List of unproduced Drillimation productions

This is a complete list of Drillimation content that was canceled or unreleased due to concerns or conflicts with other content, or may be a decision by the company.

Lucky Star Sunshine
Magical Girl Team Lucky Star Sunshine (魔法少女隊らき☆すたサンシャイン) was planned to be the original incarnation of the Chuhou Joutai series, it was planned to star Kagami Ochiai, Shira and Rika Katsumoto, and Kumiko Uchida as the main protagonists, but this was ultimately dropped when it changed course and Susumu Takajima became the series protagonist.

Touhou Project

 * Starting from the Driller Engine 3 Era, Drillimation was going to have a feature on the PC versions of Touhou games where players can let other players watch them play and even comment on their gameplay. The concept had to be scrapped, as it would be too expensive to develop that into Drillimation games and most likely trigger privacy concerns by parents, as well as concerns over cyber bullying.

Yuka Kazami as the mascot of Windows 95
When the arcade and PC versions of Touhou 9: The Phantasmagoria of Flower View were being developed, Drillimation chose to use Microsoft's Windows 95 as part of the Namco System 22's hardware. As part of a deal with Microsoft, Drillimation wanted Yuka Kazami to be the mascot of Windows 95, as the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems didn't have a mascot and Drillimation wanted to fill that gap in. Drillimation's proposal to Microsoft, unfortunately, died after they rejected it due to negative reception from staff.

Dinosaur Rollercoaster
Dinosaur Rollercoaster was a planned arcade platformer being developed by the same team who worked on Super Smash Keyboards as they were taking a break from darker concepts. The game was originally going to be lighthearted and family-friendly. Technical difficulties caused the game to be canceled, and from a request from British game developer Rareware, the game was reworked as a serious but humorous game called To Heart.

Guitar Hero: Drillimation Synth
Guitar Hero: Drillimation Synth was a planned Guitar Hero spin-off created as a partnership between Drillimation and Activision. The game would feature various heavy metal remixes of songs in The Drillimation Series, as well as original compositions sung by actors who voice characters in the anime and games. The game had to be canceled due to arguments over the choice of engine, as Drillimation wanted to use Driller Engine, while Activision wanted to use Unreal Engine. Another reason for the game's cancellation was due to difficulties with localization.

K-On!
Drillimation was one of the various media companies who submitted bids to purchase the rights to adapt the popular yonkoma K-On! into video game form, along with Sega, Taito, and Konami. Initially, the ideas were going to be a rhythm game using the Konami Bemani engine on other Drillimation games such as Taiko Drum Master, as well as video game adaptations of the anime. However, there were disagreements over what Kakifly wanted the game to be, as Drillimation wanted to make a danmaku shooter series like Touhou Project, Lucky Star, and The Adventures of Haruhi Suzumiya. The rights to the franchise were eventually bought by Sega.

Mario and Drillimation crossover RPG
"Well, Mr. Miyamoto showed me a demo of the RPG in action. Despite having to hire a large crew for a Driller Engine-based game, the game's visuals, specifically the Drillimation characters, looked terrible. Some of the game's mechanics didn't work, and the developers probably didn't capture the humor of the games and anime. Some of my friends didn't like it as well."

- Susumu Takajima, in an interview for GameInformer

There have been several attempts at Nintendo creating an RPG to cross over with The Drillimation Series. Some notable titles included Paper Mario in Drillimationland, an intended installment of the Paper Mario series that would feature Drillimation characters in paper form. However, due to the hassle of creating each of the characters, the game had to be scrapped altogether. Alphadream, another developer at Nintendo who uses Driller Engine, was chosen to rework the game as a game in the Mario & Luigi series titled Mario & Luigi: Drillimation Rebels. The game was 20% complete, but due to Susumu Takajima's negative reaction to it, that project was cancelled altogether.

Mr. Driller 3
Mr. Driller 3 was a planned Driller Engine 1 Mr. Driller game to complete the trilogy in the Driller Engine 1 Era. The game was a complete disaster for Takajima, as he suffered a hard drive failure halfway throughout development, leading to all loss of data. The game was eventually reworked into Mr. Driller G as a launch title for the Driller Engine 2 Era.