NINTENDO NEWS – Among them is a franchise that’s been known in its genre for three decades, and ultimately didn’t quite make it to the Big N’s 2017 platform.
Prototypes of several Nintendo Switch games have leaked onto the internet. Among them is a Ridge Racer that ultimately never saw the light of day, and a prototype of a canceled RPG has also surfaced. It was made by Retro Studios, the developers of the Metroid Prime series. Supposedly, these prototypes were leaked to the Internet after being found in a developer kit (devkit).
This is how several old Splatoon 2 debug builds, a Nintendo Switch version of Rime, an unreleased Lego Civilization game, an ARMS debug build, and the aforementioned unreleased Ridge Racer and Retro Studios’ canceled Project Harmony music RPG have surfaced. This project was reportedly in development after the studio released Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Metroid Prime Remastered. Footage of the unreleased Ridge Racer and Project Harmony can be seen in the tweet embedded below.
It’s no big surprise that Bandai Namco and Nintendo have a good relationship. Even though Ridge Racer (which was one of the PS1’s opening titles back in December 1994!) didn’t make it to the Nintendo Switch, they have a long history of working together. Bandai Namco is working with Super Smash Bros. series creator Masahiro Sakurai on Kirby Air Riders, which is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 later this year. Sakurai previously worked on Super Smash Bros. Wii/3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and has pushed Nintendo hardware with some strong games.
It’s always nice to see games that don’t end up being released. It’s at times like this that we can ask the “what if” question. What if Ridge Racer (which we could mockingly call Switch Racer) had ended up on one of Nintendo’s most successful platforms? Players would have loved it, and it wouldn’t have been a watered-down experience like it was on PlayStation Vita…
Source: WCCFTech
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