Top 5 Canceled Nintendo Games

Published 11/07/2023, 1:58 AM EST

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Over the years, Nintendo has launched several exciting titles. Almost all of those games have received an astonishing commercial and critical response from the gaming community. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were praised to such an extent that it is still the highest-rated game on Metacritic. But games that are planned do not always come to fruition.

Sometimes planned titles do not see the day of light for one reason or another. Many Nintendo games get canceled in such a state that fans never even find out they exist. Here’s a list of five such games that were canceled before reaching their fans.

1. Star Fox 2

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Star Fox fans have heard of this game for the longest time. It existed, and it was one of the few 3D games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was so well known that it was even featured in some gaming magazines back then.

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But Nintendo canceled it, thinking it would complicate things with their upcoming console, the N64, which they are presenting as a 3D-only console.

2. Earthbound 64

Earthbound is a very unique video game series. If someone is told that this game belongs on a Nintendo console, they would struggle to believe it, but that’s exactly the case. Earthbound is a series of very dark RPG games.

This latest installment was supposed to launch for the Nintendo 64 but was quickly canceled. No reason was given for its cancellation, and fans await it to this date.

3. Super Mario 128

It is a unique and interesting platformer and a spiritual successor to Mario 64. Nintendo first showed fans a game where numerous Marios were running around. This was a tech demo for Gamecube, but it was a tech demo that was part of a game Nintendo was then developing for Gamecube. It was to feature numerous Marios.

But it was canceled for unexplained reasons. Mario Galaxy was released instead of it, and it blew everyone away!

4. Raven Blade

Retro Studios is developing Raven Blade as the darker cousin of The Legend of Zelda. A game that was supposed to feature voice acting, a big world to explore, and multiple characters to interact with was really shaping up to be something special.

But the game was canceled, the reason being that it was too big for its own good. A game so big that people thought it would never be completed or that it would be completed too late

5. Metroid Dread

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Yes, there was a canceled Nintendo Dread before a game with the same name made it to Nintendo a while ago. That dread was in development for the Nintendo DS. It was a very dark 2D Metroid title for the DS, but it was stuck in development hell; Nintendo never officially canceled it.

Then it was picked up by Mercury Steam and made from scratch for the Nintendo Switch.

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Everyone makes mistakes now and then; these were five games that Nintendo or their developers made. Of course, there would always be a chance of seeing any of these games make a comeback someday.

WATCH THIS STORY: The Best Games to Play On Xbox One

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Written by:

Rohit Sejwal

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Rohit Sejwal is a senior eSports writer at EssentiallySports. Rohit has an MSc. in Journalism and was a part of OMLogic and other organizations working in a diverse range of content creation fields, including editing, content writing, and scriptwriting.
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Edited by:

Ananya Giri