Nintendo games are some of the richest, most detailed games in the entire industry. There’s a certain level of wonder and polish that comes with that company that is rarely achieved with anyone else. Their franchises have managed to withstand the test of time, to the point where Mario, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu are still household names with new titles coming out.

With so much care and love packed into those games, it does make it more interesting to hear about their development cycles. What was the inspiration that went into each game? What types of advice did Miyamoto give the developers? Most importantly: what features or mechanics were planned to be in those games but were eventually cut?

That last question has come up time and time again with Nintendo games. Because they have a knack for making sure their titles are well-designed and fun, they play around with a lot of wacky ideas before they finally settle on a clear vision that would drive their projects. Whether it be Super Smash Bros or Kirby 64, there are tons of ideas and features that were planned for Nintendo games that never made it into the final release. With so much nostalgia for the games they create, it’s hard to imagine that the products could’ve been much different if certain ideas were brought into the fold.

If you’re a Nintendo fan, you’ll be interested to hear about these 20 features that were cut from their games that would’ve easily changed everything.

20 Rhythm Heaven Fighter (Super Smash Bros 3DS/Wii U)

Rhythm Heaven is one of Nintendo’s most niche series, debuting on the Game Boy only in Japan before eventually making it to the United States with Rhythm Heaven on the Nintendo DS. The series has slowly become more popular with entries appearing on the Wii and 3DS respectively. Because of this, there were hints that a character from the series would be joining Super Smash Bros.

It ended up that there was no Rhythm Heaven content featured in the game, but there was data found for a fighter from the game as well as a stage. Adding more fuel to the fire is the fact that Rhythm Heaven characters were in Smash Run on the 3DS.

19 Safari Zone (Pokémon Gold And Silver)

The Safari Zone was a popular inclusion in Pokémon Red and Blue, allowing players to catch rare Pokémon that they would otherwise not be able to find. It makes sense that the Safari Zone would be returning to Pokémon Gold and Silver for players to catch a new roster of rare Pokémon.

That ended up not being the case, as there was no Safari Zone in the final game. However, there were some hackers who found a map layout for the Safari Zone and it can only be accessed through hacking. The Safari Zone would be added in HeartGold and SoulSilver years later.

18 Jabun Dungeon (The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker ended up being one of the best games in the series despite the initial reaction to its “childish” art style. That said, some people have expressed that the game feels a bit short, only having seven dungeons where it could’ve fit in a bit more to extend the length of the game as opposed to that dreaded Tri-Force fetch quest.

However, there was initially another dungeon going to be put in the game. There exists a big fish, Jabun, who is the descendant of Jabu-Jabu from Ocarina of Time. Much like his ancestor, the inside of Jabun was going to be another dungeon, but it was cut late in development.

17 Raichu Evolution (Pokémon Red And Blue)

Pikachu is the mascot of the Pokémon franchise and is one of the most popular Nintendo characters as a result. Unfortunately, this means that most players don’t evolve Pikachu into Raichu with a Thunderstone. Raichu doesn’t learn any unique moves, so it makes more sense to keep a Pikachu un-evolved for as long as possible anyway.

However, there might’ve been more incentive for trainers to have a Raichu at first. Just recently, the Pokémon Company revealed that they had initially planned for Raichu to have an evolution called Gorochu. It was reportedly going to sport horns and fangs, going in stark contrast to Pikachu’s design.

16 Star Fox 2

Star Fox debuted on the SNES and was one of the most visually impressive games for its time. Despite being on aging hardware, it managed to properly simulate what a space shooter would look like. Because of its success, Nintendo quickly began work on Star Fox 2 with new features and mechanics that would make it a proper sequel.

However, production would come to a grinding halt near the game’s completion. Nintendo said that the project was going to be stopped and Star Fox 2 was never released. It later debuted to the public for the first time with the release of the SNES Classic.

15 Opening Cutscene (Donkey Kong Country)

Donkey Kong Country was a massive leap forward for everyone’s favorite giant ape. Making him the star of his own platformer was a bold move for Nintendo, but one that certainly paid off in the end. When you start the game, you enter a level where Donkey Kong is gathering bananas, saving Diddy Kong from a barrel, and stomping on all kinds of Kremlings.

Originally, there were plans to have an opening cutscene that better explained these things. The Kremlings were going to stuff Diddy in a barrel. There was going to be a shot of the bananas being stolen. It’s a wonder why this was never included in the final game.

14 Party Characters (The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past)

Aonuma had big plans for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. On top of returning to the top-down perspective, there were some ideas thrown around for a party of characters, similar to what you would see in a Final Fantasy game.

Instead of these party characters only being useful in combat, though, they were going to offer benefits in the environment. Different members would be able to access different areas as well as help fight evil monsters with Link. The idea was eventually scrapped to make the focus more on Link and make the game much more cohesive.

13 Aliens (The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild)

There were a lot of ideas thrown around for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild including Link being a rock star and riding a motorcycle. The craziest one had to be the idea that aliens would be the antagonists of the game. This vision was far enough along in development that Nintendo even showed off a short clip of aliens invading Hyrule.

This version of the game would also have monsters similar to the Divine Beasts that were giant and otherworldly. They eventually decided to reel it in a bit and stick with a more classic feel for the game, but imagine how different it would be with aliens.

12 Animal Friends (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is the last of what's referred to as the "Dark Matter Trilogy." In this series, Kirby was given animal friends in the form of Rick, Kine, and Coo (with a few more added for Kirby's Dream Land 3).

Naturally, it makes sense that these animal partners would appear in Kirby 64, but they were cut from the final game in favor of Adeline and a special Waddle Dee. The unfortunate part is that there was art put together for the game that featured the animal characters. They were delegated to just cameos for one of Kirby's abilities in the final release.

11 Multiplayer (Super Mario Sunshine)

Super Mario Sunshine was Mario's big sandbox 3D adventure on the GameCube. It featured Mario jumping around the Isle Delfino with a water jetpack on his back. That said, friends playing Super Mario Sunshine couldn't simultaneously enjoy the game, considering that it was only a single-player entry.

That said, there were some plans that suggest multiplayer was planned for the game. There was some data mined about the camera that hinted at multiplayer. Furthermore, there is an exploit where the camera will follow Mario and Shadow Mario at the same time, keeping them both on screen. Imagine how differently the game would be with co-op.

10 Mario Characters (Splatoon)

When Nintendo came up with their initial vision for Splatoon, all they had was a concept. After that, they had to come up with some ways to make it unique. All they had were cubes that could shoot ink and it was time for them to inject some new characters into the game.

They went through many drafts before considering Mario characters to be the stars of the game. It would end up being another spin-off title with the folks from the Mushroom Kingdom blasting each other with paint. However, Nintendo decided that this wouldn't totally fit the vision and wanted a new cast. That's when they came up with the Inklings.

9 Mother Brain (Metroid Prime)

There was a lot of debate on whether to make the Metroid game for the GameCube in a 2D or first-person perspective. Despite some backlash on the move, Metroid Prime was designed as a first-person shooter with all of the iconic enemies from the series up to that point.

However, not all of Samus's long-time enemies made it into the game. One notable absence was Mother Brain. Some concept art for the title showed off Mother Brain being much larger in the game, but she was cut for unknown reasons. At least Ridley still made it into the final game.

8 Explorable Hyrule (The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker)

At the end of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link makes his way to the ancient kingdom of Hyrule, where he was to traverse the sunny landscape to get to Ganon's tower, stop him, and save Princess Zelda.

Hyrule, in the game, was fairly well-designed, seemingly having a complete focus as well as some locations that could be spotted from a distance. There was talk about initially having players be able to explore a much older version of Hyrule in the release, but decided against it because it would feel drastically different than traversing the Great Sea all the time.

7 More Animal Partners (Donkey Kong Country)

Donkey Kong Country was famous for many things, and one of them was having a lot of animal partners for DK and his pals to ride through the jungle. Among them was a rhino, an ostrich, and even a swordfish. Each one of them has their uses in the game, but Nintendo wasn't prepared to stop there.

Some concept art details that there were several more partners considered for the game on a level similar to the animal friends in Kirby's Dream Land 3. They were eventually cut, most likely to keep the game feeling more focused on not about the animals DK could ride.

6 Three Worlds (The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is regarded by some as one of the greatest games of all time, being a marvel of what makes the franchise so excellent. Part of what made the game so impressive was that it had two overworlds that players could traverse (and this was a game on the SNES).

However, Nintendo was a bit more ambitious before they finished development. Early plans suggest that there were going to be a total of three worlds for the player to explore, but it was decided against out of fear of making the game too complicated for most people to enjoy.

5 Open-World Kirby

Kirby has done a lot of different things in his career. He's been the star of many 2D platformers, he's been in co-op adventures, pinball games, and even a clone of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. The one thing the pink puffball has yet to do is star in his own 3D platforming game.

On the GameCube, Nintendo had planned two separate Kirby games. One of them was a 2D sidescroller that would become Kirby's Return to Dream Land on the Wii. The second was an open-world 3D platformer. However, it was scrapped because Nintendo didn't think that Kirby would work in that style.

4 Sheik (The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

After the lukewarm success of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo decided to use Ocarina of Time as a launching point for their next entry in the series. Going for a more mature and darker take, they ended up creating Twilight Princess, which garnered a lot of excitement from the crowd.

Being based on the aforementioned N64 classic, Twilight Princess was initially going to have Zelda transform into Sheik as well. However, she was cut for unknown reasons. The model was so far along in development that it was later re-used by Masahiro Sakurai in Super Smash Bros Brawl.

3 Drill (Mario Kart 8)

After having the gliding mechanic from Mario Kart 7, Nintendo knew they wanted to bring something else to the table for Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. Their initial idea was to put a drill on the end of each kart and allow for races to be conducted underneath the surface. The concept got further into development before it was scrapped.

Eventually, the team settled on the anti-gravity concept to tie together driving underwater as well as the gliders from the previous release. Needless to say, this design worked in their favor, garnering a lot of support and praise across the board. Nintendo was able to release the game twice.

2 Wind Waker Sequel

After Nintendo was finished with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube, it was high time for them to decide where to take the series next. As we all know, they eventually went with Twilight Princess to go for a much more mature yet familiar take on the series.

That said, Twilight Princess wasn't their original vision. Aonuma had plans to create a sequel to Wind Waker, but because the game was criticized for its art style, Nintendo decided against it. A Wind Waker sequel was later created on the Nintendo DS in the form of Phantom Hourglass.

1 Guest Characters (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

Guest characters are one of the most popular aspects in Super Smash Bros. Bringing in fighters outside of Nintendo's catalog proved to be a powerful choice that would go to make the game much more exciting in the long run. While introduced in Super Smash Bros Brawl, Sakurai had plans to include them all the way back in Super Smash Bros Melee.

Among a few others, Sakurai wanted Solid Snake to be in Melee, but couldn't make it happen. He also had a great desire to make Pac-Man a playable fighter in the game as well. There were also rumors that Sonic the Hedgehog had made it in. While they skipped the GameCube, they were all added to the series later.