Dinosaur Planet: A look inside the Lost N64 game.

[Gemakei News Poster]

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                         Dinosaur Planet: A look inside the lost N64 Rare game.

During the heated race between PSX and the N64 one of the most contested arguments was that CD based software allowed for much more space, where Nintendo extolled the virtues of the cartridge format that avoided loading times and scratches. The lack of voice acting and FMV in games would continue to haunt the N64 well into its lifespan. When The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out with a 256 meg. cartridge it seemed like Nintendo might have been onto something. Capcom, and at the time, Angel Studios doubled that with a 512 meg. cartridge of Resident Evil 2. a cartridge so big that it contained all two CD's worth of voice overs and FMV onto a single cartridge.

While this would seem like the answer to Nintendos prayers, 512 cartridges were still really expensive. If a game were going to make use of such a big cartridge, it would have to be something substantial. Rareware, along with Nintendo, pretty much made the N64 a competitor all on their own. While Nintendo was planning to hold off the oncoming PS2 with another Zelda title, Rare had even more ambitious plans. At E3 2000 Rare announced one of their most ambitious projects to date. Dinosaur Planet.



While Rare had released heavyweights like Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and even Jet Force Gemini, Dinosaur Planet seemed poised to be their biggest outing yet, and nestled somewhere between Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark tone-wise. The plot involved two heroes who could be switched between via the swapstone on a quest to find a missing wizard by the name of Randorn. The two characters were Sabre, and Krystal, and each had a small dinosaur sidekick. Sabre was shown with a triceratops following him named Tricky and Krystal was shown with a young pterodactyl named Kyte.The nemesis was the ruler of Dinosaur Planet known as General Scales. Rare promised full voice overs for the game, a feat they had just accomplished with Perfect Dark. Sabre would duel with a sword and Krystal would do battle with a staff. The game played similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time only set in a much more tropical setting. Rare had even released artwork for the game and game soundtrack samples well ahead of its release.



The first problem to hit the game was the fact that the N64 was dieing. Even with the proposed January 2001 release date, the game would most likely be forgotten in the wake of new releases for more powerful consoles such as The Dreamcast and the PS2. After its big debut at E3 things went strangely silent for such a high profile game. Even for the secretive Nintendo and Rare. In a casual interview at E3 Shigeru Miyamoto commented that the main character Sabre looked a lot like Fox McCloud and that maybe he would suggest to Rare to put him in the game instead. This always struck me as a bit odd, Rare was trying to establish a new IP with a planned out storyline. Throwing Fox McCloud into a game about magic, swords, and dinosaurs seemed like a weird idea just because the main character was a humanoid fox.



Rumors would persist of this change until shortly before E3 2001 a media leak revealed that Dinosaur Planet was indeed being changed to Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. Gone was the pterodactyl sidekick, gone was Krystal as a playable character, gone was the entire plot of a missing father, and grand wizard Randorn. In its place were Star Fox Characters answering the distress call of a planet never mentioned before in the Lylat System. Despite being more then a year from release in 2001, Rare never was quite able to gel the two stories together. It is still strongly evident in the final game that Star Fox characters really had no business being there. From the silly excuse of Fox not being able to use his blaster (but being able to fire shots from the Stargate-like staff) to a completely cut out final duel with General Scales at the end, it was clear this was really never meant to be a Star Fox game.

Behind the scenes, a lot more then a mash up of game characters was going on. Martin Hollis had already left, David Doak had left as well to form free radical, there was even more rumors that other rare developers would follow suit. Within Nintendo, the relationship with Rare had been getting rocky. Ken Lobb had long been the middle man of both companies, however Nintendo began to feel as if Rare thought to highly of itself. As Star Fox Adventures neared the end of its rocky development, Rare began holding meetings with Microsoft in the interest of selling the company. Just two days before its eventual release in September 2002, Rare announced that Microsoft would be buying the majority shares of Rare, making them a completely owned first-party developer. Much like Retro Studios is to Nintendo. Microsoft would absorb all the internal created IP from Rare, while Nintendo would obviously retain control of the Donkey Kong series. In an interesting twist, because Dinosaur Planet became Star Fox Adventures, Nintendo would now own all new characters created for the game, thus making Krystal and Tricky a permanent part of the Nintendo canon.



While it would be the last Rare game on a Nintendo home console, it really was still a good game. Its still a sad fact that Star Fox Adventures looks better then most, if not all, Wii games today. It had dynamic lighting, and a texturing technique known as Fur-shading. This would later be copied in many future games including Super Mario Galaxy. Star Fox Adventures actually used it for grass as well which gave a more life like look and feel to the ground foliage rather then simple flat texture. Many critics of the game argue that it is another "Rare fetch quest" when the reality of the situation is, it was much toned in comparison to either Donkey Kong 64, and Banjo-Tooie. I also find this argument hard to accept when games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker feature far longer, and far worse "fetch quests" where not only must you run needless errands for an NPC, every time you get a chart you have to sail the Tingle Island and have the bane of the Zelda series existence gobble money up from you only to have you sail somewhere else and go fishing. The game flow is smooth and never over long. Even in the more lengthy areas with the sun and moon blocks. Combat may not require any strategy in the game, but at least your offered different attacks based on what direction you point the analog stick while attacking. Even in Zelda, combat is ridiculously easy and has always been a simple yet effective affair. While it may seem like a short title for one in development so long, Rare stated themselves the original plan was much longer. On their reader Q&A section in their website Rare commended eagle-eyed players noticing that the final area seemed like it was meant to be bigger and that the final game was only a portion of the intended length and geography of the title.

Star Fox Adventures will always hold a special place for me, it was a game that not only did I follow from the initial announcement, but one that I watched grow and evolve over the years of development. I might also be more biased as I talked with Rare personally on the game both before and long after it was finished. While it never lived up to its original promise, it weathered a hard storm of platform shifting, developer withdrawals, and company buyouts. Despite being shoehorned to fit in the Star Fox canon, Rare was able to make more enjoyable flight levels then most of the game of Star Fox Assault. It also added a (mostly) loved new character to the Star Fox team in the form of Krystal. The most unfortunate fate the game might have suffered was at the hands on console loyalists who quickly turned their sour grapes at Rare for "abandoning" them right as the game was released. The sudden !$@$&ization of Rare was completely unfounded and quite immature, especially to an industry giant that had pumped out constant quality during the lifespan of the N64. While Rare may still be trying to build its name back up in the house of Gates, they should still be appreciated for their last effort on a Nintendo console, one that was at least an attempt at a epic adventure in this age of casual party games and throw away gimmicks. It may not be the best Star Fox title, or even the best GameCube game, but at least it was pretty to look at, pleasurable to listen to, and above all, fun to play. In the end thats what matters the most anyway.

[Santuli]

im sure some would argue on the "above all, fun to play", but I agree with ou. That concluding paragraph was very nice.

It is a shame that Rare left Nintendo. They do produce a lot of good games (at least back in the N64 era they did). I never played banjo-Kazooie, but I always wanted to. It looked like a good game.

Jet Force Gemini is quite a good game, imo, as well as Perfect Dark, which I loved immensely, and Donkey Kong 64 I liked.

Hopefully, someday, things will fix themselves between Rare and Nintendo...

[Levsta]

Wow, this game seemed like it had so much potential before they changed it to a Star Fox title.  In fact, it sounded like a game I'd actually want to play!

[Henrie]

I can't shake the feeling that maybe this game would have been better without Starfox. If you think about it: Nintendo thought Rareware asked to much money and Nintendo found the output to low, but those are not the only reasons. Nintendo was not happy with Conkers bad fur day because of the "humor". On the other hand I think Rareware was very pissed that nintendo forced them to remove Sabre and put in Starfox. I think Rareware felt very restricted because of this. Rareware wanted to create a totally new platform/adventure, not a platform/adventure sporting a already existing nintendo franchise. The result was that the motivation was gone, and thus the game turned out to be weak. This all led to Rareware leaving.

Everyone thought Rareware would be restricted at Microsoft (I thought that to), but now I think they have more freedom there. After all they still are allowed to make cheery games without guns, they even got the permission to create a sequell to a game that didn't sell (Viva pinata).  But at the same time it feels like Microsoft did force them to put vehicles in the new Banjo. It can't be coincidence: The loud shouting company (microsoft) forces Rare to use !$@$&ing big machines. Hell, yeah!! I think this really would not have happened if Rare was still at nintendo.

What I also don't get is that Microsoft invests in Rareware, but NOT in other good company's that create similar good, cheery games. The result is that those Rareware games really stick out between all the guns and gore. And that's also the reason why the games don't sell as much as when Rareware was still at Nintendo. Rareware has nothing to do at Microsoft, and I think they are aware of this. I don't say they should go back to nintendo (but that would be cool, if nintendo gives them freedom that is. If Rareware isn't allowed to create new franchises and only gets the permission to create games around already existing nintendo franchises, that's not good!), but maybe they could go multi-platform.

But maybe their power is really gone. All the games that Rareware released sofar for Microsoft got mixed reviews (but maybe that also has to do with bias. They where reviewed by xbox nutters, and those nutters want guns), and their handheld output isn't that good. Many good Rareware members have gone, even the bosses left. Maybe the Stamper brothers already saw that it was a sinking ship.

Will Rareware go multi-platform? Will they rise again? Only time will tell!

[Stephen J. Weber]

I though Starfox Adventures was actually one of the better StarFox games XD. Just a little too short and with writing that could've been better.

[kevinsano]

Meh, for some reason this site won't let me forget about this game... Somebody at Rare really needs to leak the rom one of these days...

At any rate, Rare isn't the same anymore... They're one of the reason I bought an XBOX and a damn 360 for the day that they'll wow me again... so far they've insisted on experimenting and changing every mechanic in their existing games.

I just want to see ONE old school Rare attempt

[Gary_Jinfield]

The Rare of today is not the Rare of the N64 era, as most of the developers have left. Of course, Rare's efforts have not been entirely in vain under Microsoft as Viva Pinata was critically acclaimed, although obviously not to the extent of N64 endeavours.

[Samuel71]

Star Fox Adventures is pretty boring, I played through about three-quarters of it but that was all I could take.  Also, the game's graphics weren't that amazing, even for its time.  Saying that it looks better than all of the Wii games out right now is ridiculous.

[Henrie]

"Also, the game's graphics weren't that amazing, even for its time"

Pardon? The game looked amazing for it's time!  

"Saying that it looks better than all of the Wii games out right now is ridiculous."

I agree. Mario Galaxy looks much better then this. But you have to agree that the majority of wii games look rubbish.

[Santuli]

I'm with Henrie on this one. It DID look amazing for its time. I remember the day I bought it I was seriously impressed at how good it looked, especialyl considering what the other Starfox games looked like. And it does indeed look better than a lot of Wii games today, considering how the Wii is not that much more powerful than the GC and so many games are not taking advantage of its capabilities (which are still better than the GC's).

I dont think whoever wrote this (cant remember who wrote the article) said it looks better than ALL Wii games...and if he did, then well...you'd be right on that one Samuel.

[Henrie]

Ah, we agree for once. Most of the time we disagree. No offence though.

[Samuel71]

"Also, the game's graphics weren't that amazing, even for its time"

Pardon? The game looked amazing for it's time!

2002 was the year Metroid Prime was released, and that looked a lot better... then there was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell on XBox, and Unreal Tournament 2003 on PC, for example.  Star Fox Adventures looks nice, but its graphics weren't outstanding for its time.

"Saying that it looks better than all of the Wii games out right now is ridiculous."

I agree. Mario Galaxy looks much better then this. But you have to agree that the majority of wii games look rubbish.

Well, I don't buy rubbish games, so I haven't really had a chance to play any crappy-looking Wii games.  That said, my brother bought Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, and that game is really ugly.  Metroid Prime 3 looks good though, and I swear Super Mario Galaxy would fit right in on XBox 360 (if its resolution could go higher).

[Santuli]

"Also, the game's graphics weren't that amazing, even for its time"

Pardon? The game looked amazing for it's time!

2002 was the year Metroid Prime was released, and that looked a lot better... then there was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell on XBox, and Unreal Tournament 2003 on PC, for example.  Star Fox Adventures looks nice, but its graphics weren't outstanding for its time.

Even so, SFA still looked very nice. It had a different art style than MP, which looked more realistic and darker and whatnot, but really, SFA looked almost, if not just, as good

"Saying that it looks better than all of the Wii games out right now is ridiculous."

I agree. Mario Galaxy looks much better then this. But you have to agree that the majority of wii games look rubbish.

Well, I don't buy rubbish games, so I haven't really had a chance to play any crappy-looking Wii games.  That said, my brother bought Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, and that game is really ugly.  Metroid Prime 3 looks good though, and I swear Super Mario Galaxy would fit right in on XBox 360 (if its resolution could go higher).

True, true, but that doesnt mean ugly Wii games dont exist. You can easily find images of many Wii games that look like crap. You do have those who still look good.

[Dan]

And you can easily find images of games with shitty graphics on any console.  It just means that the developers aren't pushing the console to its full potential.

[Santuli]

Well yea, for any console