 3 was one of the big titles that would push the 64DD, but after numerous delays it was announced that Mother3 would instead be released on a normal N64 game cartridge. Unfortunately, even never saw fruition, and the project was silently shelved. It's recently been revived on the GBA, but so far it's only seen a release in Japan.

Shadowgate Rising

Ohhhh, how it hurts! I've always been a fan of text-based and point-and-click adventure titles, and Shadowgate for the NES was a favorite of mine. In the late 90s, a sort of Shadowgate revival seemed ready to take place; Shadowgate was re-released on the Game Boy Color as Shadowgate Classic, and a sequel taking place 100 years after the events of the first game was released for the Nintendo 64 called "Shadowgate 64: Trial of the Four Towers". While lacking a bit of the creepiness of the original game, I was more than happy to go back to castle Shadowgate. Shortly after the release of Shadowgate 64 came news that yet another Shadowgate title was in the works for the Nintendo 64, this time taking place 1000 years after the first game. Early concept art and screenshots show that we'd get a look beyond just the castle this time, with the surrounding town open for exploration. The main character was revealed, this time a shapely redheaded woman. The screenshots looked much crisper than the graphics seen in Shadowgate 64, which had rather drab colors and a lot of fog (though I'm not sure if that was actually for ambiance, or just the fog that some N64 games were plagued with).

It's always sad to see games that look like they have such potential eventually go the way of vaporware due to lack of finances. But sometimes they come back when you least expect it; Mother 3 eventually found its way to the GBA, and Kirby's Air Ride was revived for the Gamecube. Going to www.Shadowgate.com reveals that the company is still alive and kicking, though on a much smaller scale, offering Shadowgate Classic on a variety of platforms such as Windows, PalmOS and cell phones! In their extras section you can even read the comic about Raven, the star of the axed Shadowgate Rising. Maybe one day they'll get around to bringing that last chapter of Shadowgate to some lucky console.

Check back tomorrow as my Week of N64 feature comes to a close. Thanks to Unseen64 for the screenshots used here.