Dcubed Posted Monday at 08:38 AM Posted Monday at 08:38 AM So it looks like someone got their hands on a Switch 1 dev kit and hit the jackpot. From the Reddit post, found items include... Quote Old Splatoon 2 debug builds Rime Unreleased lego civilization game Unreleased Ridge racer prototype Unreleased retro studios game (project harmony) Arms debug build Project Harmony is a reletively recent rumour, but supposedly it was the big project that Retro Studios was working on inbetween Tropical Freeze and Metroid Prime Remastered. An action RPG that was designed to be an interactive musical. Supposedly they spent 3 years working on this prototype, before giving up on it. Well it looks like that rumour may well have been true! Because we now have our first screenshots of this prototype! Not to be outdone, that old rumour about Bandai Namco Singapore working on Ridge Racer 8? Completely true! And we have video footage to prove it! https://streamable.com/grt0hz (An alternative upload for those of you who don't want to use Twitter). This also soft confirms the rumours about BN Singapore also working on the original version of Prime 4 before they got publically thrown under the bus in favour of Retro. News is still breaking, so hopefully we'll see some video footage of Project Harmony soon. 5
Hero-of-Time Posted Monday at 08:46 AM Posted Monday at 08:46 AM Finally! About time Retro's project was revealed. It was obvious they were working on something that got canned, given how unproductive they were during those years. 1
Dcubed Posted Monday at 08:56 AM Author Posted Monday at 08:56 AM (edited) Bit of detail about the Splatoon 2 prototype... Quote Can confirm at least the splatoon 2 debug leak is real. Source is @nvnprogram on twitter but looks like the posts are deleted now. They showed off this unreleased game mode where two teams were fighting over a rocket ship in the middle of the map. The idea was to shoot the rocket with your team’s ink to fill up its gauge. Once your team filled it all the way up, the rocket would blast off, scoring you points. The player who actually landed the final shot to fill the gauge got rewarded with this super fast automatic weapon. After the rocket launched, it would then reappear somewhere else on the map. If anyone archived these vids please let me know and post them in the replies:) Looks like the guy with the dev kit is struggling to get his controller working with the Project Harmony proto; might be some time before we see it in action, but hopefully video footage will come... Edit: HELL HATH FROZEN OVER!! WE HAVE PROJECT HARMONY FOOTAGE!!! https://streamable.com/2mkoof And there it is! Edited Monday at 09:20 AM by Dcubed
Julius Posted Monday at 09:27 AM Posted Monday at 09:27 AM 43 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Project Harmony is a reletively recent rumour, but supposedly it was the big project that Retro Studios was working on inbetween Tropical Freeze and Metroid Prime Remastered. An action RPG that was designed to be an interactive musical. I always knew that Star Fox Grand Prix was a musical RPG. It absolutely explains Fox's light-footedness in Smash! Anyways, this is awesome. Kind of crazy the number of leaks we've been getting out of Nintendo and Nintendo-adjacent studios this past year or so. Does this soft confirm that the Nintendo Ninjas are roughly the same age as Nintendo's old guard and are around retirement age? Because they've been caught sleeping as of late 1
Dcubed Posted Monday at 09:27 AM Author Posted Monday at 09:27 AM A few opinions of mine regarding the Project Harmony footage... It kind of reminds me a lot of Kameo: Elements of Power; with the animal riding/shifting mechanic. The character designs also remind me a lot of it too. Kind of prophetic... considering that Kameo was a long troubled project that struggled to find its identity and shifted focus multiple times throughout its protracted development cycle. It also looks like they may have been experimenting with a rhythm-based attacking mechanic, sort of like what HiFi Rush would end up pioneering a few years later. We don't see any enemies throughout this prototype footage, but the debug options hint at some similar mechanics. Also, I just want to say, I absolutely love the fact that they use the name WindWakerHint for the mechanic that sees the main character look towards objects of interest that can help the player 1
Cube Posted Monday at 10:41 AM Posted Monday at 10:41 AM 1 hour ago, Dcubed said: It also looks like they may have been experimenting with a rhythm-based attacking mechanic, sort of like what HiFi Rush would end up pioneering a few years later. We don't see any enemies throughout this prototype footage, but the debug options hint at some similar mechanics. Also, I just want to say, I absolutely love the fact that they use the name WindWakerHint for the mechanic that sees the main character look towards objects of interest that can help the player I do wonder if the combat itself was inspired by Wind Waker. While it's not rhythm based, there is a musical element to the combat of the game, so it may have sparked the idea. I really like the look of Harmony. I want it more than the Switch 2 games.
Dcubed Posted Wednesday at 08:21 AM Author Posted Wednesday at 08:21 AM (edited) More footage has emerged of a much later build of Project Harmony... Be sure to read the whole thread, as there are multiple clips! Also, here's a longer form video via Youtube... but it's rather poorly emulated unfortunately... It also includes Disney Singalong cutscenes!! You know what? I think the discourse is spot on. I think the music was indeed done by David Wise, it sounds like his style of work. Edit: Random thought... I wonder if they had originally planned on using the Wii U Gamepad's microphone for actual singing gameplay mechanics before the game got pushed onto Switch... Yeah, I bet that's what they were originally going for! I bet all the parts that feature animals that come out when you hold down the "sing button" were originally microphone activated! Listen to how the pitch changes rather strangely, that must've tracked your pitch in the original Wii U version! That would make a ton of sense! That would also explain why they ended up cancelling the game; because it lost its main defining gameplay feature during the porting process! Edit 2: Yeah, after watching more of the Youtube footage? I'm completely convinced that I am bang on the money with this one. In fact... they might even be planning on reviving this project on Switch 2, since it brings back the microphone! ... assuming that the negative PR coming from this leak doesn't make Nintendo cancel it again... I really hope not! I'd love to play an action adventure game where you have to actually sing into the microphone!! That's a fantastic concept!! Edit 3: I just realised something else... This game was supposedly originally due to be first shown at E3 2015, the same year that Nintendo made their big push for Wii U games that were designed around showcasing the unique functions of the Wii U Gamepad!!! It's also a year where they showed off games specifically labelled as prototypes, including Project Guard (released as StarFox Guard) and Project Giant Robot (released as Nintendo Labo Toy Con 02 Robot Kit), Project Harmony was probably going to be shown alongside those other two prototypes before it was pulled at the last minute! That's it! I've sussed it! That’s the story of Project Harmony from start to finish. It was originally a Wii U project that was part of Nintendo’s big Gamepad Utilisation Project. It was originally due to be shown at E3 2015, pulled at the last minute, eventually ported to Switch and cancelled after they weren’t able to adequately replicate the microphone singing mechanics without a microphone. Oh I do hope that it gets revived on Switch 2, I love the concept! Edited Wednesday at 10:02 AM by Dcubed 1 1
Josh64 Posted 12 hours ago Posted 12 hours ago I buy that theory 100%. It must have been so disheartening for the staff at Retro to have it cancelled SO far into development though. And it is a shame that for whatever reason it didn't make the Wii U and got pushed for Switch, as 2015 Wii U could have really benefit from a big game like this. Seeing how far along it was, I think it is likely they will try to re-release it on the Switch 2. If not then it seems like a real shame, and such a waste of resources! Also... I don't often believe rumours but I was fully convinced by the Star Fox Racing ones for some reason. I think I just heard it so much, and it aligned so close with Star Fox Zero, that I assumed Nintendo were going for an IP revival of that brand lol 1
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