Cancelled games that fascinate me
It's no secret that the amount of cancelled projects in the videogame industry (and pretty much every industry for that matter) is staggering, and cancellations, albeit necessary if the project is directionless or if the work environment is incredibly toxic and pretty much everyone participating on it is having a terrible time, most of the part is an extremely sad occurrence.
Hundreds if not thousands of hours of work gone down the drain for one reason or another is always a shame to see, especially if such cancellation supposes the closure of an entire studio, like it has been the case in several times.
In a way, every game that didn’t saw the light of day is really fascinating... but to me there are one that stand out above the others. And so here they are! A small list of cancelled games that I found incredibly interesting, be it because of the concept of the game or its troubled production.
As always, feel free to share your input and talk about any other cancelled games that you find interesting!
12 Games
What better way to start this list than with the best thing ever to which we were denied.
Kid Kirby was going to be a kind of pre-quel to the rest of the series, developed by the now known as Rockstar Games, and if that idea alone isn't the most hysterical and insane thing ever, I don't know what to believe at this point.
The project was dropped after all parties weren't sure of its success, since it was going to require the SNES mouse (Along other reasons), so it ended up being scrapped, but still, this is insane, and I wish it got to be real. I needed to see Prince DeDeDe pr however they would have called it, it would have been incredible.
Ah, Scalebound, the forever disgraced.
I'm not gonna extend myself on this one (nor on others on this list that are better known or I don't have much to say) but the fact this one was cancelled was both a shame and honestly the best. The resources this must have taken are enormous, but... it was already stated that it was too ambitious, too directionless and just wasn't coming together, and both Microsoft and Platinum knew it.
I kinda wish things turned out better, but at the same time, I'm glad they didn't turned out for the worse.
Fun fact: I haven't played the original Fez and still know what a shitshow this was!
Honestly this story was already told much better by people better documented than I, so I really recommend giving it a look if you aren't aware of it, but an in all, it resulted in everyone missing a possible great game, and that always sucks... and Twitter takes part on this story which it also sucks.
This honestly could count for any Retro Studios game.
The company is in a bit of a weird limbo at the moment, and considering how they have consistently putting out quality games, is a shame that so much of their library is… well, non-existent...
We were so close to greatness, we were this close... we could have had a game where you beat the shit out of Luigi...
A combination of volleyball and wrestling with Mario characters... was not an idea to which Nintendo was very fond of, to say the least, and as such they made Next Level Games cancel the project... but just IMAGINE what could we have had if it released...
This one just... stings.
Prey 2 was shaping up to be an amazing release, an expansion to the original game in every sense of the word. The developers at Human Head Studios perhaps had a masterpiece in their hands... but in another great Triple A industry moment TM, progress was haulted and it will never see the light of day.
This one is especially weird 'cause reasons of what really happened are all over the place: either both parties thought the game wasn't going anywhere, or (and don't tell mister Zenimax I said this) that Bethesda did some scummy stuff that resulted in such destiny... but again, we will never know for sure.
You may be thinking right now: '''Deemon, you absolute donkey, Dino Crisis 3 was officially released!'' and you'd be right! To our dismay, Dino Crisis 3 is a game that does exist... but I'm not talking about the shitty one we got.
It has been stated by multiple developers at Capcom that Dino Crisis 3 was going to be a true sequel to the past games of the series, taking place on a destroyed modern American city, Resident Evil 2 style... but with dinos.
Pre-production was going great... and then a certain event that shook the world called 9/11 happened. A LOT of videogames were affected by this, bur DC3 in particular scrapped ALL of the ideas they originally had, cancelling the original project, and the result of all of that... was another tragedy.
I absolutely get that they wanted to distance themselves from that whole tragedy... but they may have gone a bit too far, I really think they could have maintained some aspects of the original project instead of doing... this.
Some games almost kill their entire companies, but Sonic Xtreme went above and beyond and it almost KILLED its employees!
It's apparent that the project was done under a sever crunch and there was an huge lack of direction... so this being finally scrapped was a blessing to everyone involved.
It truly was extreme, bloody hell...
Ah, Konami, you show yourselves at last.
P.T. took the entire world by storm, and what did Konami do? Fire Kojima and cancel Silent Hills of course!... wat.
This one is just stupid and even petty, even if the game wasn't the best, I wish its vision was realized...
Ugly cries
This one is just... sad, this one is VERY sad.
I don't have much to say other than that, it could have been beautiful... and instead we were bamboozled, and MAN does it fucking suck...
Both this one and the next one are here for the same reasons: both games that ended up releasing in a completely different way, but in this case, it was for the better for both of them.
That doesn't make their ''cancellations'' the less interesting tho, the history of production of both of these game is really interesting, but I'm glad they both managed to release, and I'm glad this list can end on a good tone, at least.
17 Comments
@FallenGrace Honestly yeah, especially now with Redfall being a reality and Arkane worker being open about how they were pretty much forced to do it makes me believe in the claims they made Human Head implode even more than before. Speaking of Arkane and Prey, is pretty much a fact that, on the contrary with what Bethesda originally said, Arkane had the concept for a game decided and Bethesda went ''hey, can you call it this pls? you'll get a bigger paycheck <3'' and it makes the whole situation look even more scummy on Bethesda's side.
I am reminded of Mega Man Legends 3 again. Sad...very sad.
I own and have played both the first 2 Dino Crisis games and didn't even know there was an officially released Dino Crisis 3. Dreadfully intrigued by this discovery
Ugly crying with you over MML3 though, and doing my own ugly cry over Mario Spikers, will never forget...
Glover 2 would've been the greatest game ever made but some guy at Hasbro cancelled it because they over-ordered on cartridge production of the game and lost money despite the game doing good.
*Despite Glover 1 doing good.
@sleeping0dragon I think we all cry the loss of MML3... so close to greatness, only to be met with sadness...
@hilda I'm not one to give advises, but if I must give one, it is DO NOT PLAY DINO CRISIS 3. It isn't worth your time and energy, it isn't worth ANYBODY'S time and energy. Truly a nothing game.
Mario Spikers could have been amazing too... this the ugly crying list T_T
@DeltaWDunn Oh man I totally forgot about that one, but it's true. It honestly sucks that some games also suffer of cancellations despite the previous game doing amazing, only because of some executives that decided to make a dumb financial choice. Truly unfortunate, I would have loved to see more of the funny glove...
Scalebound had so much potential. Probably in another timeline the game released. Starcraft Ghost is another I wish. Heroes of Hyrule is one I would not mind seeing I love tactics games. And a Zelda tactics game would be super cool. I still haven't forgiven Bethesda for Prey 2. Everything about it slaps. And on my hunt for indies I've been following this one since it emulates I think what Prey 2 embodied. And MML3 I still wish for Capcom to make one day with as much copium I have. Starwars 1313 is another I wish came out as well. And all the other cancelled SW games. But alas, I understand why these were cancelled.
@Detectivefail Many of the ones you mention were VERY close of entering the list, Star Wars 1313 especially, that one always looked very interesting to me and it's a shame that because of the Disney buying the company it got cancelled...
And thank you for bringing that game to light! It looks pretty interesting, and I hope through it a lot of Prey 2's ideas can finally come to life.
For me would be Fire Emblem: Maiden of Darkness. For the N64.
I get mad about P.T. like once a week. A new entry in the Silent Hill series, brought to you by the combined insanity of Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and Junji Ito, featuring Norman Reedus, and announced via a genre defining demo of all things? Literally a masterpiece waiting to happen, and Konami not only killed it but went full scorched earth and pulled the demo so no one could even commiserate about what could've been.
Say it with me, everybody: FUCK KONAMI
@Lot0 I didn't even know that there was a cancelled Fire Emblem game for the N64. That's actually super interesting, I'll give It a look for sure!
@zeroesandones Konami literally had a golden goose and not only killed it, but also threw the golden eggs it already had. It's almost devastating in a way, so much talent that they just didn't let to come into fruition; at least I'm glad Kojima is doing his own thing and seems happy about it...
...but yeah, FUCK KONAMI
Out of all of these, I'd say Mega Man Legends 3 getting canceled hits me the most. I have the first two still sitting in my long backlog of games but I was intrigued by the small amount of gameplay for Legends 3 that was shown at the time. I also just love the 3ds in general. In terms of canceled games in general,
In terms of games outside of this list, Twelve Tails Conker 64 is the one that interests me the most. I understand why they rehauled it into Bad Fur Day but I still really wish they were able to release both games. I can at least dream that a prototype will get dumped online like Dinosaur Planet did.
@BrightGalaxy Agree on that, the 3DS had a staggering amount of cancelled titles, and most of them could have been really interesting.
It is confirmed that they still have the prototype, so everything is possible, but looking at interviews, I'm glad they did the change,it seemed like the game wasn't going anywhere
Deep down was always one I really wanted to see but then it's more vaporware than cancelled I guess....
TimeSplitters 4 is the big one for me, so I really hope the new TimeSplitters revival is great.
@thealexmott first of all, sorry for the late response! And second of all, I didn't even know that there were plans for a TimeSplitters 4, I'll have to look up the history of it! Still, it's a big shame it was cancelled, but I'm glad the series will come back soon, and I really hope it's with a bang!
FallenGrace
3 months ago