This article is about the video game, which was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo, before it was changed into Star Fox Adventures. For more information of the Dinosaur Planet itself, see Sauria.
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Developer(s) | Rare |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
Release | Reworked |
Genre(s) | Adventure |
Dinosaur Planet was a game originally planned for the Nintendo 64 being developed by Rare. The game itself evolved into Star Fox Adventures.
Development[]
According to lead engineer Phil Tossell, development of Dinosaur Planet began after the release of Diddy Kong Racing (1997), with two teams to work on the latter game and Jet Force Gemini toward the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan.[1] The game was changed many times during early development before Rare settled on the eventual idea of an open world adventure-game based around two interwoven stories.[1] According to Kevin Bayliss, a lead developer for the game for Rare, Dinosaur Planet was originally to feature Timber, the tiger character from Diddy Kong Racing, as that game was originally planned to be RC Pro-Am 64 and featuring Timber until Nintendo suggested them to work it into the Donkey Kong intellectual property. They set Timber as a time-traveler into a prehistoric world in gameplay similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As they developed the game, they found it better to shift the main character to two separate ones, Sabre the wolf and Krystal the fox, forgoing Timber's appearance.[2] Eventually, the plot for Dinosaur Planet concerned Sabre and Krystal, along with sidekicks Tricky and Kyte (who both appear in the finished game), and Randorn, a wizard who was Sabre's father and Krystal's adoptive father (who was dropped entirely). The game featured elements such as the 'SwapStone', which would let the player switch between Krystal and Sabre.[3] Dinosaur Planet was intended to be Rare's last game for the Nintendo 64 and was adorned with gameplay and cinematics introduced by Ocarina of Time.[3] Dinosaur Planet initially utilised the Nintendo 64's Expansion Pak and was housed in a 512-megabit (64 megabyte) cartridge, which is the largest size the console would have.[3]
Bayliss said that they did not consider that Nintendo already had the Star Fox property as they developed Dinosaur Planet, and developed the title in earnest, including preparation of a large E3 2000 demonstration.[2] Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned in a retrospective interview that, after reviewing content of Dinosaur Planet, the similarities of Rare's anthropomorphic design of Sabre to Nintendo's Fox McCloud design were striking.[4] Just prior to E3 2000, Nintendo asked Rare to keep discussion of Dinosaur Planet quiet and arranged a meeting with Rare to see about a "marriage" of Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox during the event.[2] The two agreed to the idea of Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet as Nintendo 64 title, maintaining as much of Rare's work. Bayliss, Tossel, and Lee Schuneman later met with Nintendo in Japan in the weeks that followed to further discuss how to merge the properties, such as bringing Fox McCloud and the other Star Fox characters into the game, adjusting the art style of the other characters of Dinosaur Planet to match, and developing a story to fit into the Star Fox canon.[2]
Phil Tossell in an interview with NintendoLife [1]
According to both Tossell and Bayliss, the sudden change was not "accepted willingly by all" of the team as the plot had to be entirely re-written in places to accommodate the Star Fox canon.[1][2] The team later realised the potential of using the Star Fox licence in hopes of boosting awareness, and switch development from the Nintendo 64 to the then-upcoming GameCube console as a launch title.[1][4] Sabre was dropped in favor of Fox McCloud as the lead, but the game retained Krystal, Tricky and Kyte alongside the other Star Fox team members.[2] The Dinosaur Planet was dropped from the proposed name.[5] Of all games converted away from Nintendo 64 in its late market span, IGN called this possibly the biggest departure, having expected it to be one of the platform's killer apps, and side-by-side comparing its "amazing graphical upgrades" on GameCube.[6]
With the Star Fox theme established, Rare begun re-working the game for the then-upcoming GameCube and was subsequently met with little interference from Nintendo. During development, the team was invited to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto to discuss progress and certain changes; in return Star Fox creator Takaya Imamura came to stay at Rare's Twycross studio to oversee development.[1] Tossell stated that "without a doubt", Nintendo strengthened their relationship through trust and respect, though Nintendo only had a 49% stake of the company at the time.[1]
David Wise used Peter Siedleczek's Advanced Orchestra library in creating the music for Star Fox Adventures.[7] Wise said the tracks that referenced the music for the previous Star Fox games came very late into development, which was after the developers changed Dinosaur Planet into Star Fox Adventures.[8]
In February 2021, a version of Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64 dated December 2000 was eventually leaked online. This version was acquired from a private collector in Sweden, and was from late into development of the scrapped release. The build featured a unique model for Fox instead of Sabre, indicating that Miyamoto's intervention happened before the decision to transition the game to the Gamecube was made.[9][10]
Plot[]
What little details about the plot, characters and settings present show that the game was still quite similar to the later Adventures. The two main characters would have been Sabre (replaced by Fox), who was the son of a wizard named Randorn, and Krystal, who was Randorn's adopted daughter (and thus Sabre's adopted sister). They would have been accompanied by their respective sidekicks, Tricky (for Sabre) and Kyte (for Krystal). The gameplay allowed for the two characters to be used in different locations and sections of the game. To switch between the two, the player would use a character known as the SwapStone (which later became the WarpStone). It also appeared that both of the main characters had their own weapons: Krystal wielded a staff, while Sabre used a sword. Other earlier versions of characters and enemies were also seen in the previews, including; General Scales, the SharpClaws, the Galdon, GrubTubs, the wounded EarthWalker and Scales' flying SharpClaw Galleon.
Early locations were also seen of ThornTail Hollow, SnowHorn Wastes, Ice Mountain, DarkIce Mines and Krazoa Palace.
Trivia[]
- In both Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Adventures, when Krystal is facing the Galleon, she fires blue magic at it. In Dinosaur Planet she and Sabre show this power, but in Star Fox Adventures, Assault, & Command, she shows no sign of ever having this power.
- The only difference between Krystal's encounter with General Scales between both games includes General Scales in Dinosaur Planet falling overboard after being electrocuted by lightning when grabbing onto the CloudRunner's cage. Krystal then pilots the Galleon to Warlock Mountain and disembarks. While in Adventures Krystal is thrown overboard by Scales only to be caught by her CloudRunner, saving her from a fatal fall, where she then flies over to Krazoa Palace.
- After Krystal investigates Warlock Mountain, she returns to the Galleon to find General Scales still alive as he boards the Galleon and disembarks to an unknown location, laughing at Krystal in the process.
- Krystal's reason for boarding the Galleon in Dinosaur Planet was to save the queen CloudRunner's daughter, who was caged near the head of the ship, while in Adventures, the young CloudRunner is still there, but merely serves as a tutorial for the talk button, while Krystal's reasons for boarding the ship are unknown.
- Throughout Star Fox Adventures, all of the characters refer to the planet the game takes place on as "Dinosaur Planet", but in Assault, the characters refer to it as Sauria. The name was originally used in Dinosaur Planet, playing "Dinosaur Planet" in the "Sauria System".
- Warlock Mountain and Krazoa Palace share many similarities even though Krazoa Palace was a separate place in Dinosaur Planet. While both areas have a separate level design, they both are seen with Krystal going there after her encounter with Scales and both having similar symbols on doors, puzzles, events, and rooms throughout both games.
- Warlock Mountain and Krazoa Palace were meant to house a powerful being(s). Warlock Mountain was meant to house Randorn the wizard and Krazoa Palace was meant to house the Krazoa. This is seen in lines of dialogue from fallen EarthWalker warriors, where they describe who/what they were sent to protect. Both locations were attacked by General Scales for this reason.
- Although Rare scrapped the project due to Nintendo wanting it to be a Star Fox title on the GameCube, there is still a lot of leftovers from the game's development. You can find trailers, concept art, music, and even a one-hour gameplay of Dinosaur Planet (includes the first 18 minutes and misc. scenes). However, no playable ROM has shown itself as of today, so the chance of a playable version of the game is near impossible. However, a prototype of Star Fox Adventures was revealed to have over an hour of Dinosaur Planet voice acting, having nearly everything except the endgame. The voice acting dates back to a time when the game was being converted into a Star Fox title, with most of the original storyline intact with Sabre being replaced by Fox in some instances and some references to certain elements in the series.
- Both Sabre and Krystal had separate weapons, Sabre had a sword and Krystal had a compact staff. While Sabre was cut from the game, Krystal and her staff made it through to Adventures. Sadly, Krystal loses her staff at the beginning of the game, forcing us to never see her combat with it throughout the game.
- Dinosaur Planet was going to be fully voice acted in English, seen in the fight against the Galleon where Krystal spoke of "...something about a mountain hidden within a storm..." as well as her CloudRunner calling out to her throughout the battle where to attack the Galleon. It is not clear if Dino language was an idea by Nintendo or a last minute idea by Rare.
- General Scales was supposed to originally be a boss in Dinosaur Planet. However, due to Rare being rushed by the upcoming GameCube console and Microsoft buyout, they had to scrap General Scales as a boss. In either version, he was never the final boss.
- Both Sabre and Krystal ran on the same model animation and lines in the N64 development. Throughout it, you can hear Sabre make the same grunts and one-liners for pet commands as Krystal, while his unique lines remained in his voice. Also if you look at the top-left corner of the HUD for Sabre, you will notice that there will be a picture of Krystal, not Sabre.
- The stone structure in the Test of Strength of the final game resembles the symbol that was present in the center of the HUD of Dinosaur Planet.
Gallery[]
Dinosaur Planet Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 McFerran, Damien. "Feature: The Making Of Star Fox Adventures". NintendoLife. Game Industry biz. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Bayliss, Kevin (February 23, 2021). "I was a lead on Dinosaur Planet and this week's leak brought back great memories". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Star Fox Planet?". IGN. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ "Dinosaurs Travel to Japan". IGN. Retrieved 16 September 2006.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ Schneider, Peer (11 February 2002). "Gone to GameCube". IGN. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ "The Tepid Seat - Rare Music Team". Rareware.com. December 2004. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ Greening, Chris (December 2010). "Interview with David Wise". Square Enix Music Online. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ Robinson, Andy (20 February 2021). "Rare's cancelled N64 game Dinosaur Planet has leaked online". Video Game Chronicle. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
{{cite web}}
: - ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (20 February 2021). "Rare's unreleased Dinosaur Planet for N64 out in the wild, gameplay emerges" (in en). Eurogamer. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-20-rares-unreleased-dinosaur-planet-for-n64-out-in-the-wild-gameplay-emerges.
External links[]
- http://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet - Contains various screenshots, character bios's, a condensed story and more.
- 1 Hour gameplay video of an earlier version of the game
- Part 1
- Part 2
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/zon1ugd4s4szih3/Dinosaur_Planet_Media.zip - Contains a dropbox download of various unused Dinosaur Planet related media.
Star Fox series | ||
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Games | Main series • | Star Fox • Star Fox 64 (3D) • Adventures • Assault • Command • Zero • Star Fox 2 |
Spin-offs | Guard | |
Characters | Fox McCloud • Falco Lombardi • Peppy Hare • Slippy Toad • Wolf O'Donnell • Cast members | |
Universe | Lylat System • Arwing • Landmaster • Star Fox team • Star Wolf • Aparoid • Great Fox • Dino language | |
See also | Farewell, Beloved Falco • Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins | |
Related | Nintendo • Super Smash Bros. • Starlink: Battle for Atlas |
Rare | ||
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Series | Jetpac • Sabreman • Wizards & Warriors • R.C. Pro-Am • Snake Rattle 'n' Roll • Battletoads • Donkey Kong • Killer Instinct • Banjo-Kazooie • Conker • Perfect Dark • Viva Piñata • Kinect Sports | |
Games | 1980s | Slalom • Anticipation • WWF WrestleMania • John Elway's Quarterback • Taboo: The Sixth Sense • Cobra Triangle • Who Framed Roger Rabbit |
1990s | Pin Bot • Captain Skyhawk • The Amazing Spider-Man • Time Lord • A Nightmare on Elm Street • Super Glove Ball • Digger T. Rock • Beetlejuice • High Speed • F-117 Night Storm • Monster Max • Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run • Blast Corps • GoldenEye 007 • Diddy Kong Racing • Jet Force Gemini • Mickey's Racing Adventure | |
2000s | Mickey's Speedway USA • Star Fox Adventures • Grabbed by the Ghoulies • It's Mr. Pants • Kameo | |
2010s | Rare Replay • Sea of Thieves | |
2020s | Battletoads (2020) | |
2020s | Everwild | |
Unreleased | Dream: Land of Giants • Dinosaur Planet | |
People | Robin Beanland • Duncan Botwood • Steve Burke • David Doak • Eveline Fischer • Martin Hollis • Grant Kirkhope • Leigh Loveday • Gregg Mayles • Graeme Norgate • Stamper brothers • David Wise |