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

Original artwork and logo of the game.

Status: Found

Date found: 20 Feb 2021

Found by: Forest of Illusion

Dinosaur Planet was planned to be Rare Software's last game for the Nintendo 64. It was presented at the E3 2000 trade show. Afterwards, it was retooled into Star Fox Adventures, released for the GameCube in 2002.

Premise

Dinosaur Planet was an action-adventure game set in a world inhabited by dinosaurs and other reptilian creatures. Unlike Star Fox Adventures, which featured voice acting in a fictional dinosaur language in addition to English, the dialogue was entirely in English.

The gameplay focused on two separate characters: Sabre and Krystal. Both were fully playable and had sidekicks as well as specialized attacks. The player would switch between them by standing on "SwapStones".

Development

Dinosaur Planet entered development after the 1997 release of Diddy Kong Racing. The main character was originally Timber, the tiger from said game, but character designer Kevin Bayliss soon decided to replace him with a new character, Sabre, as well as the addition of Krystal. Rare planned an epic adventure full of cinematic sequences, voiced dialogue, and cutting-edge graphics powered by the 4-megabyte RAM Expansion Pak, all contained within a 512-megabit (64-megabyte) cartridge, the largest N64 cartridge size available. About a year into development, Rare put together a demo which was shown off at E3 2000, garnering positive reception.

Retool

When the developers travelled to Los Angeles to present the game at E3 2000, they were told they had a meeting scheduled with Nintendo to discuss the demo; Nintendo of Japan was very impressed with the game and wanted to arrange a "marriage" between the Star Fox and Dinosaur Planet IPs. Rare agreed, and so Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto and artist Takaya Imamura worked with them to help with design and drafting a new storyline to accommodate the Star Fox material, causing heavy changes in content.

The game soon transitioned to the GameCube, where it was planned as a launch title, but it was delayed due to issues stemming from the discs' increased loading times over cartridges, as well as faults with the AI of Tricky, the dinosaur companion.

Sabre was changed to Fox McCloud, Krystal 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 the information within the game's files reveal some of what was planned.

The final game, released in 2002, was well-received by critics but received mixed reviews from fans of the Star Fox franchise; the game received praise for its detailed visuals and its Legend of Zelda-inspired gameplay, but there were common criticisms including the lack of the franchise's famed shoot'em up gameplay and its weak voice acting.

From what is known of the Nintendo 64 version, it had high-quality graphics for the time and decent sound effects (it's possible many heard are placeholders).

Availability

On February 20th, 2021, Forest of Illusion announced that a build of Dinosaur Planet was released to the public. The leak was possible thanks to the purchase of a CD-ROM with the game in it, from a Swedish video game collector. The build is dated December 1st, 2000, meaning that it's a late version of the game, shortly after its revamp into Star Fox Adventures.

Gallery

One hour of gameplay.

Yuriofwind's video on Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures beta.

Hard4Game's video on the game's beta elements.

Gameplay video of the December 1st, 2000 build.

See Also

• Banjo-Karting/Banjo-Kazoomie (lost prototypes of "Banjo-Kazooie" racing games; mid-2000s)
• Banjo-Threeie (lost build of cancelled sequel to platformer game series; existence unconfirmed; early 2000s)
• Cascade (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 massive multiplayer online game; 2000-2007)
• Diddy Kong Racing Adventure (found build of cancelled Nintendo GameCube sequel to "Diddy Kong Racing"; 2004)
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (lost build of cancelled Virtual Boy port of Super Nintendo sequel platformer; 1996)
• Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers (lost build of cancelled Game Boy Advance puzzle game; 2002)
• Donkey Kong Racing (lost build of cancelled Nintendo GameCube racing sequel game; 2002)
• GoldenEye 007 (found build of cancelled Xbox Live Arcade remaster of Nintendo 64 first-person shooter; 2007-2008)
• Jet Force Gemini (lost build of cancelled Game Boy Color port of Nintendo 64 third-person shooter; 2000)
• Project Dream (lost builds of cancelled Super Nintendo/Nintendo 64 precursor to "Banjo-Kazooie" platformer; 1994-1997)
• Sabreman Stampede (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 adventure platformer; 2002-2005)
• Savannah (lost build of cancelled Xbox 360 Kinect prototype; 2006-2007)
• Twelve Tales: Conker 64 (lost build of early version of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" Nintendo 64 platformer; late 1990s)

External Links

• Download of Dinosaur Adventure on the Internet Archive.
• The Cutting Room Floor's page on files leftover from Dinosaur Planet in Star Fox Adventures.
• Rare Thief compilation of Dinosaur Planet material.