After a ten year run, Nintendo is finally discontinuing the 3DS line. They made a lot so it’s not like they will disappear anytime soon. That is, unless people start buying them in fear of missing out. Discontinuations can often lead to sale spikes like that.
Anyway, since the system is now done and over with now is as good a time as any to discuss some of the bigger canceled titles on the handheld. It has one of Nintendo’s strongest lineup of games, but one can’t help but wonder how much better things could have gotten if these games also made it through. Unless otherwise noted, these games can be discovered on Unseen64.
10 Mega Man Legends 3
Capcom had been making Mega Man Legends 2 fans wait for over a decade on a cliffhanger. At long last a sequel was announced for the 3DS. A public demo was even released. Sadly the game was canceled not long after this as well as the demo being taken down. Looks like fans have to keep waiting until Capcom finally wisens up.
9 Chocobo Racing 3D
This was announced right alongside the debut of the 3DS. There are some screenshots and quick snippets of gameplay, but not much altogether.
It would have been a sequel to the Mario Kart like original on the PS1, but it also looked like there was a more traditional campaign with action. It was ambitious, but why it was let go is unknown. Maybe one day the Chocobos will return.
8 DJ Hero 3D
There was going to be a port, or spinoff, of DJ Hero for the 3DS. With the poor sales of the second game on consoles, it was presumably scrapped. This is all that is known. There are no gameplay videos or screenshots. However, a DeviantArt poster, 1992zepeda, imagined what the controller would look like. It has a similar design to how the DS Guitar Hero games looked so this might be right on the money.
7 BloodRayne: The Shroud
This was announced at E3 2010. Majesco Games had previously revived the franchise with BloodRayne: Betrayal on consoles. No screenshots or gameplay exist of this game but presumably it would have also been a 2D action game. Why this was canceled not long after its reveal is unknown although mediocre sales and reviews of the first game may have something to do with it.
6 Kaio: King of Pirates
Kaio: King of Pirates was announced for the 3DS in 2011. It was being developed by Keiji Inafune after he left Capcom. It would have actually been his studio’s, Comcept, first game. There was not only a game planned but toys, anime, and manga too. The idea for this action title was seemingly too lofty as it kept getting pushed back until it was outright canceled in 2015. As a side note, him leaving was one of the bigger reasons why Mega Man Legends 3 and many other titles in the series were canceled without his guidance.
5 Cult County
Renegade Kid may not be the biggest known developer out there, but fans of the Mutant Mudd series should recognize the name. Anyway they were also developing something less kid friendly via Cult County, a survival horror game. It started as a Kickstarter project for the 3DS with goals to release it on other systems as well. Since they didn’t meet their funding goal it was eventually canceled. It was interestingly described by the team as “The Walking Dead meets Silent Hill 2 from a first-person perspective”.
4 Obscure D
Obscure D was another survival horror game planned for the 3DS. This was a genre that didn’t get much love in general even after its almost decade on the market which is understandably why so many tried. Anyway, based on screenshots, it looks like a Metroidvania by design. It would have come to consoles too, but this sequel to the obscure, Obscure series never saw the light of day. While this project failed, it sort of influenced Final Exam, which is a spinoff.
3 My Garden
There was a planned DS Pikmin game in the works but plans fell through. Eventually the 3DS would get a spinoff though, Hey Pikmin, which was more like a platformer than a garden RTS.
This all relates to EA similarly planning to make a garden simulator via My Garden on the 3DS. There was no action in the game but the colorful gardens could make one think of Nintendo’s internal franchise. While gameplay was shown things just weren’t coming together so it was quietly let go.
2 Bomberman 3DS
This was only the working title for the game as shown in the only clip available on Unseen64. It actually appears to be taken off of a larger 3DS sizzle reel. There exists five seconds of gameplay showing classic Bomberman mazes along with something that could have turned into a more action like platformer akin to some of Bomberman’s various spinoffs. It was eventually canceled prior to the system’s launch.
1 Saints Row: Drive-By
Unlike another planned portable spinoff to the Saints Row franchise, which was for the PSP and released unofficially in an unfinished state, Saints Row: Drive-By only has a title to show for itself. What is known is that it started out as a smaller digital game for PS3 and Xbox 360. The team felt it was too similar to the main games so it was retooled for the 3DS. Danny Bilson, from THQ at the time, had this to say, “Now we’ve come up with a new design with a completely original game mechanic and we’re building out something that supports Saint’s Row with that.”
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply