DEVELOPER INTERACTIVE STUDIOS LTD. PUBLISHER HASBRO ENTERTAINMENT GAME TYPE PLATFORM PLAYERS 1 - 4 MULTIPLAYER TYPE SIMULTANEOUSLY ROM SIZE 64 MBIT COMPLETENESS ~60% It�s once again time to jump into the time machine to take a trip back to the 1990s, the Nintendo64 hey days. The Nintendo64 was the last console to use cartridges and because of the high production cost, delays from Nintendo and other uninteresting details, a lot of games never made it to the shelves. Well in 1998 UK based developer �Interactive Studios� finished their 3D platform adventure featuring a little white glove guy, who had to defeat the evil Cross-Stitch. The game never really became a smash hit, but Interactive Studios and their publisher Hasbro Interactive decided to start working on a sequel anyway. And that�s where this trip back in time is taking us, to the development of Glover 2, slated for release in Q2 of 2000. Around July 1999 Interactive Studios officially announced that they were working on a sequel for Glover. Nintendojo wrote:

In the sequel, Interactive's A-Team will alter the training aspects of the game, while adding a new multiplayer function, and adding new characters. Also, the control will be tweaked and tuned for the more general and casual audience. Integrating the story deeper in to the gameplay itself, Interactive's site says that the plot will be worked more seamlessly into the game than previously, and that the backgrounds and environments will be almost completely interactive. A few screenshots managed to reach internet sites and magazines. Even though the game was still in development, Glover 2 was advertised with a single magazine ad, probably to generate a bit of hype around the game. But that seemed to be the last we ever heard of Glover 2 from both Interactive Studios and Hasbro Interactive, I don�t think it was cancelled officially either. But other than that there was pretty much no press coverage of the Glover 2 development... Now fast forward to October 2010, some 10 years after the game was supposed to hit the shelves, a fellow collector was selling off some N64 prototypes and one was Glover. I already own a near final prototype of Glover, but as the one being sold was said to be an early version of the game, I of course had to pick it up. So I was expecting to see what the first Glover game had looked like early on in development, and to my surprise the �early version� looked nothing like the finished game. When I took a closer look at the ROM, the title surprisingly said �Glover 2�. With that said, the game has no title screen (yet), so there was no real indication of the cartridge contained, other than the intro sequence was different... well along with everything else. In the original Glover game, the Wizard was brewing on a formula that took a wrong turn and exploded, turning the Wizard into a fountain (hrmmm!!) and one of the gloves he�s wearing is thrown out the window while the other one lands in the brew, turning that glove Evil. Well in this second game the game starts at a fishing pond where the Wizard is fishing and the picture then turns into a postcard with the text �Wish you were here�. I'm not sure how into development the game went, but the version that I've managed to get my hands on is pretty playable, at first glance. But the game is also very incomplete, like the missing titlescreen, but also enemies in later stages. I have yet to explore more than level 1 in the game, but hidden in the save select menu is a debug menu that will take you anywhere in the game. The game features multiplayer stages where you have to get the highest score, I've only played this option briefly but it looks like good fun (beer game!) Another funny thing is that if you use the boxing glove on the TV in the first room, you're able to play a simple version of Space Invaders. I'm really sad to see that Glover 2 was canned, I'm sure it would've been an instant hit as it seems more cartoony and playable than the first Glover game. I don't know if it's just me, but when I first played the game, Banjo-Kazooie came to mind, and we all know how kick ass Banjo-Kazooie is :-) A Dreamcast version of Glover 2 was also in the works, but went unreleased just like the Nintendo 64 version did. Interactive Studios were very unfortunate with their Nintendo64 adventure, only one of the games they made, made it to the store shelves, being Glover obviously. Dragon Sword, to be released by MGM Interactive, Frogger 2 and Glover 2, to be published by Hasbro, all went unreleased. Interactive Studios later became Blitz Games and they are still alive and kicking today.