SEGA games appearing on Nintendo consoles is no big deal nowadays. But even before SEGA went multi-platform, you’d still find the odd SEGA port popping up on its competitor’s hardware. (SHAMELESS PLUG: We’ve even got a feature about this coming up in Issue 2 of Mega Visions Magazine, which you should check out when it launches in February!) But did you know that Virtua Fighter 3 and Crazy Taxi might have been released for the N64?
According to Nintendo Life, former Gamespot editor James Mielke revealed how the two SEGA titles almost hit Nintendo’s 64-bit machine. Former SEGA of America president Bernie Stolar was working on a deal to bring the two games the Nintendo 64.
By all accounts, the console wasn’t powerful enough to handle the two games. But had the deal gone through, they would have made for some intriguing (but likely compromised beyond belief) versions of these classics.
How Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi almost hit the N64
By 1999, the writing was already on the wall internally at SEGA. The company would soon exit the console market and while it put up a front that said otherwise, many within SEGA’s ranks were planning ahead. Bernie Stolar, for example, was working with Acclaim to bring Virtua Fighter 3 and Crazy Taxi to the N64.
Apparently, however, Stolar was working behind SEGA’s back on this. Mielke explains:
To my knowledge, Bernie just did the deal with [Acclaim CEO] Greg Fischbach without getting the approval from SEGA of Japan – they had a contract executed and everything. From how I remember the scenario, SEGA of Japan got wind of this and was naturally like “there’s no way we’re doing this.” I don’t remember if this rebuke came from upper management or from the dev teams coming back and saying “this is not even possible” but the short version was Stolar being told he would have to break that contract because there was no way it could happen.
James Mielke, Former Gamespot Editor and Producer at Limited Run Games
The story didn’t break at the time because of some backroom disagreements between Mielke and the managing editor at Gamespot. Still, it’s crazy to imagine a reality where these two ports saw the light of day.
Via Nintendo Life.
