Rare's unreleased N64 game 'Dinosaur Planet' leaks online

Rare, the game studio synonymous with the glory days of the Nintendo N64, is having a throwback moment of late. Not only did its canceled remaster of Goldeneye for the Xbox 360 surface online recently, its other unreleased game Dinosaur Planet is now out in the wild. A build of the 3D action title, which was turned into Star Fox Adventures for the GameCube, has been released by the video game preservationists at Forest of Illusion. For those eager to see it in action, Digital Foundry's John Linneman managed to get this version (dated December 2000) running on an actual N64 — gameplay of which of you can watch in the video below.

This build predates the 2002 release of Star Fox Adventures and originates from a disc that the preservationists bought from a collector in Sweden. They note that the game in its current state won't run perfectly on any emulator, but should work fine with flashcarts.

Before it became part of the Star Fox series at the behest of Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto, Dinosaur Planet was destined to be one of the final releases for the magnificent N64. Instead, it wound up being Rare's only outing on the GameCube as shortly after its launch the UK-based studio was snapped up by Microsoft for $375 million.