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Three Games That Didn't Make It

Posted by Zonk on from the go-on-without-me-save-yourself dept.

1up.com has a feature about three games with potential that never made it onto store shelves. From the article: "We look back at three games that died so young they never even made it out: They were cancelled before they could land on store shelves. Did gamers lose out on a great experience, or was it a lucky break for their unsuspecting wallets?" I played Thrill Kill for about five minutes at the 1998 GenCon, because I was working a booth two booths down. It was umm... bad. Games that don't make it to market, probably shouldn't.

4 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Worked on them too by Artificer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only have I played many games that shouldn't have gone to market, but I've worked on a lot of them that REALLY shouldn't have gone out. Unfortunately, being a lowly game tester, my opinion doesn't seem to matter all that much.

  2. Sigh by clambake · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a little depressing how little you hear about Duke Nukem Forever these days...

  3. Another lost masterpiece... PROPELLER ARENA by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Informative
    Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship. Sega's last great game for the Dreamcast, cancelled because a certain level somewhat resembled the 9/11 attacks. It was later leaked - and let me tell you, it kicks ass!

    For info, images, and music: CLICK HERE .
    For a torrent of the game's ISO, CLICK HERE

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  4. The Red Star by BruceTheBruce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While it wasn't cancelled, Acclaim's The Red Star fell *just* short of making it to market when Acclaim finally closed the doors. It had already been approved by Sony for NTSC and was almost through Microsoft. Acclaim management didn't think the game would come to any notoriety thus nobody in power had any desire to muck about with it in an attempt to attach their name to it, which thankfully left the development team unfettered ability to do as they saw fit. I even have to commend the guys at Archangel for not trying to steer the gameplay design. Though they did throw the occasional fit when a color or shape didn't fit their vision of the license. I'm a rabid shooter fan who worked on it and trust me, rabid shooter fans everywhere were denied a pretty good game.

    I heard the comic guys who held the Red Star license were shopping it around, but I never heard of any publisher taking interest in it. I noticed it was conspicuously absent from the list of Acclaim properties up for sale, I guess because of the licensing issues.

    There are supposedly some fairly close-to-final ROMS of the XBox build out there, I highly recommend it if you're into shooters or brawlers.