Compilation of lost Nintendo GameCube game videos
A very intriguing video is currently on YouTube that was presumably used to advertise the GameCube back when it was fresh and full of potential. A lot of it is nothing special, but there’re some juicy parts that are quite noteworthy.
For example some prerendered promotional footage of Donkey Kong Racing is shown, which I assume was intended to be the sequel to Diddy Kong Racing. I’m really saddened that this game never made it as the concept footage is brilliant: Donkey Kong racing on a Zinger and Rambi, plus all sorts of characters from the whole Donkey Kong Country series. A quick bit of Wikipedia research indicates that the game might still kind of exist though, albeit in a different format, so there’s still hope.
Also seen is some footage of Kameo before it left Nintendo with Rare and headed for the blue shores of Microsoft Games. Add to that early Metroid Prime material and the realistic depiction of Link ‘n’ Ganondorf from Zelda fighting before the series went all cell shaded, and you have yourself a fairly interesting four minutes of video!
The video is a bit dodgy though. It’s not difficult to see why Nintendo has developed its kiddy image when their official advertising material contained plentiful film of lamely presented children but had no teens/adults in sight. There’s also a pretty terrible Mario Kart segment which literally consists of Mario and Luigi driving on a lone road floating in a black void — they must have been about a month into development at the time, and they obviously hadn’t even thought of the “two characters per kart” idea at the time.
Still, good for a Nintendo fan to waste several minutes on — have at it! And thanks to Kotaku for bringing this video to my attention.
So Wind Wanker wasn’t always going to be cel-shaded? Interesting - I never realised that. The final product looks much nicer than the chunky-looking graphics on show here.
It’s not really surprising this trailer is at such pains to show children playing with the console - obviously Nintendo at the ‘a-purple-console-is-a-good-idea’ stage. Oh well. At least they seem to have learned their lesson.