Sanrio Timenet World (lost cancelled Sanrio-branded Nintendo 64 video game; 1999)
Advertisement in pamphlet for Pocket Hello Kitty (© 1998 Imagineer)
Status: Lost
Sanrio Timenet World (Japanese: サンリオタイムネットワールド) is a cancelled Nintendo 64 game by Imagineer (specifically the former division known as Timenet Co., Ltd.), intended as a side game to the Japan-only Game Boy games Sanrio Timenet: Kako-Hen and Mirai-Hen (Past and Future Editions). Sanrio Timenet World would interact with the Game Boy (possibly using the Transfer Pak).
As Sanrio Timenet are a pair of monster battling games, there may have been similar gameplay elements to the Pokémon Stadium games or Robot Ponkottsu 64: Nanatsu no Umi no Caramel (Robopon 64); such as bringing the player's monsters on the Game Boy versions over to the Nintendo 64[1].
The only known announcement of Sanrio Timenet World was found within a pamphlet inside the Pocket Hello Kitty; an LCD game by Imagineer published by Nintendo similar in shape to the Pokémon Pikachu and Pokémon Pikachu 2 GS. The scheduled release date was March 1999.[2]
The pamphlet also included an announcement for another unreleased game, the Hello Kitty Pocket Camera, scheduled for a December 1998 release date (also known as pocketcamera_sn in Nintendo 64DD code for the Mario Artist series), along with the unreleased Hello Kitty Pocket Printer. Unlike Sanrio Timenet World, the Hello Kitty Pocket Camera was partially found after the September 9, 2020 Game Boy lot check leaks.[3]
The game never surfaced, and instead Timenet released the Game Boy Color games Space-Net: Cosmo Red and Cosmo Blue on March 16, 2001. These games removed the Sanrio branding and feature a different story, though some of the characters and monsters from Sanrio Timenet were carried over and changed.