Dinosaur Planet was originally planned as a Diddy Kong Racing/adventure game hybrid

Rare was originally developing Dinosaur Planet for the N64. However, the project was cancelled, and ultimately saw a complete transformation. The final game ended up as Star Fox Adventures for the GameCube.

Former Rare staffer Phil Tossell spoke about what the studio initially had in store for Dinosaur Planet while speaking with Retro Gamer this month. Tossell revealed that the project “was supposed to be a hybrid of Diddy Kong Racing and an adventure game.”

“Actually, it was supposed to be a hybrid of Diddy Kong Racing and an adventure game. Every level would have some kind of track in it and a race as part of the story. It took a while to settle down…”

One reason why Dinosaur Planet turned into a Star Fox title was because of Shigeru Miyamoto’s feeling that some of the characters between the two were similar in appearance. To say the least, Rare welcomed the opportunity to work on one of Nintendo’s legendary franchises.

“It seemed like a no-brainer. They’re offering this great character from this great franchise! I was attached to Dinosaur Planet but I love the original Star Fox. Our only concerns were how we could fit it into this game we have.”

Thanks to joclo for the tip.

Image via

http://nintendoeverything.com/dinosaur-planet-was-originally-planned-as-a-diddy-kong-racingadventure-game-hybrid/

So that explains what happened there. I had read somewhere that they had originally intended for a Diddy Kong Racing sequel

Bolded: Lol, dem NDAs.

I really liked Starfox Adventures. It was like a smaller scale Zelda. But it was a great game IMO. One of my faveourite games on GC. I actually liked it more than WindWkaer. WindWaker was the reason I first strayed fully away from Nintendo. Nintendo started to desert gamers like me then.

OK I'll bite. Gamers like who?

@OP: I can definitely believe this, especially because DKR already had adventure elements embedded in the game. Would have been interesting to see the final product.

you know there is another star fox game on the GC called star fox assualt also? I know it has on foot portions and krystal from SFA is in it also.... I have it on my wall of shame still in it's shrink wrap tho since it came out after WoW so I haven't actually played it yet. But there is more star foxing around on the GC!

Hey there was on foot shooting in lylat wars too... okie it was fucking awful, but yeah that has been in star fox since it's been "old school" imo

No, dont bite. Im not spitting on Nintendo.

I grew up with Nintendo. I loved them. So much I spent 2 years at 9 years old cutting up magazines and covered my entire bedroom in characters and screenshots of games from Nintendo. I was the BIGGEST fanboy of Nintendo I knew.

Nintendo were once ALL about Graphics and power. Us Nintendo fans of really old loved this. We knew buying Snes it had mode 7. It was cutting edge but had awesome games to go with it. When N64 was releasing, I knew I was getting cutting edge. OOT impressed with its wide open vistas in Hyrule as much as the gameplay. With GC we were shown an awesome bit of Zelda footage before GC released of Link fighting Gannon. It looked amazing at the time, and had us drooling. Until it turned into WW and we got this cell shaded what? Not what I was hopng for, and the turning point in my book when Nintendo started to say its not about power but gameplay.

They left gamers like me who loved power just as much as gameplay. Why couldnt Nintendo incorporate both? It was Nintendo that lost my money, not Microsoft who stole me.

No, no, I didn't mean biting like that. I meant I would bite at the hook you were dangling :)

If you're interested in horsepower then I understand your decision to move away from Nintendo. But why in 2003? The differences in the SpaceWorld demo and the final product, i.e., Wind Waker, are mostly artistic, not technical. If anything, Wind Waker is more impressive technically than a tech demo from 2000. Seems like a strange time to jump ship.

Acting like WindWaker wasn't graphically impressive (and far more advanced than the Spaceworld 00 tech demo). If it's a mere matter of aesthetics, i can't help you, but the draw distance on that game still impresses me today (the obvious trade off being wide open areas of featureless ocean, but hey, it was 2003)