In 2013, a Kingdom Hearts online mobile game was in development that never saw the light of day. It was to be called "Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Keys". The game was rumored to feature customizable avatar characters (like Union Cross). It would also have been in 3D instead of Union cross' 2D art style. Most interesting and exciting of all though (gathered from concept art no less) was the Disney world list as the game would feature returning worlds like: Agrabah, Wonderland, a Lilo & Stitch Hawaii world, Space Paranoids/The Grid, London/Neverland, and Dwarf Woodlands. It also included worlds that didn't appear in the series yet but would appear in later games like Union Cross and Kingdom Hearts III, such as: Arendell (Frozen), Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), and Niceland/Game Central Station (Wreck-It Ralph). Finally, and most shockingly, a world based on the Star Wars franchise, although this world's chronology is unknown as concept art show different conflicting eras, such as an image of characters Anakin, Obi-wan, Padme, and Master Yoda in their exact looks from Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and series in a separatist gunship's hanger as well as a planet that looks similar to Tatooine and an anachronistic Death Star power station room. It is unknown why this game was cancelled.
If one moves Hank's Microsoft Agent actor file into the the main Microsoft Bob application, he can be used as a main Bob assistant, complete with his own character bio, suggesting that he was meant to be part of the wider Microsoft Bob program. Some of his text is generic placeholders and he does not have a background (instead using a close-up of what appears to be his knee or elbow).
Pregnancy was supposed to be a condition in Theme Hospital. It is somewhat finished and can be restored with modding, but lacks graphics and is referred to as a "disease".
In the Game Boy Advance version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there is an unused minigame that is just a clone of Tapper, with Pumpkin Juice in place of beer.
Inside the code for the SNES version of Daze Before Christmas are a set of mostly Christmas-related quotes and messages:
Any dramatic game the producers want us to take seriously as a representation of contemporary reality cannot be taken seriously as a representation of anything -- except a game to be ignored by anyone capable of sitting upright in a chair and chewing gum simultaneously. -- Richard Schickel (slightly modified)
... Now you're ready for the actual shopping. Your goal should be to get it over with as quickly as possible, because the longer you stay in the mall, the longer your children will have to listen to holiday songs on the mall public-address system, and many of these songs can damage children emotionally. For example: "Frosty the Snowman" is about a snowman who befriends some children, plays with them until they learn to love him, then melts. And "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is about a young reindeer who, because of a physical deformity, is treated as an outcast by the other reindeer. Then along comes good, old Santa. Does he ignore the deformity? Does he look past Rudolph's nose and respect Rudolph for the sensitive reindeer he is underneath? No. Santa asks Rudolph to guide his sleigh, as if Rudolph were nothing more than some kind of headlight with legs and a tail. So unless you want your children exposed to this kind of insensitivity, you should shop quickly. -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. -- Shirley Temple
Courage the Cowardly Dog: Creep TV has secret codes and maps that went undiscovered until 20 years after its release due to a glitch making them inaccessible. The codes include the "daScore" code, which shows a counter of how many ghosts you've zapped, and the "mirage" code, which expands the game map infinitely and allows access to the secret maps. On one of these maps, you can acquire a pair of glasses as an unused item, and another map containing an oasis in the Middle of Nowhere that also has a sign simply reading Eustace's catchphrase, "STUPID DOG!". However, if you use the glasses to read the sign, it will instead say "Wee...amazing! You found it! GOOD DOG!"
Q*Bert was originally able to shoot projectiles out of his nose, but this was scrapped in the final game. Co-creator Jeff Lee has said that, while he's unsure if this change enhanced the gameplay or not, he likes how the lack of offensive capabilities gives the character the personality of a "sympathetic plucky noser" who survives "by his wits and dexterity", particularly with the hindsight of how violent video games would become in the decades since.
The racers may have planned to have losing animations for when they reach 5th or lower. In the game's data are Peachette and Pauline's losing voice clips, as well as voice clips from characters that appear in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (prior to the Booster Course Pass). The final game has the racers appear neutral should the player end up in 5th place or lower.
Since Pauline and Peachette were included as among two of the final four characters in the Booster Course Pass, these unused voice clips may have been a deciding factor behind their inclusion in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Among the files included in the Gigaleak, a massive 2020 content leak of internal data from Nintendo, are assets associated with Super Mario 64 depicting a fully-coded enemy named Motos, which is absent from the final game. The enemy is programed to chase Mario, pick him up, and throw him similarly to Big Bob-omb and Chuckya. Like those characters, Motos can be picked up and thrown, but unlike them, it can only be defeated by being thrown into lava, similarly to the Bully and Big Bully. This weakness implies that Motos was originally intended to appear as an enemy in Lethal Lava Land and Bowser in the Fire Sea, which is corroborated by the fact that various other assets associated with the levels feature "motos" in their filenames.
Further analysis of the source code indicates that Motos were intended to be connected to Bullies, which are labeled "Otos" in the source code and use sound effects that are also associated with Motos. Additionally, the code contains a filename for an "icemotos" miniboss in Snowman's Land, and the "Bully the Bullies" star in Lethal Lava Land is internally named "bigmotos," implying that at least two variants of Motos were conceived as minibosses before being replaced with Big Bully and Chill Bully in the final game.
Additional data in the Gigaleak indicates that at some point in development, Motos was reconfigured into a boss version of the Chuckya enemy, labeled "Katsugikun" in the source code, before being scrapped altogether. Unlike Motos, no assets for Katsugikun exist other than a filename and behavior code.
Like Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, Pokémon Platinum contains the unused Azure Flute item, which triggers a battle with a level 80 Arceus in the otherwise inaccessible Hall of Origin atop Spear Pillar. The event is almost identical to how it appears in Diamond & Pearl, with the sole difference being a redesigned sprite for Arceus. The Azure Flute was intended to be given out to players as an event item, but was scrapped due to concerns that it would be too confusing for players. Instead, Arceus was directly given out as an event Pokémon.
The music for the Hall of Origin and the battle against Arceus, which are carried over from Diamond and Pearl, go unused here too, but the latter song would be reused for the Sinjoh Ruins event in Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver, where players can obtain a Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina if they have an Arceus at the front of their party. This event additionally contains code allowing it to be triggered by an Arceus from the Hall of Origin, indicating that Game Freak still considered distributing the Azure Flute this late into Generation IV. Spoiler:The Azure Flute and Hall of Origin would eventually be implemented in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, where players can access both if they import Pokémon Legends: Arceus save data after catching Arceus there.
An item called the Azure Flute is present in the game's data, but can't be legitimately accessed. Hacking the flute into one's inventory triggers a battle with a level 80 Arceus in the Hall of Origin, an otherwise unused area hidden above Spear Pillar. Both the Hall of Origin and the battle with Arceus feature unique themes, which also go unused in the normal course of play.
The Azure Flute was intended as an event item to be given out to players, much like the Event Card and Oak's Letter (which allow the player to fight Darkrai and Shaymin, respectively). However, Game Freak scrapped the idea upon concluding that it would be too confusing for players. Instead, Arceus was directly given out at events.
Arceus' battle theme would later be used for the Sinjoh Ruins event in Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver where players can obtain a Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina if they have an Arceus as the first Pokémon in their party. This event additionally contains code allowing it to be triggered by an Arceus from the Hall of Origin, indicating that Game Freak still considered distributing the Azure Flute this late into Generation IV. Spoiler:The Azure Flute item and its corresponding event would eventually be implemented in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, where players can access both by importing save data from Pokémon Legends: Arceus after catching Arceus there.
There is a questline that was accidentally left out of the final game due to a misnamed file. "A Test of Determination" is a questline for the Vampire Clan where the given objective is to confront a Daedra in the local dungeon where it lives over the control the player's bloodline has in a given region. The binary file is named P0B1XL08.QBN and the text-file is named P0B10L08.QRC. As a result of this oversight, the player can never get this quest unless you change the name of one file so that it matches the name of the other.
Two unused pigs that may have been planned to be playable at one point can be found in the data, one being a minion pig, and the other a “Moustache Pig.” It’s unclear how they were planned to be programmed into the game.
There were three levels planned and almost finished for the game but cut: The first was a level in the Episode I chapter which has the player playing the scene where Anakin accidently attacks and destroys a Trade Federation ship in the space above Naboo. The second one was for the Episode II levels and featured a playable version of Anakin and Obi-Wan's chase of Zam Weasel in a speeder throughout Coruscant like in the beginning of the movie. The third was the scene in Episode III where Obi-Wan chases General Grevious around Utapau on a Boga creature.
The first level was cut because the developers thought that it bloated its Episode's level count, and they wanted the number of levels between all of them to be mostly even. It is unknown why the Speeder chase was cut, but the Boga chase level was cut due to the developers thinking it clashed with the game's co-op multiplayer feature. Nonetheless, the Trade Federation ship level and the Zam Weasel Chase would eventually be realized in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. However, the Boga chase level didn't appear in that game at all.
An unfinished boss resembling a cowboy rabbit can be found in the game's data. This boss has an unused animation depicting it firing its gun. According to an early sketch of the game's cover art by Hideyuki Suganami, this boss was named "Lambda Bunny".
In 2013, a Kingdom Hearts online mobile game was in development that never saw the light of day. It was to be called "Kingdom Hearts: Fragmented Keys". The game was rumored to feature customizable avatar characters (like Union Cross). It would also have been in 3D instead of Union cross' 2D art style. Most interesting and exciting of all though (gathered from concept art no less) was the Disney world list as the game would feature returning worlds like: Agrabah, Wonderland, a Lilo & Stitch Hawaii world, Space Paranoids/The Grid, London/Neverland, and Dwarf Woodlands. It also included worlds that didn't appear in the series yet but would appear in later games like Union Cross and Kingdom Hearts III, such as: Arendell (Frozen), Kingdom of Corona (Tangled), and Niceland/Game Central Station (Wreck-It Ralph). Finally, and most shockingly, a world based on the Star Wars franchise, although this world's chronology is unknown as concept art show different conflicting eras, such as an image of characters Anakin, Obi-wan, Padme, and Master Yoda in their exact looks from Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie and series in a separatist gunship's hanger as well as a planet that looks similar to Tatooine and an anachronistic Death Star power station room. It is unknown why this game was cancelled.
If one moves Hank's Microsoft Agent actor file into the the main Microsoft Bob application, he can be used as a main Bob assistant, complete with his own character bio, suggesting that he was meant to be part of the wider Microsoft Bob program. Some of his text is generic placeholders and he does not have a background (instead using a close-up of what appears to be his knee or elbow).
In the Game Boy Advance version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there is an unused minigame that is just a clone of Tapper, with Pumpkin Juice in place of beer.
Among the files included in the Gigaleak, a massive 2020 content leak of internal data from Nintendo, are assets associated with Super Mario 64 depicting a fully-coded enemy named Motos, which is absent from the final game. The enemy is programed to chase Mario, pick him up, and throw him similarly to Big Bob-omb and Chuckya. Like those characters, Motos can be picked up and thrown, but unlike them, it can only be defeated by being thrown into lava, similarly to the Bully and Big Bully. This weakness implies that Motos was originally intended to appear as an enemy in Lethal Lava Land and Bowser in the Fire Sea, which is corroborated by the fact that various other assets associated with the levels feature "motos" in their filenames.
Like Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, Pokémon Platinum contains the unused Azure Flute item, which triggers a battle with a level 80 Arceus in the otherwise inaccessible Hall of Origin atop Spear Pillar. The event is almost identical to how it appears in Diamond & Pearl, with the sole difference being a redesigned sprite for Arceus. The Azure Flute was intended to be given out to players as an event item, but was scrapped due to concerns that it would be too confusing for players. Instead, Arceus was directly given out as an event Pokémon.
An item called the Azure Flute is present in the game's data, but can't be legitimately accessed. Hacking the flute into one's inventory triggers a battle with a level 80 Arceus in the Hall of Origin, an otherwise unused area hidden above Spear Pillar. Both the Hall of Origin and the battle with Arceus feature unique themes, which also go unused in the normal course of play.
Sprites for an unfinished dragon boss can be found in the game's data. This boss has no working code and cannot be activated in-game.
An unfinished boss resembling a cowboy rabbit can be found in the game's data. This boss has an unused animation depicting it firing its gun. According to an early sketch of the game's cover art by Hideyuki Suganami, this boss was named "Lambda Bunny".