It’s a bit surprising to me still that Rare was never purchased and acquired by Nintendo especially with how many hit titles they delivered for their platforms in the past. The folks behind GoldenEye 007, Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, and Banjo-Kazooie, just to name a few titles, have since been picked up by Microsoft. While it’s likely a big missed opportunity for Nintendo not to throw in an offer for acquisition, there was a surprising unofficial release that came out that was originally meant to be a behemoth of a Nintendo 64 video game.
Rare was working on a new platformer action-adventure title that was called Dinosaur Planet. From what was gathered so far, this project was going to be a big one for the Nintendo 64 that would have required a bigger cartridge just to run the game. However, that project was never fully released as the developer originally intended. Instead, Rare took too much time on the development and it resulted in Nintendo stepping in and making some significant changes.
Instead of being released for the Nintendo 64, the game would be pushed onto the Nintendo GameCube. Likewise, there was going to be an IP change as Rare discovered that Nintendo wanted the team to incorporate the game into Star Fox. These changes ultimately turned the game into Star Fox Adventures. Still, there was a build nearly done that showcased the project as the developers wanted to release on the Nintendo 64 and today fans can finally give the title a try.
A leak of the build has made its way to Forest of Illusion, a group that has been working to preserve Nintendo history from marketing materials to software. This is just one of the latest big title builds that the group managed to get and has since moved online for others to enjoy. It’s also a build that does showcase Fox McCloud as well which is likely just the start of making Dinosaur Land into a Star Fox spin-off game. At any rate, it’s always exciting to see a video game project that was seemingly long lost and forgotten make a sudden appearance. Who knows just what IP beta build will turn up next?
