Dinosaur Planet

Transcript

Dinosaur Planet has long been one of gaming’s great mysteries.

From its days as Rare’s last N64 game, to its key role in their breakup with Nintendo, Dinosaur Planet and its eventual reworking into Star Fox Adventures has been the subject of over 20 years of rumors, internet hearsay and legends, being kept alive by passionate fans dedicated to uncovering its pieces and in the past few years preserving its legacy.

But the truth is just as interesting from its origins on the SNES, its revolving door of protagonists and its rebirth at the dawn of a new era.

This is Dinosaur Planet, Rare’s last Nintendo game.

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By 1997, Rare had become Nintendo’s not-so-secret weapon. Following a slew of successes on the NES the team working out of an 18th-century farmhouse in Leicestershire England had moved into the Super Nintendo generation as one of the most advanced developers on the planet, limiting their output, doubling down on tech development, and reinvesting their profits into pricey silicon graphics workstations, the same tech that was revolutionizing special effects on the silver screen.

With them, Rare under the guidance of the founding Stamper brothers could create impressive pre-rendered graphics on current-gen hardware. While true 3D was still mostly on the horizon, with Nintendo’s hotly anticipated Ultra 64, Rare was able to keep the SNES in the race as the technology gap widened between it and the competition.

Nintendo took notice, buying up 49 percent of the company in 1994 and offering them the chance to reinvent one of their classic characters, Donkey Kong.

With Donkey Kong Country, Rare created a stunning and fast-paced platformer that put them on the frontlines of Nintendo’s console war with Sega. And with all this coming out of a base SNES without any fancy add-ons or disc drives, Rare made Sega flinch.

Into the next generation and third dimension, they continued this trend, growing into a massive company working on multiple projects at the same time, with each team divided amongst a series of outbuildings on the property. Within the N64’s first year, Rare would release two games, Blast Corps and the seminal Goldeneye.

However, three years into the new partnership, it seemed Rare’s new 3D platformer Banjo Kazooie wasn’t going to make its November 1997 release date.

During a panicked meeting at that years E3 with Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln, rare would evaluate their catalog and offer up a different project for the holiday season. Pro Am 64, a kart racing sequel to their NES racing game starring Timber the Tiger.

Nintendo and Lincoln would accept, however on one condition. Nintendo Producer Shigeru Miyamoto, upon seeing their demo, felt that Timber wasn’t a strong enough character to carry the game through the holiday season, instead suggesting the team changed the lead to someone with a bit more brand recognition. In the following months, the team working just downstairs from the Banjo development would move Timber into P2 and rework Pro Am 64 into Diddy Kong Racing.

Following the release of DKR, the team would be split down the middle with one half beginning work on Jet Force Gemini and another on a new adventure project focused on time traveling to a prehistoric world. When character designer Kevin Bayliss was looking for a protagonist, he would turn once again to Timber, this time aging him up, giving him a rucksack and having him accompanied by another former racer Tricky the Triceratops.

However, once again, Timber would get the boot, instead being replaced by two protagonists Sabre Wulf a reference to the work of Rare’s successor, Ultimate Play the Game, and Krystal the Fox, each with their own dinosaur sidekicks with the former keeping tricky and the latter getting a pterodactyl named Princess Kyte.

With the focus shifted once again, the time travel story would be scrapped, with Dinosaur Planet now being the story of two heroes on different sides of the world being lead through their own different sets of puzzles and challenges.

In this version of the game, our two heroes arrive on Dinosaur Planet through a wormhole from in pursuit of the wizard King Randorn, Sabre’s father who disappeared when he was young, and Krystal’s adoptive father following a deadly war between the Wolf and Fox clan on their home planet.

Randarn wanted to help the two tribes of Dinosaurs, the Earthwalkers and the Cloudrunners in their fight against General Scales and the Sharpclaws. Scales in an effort to control the planet had kidnapped the prince and princess of the two tribes, Tricky and Kyte.

Upon their arrival to the planet, Krystal and Sabre split up with Krystal pursuing the princess and Sabre the prince. They discover it’s revealed that they need to find the 6 spellstones across the Krazoan temples to rid the general of his power, however Scales is only an avatar for the dragon drakor, who fought an ancient war with the ancient Krazoans and has long been the god of the races on Dinosaur Planet

After placing the stones, and either rescuing or failing to save Randorn, Sabre goes up Mount Warlock to face off against Drakor and rid the planet of evil.

For a studio known for stories that start with “big monkey has bananas stolen” this is surprisingly in-depth with a wide range of influences from traditional fantasy to a sort of pulpy John Carter style science fiction feeling with as much sword and sorcery as robots and technology. It also has real stakes, and while a lot of the story devolves into getting blank number of macguffins to reach another set, it feels like a game that is both Rare to a T with its pirates, dinosaurs anthropomorphic heroes and pulpy sci-fi roots and also them maturing as storytellers and game makers with both Krystal and Sabre being interesting characters and the world of Dinosaur Planet feeling like it had real history.

It’s worth noting that multiple playable characters had been a feature of Rare games for several years, most prominently in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and beyond with each kong playing differently from each other. While this idea began well before the release of DK64, having Krystal and Sabre in different worlds rather than forcing players to backtrack and swap to complete different objectives in the same map feels like Rare building on and refining ideas they’d had in the past. The two also feel like different characters with Sabre relying on a sword and Krystal her staff and both having a different sidekick with different powers. Despite these ideas being omitted from the finished product for reasons we’ll get to later, it’s still a fascinating piece of game design and feels like rare continuing to build on their strongest ideas in a way I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anywhere else.

Similarly, the idea of a prehistoric world for a Zelda-inspired game had been floating around Rare for the better part of five years at that point, most prominently with their follow up to the Donkey Kong Country games on SNES, Dream the Land of Giants. While Dream would be reworked into Banjo Kazooie at the turn of the console generation, the broad strokes feel very similar to Dinosaur Planet from antagonists being a group of Sky Pirates, to its reliance on animal sidekicks to help with puzzles and progression as a supplement to a game like Zelda’s items. Even in 1995, the Dream team noted the challenge of not taking too much of the heroes power away and giving it to their four-legged friend, a problem that persists through all versions of Dinosaur Planet, especially the finished product.

Speaking of Zelda, while Dinosaur Planet entered into preproduction before the release of Ocarina of Time, much of its development for the next 4ish years on the N64 and beyond exists in the shadows of it, the team was very much influenced by what it had done for the adventure genre. From its core engine to its broader ideas like z-targeting this was very much Rare making their Ocarina of Time, a studio who was in their absolute prime, and who’s only real flaw was the shine of the collectathon genre beginning to dull, something that was being directly addressed here.

But two years into development, Nintendo’s new console, codenamed Dolphin would be announced for the first time at e3 1999. Dev kits would hit Nintendo’s studios later that year, with the expected release date ideally some point in late 2000 to properly compete with Sony’s PS2. Nintendo’s developers were doubtful it would make the date, with Rare already having multiple titles for the next few years in development for current-gen hardware.

For Dinosaur Planet, that likely meant it was going to be Rare’s last game on the console and they wanted to go out on a bang. Internally it was referred to as a swan song, utilizing the expansion pack (and being one of only five games to require it), giving players a massive world and nearly fifty fully voiced NPCs, really pushing the console to its absolute limits and coming on the N64’s largest 64mb cart size.

By early 2000, despite the coming next generation, Rare was ready to show Dinosaur Planet to the public. As early as January, publications worldwide would receive assets and press kits, with the game being fully shown off at E3 alongside Silicon Knights’ N64 title Eternal Darkness.

Reports from the time paint it as Rare’s most ambitious game to date, citing that the world felt too large to get a full taste of during a single E3 demo, comparing it to quote the dark crystal meets Jet Force Gemini and noting that its similarities with the N64 Zelda’s were hard to deny.

That being said, it lacked a release date, with Rare’s holiday spot saved for Banjo Tooie. Speculation would point to its likely switch to next-gen hardware, as the N64 hardware was definitely showing its age with publications going as far to state that both Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Eternal Darkness were likely to make the jump as well. The former would remain, however the latter would come true, as just before E3, Nintendo would announce that they were moving their next-gen hardware, now dubbed The Gamecube into 2001, due in part to the lack of next-gen titles ready for release.

At that E3, however, two important things were happening behind closed doors.

The first involved self-proclaimed Diddy Kong Racing fan and current head of Microsoft games studio, Ed Fries meeting with Rare. Fries had a metaphorical blank check in his pocket and just over a year and a half to build a launch window lineup for Microsoft’s new, yet to be unveiled console, The Xbox. It was, at least according to Fries, more of a friendly meeting to see exactly what Rare’s deal with Nintendo looked like, and potentially get the ball rolling for any future projects that might have an opportunity for collaboration. Rare would politely decline, however, and Microsoft would instead continue negotiations with a financially struggling Bungie and take on their project a then third-person shooter named Halo.

The second was with Nintendo, and they had big changes planned for Dinosaur Planet. Sabre Wulf was out, and Fox McCloud was in.

While the team at Rare were working on their game, a team in Kyoto headed up by Star Fox art director Takaya Imamura were beginning work on a sequel to Star Fox 64. When discussing ideas, Miyamoto would instead suggest getting Fox out of his arwing, and having players control him in a third-person shooter environment, as sort of an extension of both the land master and the all-range mode segments of the 64 game.

The team, however hadn’t made much progress, as many of those involved were pulled onto other projects, most prominently Majora’s Mask. When work would finish up in April 2000, the gamecube would be delayed and Imamura’s work would spin back up, Miyamoto would approach again with a different plan, the Star Fox team could combine their ideas with Rare’s team creating something loosely dubbed Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet.

At E3, Rare would get the same information in a meeting that didn’t feel far off from how things had gone with Diddy Kong Racing. This time however, the team at Rare was skeptical, it felt like their work on developing their world was being filed off and repackaged to fit inside the world of Star Fox.

Nintendo’s true motivations on this change have long been speculated on, with so much of it pointing to a perceived culture war between the two companies, due in part to a likely fabricated quote from Miyamoto and an awareness that their partnership was coming to an end. By making a Nintendo character the lead, Rare wouldn’t be able to release it on competing hardware. As Dinosaur Planet was very much still an N64 game and any deal for the future of Rare was still a long way off (judging by that other meeting), this likely isn’t the case.

Regardless, Nintendo’s motivation seems to be a lot simpler and frankly a bit dumber. Star Fox and Sabre Wulf not only look similar but both follow the name convention of “cool noun starting with s followed by an animal name.” The opening moments also do resemble a prehistoric lofi version of Star Fox gameplay that existed pretty early on in development. That coupled with the aforementioned lack of GameCube launch window titles, likely made the switch feel like a no-brainer, being an easy solution to have a big Nintendo IP early on in the console's lifespan.

It’s worth pointing out though that the switch to the gamecube either came after this meeting or was much less immediate of a decision, as when a build would leak in 2021 from December 2000, it would feature Fox but still be on the N64 down to requiring the expansion pack.

Game design isn’t necessarily linear, and while the build is far along it’s a little unclear what context it was in. Nintendo had distributed Gamecube dev kits to Rare over a year prior and games such as Kameo, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and their Perfect Dark sequel would all start life on the console around this time. However, the Dinosaur Planet build could’ve been some preliminary work to see how Fox McCloud felt in that context, done before the arduous porting process or a relic from a time when Nintendo and Rare were still working out all the hypotheticals, perhaps seeing how it would fit as one last offering on N64 to those who didn’t purchase a next-gen console in holiday 2001.

That being said, outlets around this time would cite that Dinosaur Planet had made the move to Gamecube *before* they would report that it was a Star Fox game, making the former the more likely case.

Internally the team would begin work after e3 despite their skepticism. Kevin Bayliss alongside main designer Lee Schuneman and lead software designer Phil Tossel would travel to Japan for a week to iron out the changes with Miyamoto and Imamura.

Following that, Imamura would stay for a couple months in England, working closely with the team at Rare to make cuts and to ensure the game fit the Star Fox world.

Krystal was one of the first things to go, with her role being cut back substantially. While she’s still playable, her and Fox are no longer dual protagonists. Fox is very much the hero, with it going as far as to give him Krystal’s staff because Imamura didn’t feel great about Fox quote lopping the heads off of fellow animals.

Similarly, Krystal’s redesign in the finished product (from a yellow dress to a two piece loin cloth number) is by all accounts Imamura as well, with him citing Vampirella as an influence and he and Miyamoto’s desire to add some quote sex appeal to Star Fox for…some reason.

Both of these changes are a little odd, paint a picture of two teams that were beginning to drift apart and seem a little far off from both Star Fox and Dinosaur Planet's strengths. But whether it was the best choice or not, work on Star Fox Adventures on gamecube would continue into 2001.

While no official word was given, French Gamecube based news site Consoles France would report as early as March that their sources pointed to Dinosaur Planet becoming a Star Fox game intending to release (possibly with a Metroid 4 being worked on at Retro Studios) alongside the launch of the Gamecube. Not long after, Rare would pull Dinosaur Planet from their website and Nintendo would officially announce Star Fox Adventure Dinosaur Planet with E3 2001 just over the horizon.

At E3 2001, alongside games like Melee, Luigi’s Mansion, and Rare’s own Donkey Kong Racing attendees would get their first look at this new version of Dinosaur Planet. Despite the nearly four years of development, it was in a rough state, partly due to this being no simple port from the N64. Sound effects were missing, framerates dropped and it paled in comparison from a stability point of view to Rare’s own Kameo.

That being said though, it’s hard to understate how big of a fidelity jump this was, showcasing for the first time what Rare, a team known for pushing Nintendo’s hardware limits, could do in the coming generation, even despite the demos rough edges. While no interview or developer has confirmed it, it wouldn’t surprise me if following the switch to the Gamecube the entire project was all but rebooted and rebuilt from the ground up, purely based on the texture changes alone. The Gamecube was coming and Nintendo and Rare were going to do what they did best…at least until they didn’t.

So much of the conversations around Rare and Nintendo’s relationship point to Nintendo only owning 49% of the company. Rare technically maintained its independence and, Dinosaur Planet not withstanding, was often allowed to do thing their own way to the benefit of both parties.

However, the initial deal set in place in 1994 had an option that in an unspecified amount of time (likely about 8 years) Nintendo could either buy up the rest of Rare or dissolve the partnership.

It’s a no-brainer right? No studio outside of Japan had given Nintendo more hits. Why would they ever let Rare go?

From Nintendo’s perspective, this once profitable partnership had started to sour. Rare was spread thin, and had started either missing r making costly mistakes such as an unfixable bug in DK 64 forcing Nintendo to release the expansion pack alongside it to even make it playable when shipped. Even Star Fox Adventures was behind schedule and as the new generation began, the market was now more competitive. Nintendo was no longer top dog and their strategy had to change.

Early in 2002, Microsoft Game Studios head Ed Fries would get a call. It was looking like Nintendo was going to let the studio in Leicestershire go and a bidding war would begin. Activision would move in alongside Microsoft, and for Rare who had been developing games exclusively for one console manufacturer, the idea of being a third party was appealing. Despite this however, Activision and Rare’s negotiations would breakddown and Microsoft would put in one last higher bid, giving them complete control of Rare and buying out both Nintendo and The Stamper Brothers shares for 375 million dollars.

Internally, as negotiations unfolded, a lot of their internal projects would be put on hold. It’s hard to really continue work when it’s unclear what console you’re going to be developing for. Projects like the recently revealed Donkey Kong Racing would be briefly reworked before being cancelled. However, for Star Fox Adventures, which had failed to meet its Holiday 2001 deadline, and now was outside of the gamecube launch window, work continued with no deal being able to go through until its release.

On September 23rd, 2002 just one day before Microsoft would officially buy Rare, Star Fox Adventures would release to the public. For what it’s worth, while it’s neither a great Star Fox game or a proper realization of what Dinosaur Planet is, Star Fox Adventure does offer a cool pastiche of both Rare and Nintendo’s strongest ideas all while being absolutely stunning for a Gamecube game. While it wouldn’t be until the end of the console’s lifespan until we’d see a more photorealistic Zelda game in Twilight Princess, Adventures happily fills that gap with gorgeous reflections and textures that definitely made it one of the best looking games on the console, at least until metroid prime would come out a few months later.

Even the understandable comparisons to Ocarina of Time pale as a criticism. On one hand, you’ll get no complaints from me that a game closely resembles one of the best ever made and on top that it feels like Rare getting out of their wheelhouse, experimenting and growing while still feeling like what they had done before.

That latter part is where the double edge sword cuts back more than anything, with its frankly annoying dinosaur language that was a change from the original demo.

That alongside Tricky, the game’s main sidekick, who’s a bit insufferable and has more abilities than Fox does for much of the game (a problem his prototype in Project Dream had years prior), and Arwing sections that feel basically forgotten, Adventures has its fair share of rough edges, likely due in part to the rushed final days development.

However, it’s an interesting look at what one potential future of the company could’ve been and demonstrates them trying to move beyond the simple collectathon with their mascots.

Following the buyout, many of Rare’s projects from the GameCube would be brought on to first the original Xbox and then the 360 with titles like Kameo, Perfect Dark and Grabbed By the Ghoulies. However it was hard to not notice that some of the Rare magic had been lost. The company culture changed, they were no longer a strong independent voice, and instead one piece of a growing monolith. Over the years, and even slightly before the buyout their strongest voices were beginning to scatter, most promintently with the founding Stamper brothers parting ways in 2007, largely leaving games as a whole.

“In many ways, for me, Rare doesn't exist anymore. That is, the Rare that I knew and loved and that I got up every morning like an excited child to go to work for. The Rare where all my friends were, most of whom are no longer there. The Rare that does exist is a new Rare with different goals and different aims, and I hope that they will go on and continue to thrive in their own way.”

For Nintendo and Imamura, it would take three more years after Adventures for a much more true to form Star Fox experience in Star Fox Assault from Namco to hit store shelves. While Imamura would finally get the third person shooter he’d started on years before, it’s admittedly a much less polished and much more clunky experience than Adventures own on foot controls. Despite that its spectacle and choice to move forward the universe makes it essentially the only air quotes true sequel of Star Fox 64 we’ve got with the series after these either rereleasing or retelling the 64 story instead.

Dinosaur Planet on the other hand continued to be a mystery, carried on by dedicated fans posting images and leaked design documents on forums.

However, in 2021 a full build of the game would be released, acquired by game preservationist group Forest of Illusion through a private collector. While the build was buggy and as mentioned before already featured Fox as the lead, it does provide a startling look at what Dinosaur Planet was going to be. Members of the community over the past few years have done incredible work to make it both stable and reconstruct what’s hiding within the game files. It’s, pun intended, Rare to see this much of a cancelled game available and offers a truly impressive look at where Rare’s heads were at in late 2000.

Dinosaur Planet’s legacy is complicated, on one hand it gave the gamecube its one and only hurrah from Rare but on the other it gave us the end of one of gamings most iconic partnerships.

Looking at it in hindsight, it’s easy to see how tiny changes could’ve had a massive impact on how everything panned out. From a slightly lower bid leading to a Rare under Activision to a slightly quicker development timeline leading to a version of Dinosaur Planet as the studios swan song on N64.

So while it’s commonplace to be dismissive or loathe Star Fox Adventures for what it was, it also exists as one of the best examples of how weird and messy game development tends to be. How tiny ideas from companies and most importantly people lead to generation-defining moments