Video game collector and YouTuber Gamers Manuel uploaded a video showing off rare footage of the unreleased Panel de Pon 64. The game is one of those rare titles canceled late during its development and never got an official N64 release anywhere. The gameplay comes from a prototype Nintendo 64 cartridge from Nintendo’s offices.
Check it out below:
According to the person who sold the game to Gamers Manuel, the cartridge originally belonged to a friend whose father was a game designer at Nintendo.
Panel de Pon 64 has an interesting development history. While originally developed for the Nintendo 64, the game did not get an official release and was instead re-skinned into Pokemon Puzzle League, which did release for the system overseas. This meant that Japanese fans had no way of playing the game on the console. That said, this version of Panel de Pon was eventually finished and added to the Nintendo Puzzle Collection, a Japanese GameCube game which also included Dr. Mario and Yoshi’s Cookie. While the GameCube version of Panel de Pon is noticeably different from the game on the Super Famicom, fans have speculated about a canceled N64 game for quite some time now. This is the first time evidence has been found.
Panel de Pon 64 never appeared on the Nintendo 64 officially.
