The Nintendo DS Halo game that could have been

Halo almost came out on the DS.

An AAA developer was making the DS version of Halo with everything you expect in a Halo game. Dual Wielding, Plasma Rifles, SMGs, Worthogs, and the motion radar on the bottom screen were all included. A version of Zanzibar was even ported over! Unfortunately it was canceled before it was completed.

Here footage from IGN:





The controls are like Metroid Prime Hunters. The touch screen controlled aiming and the D-pad controlled movement. I'm not sure how dual wielding worked. The left hand is easily within reach of the left bumper. But the right hand is busy with the touch screen making the right bumper next to impossible to press with a stylus in your hand. The only available digit would be the pinky and I'm not sure how comfortable that would be after awhile.

In the video that's exactly what their doing:

Closer examination of the screens show that grenades, the scope and maybe even weapon fire could have been triggered on the touch screen:

How awesome would it have been to play Halo on the DS? The potentially hand crippling controls are probably the reason it didn't make it out. Of course it was far from being complete at this point and any number of things could of been improved and polished.

I hope that Microsoft, Bungie and whoever helped port it over (My moneys on Rare) revisit this idea. Untill then, we can only dream of the Halo that could have been.