Pokemon Gold & Silver - Come on, Pal!

        Hey, everyone! This is another one about a Pokemon game, our first crossing into the territory of the second generation. Yes, Gold and Silver, the place where I think Pokemon really started to shine, and the so-often-used label of it being some bubblegum-pop fad really started to lose any sort of grounding in reality. This addition to the series took Pokemon farther, showing the true potential of what Generation 1 started by adding many new features and fleshing out the old ones. Of course, in doing so, development was experimental - as any good game's development should be! - and many things were tweaked and cut along the way. The focus of today's post will be one of these many features: the PokeGear! It was definitely an interesting addition, spicing up the game while not bogging it down by being overly obtrusive in its features (besides some inane phone calls, heh heh.)
      Earlier in development it was utilized more in the core game. You would receive phone calls from characters you meet along the way to give you advice and prod you on to advance the plot. The game was much more story-driven, actually. I remember when they started cutting some of the story-related elements and I felt disappointed because they had an interesting narrative written about the return of Team Rocket and their crimes. The Slowpoke well, for example; originally it was a much darker story that involved Pokemon death and abuse. You were given the impression that Team Rocket are a sick group that originally hailed in Kanto until being vanquished in a big way by a mysteriously heroic young boy. Now that they're in Johto they're recruiting new members, strengthening existing ones and tapping into a large potential for crime and injustice.
      Earlier in the game it made you feel like Team Rocket were truly heartless and evil, but later on you visit less fortunate areas of Johto. See, with the focus on plot in this installment, you were going to see the Pokemon world in full detailed through extensive narrative text boxes and heavy dialog. It would show the beauty and the grandeur - the sights, the sounds, the places; people's bonds with each other and their Pokemon, and all of the joy offered by this fantastic world. Then there's the horrors that come creeping out, too. Impoverished towns, "sketchy" parts of cities, abuse, neglect, hurt. If Gen. 1 had this strange narrative JRPG style, as you walked through Celadon City you would have found, by speaking with NPCs and examining your surroundings, there are less privileged members of the Pokemon world. And that's how the Team Rocket plot tugs the heartstrings.
      Team Rocket members all joined because they had no where else to go: they were starving, going without shelter and basic human necessities. Their society had ignored and effectively failed them, keeping them in their miserable place with its continued existence. And because of this, they turned to the next best thing: a life of crime. If you're going to lead a life of crime, why not do it steadily, using an already existing syndicate to join that world and move up in rank? It's the perfect plan, really.
      So you might be thinking, "Well, what the fuck! GameFreak wanted to employ some shitty social commentary in their massive fad game and didn't do it, Why should I care?"
      Because it relates to the core feature I brought up earlier: the PokeGear. Think about low-culture multicolored cottage cheese mess of Entertainment. You get me.
   

Super Mario 4

The title screen

    Super Mario 4. A fine one indeed, shamefully put to rest by the rise of technology superior to the Famicom and NES. A true martyr at the hands of time's burning wrath. This game is what Super Mario World finds its roots in, though that is a fact known by few. After the success of Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo needed to do something more large, more ambitious with the Super Mario Brothers series; the prototypical Super Mario 4 is the product of this need. And the ambition shows. It features a world map, not dissimilar to the one in Super Mario World, and all of the levels are laid out similarly. There are various broken elements to the then-visually-advanced world map, though, such as the fact that you can actually skip across many worlds and levels in it. The ability to do this was a bit random and inexplicable; certain areas would block you off, while others could totally be passed with ease. In the world map, there were various things that seemed to be anomalies that in truth lead to secret levels. There were also some genuine anomalies, like random parts of land forms just out in the water, looking misplaced and purposeless. It was hard to distinguish what was truly a secret and what was simply an error in mapping (or a glitch.)

The Mini-Mushroom and its effects.

    Something else fascinating was that there were various scrapped power-ups, some farther along in development than others. These were all to be firsts for the series that would appear later, such as an Ice Flower that would cause enemies to stop in their tracks. It had a blue coloration, but didn't change Mario's appearance at all, and it had no "Ice" effects beyond causing enemies to cease their movements. There was also a variant on the standard Mushroom that was orange with red dots, likely meant to be the Mega Mushroom from later installments due to similarities in appearance. This mushroom had no functional purpose, however. The most interesting thing to me, and by far the most functional, was a Mini Mushroom. It had the same shape as the regular Mushroom, colored mainly with blue and dotted by white. It shrinks Mario down, giving him properties similar to those it gives in New Super Mario Bros. His jump is very floaty and high, and he can no longer kill enemies (at all, due to the lack of ground pound.) There aren't any areas made accessible by this power up (to my knowledge) but it's still a nice, fun addition to the game that I wish was kept from the transition of this game to Super Mario World.
   There was one feature in the game that definitely set it apart from previous, and even successive Mario games: The Inverse World. I only caught a few glimpses of this within the game, but, it was definitely to be a cool addition. On occasion, after beating a level, the pad you step on to visit it would become green instead of red. This was the indicator of it becoming an Inverse World level. The difference in the level caused by this is that it is in reverse; certain changes in design are necessary in some levels to make them completable. The coloration of the levels are changed in this state, and certain enemies are omitted or swapped out for others. I should also note that "Inverse World" isn't an official term for what these levels are, or where they exist, but it did appear in some of the design documents I saw for the game (thanks to the gracious overseers of the QA team I was in) along with various other little things of intrigue. When completed, the pad to enter the level becomes the same blue as the sea around the land Mario traverses on the world map.
   In the aforementioned design documents, I saw some interesting things that I believe should be noted. There were several different Goomba designs, mainly different in shape (some were angular and some were more rounded.) Some of the Goombas were particularly large, with sharp teeth smaller than their bottom set of fangs exposed through a dopey-looking open mouth. There was also a rocky Wiggler, keeping the distinct facial features (and flower) but having jagged, rough look. I assume it was meant for the subterranean levels. At some point within the documents, I saw something that I found particularly interesting -- concept art showing a view from behind Mario, going through labyrinthine tunnels looking like castles. It kind of reminded me of the special stages from Sonic 3, except this was (I assume) designed to be on the NES. I'm not sure what this would entail, but I think it could be sort of like a first-person dungeon crawler (because I don't think the NES could render such a thing in real time honestly.) It'd definitely bring a unique gameplay dynamic, although I'm not sure that it would be accepted as an enjoyable element, considering the nature of the rest of the Mario games and their main appeal: platforming.
   It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that many of these things were lost to the inevitability of game development and time. But Super Mario World is an incredible game, a true pinnacle of game design and a staple in gaming history.

Pokemon #2: Ditto

   In the planning phases of Pokemon Red and Green, Ditto was going to be an event Pokemon. This was before Mew (and for that matter, Mewtwo) was even a thought, and, given this chronology, I think this may put certain online theories regarding Ditto's origin to rest. Anyways, Ditto was meant to be a highly adaptive Pokemon, capable of learning any of the HMs (yes, even fly!) and TMs, and also having no significant type weakness (although it was still labelled as "Normal" type [probably due to the connoted neutrality of such a type]). Furthering the adaptability of Ditto, you could also use all five of the Evolution stones on it. The evolution stones (excluding Moonstones) would give Ditto the corresponding type, giving Ditto the like type advantage without the weakness. Moonstones would revert Ditto back to Normal Type. Using one of the four "main" evolution stones on Ditto would cause the evolution sequence to occur, changing Ditto's sprite into a pseudooval shape with its face in the middle. The PokeDex entry for these evolutions explains that the newly taken shape is caused by a crystalline coating around the Ditto's regular, gelatinous body.

The evolved Ditto.

    This may sound like it was potentially overpowered, and I would believe that to be granted given that this was going to be an event Pokemon, but that is actually quite untrue. Ditto possessed average stats, teetering close to being poor. They were all around the same number, really, and the HP was severely low, so going against a well-balanced and high-leveled team would definitely give Ditto a run for its money. The main appeal to Ditto as an event Pokemon would be the simple pleasure in having him fill that empty PokeDex slot, and another, considerably more unique feature.
    In the planned promotional material for Ditto, there were various hints to visit Blaine at his Gym in Cinnabar Island after acquiring the Pokemon. These hints were present because having Ditto in your party would trigger Blaine to have new dialogue. He would tell you that you have in your possession a scientific marvel, and that he would like for you to visit Mr. Fuji in Lavender Town. At this point in development, Lavender Tower wasn't in existence. In its place was a cave, which served as the "Graveyard" area. It had multiple descending levels, and a much similar side-quest plot involving the rescue of Mr. Fuji. Anyways, when you spoke with Mr. Fuji after being prompted to do so by Blaine, he tells you he has been looking for a specimen such as the one you hold for a long time, and that he thanks you for taking Blaine's words into consideration. (I suppose there was some implied speech on the player's part, but who am I to say?) Towards the end of this exchange, Mr. Fuji tells you he'd like for you to meet him in his "secret laboratory," and that it can be accessed through the fourth grave to the left of the stairs on the second lowest floor of the graveyard in the cave.
    At this point, I believe it has been made clear that the ambition of the developers with this promotional material was very high. I think Ditto was actually going to be a bought addition to the game, so at whatever retailer you would go to for his purchase, he would be transferred to your game through trade similarly to the actual Mew event. In Mr. Fuji's "secret laboratory," you soon find out that his apparent  resignation from the field of science wasn't quite true, and you will come to know him again as Dr. Fuji. Dr. Fuji's laboratory, despite what natural inclinations may lead you to believe, contains nothing sinister or dangerous-looking. Quite the contrary, actually; everything you find as you explore this labyrinthine complex of tiled-floor and science equipment is something related to the benefit of the health of Pokemon. You find many work-in-progress potions, ones with added benefits to the side or massive healing power; some can even be picked up and used on your Pokemon! There are many journal entries akin to the ones that would be found later in development within the Pokemon Mansion (at the time, this dungeon was nonexistent) describing attempts to reverse-engineer various substances like Revives. It's an incredibly insightful and intriguing trip through what could have lead to major in-plot developments in later games.
    After roaming through this completely innocuous dungeon, free of the common burden of enemy Pokemon, you eventually find Dr. Fuji standing within an office-like room. Upon approaching him, he automatically turns to you, and takes a few paces in your direction, initiating dialogue. He tells you that he is glad that he has held your interest for this long, and that you are already showing the worth as a trainer to possess such a Pokemon as Ditto. But, he says, he would like to take it further, and gain total assurance in your knowledge of Pokemon and skill as a trainer. He challenges you to a battle, prompting you with two options: Yes and No. If you select no, Dr. Fuji simply says that he understands, and that perhaps you could revisit him later if you change your mind. Selecting yes initiates the battle, and it is a ravaging one. A full team of six level one-hundreds, all with incredible stats beyond anything found within this game and any future ones in the series. The three starters of this generation - Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle - are within his team in their second-stage evolutionary forms. Their stats are ludicrously high, and they are dispersed through his team in an order of 2, 4, and 6. The first Pokemon within his team is a Marowak, with completely intense damage output and HP. Third in line is a Gengar, with an extreme mastery over the Special stat, who throws a barrage of Hypnosis, Lick, and Dream Eater at you. Fifth is a Porygon with suspiciously high stats all around; the crux of its power is its relentless hyper beams. And let it be known that the developments you see across Dr. Fuji's laboratory are not in vain within the context of this battle: he uses tons of stat boosts and healing items - even Revives! - so this battle can potentially drag on for a while.
    If your team is good (or lucky) enough to defeat Dr. Fuji, the battle ends with him saying "Wow. It truly is surprising,.." and upon returning to the overworld, the dialogue continues. He tells you that he knows you possess the knowledge and skill to be worthy of training the scientific marvel that is Ditto, and he wishes you well on your continued journey. He also informs you that he actually has an invention related to Ditto, that being a machine that can swap Ditto into any of its five forms with no repercussions at all. He also gives you an item that could serve as a Deus Ex Machina of sorts: the Universal Revive. It fully heals all of your party, curing them of all ailments and reviving any who are knocked out. After this, he says his final goodbye, ending the speech with a promise to keep his eye on your progress in the world.

Sqad

Sqad (pronounced skad, by the way) is a game that was fully completed for the NES, but, when shown to Miyamoto, it was rejected as he did not see it as being fit to publish. This was a common occurrence in the NES's heyday; developers would spend valuable time making complete games only for them to be rejected. Sqad was a side-scroller game, similar to Super Mario Brothers and Monster Party. The point of the game was to explore a strange, open world and collect various artifacts found throughout it. The artifacts were then to be taken to various locations in the game that you had to figure out mainly through blind experimentation, and once all of them were in their correct locations (about 2/3 through the game) you would be taken to a fully different world. This world was much smaller, and its main purpose was to just find the final boss's lair and defeat it.
This game had a lot of oddities in it. You could collect power-ups that physically warped your character, which I think was a very progressive and unique idea for the time, something oft-seen in more recent games (I'm writing this on January 2nd, 2015). I remember the character starting off as looking like a sort-of knight, but as you would get upgrades (sometimes totally useless ones, at that), he would gain fleshy growths that seemed to meld to his armor and extend from cracks in it. I remember one upgrade significantly -- it was one that covered his sword with flesh, and made it to where swinging the sword would take one point of health away from you (you have 100 to start off with, but gain more as you go.) To make this an upgrade, though, every attack you landed gave you back 2 health. This, along with other upgrades raising speed and general maneuverability made the game get very easy towards the end.
Most of the areas you explored had no music, rather ambient tracks sounding similar to Metroid 2 on Game Boy. A lot of the areas were just oddly colored caves with platforming sections ranging in difficulty. And, of course, common enemies like bats, lizards, giant spiders, and scorpions. Sometimes you'd encounter NPCs and bosses that had dialogue appearing in the bottom right corner of your screen. They'd usually say something nonsensical or something providing a vague hint, and they had strange "portraits" taken from their actual sprites. I also remember most screens having no background, rather, they had the simple blackness prevalent in many space-shooters of the time. It felt odd, traversing areas that look as if they would be above ground with the green, grassy ground contrasting with pitch blackness beyond. I remember this game really getting to me when I was up at 4:00 A.M. fueled by coffee. Man, those were some good times.
In the second part of the game (the one after you collected all of the artifacts), I noticed that there was actually no music at all, and, really, it felt much more linear. There were a few branching sections that lead to dead ends, but it was mostly just a series of screens going from left to right with thematically fractured graphics and NPCs sharing now-anachronistic real-life advice and information. I really don't know what the developers of this game were going for, but it was definitely unique. The final boss was quite a kicker.
I remember, at the end of the long-winded second half of the game, there was an oddly detailed pit in the floor. Jumping in, I pretty much knew this was going to be the final boss. For an NES game, this had already been long -- around 10 hours! -- and I could tell there wasn't much else that could be done with my character. At this point, he was pretty much a blob of flesh symbiotically connected to his armor. I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but, looking back on it, it was a bit weird. The character started off as a standard NES protagonist, wielding a sword and fighting pretty standard monsters, but in the end he was what could be called an abomination, fighting equally abominable creatures. Strange turn of events, that. Anyways, the final boss of the game. The character, after falling for about 15 seconds I'd say, landed on a blood-red ground. Emerging from the infinite blackness of the background was what I could only compare to the Icon of Sin from Doom 2, but obviously rendered in a far more basic way. Its colors were mainly green and red, with a few yellow tinges, and it was what appeared to be the face of the devil. It looked a bit goat-like, and had massive bat wings on its sides. All it really did, though, was shoot projectiles from its eyes and fly around, knocking into you. It dealt some pretty major damage though, about forty hit-points per hit! After trudging through the repetitious fight, I finally defeated it. The creature, the horrific, Satanic creature, turned completely red, and the screen began flashing completely red. After a while of this and some rumbly 8-bit noises, the screen cut to black. Some standard NES ending theme played, feeling a bit like a Megaman copy, and "THE END" appeared in white.

Pokemon #1: Truck

The truck found next to the S.S. Anne in Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Green has, over the years, gained infamy due to the elusiveness of the Pokemon Mew. I'd like to clear something up about it: in no versions of the game (to my knowledge), including the beta I had the extreme privilege to play, was Mew in any way involved with this truck. However, the truck did serve another purpose in one of the betas of Pokemon Green I got to play.
Pokemon Green - Pocket Monsters Green, as it were- had a beta that fascinated me. The reason I'm formatting my Pokemon posts in a numerical fashion is simply because of the intricacy of the details of these beta features is something I have to go into such detail on that it wouldn't make sense to post it all in one post. Anyways, the beta really explains a lot of things that are elusive and mysterious to people, and this truck is one of them.
In the beta, when you beat the Elite Four (which was actually six battles, but I'll get into that later) you of course had access to Cerulean Cave. The cave's layout was completely different, but not in a noteworthy way. Something that would surprise most, though, is that the levels of the wild Pokemon you encountered were far lower. The lower-leveled Pokemon in the cave were in the high thirties, starting out at about thirty-eight. The highest one, I believe, was about fifty-five. At the time this was surprising to me, but it would soon make sense enough.
I caught Mewtwo, who was actually only level 65, and left the cave. Out of curiosity, fueled by prior experiences with this beta, I decided to head to the truck by S.S. Anne. When I reached it, with Mewtwo in my party, I decided to check it, expecting nothing to occur. Then, the unique message of "!?!" appeared, making me question whether the screen before me had been somehow Satanically interfered with to cause me to question reality, which could lead to me directly going against God. But, no, what I was seeing was truly there. I pressed A, making the text box go away, and a sort of vibrating sound played as the screen had a shaking effect. The truck was moving down, and under it was a staircase.
This scene ended, and a text box appeared, saying "Mewtwo's PSYCHIC moved the truck!" I was sweating, shaking, and my bloodshot eyes were taking in the formations of the bright little screen before me in that dark office room. I honestly got emotional due to this. A dream from my childhood, fulfilled. Those incredible bedroom days of playing Pokemon were all worth it for this moment. Red, standing before this downward staircase that clearly lead to things unseen by anyone but me up to this point.
I approached the staircase and went down. The usual transition played, and, when it was over, I saw Red standing there in a cave. Now, this cave was unique in that its tiles had this animation to them that made it appear as if they were glowing or had light reflecting off of them in different directions or something of that nature. It's really hard to describe, and I really wish I could better put into words what I was seeing. The cave was laid out like the rest of the caves in the game; it had sections where you had to use surf, sections that required cut (which was a bit odd), sections where you had to use strength, and, levels where you had to use flash.
I believe the point of this cave was to reward the player for having the commitment to go to the truck after doing a task like capturing Mewtwo. That shows diligence, right there, and I think that's a value Game Freak wanted to emphasize to children playing the game. The cave was a reward in that it contained many incredibly useful items, like Revives and Max Revives in great abundance, many full restores, and even two extra Master Balls! The only catch to this cave was that it was a bit hard to navigate with all of the HMs you had to use (I remember one particularly brutal strength puzzle) and the Pokemon you encountered there were a huge obstacle. If you were lucky, you'd encounter mostly lower-leveled Pokemon, which in this case were already at level seventy! It was completely brutal, as, by floor 5 (the final floor), I was mostly encountering Pokemon that were in the high eighties.
The end of the cave had an interesting treat that I had wished they would have kept in the final game. It was the fossil that you DIDN'T pick up early on in the game, making it possible to have both Kabutops and Omastar. I think this area was actually removed mostly because it COULD make a player a bit too powerful and it would have probably lead to less utilization of the trading system, but, really, who knows!

Donkey Kong 99

In 1994, after the critical success of Rare's Donkey Kong Country, Sega gained interest in the Donkey Kong IP and formed a small team of around 6-8 people for the purpose of working on a demonstration game to present to Rare. Sega actually did this multiple times in the early 90's, but that's another story. The product of this team was a game they called Donkey Kong 99. It used sprites ripped from Donkey Kong Country, but had original level design and had gameplay quite different (but definitely not a step up from) Donkey Kong Country. Some important things to note were a lack of checkpoints, one-hit-deaths (always) and you could never have Ditty as a follower or play as him. The game was shown to some higher-ups at rare, showing what Sega could do with the IP in a short amount of time (which makes me wonder what this would have been had they obtained the rights), and they also offered quite a great sum of money for the rights to Donkey Kong. Unfortunately for Sega, rare declined, and this game was to be in the vaults rotting eternally.

The boss of world 1.

The first world was entirely set on dock-like structures. It had standard enemies of the DK series, like the generic animals (Gnawties, Neckies, Slippas etc.) and the Kremlings (Kritters, Klumps etc.) There were standard game obstacles, like death pits and tricky platforms. Something strange about this game was that every enemy, upon being killed, had one of two horrible screeches. One of them sounded like a slowed down record scratch of sorts, and the other was a more generic "Eee!" screech. When I first played it definitely startled me, and prompted me to turn down my volume. Not much was to be missed anyways, the music was very bland and generic sounding. The boss of the world was a large Zinger (the bee enemies from Donkey Kong Country), and it was very standard. He would swoop down to hit you, and you had to throw barrels at him to damage him. Something strange that applied to every boss in the game was that they have these writhing death animations. As Donkey Kong stands in front of them cheering, you see them struggling on the ground until the screen instantly cuts to the next level.
World 2 was much the same, and, really, all of the worlds were very similar. World 2 took place in what appeared to be some
sort of old factory or maybe a castle, with wooden structures inside it. It introduced a few new enemies, like little monkeys that throw nuts or rocks at you (I couldn't really tell), and had new obstacles, such as some trap doors that you had to jump over. The trap doors were interesting because their functionality wasn't to simply kill you, you actually fell through them, and if one was above you and you were on the ground you could jump through it. This lead to some clever level design that I think demonstrated the skill of the designers working on this project. The boss of this world was a

large Gnawty, and, similarly to the first world, it was quite a standard fight. All he would do is jump in a large arc towards you, then sit on the ground for a moment. Your period to attack him was of course when he was on the ground after jumping. The bosses in this game really seemed to drag on, and most of their challenge was in tiring you so you would mess up. And, of course, this boss had a writhing death animation too.
World 3 was a bit of a jarring change of scenery. It appeared to be a factory, highly advanced compared to the previous two worlds. Something to take note of is that none of the worlds so far have been natural; everything was man-made. This applies to the next world too, but the next world has a bit of a twist on this. This world is much of the same: platforming, tricky enemy placements, frustrating segments that take a lot of time, etc, etc. I was getting pretty tired of the game at some points, making the repetitions of playing the same level over and over again even worse. A lot of coffee aided me through the night I spent playing this game in that dingy little office. I remember my eyes starting to hurt quite a bit, staring
at that little screen. I'm getting sidetracked, but I'll keep that in to hold integrity. Anyways, the boss of this world was an apparently massive Necky, seeing as only its head poked in through the side of the screen and that alone was larger than Donkey Kong. It would pop out randomly from the left or right of the screen, and throw a giant coconut at you. After (or before, really) jumping over that obstacle, if he was in reach, you would jump on the giant Necky's head to do damage to him. This boss was honestly annoying, because the collision detection of the platforms as off in some spots. I still must give this game the highest praise even with the negative things I have said about it though, for reasons I'll reveal later relating to its thematic qualities.
World 4 is interesting in scenery. It appears to take inspiration from
Mayan architecture, and, with that, makes it different from the previous two worlds. The previous worlds seemed to show a progress in time, the first one being some simple docks, the second being a factory or castle with some complexity to it, and the third one being a modern-looking factory. This world, though, is ancient looking, but still man-made. The enemies and conventions of this world are the same as all of the others, but the scenery really pulled me in. At the time that I was playing this world, I was getting really tired, and the immersive scenery made me imagine I was in the game at times when I would start nodding off. I know I have shown some signs of delirium in my descriptions of my time playing this game, but I feel the need to stress that I am perfectly sound in mentality. I was just playing this game in an exhausted state that I don't feel the need to explain as I shouldn't have to share my personal information. Anyways, the boss of this world was an exact repeat of the boss from World 2. It was kind of disappointing after having such captivating design and imagery, but oh well.
World 5 really brought it home with what I had been suspecting as the theme of this game. This world was even more of a change than World 4 had been from the rest of the worlds. This was the only world that was fully natural, taking place in a snowy, semi-woodland area. The previous world was looking back in the past at simpler times, where man's deviation from the world was far less, but this world looks back at a time before man had walked the Earth. Compared to every other world, this world had an appearance that was like the Garden of Eden compared to the world after Eve had ate the forbidden fruit. This world was, of course, challenging, seeing as it was actually the final one (further adding to the theme that I will explain soon), but visually it was completely serene
compared to the other worlds. This world, gameplay-wise, had flaws, though. There were segments with barrels that required some odd platform manipulation, and a lot of collision problems with the platforms themselves. Other than that, though, as you would expect this world was more of the same as seen in previous world. I feel that this project was made more for artistic purposes than the purpose of simple, fun entertainment. That makes this quite an ambitious project, and it's understandable that Rare rejected the offer Sega made. The final boss was K. Rool, as you would expect, although him being in a snowy area like this makes no sense to me. I suppose it's because based on the original game, Donkey Kong Country, he represents a symbol of finality. When you beat him, this is the ending you get:

 Yes, that screen with some odd, off key music playing is all you get as an ending. This, on the surface level, appears to be a very disappointing ending, but in my hours of theorizing and study, I realized it's completely genius.
This entire game is about man bringing destruction to this world due to its own careless progress. Donkey Kong symbolizes man, perhaps reenacting some of the things it did by killing off many animals only harmful to its own goal, and perhaps looking back through its own history. The game starts on some simple docks, which I believe are supposed to show the developments of early humanity. They really do no harm to the surrounding natural world, the most harm being done is to some trees (which would regrow in due time) and some animals. Then, the second world, which could be a couple thousand years later, shows some sort of factory/castle. This shows a great progression in man's creations, and, also shows massive deviation from Earth's original form. There was also a far greater number of animals killed in this world than the first. Then, comes World 3. This world was a completely industrial factory, showing the ultimate deviation from Earth and nature. Man's progress went on too far, carelessly ignoring the needs of the animals and nature. Then, after this world, what occurs could be called a flashback. World 4. This world is depicted as some sort of temple, constructed with beautiful architecture in relative harmony with nature. This shows man's progress used in a way that isn't harmful, and in a way that has perfect balance. This reminds man (man being Donkey Kong) that things could have continued in this path, and perhaps World 3 would have looked a lot different if so was done. But it was too late. World 5 is sort of a snap to the present, contrary to what I stated about it being a time before man. Its snowiness is meant to represent the polar ice caps, and, this world being the last, how man's carelessness combined with their properties and existence will lead to man's own downfall, along with most of the rest of nature. Donkey Kong (man) killing K. Rool signifies the complete downfall. Then, the ending screen.
The ending screen shows Diddy Kong, who I will say symbolizes man's future, or younger generations, looking back at Donkey Kong, who is man's past, what brought man to this point. Their surroundings symbolize what Earth was to become: practically nothing. They are standing in a barren void, the ground being a bland shade of tan. This is the world after Man goes too far and ends it all. And the younger generations are suffering due to this, looking back on their past with sorrow.

I can see how Rare rejected Sega's offer easily, but in a way it saddens me due to how fascinating the ideas of this small team were.

Banjo Threeie (Cancelled Game)

Banjo Threeie is a game with quite a lot of mystique. Very little is known about it - that is, until now. This is another game I have been graciously allowed to play, and let me tell you, the experience felt like I imagine the Israelites felt when they were graciously provided with Manna and Quail. The game was completely fascinating. Contrary to popular belief, it was not meant for the Game Cube or Nintendo 64. It was in fact going to be a Gameboy Advance game, and quite an ambitious one at that. It is likely that aspects of the engine used for this game were used for the later released Grunty's Revenge.

The image of Grunty in Hell. Heed the
good Lord's word.

Getting to details of the actual game, I must say, it seems the developers decided to go with the commercially profitable route of appealing to a more mature audience. The game would've definitely been rated at least T. The first sign of this was in the introduction. The introduction was composed of various images, and, I'd assume that they were going to have text later, but in the game's state as I played it, there was absolutely no text in the introduction. The first image that appeared is what I assume to be Grunty in Hell, after she had died in Banjo Tooie. After this image, it cut to Banjo sitting in the recliner in his house. He was asleep, and there was a dream cloud over his head showing what looked like a really low-resolution image from Banjo Kazooie or Banjo Tooie. After this, it cut to Kazooie, who appeared to be asleep on Banjo's bed. She had a dream cloud over her as well, inside it was an image of the Stop-n-Swop eggs. The screen went black for a few seconds, and cut to an image of Banjo, Kazooie, some Jinjos and Bottles standing around a stone, going up to about Banjo's waist-line, in the shape of a Mumbo Token. All of the characters were looking down, and in the background the sky was clearly a dark overcast. The image changed to the characters walking away from the stone; Banjo and Kazooie walking together, two Pink Jinjos walking away together, one Black Jinjo walking away and Bottles walking away alone.

This scene, along with his absence from the rest of the game, seems to imply they were at a funeral for Mumbo. I'm really not sure how he could have died or what, but, he was gone, and there was no imagery relating to him or any mention of him past this point. After this, the game started in Banjo's House. To my surprise, it was a sidescrolling 2-D game. I was expecting it to be similar to Grunty's Revenge at the time, with an overhead view, but it seems they were going for something different with this game. Outside of Banjo's House was Spiral Mountain, which looked oddly apocalyptic. Everything was reddish, the sky was a dark cyan and there was no music. Of course, some of these

 aspects were probably due to the game being early in development. Weird, unfinished looking graphics are to be expected with such things, and a lack of music isn't unusual at all. I kept playing the game, and it mostly had areas from the previous two games, but of course with major design changes due to the game being 2-D. I remember Mumbo's Mountain, which was simply called Mountain, having no enemies, and the termite hill was entirely omitted. The level was really bland, no content to be found in it, which I guess is because the game was in such an early state. After a while of

exploring in Grunty's Lair, I found something that lead to one of the most fascinating aspects of this game. There was a small airplane. Now, I suppose this next section was used for Banjo Pilot, due to it using exact sprites from that game and being highly visually similar. When Banjo jumped into the plane, it instantly teleported him into the middle of some desert. You could fly around freely, and as I said the gameplay was similar to Banjo Pilot. There were many areas you could find; I remember finding a forest that contained the Fungi Forest level, which had enemies from the level from DK:64 and other such things. You could find Jiggies, but they really had no value as you could go to literally any level you found. In the desert, I found a pyramid, which I flew to and it took me to a level where there were giant scarab enemies outside of a pyramid that you would go inside. The pyramid was rather large, containing some platforming areas that lead to Jiggies, and a few mini-bosses like this large mummy's hand and a giant scorpion. The weirdest part of the pyramid was that you could find Tooty in a cage with a giant mummy guarding her. I fought the mummy for a while (the battle was very standard; he just walked back and forth and would damage you if he ran into you) until I beat him, and upon doing so nothing happened. Another thing interesting was that, when

A dark tower in the distance.

 flying around, randomly a timer would appear. I'm really unsure what this timer would do, but I think you either had to reach something or collect a certain amount of notes or honey combs or something within its limit to unlock something. I never successfully completed any of these timed segments, probably due to them being unimplemented, but they were kind of fascinating. When they were activated this fast ticking sound would start playing for their duration, replacing one of the channels of the music.
There was clearly much to see in this game, and a lot that I sadly didn't. I remember seeing many distant objects while flying around, almost entirely making me forget that you could fly back to Grunty's Lair and that there were levels to be seen there, too. When you would fly around, you could find small little areas to enter, which were comparable to the random battles of Zelda 2. You'd have to make it to the end of a section where you either platformed or fought standard enemies, Some of these areas you could enter and leave freely, and they simply had things like temples and pyramids with closed entrances that I really had no idea how to open. I remember one of these areas in  particular having Easter Island heads that brought up dialogue saying things like "Find the tower!"
or "Reach the homeland!"
I got tired of playing when I seemed to have reached the "end of the world" so to speak, meaning you could not go out any farther and at random points the game would crash along this area.

EDIT: Added footage. It's from one of the random platforming sections.