A new Pokémon Pinball title was found to be one of several canceled Nintendo DS projects.
A Nintendo ‘Gigaleak’ last year brought some old Pokémon source code to our attention, as well as 3DS debug ROMs and the full source code for the Nintendo Wii. BroadOn’s servers, the company that worked with Nintendo on hardware and software during the Wii era, were supposedly hacked, which led to the leaks.
Earlier this week, another slew of leaks emerged from the same Nintendo Gigaleak data. Among other interesting titles, there seemed to have been a Zelda game in the works by studio Retro starring Sheik as the main protagonist. There were also plans for a brand new Metroid title made by Intelligent Systems, a studio best known for the Fire Emblem games.
Leakers have even managed to dig up some information about a new Pokémon Pinball game among the canceled DS titles. The game was set to release back in 2006 and was to be developed by Fuse, which had already worked on Super Mario Ball and Metroid Prime Pinball.
Nintendo Gigaleak: New Pokémon Pinball Game And Other Titles
ResetEra user MondoMega has compiled all of the leaked information as follows:
- “Rhythm Tengoku is listed as ‘RIQ’ (full working title is known to be Rhythm IQ). Notes for the game say “The songs will be newly written for this game, so OK for the whole world”; yeah, right.
- Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and Super Paper Mario are still listed as GameCube games.
- ‘Kirby’ is still listed as a GameCube title. Note says that the game should be made like Kirby Super Star.
- Captain Rainbow was a GameCube game! Listed as ‘ウラキャラ’ (background character).
- Lots of working titles for DS games. ‘Tingle RPG’, ‘Burabura Donkey DS’, ‘Custom Robo DS’, ‘Yoshi’s Island 2’, etc.
- Elite Beat Agents was once known as Super Sonic Agents.
- Pokemon Pinball is listed as a DS title, with Wi-Fi support. Developer is ‘FUSE’. Target release date was September 2006.
- Geist DS is listed. Had online play.
- Gauntlet DS.
- Some game called ‘PLUCKER’, developed by ‘NIGHTLIGHT’. Notes: ‘Proposal from Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic the Gathering. A strategy game that replaces card games with figures’.
- ‘Digitylish DS’. Super interesting; guess they were planning on bringing the series over to DS before DSi Ware was even a thing.
- ‘Tennis’ for Wii; guess this was folded into Wii Sports.
- Excitetruck is known as ‘World’s Toughest Race’; notes say “A racing game that looks like a 4WD truck version of Excitebike with realistically oriented graphics.”; guess they figured they should actually put Excite in the title.
- Project Hammer is listed as ‘Hammer Man’. Notes says “Aiming to create a Dynasty Warriors type game that will sell in North America.”
- Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn is just called ‘Fire Emblem GC 2’. Note says “The direction is to increase the movie portion, which was well-received by users in the GC version.”
- Sphere, unreleased n-space game, is mentioned. “Female spy infiltration action. Metal Gear-like switching between multiple remote cameras”.
- ‘Metroid’, developed by Intelligent Systems. Notes say “Release some time after Metroid Prime.”
- ‘Project X’ by Retro Studios; the “action game featuring the Sheik from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”
- ‘KNIGHT Wars’ by Kuju; “Fantasy-based strategy with Battalion Wars assets.”
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl is listed as ‘Project Sora’, developed by HAL and Game Arts.
- ‘sword fighting theme’ developed by Y’sK; no idea what game this is.
- Mario Strikers Charged (called ‘Super Mario Strikers 2’) was intentionally aiming for a EU launch first, and was aiming to be a launch title (which it missed).
- ‘Revo R’ by HAL. Notes say “Aiming for Pop Art style graphics” which made be think it was this unreleased Kirby game, but the genre is listed as Racing.
- ‘Jump Super Stars’ for Wii? Developer listed as Ganbarion.
- ‘DDR Mario 2’ on Wii. Developer is Konami, obviously.”
Looking into MondoMega’s notes, there seems to have been a DS version of Geist in the works, which was initially a first-person shooter on the GameCube. There was also some data retrieved about New Super Mario Bros. content, presumably canceled DLC.
A New Pokémon Pinball game would probably have been well received by fans, considering the original GameBoy Color title became a cult classic. Gameplay mechanics could have been further enhanced thanks to the Nintendo DS’ touch and dual screens. It’s also worth noting that Super Paper Mario and Donkey Kong Barrel Blast were apparently initially planned as GameCube titles, before eventually releasing on the Nintendo Wii.
It will be interesting to see whether some of these scrapped titles will make a comeback in the future. One can hope, especially considering Metroid Dread is one such title making a return after players thought it was canceled forever.