Kirby 64 Keroyon (lost prototype build of Nintendo 64 platformer "Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards"; 1997)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Revision as of 04:52, 12 October 2022 by Astrocade (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search
Kirby 64 box art.jpeg

Box art of the final game.

Status: Lost

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards was a platformer released on March 24th, 2000 for the Nintendo 64, developed by HAL Labratory and published by Nintendo. it was the last home console Kirby platforming game released until Kirby's Return to Dreamland in 2011. The game was well received for the unique feature to combine copy abilities.

Prototype

During an interview conducted before the release of Kirby 64, Takashi Saito showed the interviewer a cartridge containing an early prototype of the game.[1] The cartridge holding the prototype had "10/97" written on it, likely dating the build to October of 1997; as Kirby 64 began development in September of that year, that means that this build had been in development for only one month. The title screen shows the title "Kirby 64 Keroyon". It was created to see what it would be like if "Kirby's Dream Land was made into a 3d Map"[2]. It is unclear whether this prototype was in the style of the final game's 2.5D sidescrolling, or was a fully 3D environment similar to Super Mario 64.

They continued to work on this version of the game until it was nearly complete; however, they didn't release it because they believed they could do better. It is unknown whether the version was completely scrapped and they started over, or if he simply means that they kept developing and improving the version until it became the final released game.

The prototype has not been seen or mentioned outside of this interview.

Gallery

See Also

References