Our reader Ceno has helped us to identify some previusly supposed cancelled games, that where released under different names: “Druid: demons of the mind” (Saturn) was released in Japan under the name “Druid: Yami-He no Tsuiseki Sha” – “Dawn Of Darkness” was released in Europe as “Last Rites” for MS-DOS PC – the FPS “Hybrid” was released, although not in America. A japanese Version was released in 1997 and a PAL release followed several years later, in 2002, albeit only as a budget price release. Cover art and screenshots from the japanese version can be found here. We have updated those games in the U64 Archive, thanks a lot to Ceno for these infos!
Fire Emblem 64: ported to the GBA?
Fire Emblem is known to most Nintendo fans after the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Before that, lots of people didn’t know about the characters from the game or from where they came from. Of course they were from a Nintendo game, but which one? Myself, I believed that they were anime characters (how should I’ve known? I was only 7 by then) … but soon we have figured out the truth, a-ha! So they are from a strategy game called Fire Emblem! How silly for us not to know that! Mmh, what i was saying? Oh right, I’m hungry. Me too, let’s get something to eat.
Eherm… I should stop with the nonsense… anyway, Fire Emblem 64 was supposed to be released on the 64DD, but no screenshots were ever released. In fact, almost no information came out before it got cancelled. But hey, I am not writing about this just for the sake of it, I got some other information. No, really.
Miyamoto said in an interview about the 64DD software that they were gonna produce Fire Emblem 64 after they were done with Super Mario RPG 2, both which were made by Intelligent Systems. This info was written on IGN on 29th July 1997, taken from a japanese N64 magazine. Miyamoto said that Fire Emblem 64 would have come out “the later half of next year” meaning somewhere around autumn 1998, or maybe around winter 1999, just because we know that Nintendo loves to delay games. Of course, we must remember that Nintendo delayed the 64DD itself to December 1 1999, but we don’t know if this affected Super Mario RPG 2’s development. Now let’s say it did, maybe ’round the middle of 2000.
What more can i say? As with Earthbound 64 / Mother 3, the game wasn’t REALLY cancelled. Maybe. In early screenshots of Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi for the GBA, there seems to be some changes in the graphics and some characters were unused. Also, Fire Emblem 64’s original title “Maiden in the Darkness” is a title given to a character in Fuuin no Tsurugi, and speculation has begun: the storyline of FE64 could have been transferred to the GBA version of the game.
[Updates] More beta / unseen videos in the archive!
Thanks to Youtube we have found some more beta videos for the Unseen Archive:
Hybrid Heaven [Proto / Tech Demo – N64] (From helmsly2010 YT Channel)
Symbosis [Tech Demo / Proto – XBOX & PS2] (From OutcastSpain YT Channel)
More unseen videos has been added in these pages: Future Zone (snes – cancelled), Road Rash 2 (Game Gear – Cancelled) from LIVIADRVSILLA YT Channel, Silicon Valley (Beta – N64) from helmsly2010 YT Channel, F-Zero X (N64 – Beta) from LucaPM YT Channel, Super Shinobi 2 (MD/G – Beta) from EclipseVoid and SuperGalvatron YT channels, Resident Evil 4 Making Of from Tilemaxx YT Channel. Props to them :)
Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword [GBA – Beta/Debug]
Thanks to Serenes Forest we can read about a list of differences that were found in the prototype version of Fire Emblem 7, a beta that was leaked online sometime ago. Major differences are in the colors of the CGs, options, sprites, animations, extra shops and items. The 2 betas can be download at the
Square VS Nintendo article translated!
According to some 1995 magazines, a new chapter of the Final Fantasy series was already in development for the Nintendo 64 and there were even rumors of a simultaneous release in the U.S. and Japan for the end of the 1996. Was it for real? Not really. In order to test the new Silicon Graphics hardware, Squaresoft created a now well-known interactive CGI demo (not running on the real Nintendo 64 hardware, even if the N64 was powered by Silicon Graphics) with characters from Final Fantasy VI, to show it at the SIGGRAPH 95 expo. That was the “Final Fantasy 64” that magazines talked about, but it was not really a game for any console, just a tech demo. The real Final Fantasy 7 would have been released on the Playstation in 1997. But what happened between Nintendo and Square, and why was there no Final Fantasy for the N64? Read the full article »