Patapon is a music / strategy game developed by Pyramid and produced by Japan Studios, presented in a cartoonish, silhouetted two-dimensional environment designed by Rolito, and features the player acting as a deity who commands an army of caricatured miniature tribal creatures by beating traditional talking drums. Patapon was released in Japan in december 2007, but when the beta version was first shown at E3 2007, it had some interesting differences. As we can read from the description of the beta video uploaded on Youtube by Nymo:
This is an EARLY version of the game and thus different aspects in this video, like (lack of) music, text, interface, additional units, characters, etc. does not represent the final game.
In the beta version of the Mine Tree mini-game, the tree says “Listen to my song god dammit!!!” but in the final version he says “bon bon bo bon here goes” before the mini game starts. Check the beta video below and compare it to the one from the final game.
Alien vs Predator: Nightmare on Ryushi is a point & click adventure game based on the Aliens VS Predator series, that was going to be published for MS-DOS PCs by Activision in 1993, but in the end it seems that the project got cancelled. As we can read from the AVP Galaxy Forum, even fans of the series are not sure about the release of this title, but as not one knew about it before finding an old Activision catalog, it’s almost sure that Nightmare on Ryushi was canned:
When I was done obsessing over the intricacies of the labyrinth of Zork, I noticed a small catalog of Activision titles to be released in 1993 among which was the drool-inducing “Alien vs Predator:Nightmare on Ryushi” (and yes it is Alien, not Aliens).
It appears to be a point and click first person adventure title for MS-DOS with excellent graphics. It also looks like the first AvP game to allow the user to play as all three species in independent campaigns!!
After an intense an stressful search of the InterWebs, I came up with absolutely no trace of this game ever having existed!! It is even absent from AvPGalaxy’s list of cancelled titles!
If you know someone that worked on this game or could have more info about its development and cancellation, please let us know!
Mega Man 8, known as Rockman 8: Metal Heroes in Japan, is the eighth installment in original Capcom’s Mega Man series, and was originally released in Japan on the Sony PlayStation on December 1996. The following year, Mega Man 8 saw a release on the Sega Saturn and was localized for both consoles in North America and the PlayStation in PAL regions. Director Hayato Kaji revealed that he initially designed Duo as robot created by the Mega Man 4 character Dr. Cossack. When it was decided that Duo would instead come from outerspace, his appearance changed but still retained remnants of Russian traits, such as his headware. [Info from Wikipedia]
Thanks to Proto1, we found out that MegaphilX uploaded an interesting video from a Mega Man 8 beta in his Youtube Channel.
Everything is practically unused in the footage. The background, the effects, no bolt item, Mega Man’s got a strange running animation and towards the end of the video, you can see early footage of the stage select screen. The bosses have not been made yet, so their Metools act as their temporary icons. Also, a sprite of Duo appears here as well, something that isn’t in the final at all.
– Completely unused BGM – The background for the stage is unused and unfinished. – Mega Man has an odd running animation. He’s very stiff in comparison to his final running animation – His color when using the MegaBall is Green and Yellow instead of Pink and purple. – Enemies appear at places they don’t usually in the final. – Big yellow blocks have a blue streak through them. In final, they’re solid yellow. – at one point in these videos, there’s an elevator lift moving downwards. In the final, elevators never go down, only up. – No enemies in elevator portions. – No hit detection with Whale Airship enemies. – Bolt items weren’t implemented yet – Beginning at 5:04 in this video, you can catch a quick glimpse at a work-in-progress stage select. Mettools represent stages under construction, and the Duo character is shown as the boss for the Island stage. Duo isn’t a boss in the Island stage, so perhaps he was in this particular build. – Also at the stage select, Tengu Man’s mugshot appears on the top right column where Frost Man should be. In the final, he’s on the top left.
Thanks to Proto1 for the contribution!
Videos:
For comparision, here’s the final frost man stage:
Here’s an update showing the beta in more detail by DeGamer (aka Henger83)
Two more additional stages in this version seen above are covered here by JosephCollins
An even later beta build with many more differences can be seen in action here:
Elevator Action, produced by Taito, was an arcade game from the 1980s. While never becoming as famous as other games of the time, such as Pac-Man, Galaga or Space Invaders, it became a cult classic, often remembered for its espionage themes. Unfortunately, the franchise never really went anywhere. In 1994, an arcade sequel, Elevator Action II, was only ever released in Japan on the Sega Saturn, and in the US as a Dexter’s Laboratory game.
In 2008, however, Taito planned to revive the series by bringing out a new game on the Nintendo DS, which would have played more or less the same as the first two instalments. The original illustrator, James Harvey, was set to design all-new characters for the game, while ensuring that the classic feel of the original was upheld. Harvey says that he was asked to redesign the principal characters (three anti-terrorists), but to “keep one eye on the present and one eye on the past”. Soon after he submitted his designs, however, the game was scrapped for an unknown reason. Harvey’s characters have now appeared on the Internet, and an overview is provided below:
Kim Min Ji, a North Korean, is the first member of the team. She is armed with a laser pistol, which is charged from a tea kettle full of battery acid, which she can also hit people with. She wears a North Korean military uniform.
Brussels Tibia, the second member of the group, wears a black outfit, with a human skeleton drawn all over it. Harvey describes him as a “crazy white kid in a Halloween suit”. His special power would have been his lethal flying kick.
And, finally, Rakim Al Taff (whose name is a play on the original Elevator Action II character Jad the Taff) is a tough Muslim radical who dons a pink cap and pants, and would have had a running clothesline special move.
It is very unfortunate that this very promising revival never saw the light of day. We can only hope that Taito will one day re-open the file, and consider bringing this game to the public.
Information, and pictures of characters, were shared on Boing Boing.
Article by Franklint, thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!
Banjo-Pilot is a handheld racer developed by Rare Ltd. and published by THQ in 2005. Originally, Nintendo announced it as Diddy Kong Pilot in 2001. When they sold their share of Rare Ltd. to Microsoft (2002), they opted out of their publishing contract. As the Donkey Kong IP is a property of Nintendo, they could no longer release the game in this state.
In late 2003, THQ decided to publish the four Rare GBA titles, including Diddy Kong Pilot – now reskinned with Banjo characters. By this time, most members of the original team had either left the company or been moved onto Xbox titles. Reskinning Diddy Kong Pilot was now the task for the remaining members of the handheld team who thought it would be easier to make a game from scratch. A voxel based racing title was developed, which can be seen in our gallery. After five months (mid 2004), however, the team was asked to stop working on this version. Instead, they were meant to revive and finish the previous team’s Mode 7 game for Q3 2004, but without the tilt sensor which was announced for Diddy Kong Plot. In 2005, Banjo-Pilot finally saw a release.
Special thanks for the information and videos to transparentjinjo!
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