Nintendohas been developing video games for decades, well before it even had its own home console in the NES. While it seems that the vast majority of Nintendo’s projects that have been revealed publicly have completed development and released to the masses, it’s not surprising that there are a great deal ofNintendogames that didn’t quite make it across the finish line, for whatever reason.
Sometimes these canceled Nintendo games were reimagined into a different project and in some rare instances, they have been finished and released years after their cancellation, as was the case with theSuper Nintendo’sStar Fox 2. However, there are many other Nintendo games that have been canceled and stayed that way, never able to see the light of day in any capacity.
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Here are some of the most notable Nintendo games that have been canceled over the years.
Donkey Kong Racing
WithDiddy Kong Racingbeing a big success on the Nintendo 64, it makes sense that Nintendo would want to move forward with a sequel.Rare was reportedly working onDonkey Kong Racingas a game for the Nintendo GameCube, with it meant to be a direct follow-up toDiddy Kong Racing. However, early in the GameCube’s lifespan, Rare was acquired by Microsoft, and so all of its projects involving Nintendo characters were put on ice, includingDonkey Kong Racing.
Rare did end up releasing a couple of follow-ups toDiddy Kong Racingafter the Microsoft acquisition, though. The first wasBanjo-Pilot, which started its life asDiddy Kong Pilot- a racing game focused on airplanes. A couple of years after that, Rare was able to produceDiddy Kong Racing DS, which as its name implies, was a Nintendo DS port of the Nintendo 64Diddy Kong Racinggame.
EarthBound 64
This one is a bit tricky asEarthBound 64, akaMother 3, did end up releasing for the Game Boy Advance. However, the differences between the GBA and Nintendo 64 iterations of the game are vast enough that they were basically completely different projects. In any case, the Nintendo 64 version of the game, known asEarthBound 64in North America, was shown off in 1999, to never be seen again in any major capacity. The game would’ve translated theEarthBoundgameplay to a 3D environment and would have reportedly worked with the 64DD. Its cancellation effectively marked the end of newEarthBoundreleases outside of Japan, asMother 3was never officially localized.
Fire Emblem 64
There have been a fewFire Emblemprojects canceled by Nintendo over the years, especially in the days before it was a major franchise for the company. While theFire Emblemseriesis easily one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises nowadays, there once was a time when the series was considered quite niche, with the games never being localized for Western audiences. It was around this time thatFire Emblem 64was in the works, and likeEarthBound 64, it intended on using the 64DD peripheral.
Due to a lack of interest in the 64DD,Fire Emblem 64was canceled. The Game Boy Advance gameFire Emblem: The Binding Blade, which has never been released outside of Japan, apparently used some ideas fromFire Emblem 64, but it certainly wouldn’t be an accurate representation of what the developers intended with the Nintendo 64 version of the game.
Metroid Dread
WhileMetroidfans have been enthusiastic about the first-personMetroid Primeseries, many still prefer the 2D entries in the series. The last completely original 2DMetroidgame wasMetroid Fusionin 2002, asZero Missionwas a remake of the originalMetroidgame andMetroid: Samus Returnswas a remake ofMetroid 2: Return of Samus. However, there once was a2DMetroidgamein the works for the Nintendo DS calledMetroid Dread, only for it to be canceled well before it could launch.
Various reports over the years have suggested thatMetroid Dreadfound itself in development hell due to the Nintendo DS not being able to deliver a game that lived up to the ambition of the development team. Others have said thatMetroid Dreadwas simply announced too early. Others still have said thatMetroid Dreadactually finished its development completely and Nintendo could release it whenever it wanted to do so. While Nintendo has acknowledgedMetroid Dread’s existence, nothing else is known about the project in an official capacity, so it’s hard to determine what’s truthful and what is make-believe.
Metroid Prime 4 (Bandai Namco Version)
It seems Nintendo has a habit of revealingMetroidvideo game projects prematurely. The same thing happened with the original version ofMetroid Prime 4, which was in development at Bandai Namco. Nintendo didn’t show anything about Bandai Namco’sMetroid Prime 4beyond a logo and confirming that the game was in development for the Nintendo Switch. Due to difficulties behind the scenes, Nintendo made the tough decision tocancel Bandai Namco’s version ofMetroid Prime 4and reboot development with Retro Studios, the team that originated theMetroid Primeseries in the first place.
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Pokemon Pink
Pokemon Pinkwas never officially announced by Nintendo, and its existence wasn’t revealed until a couple of decades after its likely-planned release. After a data breach at Nintendo, dataminers were able to determine that there was likely aPokemon Pinkgame in development at some point, perhaps as a companion game toPokemon Yellow. The assumption is that thisPokemon Pinkgame would’ve featured Clefairy as its mascot Pokemon, which would have been interesting sincePokemon Yellowstarred Pikachu and Clefairy was originally intended to be the face of the franchise. Another theory is thatPokemon Pinkwould’ve starred Jigglypuff instead, as Jigglypuff was regularly featured in thePokemonanime series andPokemon Yellowwas closely tied to the anime. Whatever the case may be,Pokemon Pinkwas never officially announced and it has never been formally recognized by anyone at Nintendo or Game Freak, so all fans can do is speculate about what it would have entailed.
Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
Project H.A.M.M.E.R.was meant to be aWii exclusive gameaimed at core gamers, as opposed to the many Wii games that were instead intended for a more casual crowd.Project H.A.M.M.E.R.would’ve been a major departure for Nintendo, as it would’ve been a darker, grittier game than most of the company’s projects. It seemed as though the development team couldn’t decide what exactly the game should be, and that identity crisis combined with an inability to make the game’s motion controls engaging for the player ultimately led to its cancellation in 2009, six years after it originally began development.
Raven Blade
Retro Studios was working on a number of projects for Nintendo prior to being given the reigns ofMetroid Prime. Unfortunately, all of these games in development at Retro Studios were canceled, includingRaven Blade.Raven Bladewas meant to be an action-RPG with a medieval setting, but development on the game was taking too long for Nintendo’s liking. This eventually led toRaven Bladebeing canceled so thatRetro Studioscould focus exclusively on developingMetroid Prime.
Super Mario Spikers
Next Level Games was acquired by Nintendoearlier this year after it had developed a number of high-quality games exclusively for Nintendo systems. This included someMariosports games likeSuper Mario Strikers, which earned strong reviews at the time of its release. Following its success withMariosports games, Next Level Games set out to makeSuper Mario Spikers, a title that would have combined volleyball and wrestling. Apparently Nintendo found the concept to be too violent, and soSuper Mario Spikerswas never finished. Nowadays, Next Level Games makes theLuigi’s Mansiontitles, but it would definitely be interesting to see the studio return to this concept.
