Beta64

Yoshi is one of my favorite video game characters. This dinosaur has some of the cutest and most fun games ever made, and a lot of this character's personality was first seen in Yoshi's Story. So, enjoy this look at development of one of the cutest games I've ever played. :)

Of all the Mario sports games, Super Mario Strikers (known also as Mario Smash Football) is my favorite. This game has given me some of my fondest memories with my friends. But with such a radical departure from the typical Mario look and feel, there must have been quite a few changes leading up to release... and there were.

Before Rayman Origins, I didn't exactly play a whole lot of Rayman games. In fact, I really only played them over at my friend's house once and a while when we hung out. Fast forward years later, though, in 2011 when Rayman Origins was released. Those beautiful graphics and amazing gameplay couldn't keep anyone away! But even though this game is indeed incredible, did you know it was going to be even better? After all, it was going to have a very deep plot that spanned back to the original Rayman. I hope you enjoy learning all about it!

My personal favorite Star Fox title is Star Fox 64. No contest. Why? Well, not only is the gameplay still super fun to play today, the game was also incredibly innovative at the time. It implemented full voice acting and helped usher in a new age of rumble controllers. But how did this game come together? Well, on this episode of Beta64, I'm going to be going though just that. Enjoy!

Whenever I had friends over back in the early 2000s, Mario Kart: Double Dash was our game of choice (that and Donkey Konga). And though more than 12 years have passed since the game's release, we'll still play this classic racer together whenever we find the chance. It's fast racing gameplay is what keeps us coming back, but it turns out that "fast" was not a term the described this game at E3 2003. In fact, "disappointing" and "slow" were common terms to describe Double Dash during development. So, how did the development team fix these issues? Well, on this episode of Beta64, I'll tell you all about it. Enjoy!

The Professor Layton series is one I hold very dear to my heart. I absolutely love it. The puzzles are challenging, the characters are quirky, and the story is amazing. But all of this was originally never going to be. Layton and his apprentice Luke weren't a part of Curious Village until well into development. And on this episode of Beta64, you're going to learn all about how this game was being created.

If you asked someone what their favorite Mario game was, most of them would say Super Mario World. But can you blame them? The game is absolutely incredible! All the level, secrets, and memories with the game, makes it one of the best (if not the best) Mario game ever. It's perfect. ...well, almost. Super Mario World had a lot of issues during development, and it eventually had to be rushed to completion. Because of this, there were some mistakes you may not be aware of in the game. And not only that, there are a TON of scrapped objects, sprites, levels, etc. just waiting to be discussed. And now, it's time to do just that. Enjoy, my friends!

Diddy Kong Racing… what a game! Great tracks, great music… But out of all the things that DKR excelled at, it’s storyline is really what made it for me. It set this Rare title apart from the competition (i.e. Mario Kart 64). But, where did the idea for an adventure mode come from? Well, actually, it might surprise you to know that it came from the 2nd of 4 major iterations that Diddy Kong Racing went through! So, I hope you enjoy learning how a little game called Pro Am 64 became the incredible Diddy Kong Racing!

Donkey Kong and Sabreman... what do these two video game characters have in common? Well, in turns out that both Donkey Kong Racing and Sabreman Stampede came from a game based around Diddy Kong Racing, which released for the Nintendo 64 back in 1997. And on this episode of Beta64 minis, I'm going link the two games together and explain what happened to both of these cancelled Rare titles in 7min 46sec. Enjoy!

Before Rhythm Heaven and Rhythm Paradise released on the DS, there was Rhythm Tengoku for the Gameboy Advance. This game, despite never releasing outside of Japan, received a lot of love including a fan translation. But now that you're able to play some of these exclusive rhythm games in Megamix for the 3DS, I thought it was time to talk about the development of Rhythm Tengoku! Enjoy!