5 Canceled Nintendo Games That Could Have Been Great

Mega Man Legends 3

Mega Man Legends 3 was a Capcom action-adventure game that was in development for the Nintendo 3DS. The game was planned to be an exclusive for the handheld system, and considering that the Legends series was originally only on PlayStation and PC, the move to 3DS would’ve been a win for Nintendo. Sadly, though, the game would be eventually canceled.

Legends 3 was intended to act as a direct sequel to its predecessor, starting right where the game left off and would include two new characters named Barett and Aero. Fans of the long-running series were very excited to see the cliffhanger that Capcom left players with at the end of Legends 2, but, unfortunately, news of the game’s cancellation broke in July of 2011.

Capcom was planning to also release a Mega Man Legends 3 prototype demo at the launch of the Nintendo 3DS eShop. The story was to take place before the events of Mega Man Legends 3 and would give players a taste of what to expect from the main game.

Apparently, one of the biggest factors that brought on the cancelation was the lack of fan support. You see, the developers opened up a dev blog of sorts, allowing the community to aid in the development of the 3DS title, getting to vote on design aspects and other parts of the game.

Not even the prototype demo for Mega Man Legends 3 made it out of the gate, truly saddening fans everywhere that were really looking forward to a new game in the Mega Man Legends series.

Maybe someday we’ll see this game rise out of the ashes and somehow be brought back to life by Capcom. We doubt it, but we can dream, can’t we?

Project HAMMER

During Nintendo’s 2006 E3 press conference, a 3D action game titled as ‘Project HAMMER’ was not only announced but was also playable on the show floor for everyone to try out using the multiple Wii demo stations.

Project HAMMER was being developed by Nintendo Software Technology, the same team who had previously worked on Metroid Prime Hunters and 1080 Avalanche.

In the demo –which you can watch above– we’re shown a muscular man, in what appears to be some sort of protective armor, swinging a giant hammer around, smashing objects and enemies around the 3D environments.

Apparently, the title was in development since 2003 and would cater to the western “hardcore” audience of gamers. After being revived time and time again, the project was officially canceled in 2009, after being in development for over 5 years.

It would have been cool to see a game like this being part of Nintendo’s library of intellectual properties. While Nintendo has RPG’s, kart racers, and platformers, a beat-em-up would have added something different to its library.

Chocobo Racing 3D

Acting as a successor to the PlayStation game with the same name, Chocobo Racing 3D was once a thing that was headed to the Nintendo 3DS. You would be able to ride on Chocobos… in 3D. Starring different Final Fantasy characters, Chocobo Racing could have been the most “fan-service” Final Fantasy game ever.

Unfortunately, Chocobo Racing 3D turned out to be a dud, with Square Enix canceling the game due to the unsatisfying low quality that the publisher noticed during development.

Chocobo’s Racing 3D might have been a terrible game had it actually released but I still wanted it. Even with all of its flaws and glaring issues, racing other adorable Chocobo’s online would have been extremely entertaining.

But, hey, at least we can still ride Chocobos in Final Fantasy XV, right? Yea, this cancelation still really hurts…

Super Mario Spikers

Next Level Games wanted to bring Mario back into the world of sports with Super Mario Spikers, a much more physical sports title that would be a hybrid of wrestling and volleyball.

Nintendo deemed the action in the game to be too violent, as characters would crush other characters by jumping from great heights and a few other aspects that didn’t fit with Nintendo’s other titles on the Wii.

We still get to play Mario sports games from time to time thanks to new iterations of Mario Tennis and Golf, but a Mario-themed wrestling video game would have really cool to see.

I could just imagine Mario facing off with Bowser in a cage match with Toad acting as the referee, with a whistle in his little mouth and a towel over his shoulder.

Please Nintendo, give us a Mario wrestling game… I just want to see Luigi fistfight with Waluigi, like who doesn’t wanna see that?

Kaio: King of Pirates

You know how the Dynasty Warrior games throw hundreds of enemies at you and you get to play as these super-powerful characters to decimate waves upon waves of enemies?

Okay, so think about all of that, but instead, with anthropomorphic animals, specifically an adorable penguin who was planned to be the star of the entire game.

With development led by Keiji Inafune (Mega Man, Dead Rising) and a very intriguing premise, King of Pirates was shaping up to be quite the special game for the Nintendo 3DS.

But after four years of lost development time and $3.8 million, Marvelous canceled Inafune’s game in early 2015.