Nintendo has come a long way since its founding in 1889. Originally a company that produced playing cards, Nintendo went on to manufacture a variety of children's toys for the Japanese market. In 1977, Nintendo produced its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, which was eventually followed by the NES in 1985, and the rest is history. Over the last few decades, Nintendo has earned its status at the top of the gaming industry, with a plethora of superb franchises and a history of excellent consoles under its belt.
As Nintendo's brand has grown over the years, so has the company's reputation for taking the time to ensure that its products are only of the highest quality. While that's not always the case, Nintendo's reputation for quality control is often proved true, and in the past the publisher hasn't shied away from trashing a project altogether, no matter how large-scale or high-stakes it was.
Major Games Nintendo Has Canceled
Nintendo is no stranger to canceling even the biggest projects if they're not deemed of a high enough quality, or if the game just isn't turning out how the publisher had expected. Star Fox 2 is one such game. An immediate smash-hit on the SNES, the original Star Fox boasted some impressive visuals and some intuitive, satisfying mechanics.
Nintendo immediately started work on a sequel, which was going to use the same engine and much of the same gameplay, albeit with a handful of new mechanics thrown in. However, development was taking a little longer than expected, and Nintendo was ready to release the Nintendo 64, so a 2D Star Fox sequel wasn't going to cut it anymore. However, Star Fox 2 would eventually see the light of day when it was completed and released for Nintendo Switch Online's SNES collection.
Star Fox 2 isn't the only game in the franchise to be sent to the chopping block. Nintendo's Virtual Boy was a bit of a sales nightmare at the time, and to cut its losses, the company canceled the vast majority of titles in development for the system. This included a Star Fox Virtual Boy game, which starship models didn't quite work with the system's wireframe graphics.
Moving over to the Nintendo 64 era, Nintendo began production on a slew of ambitious projects, most of which were sequels or spinoffs of its most popular franchises. A sequel to Earthbound, or Mother 2, was planned for the N64, as was a Fire Emblem title. Both of these games were canceled due to difficulties with the console's limited hardware and moving the franchise over to 3D.
One of the biggest surprise successes of the Nintendo 64 era was Diddy Kong Racing, a cart racer set in the Donkey Kong universe. So, it only made sense that Nintendo would want to fast-track a sequel for the company's next console, the GameCube. Rare began development on Donkey Kong Racing, a direct sequel that was set to bring even more iconic series characters to the mix. However, in 2002, Rare was acquired by Microsoft, meaning that the developer could no longer use Nintendo characters, and thus the project was scrapped.
One of the most infamous canceled Wii projects is Factor 5's Kid Icarus project. Being the developer behind the incredible Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series, Factor 5 had a great deal of experience with 3D flight games, and it intended to bring this to the Kid Icarus license by turning it into a flight combat game. Things turned sour when Nintendo asked the developer to use the same character model for Kit as the one in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Factor 5 rejected the design, instead wanting to give the game a more dark and mature look. This didn't fly for Nintendo, who promptly canceled the project altogether.
