Cabbage (video game)

Cabbage is a cancelled breeding simulator video game that was planned for release on the 64DD, an expansion of the Nintendo 64 console, in the late 1990s. The game was produced by a team of Nintendo's "biggest talents,"^[1] consisting of Shigesato Itoi and Tsunekazu Ishihara, known for creating the Mother series and Pokémon series respectively, as well as Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Zelda, and various other Nintendo staples. Though Cabbage fell off the radar in early 2000, it has influenced later Nintendo games such as Animal Crossing and Nintendogs.

Development

Cabbage was announced in 1997 as a game in which the player was able to raise, feed and carry around a "Cabbage". The game would make use of the 64DD's internal clock to keep the Cabbage and its virtual world running while the console is turned off. Furthermore, the game was supposed to allow Game Boy connectivity, where the Cabbage-character could be transferred to a Game Boy and be transported to other 64DD consoles. Lastly, there were plans to release extra content on discs for a very low price, which would alter the game and cause the Cabbage to develop in a different way.^[2] These ideas might have been a response to the "virtual pet craze" at the time and have been compared to Tamagotchi.^[3]

In a 1997 interview with 64Dream, Miyamoto stated that HAL Laboratory's Satoru Iwata joined the project. Miyamoto said that because of this, "the tools [they're] using to make Cabbage are drastically modernizing. Making those tools is the most laborious part. So it looks like that part’s finishing up." Furthermore, Miyamoto said that they were working on the project without supervision of then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi.^[4]

Cabbage was the working title of the game, though it appeared to be "strangely popular." It was something Miyamoto "randomly blurted out" at some point during development, but he was fine with sticking to it, as there weren't any other names on the board.^[4] Kotaku noted the odd name, describing it as "sound[ing] like something a kid would normally avoid."^[5]

Cancellation

The 64DD proved to be a commercial failure shortly after its release in December 1999.

In 2000, Itoi gave an update on Cabbage, noting that, as Miyamoto was looking forward to the game, he'd "like to get something done relatively soon." It was planned to be playable at Space World 2000, but no demo ever surfaced.^[6] No video or screenshot of the game was ever revealed, because according to Miyamoto, Itoi and Ishihara got occupied with other projects. Itoi was working on Mother 3, which was being developed for the 64DD at the time, and Ishihara oversaw projects at The Pokémon Company, which he started in 1998. Around this time, it also became apparent that the 64DD, on which the game was planned to be released, was a commercial flop, selling only 15,000 units in Japan throughout its lifetime.^[1][5]

Legacy

Miyamoto has stated in a 2006 interview that, though Cabbage was canceled, "the conversations and design techniques that popped up when [they] were making Cabbage are, of course, connected to Nintendogs and other things that [they're] doing now."^[7] It has been noted by Kotaku and 1up.com that many ideas that have been incorporated in Animal Crossing were first announced as features in Cabbage.^[1][5]

References

• Unseen64 staff (2010-10-17). "Cabbage [N64 DD – Cancelled]". Unseen 64.