Dinosaur Planet (found build of cancelled Nintendo 64 action-adventure game; 1999-2000)

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Dinosaur Planet.JPG

Original artwork and logo of the game.

Status: Lost

One hour of gameplay.

Dinosaur Planet was planned to be Rare Software's last game for the Nintendo 64.

It was available in a mostly playable form in E3 1999 or 2000 (the exact date is unknown), which showed off huge levels and varied combat options.

Premise

From what was shown of the game, it was an action-based 3D platformer that took a more realistic route with its graphics, set in a world that appeared to be mostly inhabited by dinosaurs.

Gameplay focused on two separate characters: Saber and Crystal. Both were fully playable, appeared to have sidekicks or helpers, and specialized attacks.

Retool

In 2002, after the Gamecube was released and the game had to be ported over to the new console, it was changed to Star Fox Adventures, and suffered heavy changes in content.

Saber was changed to Fox McCloud, Crystal was heavily demoted (and infamously changed into a "damsel in distress" role), entire scenes were removed, and the final boss fight was also cut, but information within the games files reveal some of what was planned.

The game was infamously not well-received; criticisms including using stock sound effects and an awkward, made-up language for some of the dialogue.

From what is known of the Nintendo 64 version, it had high quality graphics for the time, no made-up languages, and some fairly decent sound effects (it's possible many heard are placeholders).

No known prototype of Dinosaur Planet has ever shown up, and it's likely that the original version is completely lost by this stage.

References

The Unseen64 article, features piles of images and video: Retrieved March 23, 2015.