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Nintendo Scraps Project Giant Robot

This is one game that isn't making the leap from Wii U to Switch.

 & Matthew Humphries Former Senior Editor

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When it became clear that the Wii U was a commercial failure, Nintendo reassessed the situation and refocused on developing what eventually became the Switch. That reassessment meant some projects got put on hold with the potential of becoming Switch games in the future. One of those games is Project Giant Robot (PGR), but unfortunately it isn't heading to Switch.

PGR was previewed back in 2014 with Nintendo Treehouse doing an extended gameplay demo (you can watch below) during E3 that year. The player is put in control of a giant robot, and uses the Wii U GamePad to perform the movements of the robot, which were detected by the gyroscope and accelerometer and translated into on-screen actions. Nintendo wanted you to feel like you were the robot.

Your robot was customizable with different parts before attempting to win battles against other giant robots in the middle of a destructible city environment.

The gameplay suggested a fun game that would appeal to all ages as well as Nintendo's core market of the family playing together. But PGR was missing from Nintendo's latest earnings report suggesting the project had been scrapped. Polygon asked Nintendo if that was the case and a representative responded by saying, "we made this decision after considering our overall product and development strategy."

I find this surprising because PGR relied heavily on the Wii U GamePad to work, the design of which is very similar to that of the Switch handheld in terms of layout and features. It could have easily been ported over, but for some reason Nintendo chose not to spend the time doing so. Maybe the gameplay ended up being too limited for a full game release? Whatever the case, Project Giant Robot is no more.

About Our Expert

Matthew Humphries

Matthew Humphries

Former Senior Editor

My Experience

I started working at PCMag in November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi.

I hold two degrees: a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Games Development. My first book, Make Your Own Pixel Art, is available from all good book shops.

My Areas of Expertise

  • PC components and system building
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Software development
  • Storage technology
  • Video games and gaming hardware

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