An extremely disappointing feeling is when an exciting upcoming video game suddenly gets pulled from the release schedule and goes on to live indefinitely in limbo. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise to cancel or change a video game that’s in development as a means to salvage the project. Some of the biggest question marks in gaming revolve around titles that could have been but didn’t come to pass.
Nintendo is responsible for putting out many iconic video game franchises, but there’s also plenty that they’ve prematurely ended. Accordingly, here are 10 cancelled games that Nintendo actually showed off to the public.
10 Pokémon Pink
The Pokémon franchise is one of Nintendo’s most lucrative properties and even decades after its debut it still hasn’t lost any of is popularity. The advent of Pokémon Yellow brought a fun spin on the original Generation I titles. However, there were apparently also plans to release a companion title to Pokémon Yellow that was titled Pokémon Pink.
Presumably, Pokémon Pink would have made Clefairy the protagonist’s primary helper Pokémon, rather than Pikachu. Pokémon Pink also might have incorporated the Game Boy Camera peripheral, too.
9 Diddy Kong Pilot
Diddy Kong Racing was one of the most popular games on the Nintendo 64, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that work on a sequel was soon underway. The original plan was to focus on the aerial aspect of Diddy Kong Racing.
Diddy Kong Pilot got far along and was a title that many were looking forward to, but after Microsoft acquired Rare, the project was cancelled and transformed into a game that wouldn't involve Nintendo characters. Banjo-Pilot was the result, which uses the same core engine, but is a markedly different game and lacks Donkey Kong’s energy.
8 Mario Artist Titles
The 64DD is an extremely unusual peripheral add-on from Nintendo. The attachment never made it's way over to America and it was even a commercial failure in Japan. Mario Artist: Polygon Studio was one of the 64DD’s few games, but it was merely supposed to be the first of many Mario Artist titles.
Mario Artist: Game Maker, Sound Maker, and Video Jockey were all in development and teased as additional ways to get creative with the 64DD hardware. After the console failed to catch on, the series of remaining Mario Artist games were shelved.
7 VB Mario Kart
The Virtual Boy remains one of the most fascinating misfires from Nintendo and even though the console was ahead of its time in many ways, its graphical limitations and cumbersome setup held it back from finding mainstream success.
Only a small portion of games was developed for the Virtual Boy, but a version of the beloved racing series, Mario Kart, was planned for the rudimentary 3D console. Details on VB Mario Kart are sparse, but it’s development lines up with the rest of the Virtual Boy’s projects. VB Mario Kart could have lived if the Virtual Boy took off.
6 Kirby Tilt 'N' Tumble 2
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble was a very ambitious Game Boy Color title that was suddenly in the position to get a fancy GameCube sequel. Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble 2 was advertised as a new Kirby game for the GameCube that would cleverly incorporate the Game Boy Advance as an intuitive controller.
Despite the strong idea, HAL Laboratory gradually removed the Kirby elements from the title and re-developed the game as the original property, Roll-o-Rama. Despite these changes, Roll-o-Rama never ended up seeing release on the GameCube and the whole ambitious pipe dream ended.
5 Fire Emblem 64
The Fire Emblem series has always resonated big with audiences in Japan, but the franchise's popularity has been a more recent fascination in America. Shigeru Miyamoto announced development on Fire Emblem 64, which he hoped to release in the final quarter of 1998.
Fire Emblem 64 was showcased at Space World 2000, but it became one N64 title that never saw release. Gradual changes led to some of Fire Emblem 64's concepts migrating over to the Game Boy Advance game, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, but it's still a new narrative with completely different characters and story.
4 Project Giant Robot
Project Giant Robot was a Wii U game headlined by Shigeru Miyamoto and while the game was often viewed as a tech demo at places like E3, Miyamoto remained coy on whether it was simply that or a full game. Project Giant Robot was advertised by Nintendo all the way to the end of 2016, when the project was abruptly cancelled since it no longer fit with Nintendo's development strategy.
Project Giant Robot utilized the Wii U GamePad as a tool for both robot creation and combat, with the title supposedly having ties to the Wii U's Star Fox Zero.
3 Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet was advertised as a sprawling adventure game that would help redefine the GameCube. The game starred an original character named Sabre and still involved the character, Krystal, albeit in a very different context. Dinosaur Planet looked like an exciting new world for Nintendo fans to explore, but partway through the game's development, Miyamoto suggested the drastic change to turn it into a Star Fox game.
A lot of the environments in Dinosaur Planet stayed the same when it became Star Fox Adventures, but the finished product is an entirely different vision than where the game started.
2 Donkey Kong Racing
Nintendo's relationship with the Donkey Kong franchise has become more complicated after Rare's ownership transferred over to Microsoft. However, due to the strong reputation of former hits like Diddy Kong Racing, Nintendo still tried to find a way to revive these franchises.
Donkey Kong Racing was meant to add to the creative racing chaos that Diddy Kong Racing established, yet with Donkey Kong as the figurehead and on the Gamecube's more advanced hardware. Donkey Kong Racing wasn’t able to come together, but the similar Wii racing game, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, later would.
1 Earthbound 64
The Earthbound/Mother series is definitely one of the most creative and quirky modern RPGs from Nintendo's library. Earthbound 64 was supposed to be the third title in the Mother series and meant to act as a major title on the Nintendo 64DD, after development shifted from the Super Nintendo and standard N64.
Nintendo PowerteasedEarthbound 64 for a while as well as the game's eclectic roster of characters, but it was eventually cancelled. Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance would incorporate many of the ideas from Earthbound 64, but ultimately turn out to be a different story.