10 Games That Had to Completely Restart Development
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Script written by Johnny Reynolds
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Games That Had to Completely Restart Development.
For this list, we’ll be looking at games that not only changed a lot during development, but actually had to start from scratch for one reason or another.
Which game do you think benefited from a complete rehaul? Let us know in the comments.
Valve has given us many gaming gems, but for its very first outing, it hit a few snags. Built using the “Quake” engine, the team sought to innovate on the FPS genre with unique enemy AI and weapon design. Unfortunately, what they had wasn’t fun. Levels didn’t fit well together, enemies could only be fought in the exact right way, and technical bugs appeared throughout. Instead of fixing what they weren’t happy with, the developers chose to restart and rework every level. Valve took aspects it liked and put them into a prototype level, then based every subsequent level around this prototype. Although “Half-Life” took a year longer than planned, we’d say it was well worth it.
Bethesda’s golden child is a wonderful blend of RPG and FPS, but it was almost quite different. The first two entries in the series were developed by Black Isle Studios and leaned much more into the RPG genre. Black Isle was working on a third game when publisher Interplay filed for bankruptcy in 2003. Bethesda licensed the series in 2004 before outright buying it in 2007. But they didn’t use any of Black Isle’s previous work. Instead, Bethesda started from scratch and used the same game engine they had used for “Oblivion”. The series may have fallen a bit from grace with “Fallout 76”, but Bethesda initially took the series in exciting new directions.
Although you might not expect a “Kirby” game to take long to develop, this Wii entry took over a decade to release. After the release of “Kirby 64” in 2000, Nintendo immediately started development on another mainline game. The first version was shown at E3 2005 and would have included four-person simultaneous gameplay. But problems with programming the multiplayer led to its cancellation. The next iteration placed Kirby in a 3D space and focused on harder gameplay, but Nintendo wasn’t happy with the quality and cancelled it as well. The team switched back to 2D sidescrolling with a pop-up book art style for the third version, but eventually cancelled it too. It wasn’t until late 2010 that the game began to take form!
“EarthBound,” known as “Mother 2” in Japan, has an incredibly passionate following and is considered a SNES classic. The Japanese-only sequel is surrounded by just as much love, but it definitely had a rough development period. It began in 1994 with the Super Famicom before moving to the N64 and switching to 3D. But the world was so big that the team switched development to the console’s disc-based add-on, the 64DD. However, due to a myriad of issues, including Nintendo’s focus on the upcoming GameCube, the then-named “EarthBound 64” was cancelled in 2000. Fortunately, Nintendo revived it in 2003 for the GameBoy Advance, keeping story elements but returning to the franchise’s 2D roots. Unfortunately, “Mother 3” has yet to be released outside Japan save for a fan translation.
A funny thing happened on the way to one of the best horror games ever made. “RE2” director Hideki Kamiya wanted to make a more stylized and action-heavy game. Early on, it became clear his vision didn’t fit with the survival horror series. So it instead evolved into 2001’s “Devil May Cry.” But Capcom didn’t abandon “RE4.” Development restarted in 2001 with the game being added as one of the games developed specifically for the GameCube. “RE4” went through several iterations, including one shown at E3 2003 dubbed the “Hook Man version.” But each version had problems, whether it was thought to be too expensive or too formulaic. Kamiya eventually took over directing duties again and reinvented the game we know today.
Another hit for the long-running RPG series. It just took a while to get here. Originally a spin-off called “Final Fantasy Versus XIII,” development began in 2006 for the PS3 alongside the mainline series’ 13th entry. The spin-off was intended to be darker than the main series and was being developed by the “Kingdom Hearts” team. Development proceeded slowly for the next few years. But the game’s scope grew too big and, with new consoles fast-approaching, Square Enix decided to change things entirely. In 2012, the game was officially scrapped. Development restarted shortly after using the then-new Luminous Engine and switching to PS4 and Xbox One. Hajime Tabata also took over for Tetsuya Nomura as director. “Final Fantasy XV” officially released in 2016, a decade after development began.
“DOOM” had quite the hiatus between 2004’s “DOOM 3” and this now legendary revival. But there’s a good reason for it. In 2008, developer id Software announced “DOOM 4.” The sequel was set to take place on Earth with a more realistic tone akin to the “Call of Duty” series. However, an expose by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier in 2013 uncovered its troublesome development. According to insiders, development had restarted in 2011 due to the mediocrity of the more realistic game. Although, the project continued to suffer from mismanagement after the reboot. It wasn’t until 2014 when the game got back on track and a teaser trailer was shown at E3. Two years later, the game would finally release to critical acclaim.
With every new Nintendo Direct, this one stings a little more. The “Metroid Prime” trilogy is one of Nintendo’s modern crowning achievements and it made developer Retro Studios an impressive subsidiary. So when a fourth game was announced at E3 2017, fan excitement went through the roof. Although Bandai Namco was taking over development, a new “Metroid” game is always grounds for celebration. But in 2019, Nintendo announced it was restarting development as the game didn’t meet the company’s standards. Retro Studios came back on board, but there haven’t been any updates since. The only news came in late 2020 in the form of a job posting for a storyboard artist to “define emotional scenes” and “elevate the narrative.”
“Resident Evil 4” wasn’t the only game in the series to restart development. 1996’s “Resident Evil” was a massive hit for Capcom and work on a follow-up began immediately after. But a sequel brought many issues in the eyes of supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto. With around 70% of the game complete, Okamoto felt the story and writing was uninteresting and that its neon, brightly-lit environments didn’t fit well with the survival horror genre. Along with director Hideki Kamiya and producer Shinji Mikami, Okamoto decided to cancel “Resident Evil 2” mere months before its 1997 release. Development restarted essentially from the ground up and Capcom reworked the plot, characters, gameplay, and environments. However, the final version that was released in 1998 showed the changes were well worth it.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Few games exist that look less like their initial state than “Banjo-Kazooie.” Rare’s classic 3D platformer began its life as “Project Dream,” an isometric fairy tale RPG meant for the SNES. The project was announced in 1995 and focused on Edson, a young boy who had run-ins with pirates. “Project Dream” dropped Edson and the fantasy theme after development moved to the N64. The protagonist was switched to a rabbit and eventually a bear named Banjo. The team then dropped the RPG focus in favor of a 2.5D platformer. But when they saw “Super Mario 64,” they scrapped everything they had to develop a new game inspired by the N64’s launch title. They still kept Banjo, but all in all, “Banjo-Kazooie” went through 4 different development periods before release.
10 Games That Had to Completely Restart Development
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Games That Had to Completely Restart Development.
For this list, we’ll be looking at games that not only changed a lot during development, but actually had to start from scratch for one reason or another.
Which game do you think benefited from a complete rehaul? Let us know in the comments.
“Half-Life” (1998)
Valve has given us many gaming gems, but for its very first outing, it hit a few snags. Built using the “Quake” engine, the team sought to innovate on the FPS genre with unique enemy AI and weapon design. Unfortunately, what they had wasn’t fun. Levels didn’t fit well together, enemies could only be fought in the exact right way, and technical bugs appeared throughout. Instead of fixing what they weren’t happy with, the developers chose to restart and rework every level. Valve took aspects it liked and put them into a prototype level, then based every subsequent level around this prototype. Although “Half-Life” took a year longer than planned, we’d say it was well worth it.
“Fallout 3” (2008)
Bethesda’s golden child is a wonderful blend of RPG and FPS, but it was almost quite different. The first two entries in the series were developed by Black Isle Studios and leaned much more into the RPG genre. Black Isle was working on a third game when publisher Interplay filed for bankruptcy in 2003. Bethesda licensed the series in 2004 before outright buying it in 2007. But they didn’t use any of Black Isle’s previous work. Instead, Bethesda started from scratch and used the same game engine they had used for “Oblivion”. The series may have fallen a bit from grace with “Fallout 76”, but Bethesda initially took the series in exciting new directions.
“Kirby’s Return to Dreamland” (2011)
Although you might not expect a “Kirby” game to take long to develop, this Wii entry took over a decade to release. After the release of “Kirby 64” in 2000, Nintendo immediately started development on another mainline game. The first version was shown at E3 2005 and would have included four-person simultaneous gameplay. But problems with programming the multiplayer led to its cancellation. The next iteration placed Kirby in a 3D space and focused on harder gameplay, but Nintendo wasn’t happy with the quality and cancelled it as well. The team switched back to 2D sidescrolling with a pop-up book art style for the third version, but eventually cancelled it too. It wasn’t until late 2010 that the game began to take form!
“Mother 3” (2006)
“EarthBound,” known as “Mother 2” in Japan, has an incredibly passionate following and is considered a SNES classic. The Japanese-only sequel is surrounded by just as much love, but it definitely had a rough development period. It began in 1994 with the Super Famicom before moving to the N64 and switching to 3D. But the world was so big that the team switched development to the console’s disc-based add-on, the 64DD. However, due to a myriad of issues, including Nintendo’s focus on the upcoming GameCube, the then-named “EarthBound 64” was cancelled in 2000. Fortunately, Nintendo revived it in 2003 for the GameBoy Advance, keeping story elements but returning to the franchise’s 2D roots. Unfortunately, “Mother 3” has yet to be released outside Japan save for a fan translation.
“Resident Evil 4” (2005)
A funny thing happened on the way to one of the best horror games ever made. “RE2” director Hideki Kamiya wanted to make a more stylized and action-heavy game. Early on, it became clear his vision didn’t fit with the survival horror series. So it instead evolved into 2001’s “Devil May Cry.” But Capcom didn’t abandon “RE4.” Development restarted in 2001 with the game being added as one of the games developed specifically for the GameCube. “RE4” went through several iterations, including one shown at E3 2003 dubbed the “Hook Man version.” But each version had problems, whether it was thought to be too expensive or too formulaic. Kamiya eventually took over directing duties again and reinvented the game we know today.
“Final Fantasy XV” (2016)
Another hit for the long-running RPG series. It just took a while to get here. Originally a spin-off called “Final Fantasy Versus XIII,” development began in 2006 for the PS3 alongside the mainline series’ 13th entry. The spin-off was intended to be darker than the main series and was being developed by the “Kingdom Hearts” team. Development proceeded slowly for the next few years. But the game’s scope grew too big and, with new consoles fast-approaching, Square Enix decided to change things entirely. In 2012, the game was officially scrapped. Development restarted shortly after using the then-new Luminous Engine and switching to PS4 and Xbox One. Hajime Tabata also took over for Tetsuya Nomura as director. “Final Fantasy XV” officially released in 2016, a decade after development began.
“DOOM” (2016)
“DOOM” had quite the hiatus between 2004’s “DOOM 3” and this now legendary revival. But there’s a good reason for it. In 2008, developer id Software announced “DOOM 4.” The sequel was set to take place on Earth with a more realistic tone akin to the “Call of Duty” series. However, an expose by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier in 2013 uncovered its troublesome development. According to insiders, development had restarted in 2011 due to the mediocrity of the more realistic game. Although, the project continued to suffer from mismanagement after the reboot. It wasn’t until 2014 when the game got back on track and a teaser trailer was shown at E3. Two years later, the game would finally release to critical acclaim.
“Metroid Prime 4” (TBA)
With every new Nintendo Direct, this one stings a little more. The “Metroid Prime” trilogy is one of Nintendo’s modern crowning achievements and it made developer Retro Studios an impressive subsidiary. So when a fourth game was announced at E3 2017, fan excitement went through the roof. Although Bandai Namco was taking over development, a new “Metroid” game is always grounds for celebration. But in 2019, Nintendo announced it was restarting development as the game didn’t meet the company’s standards. Retro Studios came back on board, but there haven’t been any updates since. The only news came in late 2020 in the form of a job posting for a storyboard artist to “define emotional scenes” and “elevate the narrative.”
“Resident Evil 2” (1998)
“Resident Evil 4” wasn’t the only game in the series to restart development. 1996’s “Resident Evil” was a massive hit for Capcom and work on a follow-up began immediately after. But a sequel brought many issues in the eyes of supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto. With around 70% of the game complete, Okamoto felt the story and writing was uninteresting and that its neon, brightly-lit environments didn’t fit well with the survival horror genre. Along with director Hideki Kamiya and producer Shinji Mikami, Okamoto decided to cancel “Resident Evil 2” mere months before its 1997 release. Development restarted essentially from the ground up and Capcom reworked the plot, characters, gameplay, and environments. However, the final version that was released in 1998 showed the changes were well worth it.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
“Team Fortress 2” (2007)
From Gritty Realism to a Silly Cartoon“Duke Nukem Forever” (2011)
Maybe They Should Have Let This One Stay Dead“The Wolf Among Us 2” (TBA)
Risen From the Ashes of Telltale’s Fall...Hopefully“Banjo-Kazooie” (1998)
Few games exist that look less like their initial state than “Banjo-Kazooie.” Rare’s classic 3D platformer began its life as “Project Dream,” an isometric fairy tale RPG meant for the SNES. The project was announced in 1995 and focused on Edson, a young boy who had run-ins with pirates. “Project Dream” dropped Edson and the fantasy theme after development moved to the N64. The protagonist was switched to a rabbit and eventually a bear named Banjo. The team then dropped the RPG focus in favor of a 2.5D platformer. But when they saw “Super Mario 64,” they scrapped everything they had to develop a new game inspired by the N64’s launch title. They still kept Banjo, but all in all, “Banjo-Kazooie” went through 4 different development periods before release.
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