Piko Interactive plans to revive Glover IP

[Graystripe2000]

A while ago today, a German website claimed to have the Glover IP and planned to finish the cancelled Glover 2. Once that was exposed as not being real, a fan asked the real IP owners, Piko Interactive, if they planned on doing anything with it and they said this:

So, yeah, Glover could be getting revived soon. 

[Meta77]

Um.. ..why. of all games to ever revive from the 90s.....why glover

[JezMM]

32 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Um.. ..why. of all games to ever revive from the 90s.....why glover

Because Glover was great.  I mean, it wasn't amazing or anything and was quite rough around the edges, but it was a novel concept with an extremely unique playstyle, and a very fun game once you got your head around the controls that was very overshadowed by the other big N64 platformers at the time but was by no means bad.

Also there's the fact that like... this company owns it.  Of all the franchises this particular company can revive, they're likely going to be limited to the ones they own.  If you want a different franchise from Glover to be revived, perhaps look at the companies that own said franchises.

I'm not gonna get my hopes up because stuff like this tends to end up going nowhere all the time (or going bad places... in my head, Glover is very categorised alongside properties like ReBoot as "I deseperately want more of this but have given up all hope of getting it as I would want it"), but I'd LOVE an accessible re-release of Glover (the original doesn't emulate super well from my experience), and the idea of Glover 2 getting finished is amazing. All we ever got of that game was a single teaser poster that I didn't even know existed until adulthood so I assumed it barely even got off the ground as a project.

I'm actually astonished that the company who owns the IP at this point is actually aware of the fact that they do though.

[SupahBerry]

"✪COOL!✪"

...Although I'd be cautious about doing that. Just because 3D platformers in general are surging in popularity again doesn't mean every platformer mascot needs to be revived.

Piko has started to do something like this earlier. They held a kickstarter to fund for releasing Forty Winks on Steam, as well as finish it's unreleased N64 version. I kinda find the latter unnecessary, because it's cutscenes will look inferior to the original PSX, which the Steam port will most like be based on.

Glover had a PSX version too, but that's the only time I know of that a PSX was worst than it's N64 counterpart. The Steam port of Glover will most likely use the CD-ROM version, which is much closer to the N64 version, but has the PS1's soundtrack (I prefer the N64 tracks)

27 minutes ago, JezMM said:

The idea of Glover 2 getting finished is amazing. All we ever got of that game was a single teaser poster that I didn't even know existed until adulthood so I assumed it barely even got off the ground as a project.

Well, there exists a downloadable prototype for Glover 2, actually:

 

While there are some ideas I feel shows alot of potential, with it ditching the linear "take the ball to the goal" approach, it's also pretty clear that they were throwing some ideas around without giving much thought to it, most notably the blatant Banjo-Kazooie speech.

 

I really think Piko should start from scratch for Glover 2. At least 40 Winks has a fully finished version that they can just take and put in the N64 port. This game's ideas might not all have made it pass the drawing board.

[Danj86]

He can feel the pressure...

I remember playing it back in the day. It had a rather unique approach to platforming, if I recall correctly. It would certainly be nice to see the little fellow again. I wonder if the consideration of his revival has something to do with the new rise in platforming mascots we are currently experiencing?

The N64 had a lot of those type of games and to this day, platforming is still my favourite game genre. I shouldn't get my hopes up, Glover isn't a major player in the field of gaming icons. It'll just be a nice nostalgia trip, I guess...

[Meta77]

3 hours ago, JezMM said:

Because Glover was great.  I mean, it wasn't amazing or anything and was quite rough around the edges, but it was a novel concept with an extremely unique playstyle, and a very fun game once you got your head around the controls that was very overshadowed by the other big N64 platformers at the time but was by no means bad.

Also there's the fact that like... this company owns it.  Of all the franchises this particular company can revive, they're likely going to be limited to the ones they own.  If you want a different franchise from Glover to be revived, perhaps look at the companies that own said franchises.

I'm not gonna get my hopes up because stuff like this tends to end up going nowhere all the time (or going bad places... in my head, Glover is very categorised alongside properties like ReBoot as "I deseperately want more of this but have given up all hope of getting it as I would want it"), but I'd LOVE an accessible re-release of Glover (the original doesn't emulate super well from my experience), and the idea of Glover 2 getting finished is amazing. All we ever got of that game was a single teaser poster that I didn't even know existed until adulthood so I assumed it barely even got off the ground as a project.

I'm actually astonished that the company who owns the IP at this point is actually aware of the fact that they do though.

if glover makes it anywhere in the gaming market today i will get a ghost pepper wing. The game controlled horrible. Yea it was neat to have to try and get the ball around. That is a reason it never got the second game off the ground back in 2000 i beleive it was.

[Graystripe2000]

The story behind Glover 2’s cancellation is a rather unusual one.

https://www.unseen64.net/2008/11/30/glover-2-n64psx-cancelled/

[JezMM]

8 hours ago, SupahBerry said:

"✪COOL!✪"

...Although I'd be cautious about doing that. Just because 3D platformers in general are surging in popularity again doesn't mean every platformer mascot needs to be revived.

Piko has started to do something like this earlier. They held a kickstarter to fund for releasing Forty Winks on Steam, as well as finish it's unreleased N64 version. I kinda find the latter unnecessary, because it's cutscenes will look inferior to the original PSX, which the Steam port will most like be based on.

Glover had a PSX version too, but that's the only time I know of that a PSX was worst than it's N64 counterpart. The Steam port of Glover will most likely use the CD-ROM version, which is much closer to the N64 version, but has the PS1's soundtrack (I prefer the N64 tracks)

Well, there exists a downloadable prototype for Glover 2, actually:

 

While there are some ideas I feel shows alot of potential, with it ditching the linear "take the ball to the goal" approach, it's also pretty clear that they were throwing some ideas around without giving much thought to it, most notably the blatant Banjo-Kazooie speech.

 

I really think Piko should start from scratch for Glover 2. At least 40 Winks has a fully finished version that they can just take and put in the N64 port. This game's ideas might not all have made it pass the drawing board.

Oh whoops, I had seen this video and just literally 100% forgot about it, I guess because it left such a wishy-washy impression on me.  I agree with you that I'd kind of rather they start from scratch if they made a sequel now, because while there are some nice ideas here, this very much seems like footage of a game where they're just trying stuff out... I'm really not super fussed about the open world approach where they were clearly trying to ape Banjo-Kazooie's success in a myriad of surface level ways.  What I enjoyed about Glover was that you could enjoy the game as a straight-up obstacle course linear platformer, OR you could explore extra areas in the stages for 100% completion.

 

It'd be great if they included a soundtrack selector for the Steam release.  While I enjoy the higher sound quality of the PC/PSX soundtrack (when I got the game on PC it was like getting a Re-arranged soundtrack release of the original game too), I do prefer the N64 soundtrack overall due to how much longer the songs are.  There are a few songs where they changed instruments in an unsatisfactory way too.

Weirdly the PSX version of the game had a few random little level design changes if I recall (only played it through once), and soundtrack-wise, Prehistoric 1 has an entirely different song which is just kind of weird (I can only assume the musician wanted a do-over because to be fair, the replacement song does sound much more in-line with Prehistoric 2 and 3's songs in terms of instrumentation, even though I prefer the melody of the original song).