In the website of ATMachine we can read an interesting series of articles about the old Lucas Arts adventures and between them, we can even find a wonderfull page with informations and screens for the beta version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge! Various differences like an early Guybrush sprite, changes in the backgrounds, are show in those screens.
Images:
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!
Golden Sun is the first installment of a series of RPG games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. It was released in November 2001 for the GBA, with a sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, in 2003.
Golden Sun underwent a development cycle of between twelve and eighteen months by Camelot, which is considered quite a long period of time for the development of a handheld video game, and was described as a “testament” to the positive results a long development cycle can bring to a game. It was shown in early, playable form at the Nintendo Spaceworld Expo in Japan on August 2000. North American previewers received the game a few weeks before the release, and IGN noted that the experience of developing Shining Force for Sega helped Camelot develop a gripping RPG for the handheld.
Originally, Camelot planned to create a single title instead of a series, and in the extremely early stages of their project they had created a game design document for the one Golden Sun game to be on the Nintendo 64 console. When it became apparent the N64 was on its way out because the Nintendo Gamecube was coming in, Camelot shifted their focus to making a game on the handheld Game Boy Advance. [Info from Wikipedia]
In these old screens we can see a beta version of Golden Sun, with differences in the graphic style, in the characters design and in some weird places. The Kusanagi is a Light Blade that is found in the Debug Menu of the original Golden Sun. This weapon is impossible to access during normal play and can only be seen using a hacking device. Ironically, this weapon’s graphic is officially used in Golden Sun: The Lost Age for the Light Blade artifact Masamune. If it had been in the original game it would have been the most powerful Light Blade surpassing even the Kikuichimonji. You can find more info at The Adepts of Weyard website and at GoldenSun Wikia!
Thanks to Robert Seddon for these links!
Images:
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.
Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (The Sealed Sword) early beta screens from the game show different characters and graphic style. Different HUD and graphics are present, as well as Roy’s very different portrait. The weapon and item icons seem to be placeholders, as they’re all what look to be Iron Swords, but their names are different.
Thanks to Iven Allen for the contribution!
Images:
Videos: