Is the Nintendo DS had a LOT of games. You had something like 2000 retail games, 300 or so DSiWare games, plus another 1000 compatible GBA titles. If you were to take every retail game for the DS and stack their respective boxes in a giant tower, it would be about 30 meters tall for the two seconds before it falls apart.
And yet, some games still couldn't see a release on the platform.
Here are 5+ of them.
A Boy and His Blob
The tale of a young lad and his shapeshifting buddy has been told in a 1989 NES game and a reimagining for the Wii 20 years later. Before 2009 though, another entry in the series was planned. Majesco, which owned the rights to the series since the mid-90's, announced a new installment for the DS, meant for an Autumn 2005 release. It was developed by Skyworks Technologies, a leading maker of browser and mobile games. Details shared suggested that 15 jelly bean transformations would have been included in the final product. However, Majesco was having financial problems during 2005 and 2006, so this offbeat sequel never got released. Instead, we got the far more adorable Wii game from Wayforward a few years later.
Crash Landed
Remeber Crash Bandicoot? He was a big deal back on the first PlayStation, but had trouble after developer Naughty Dog went off to make Jak and Daxter. Still Crash was apparently starring in games throught the sixth generation across consoles and handhelds. I asked a fan for more information, but all I could make out that around 2007 or 2008, there was a great calamity involving Mutant Titans and the series being betrayed by the developers. The developers went on to make Prototype. Weird.
Anyway, Crash Landed was going to be a reboot for the franchise before it was ruined forever, planned for release on consoles and the DS in 2010. The DS version shown above could have been interesting, seeing as it would have been pitched by Renegade Kid. Renegade Kid is now better known as the team behind Mutant Mudds, but back in 2008, they were a young studio responsible for Dementium, a horror game praised for its impressive effects on the DS. Between their mastery of the DS hardware and competence in the platforming genre, maybe the DS could have had a worthwhile 3D platformer other than Super Mario 64.
Fantasy Life
The 2012 3DS game Fantasy Life, made by Level-5 and Nintendo developer Brownie Brown (since renamed 1-Up Studio), was originally meant to be a DS game. Announced in August 2009, this RPG was meant for a 2010 release in Japan. However, the project was put on hold by Level-5 before development was resumed for the 3DS with a new 3D engine. I can't find an exact reason, but 2009 and 2010 was a busy time for Level-5, with the release of Dragon Quest 9 Ni no Kuni, and White Knight Chronicles 2, the rising success of Inazuma Eleven, the upcoming shift to 3DS development. Fantasy Life could easily have gotten lost in the mix.
The best part of Fantasy Life's DS version would likely have been those sprites. Seriously, look at some of the screenshots that were released. That game looks gorgeous. And if it reminds you of Mother 3, give yourself a pat on the back; Brownie Brown cooperated with HAL Laboratory and Shigesato Itoi to release that sacred GBA title back in 2006.
Maximillian and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds
Another Renegade Kid title, this version of Mutant Mudds was made using the same engine as their earlier game Moon, and was shown at E3 2009. Renegade Kid was planning on making a hybrid third-person shooter and 3D platformer for the DS that called back to the glory days of the N64 and PS1. However, they could not get any publisher to help them out. In 2010, they made an attempt to get the game on DSiWare, but that failed too. I guess they said "Screw it, people only get nostalgic over low-resolution sprites," because a new "12 bit" version of the game was shown at E3 2011. The new version got released on the 3DS eShop in early 2012, and was met with general acclaim. Moral of the story: outdated 2D beats outdated 3D any day.
Steel Diver
Before it underwhelmed players across the world as a 3DS launch title in 2011 (it would have been better as a $15 launch title for the 3DS eShop), Steel Diver was an ongoing project by Shigeru Miyamoto to make a vehicle simulation game. Though he had already worked on the Pilotwings series for the SNES and N64, Miyamoto was inspired by the more complex simulations in the world of PC gaming. He wanted to make a game where individual actions would be more deliberate and play out over a longer period than his usual work. Submarines were chosen due to their nature as large and slow-moving machines, not to mention that unlike with airplanes and cars, there would be few preconceived notions going into the game. When the DS came around, Steel Diver was a great way to show the versatility of the touch screen, using its uniquely placed buttons meant to resemble a real ship's controls. Steel Diver could have likely been an early DS game if Miyamoto weren't so busy with other projects like Nintendogs and Twilight Princess. Its long delay to the 3DS only brought relatively minor changes to the core concept.
Bonus: Mii Channel
Nintendo had been playing around with the idea of player avatars as far back as the Famicom days, and re-emerged using 3D models during development of the Nintendo 64DD and the GameCube. The Japan-only game Mario Artist: Talent Studio made extensive use of customizable 3D models. However, Shigeru Miyamoto and the other great minds at Nintendo never found a satisfactory way to make them part of any software. During the Wii's development however, a small team at Nintendo with no knowledge of this ongoing struggle had created a piece of software for the DS inspired by a Japanese children's game. Caricatures could be created by switching around facial features and adjusting their size and position. Somebody showed this to Iwata, Iwata shared it with Miyamoto, and the team behind this was sent to work with Nintendo EAD to create the Mii as we know it today.
I'm going to try to do at least one or two more of these for various platforms. Any suggestions, criticisms, or requests?
5 Unreleased Game Boy Color titles
