History of Cancelled and Unreleased Video Games - Part I

Chances are that over the years there has been one or even a number of games that caught your attention, only to slip away into oblivion. Some of them more high profile than others, but there is always a sense of mystery and curiosity about these games that we never got a chance to play. We will look at some of these titles that never made it to store shelves in a multi-part series that will provide some insight on what these games were about, what happened to cause their demise, and if there is any chance that we might still get to play them.

B.C.

Platform(s): Xbox
Developer: Lionhead Studios (formerly Intrepid Games)
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Cancelled: 2004

What was it?: First announced back in 2001 when developer Lionhead Studios (then known as Intrepid Games) was beginning to make a name for itself in the console world working on the now immensely popular Xbox-exclusive Fable series, Peter Molyneux’s ambitious team was simultaneously plugging away at perhaps an even more highly anticipated and ambitious Xbox exclusive, simply titled B.C. As the title would suggest, B.C. was to explore a world in a prehistoric setting. Part action/adventure and part god-simulation, the player was to take control of a tribe of primitive humans on the brink of extinction. In order to ensure survival and the continuity of the human species, the player must guide the people in hunting and gathering food, discover and connect with other tribes, overcome a rival simian race, and defend against dangerous creatures (dinosaurs, duh), among a variety of other missions, with the ultimate goal of the progression of the human race. In gameplay terms, the player could control a single character or a small group of characters in order to complete tasks. The game was to boast a complex eco-system as well, with each creature populating the game world having its own food, water, and safety needs, whereby the individual organisms would have to independently fulfill these requirements by hunting and/or defending itself against larger predators in order to survive. It was also possible to capture and train these prehistoric beasts to use in combat against rival tribes. Furthermore, the game was to feature a dynamic weather system that would affect the behaviour of the tribe.

What happened?: Microsoft and Lionhead appeared so confident in this project that they actually announced a sequel before the first game came out. Suspicions about the stability of the project began to arise in 2003, when a key member of the development team, Ben Cousins, abandoned the team and the project for unknown reasons. Still, the studio maintained that the title was on track for a late 2004 release. In October 2004, despite rave reviews of the game’s ambition and originality from the press and unbridled excitement from Xbox owners, Molyneux announced on the developer’s website that development on B.C. was being put on indefinite hold, but that they hoped to revive the project sometime in the future (six years and counting). Specific reasons were not cited, but rumours suggested that the project was simply too ambitious and too complex to achieve a high quality final product on the Xbox.

Will it ever come out?: Since the announcement that development was suspended was made back in 2004, B.C. has rarely been mentioned, much less credibly suggested as making a comeback. Lionhead appears to be solely focused on the Fable franchise, so don’t expect a revival anytime soon. Still, gamers swooned in anticipation of B.C. prior to its supposed impending release seven years ago, and with the power of current consoles the premise still seems original and appealing enough to remain feasible. Recent rumours have even suggested that Lionhead may once again be working on B.C. as a follow-up title to 2010’s Fable III, however a recent issue of Game Informer magazine declared the project dead.

Robotech: Crystal Dreams

Platform(s): N64
Developer: GameTek
Publisher: (none)
Cancelled: 1998

What was it?: Robotech: Crystal Dreams was intended to be a killer-app launch title for the highly-anticipated Nintendo 64 console in the mid-90s, promising visuals as good as or better than any other console game to date. Early “gameplay-target” renderings were released to the public in 1995, sending gamers into a frenzy over its potentially incredible visuals. Crystal Dreams was to be a simulation-style take on the popular Robotech franchise, allowing players to take a cockpit view of the titular robots as they traversed across space. Developer GameTek claimed that everything in the game would be rendered in 3D with no pre-rendered backgrounds, and that the game world was so huge that it would take six months in real time for players to fly from one end of space to the other, dynamically encountering various missions along the way. The game was also to feature more than 30 controllable functions at the player’s disposal, multiple branching missions, a four-player battle mode, and over 40 minutes of in-game voice dialogue.

What happened?: Crystal Dreams was a huge order for the relatively small and unknown studio at GameTek. The team began work on the project well in advance of the Nintendo 64’s launch, when it was still unclear what the capabilities of the console would be and how much capital was required to develop and release such an ambitious title. The game slipped past its original N64 launch window release date and, without a publisher, GameTek fell on difficult financial woes. In 1997, the studio filed for bankruptcy, but managed to keep its head above water. They released Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune 64 to help keep money flowing in, but sales were not enough to fully fund the studio’s signature project, Crystal Dreams. Things started to look up when publisher Capcom signed a deal to distribute the title and GameTek announced they would publish the game on their own. However, just days after making an appearance at E3 in 1998, the developer closed its doors for good along with their Robotech game as the studio had simply run out of money.

Will it ever come out?: Word has it that Crystal Dreams was in pretty rough shape when the media last had the chance to play it in 1998, even in supposed later stages of development. Controls were clunky and the visuals were unpolished and out of date. Obviously there would be little motivation today to see such a game resurrected, and with the developer long gone, there is zero chance of that happening anyway.

Sadness

Platform(s): Wii
Developer: Nibris
Publisher: (none)
Cancelled: 2010

What was it?: Sadness was one of the first titles to be announced for the Wii, a psychological horror title from relatively unknown Polish developer Nibris. Set in an isolated area of Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, Nibris was always timid when it came to releasing specific details regarding the game’s story. What we do know is that players were to control a woman as she wandered the Ukrainian countryside, facing a variety of psychologically-induced obstacles, such as monsters that supposedly existed only in her damaged psyche, in a feeble attempt to protect her son. The intent was to scare players with a haunting atmosphere rather than gratuitous violence, confronting them with scenarios associated with narcolepsy (abnormal sleep patterns), nyctophobia (intense fear of darkness), and paranoid schizophrenia (chronic paranoia and delusions). A lack of actual weapons like guns in the game would force players to find more creative ways of defending themselves, like using a piece of broken glass or a broken chair leg as makeshift defence mechanisms. The game was to sport a unique gothic, photorealistic visual style featuring exclusively black-and-white graphics, and would culminate in one of several alternate endings.

What happened?: Sadness was first announced several months before the Wii was launched in 2006. The project seemed low on credibility from the get-go, with no publisher announced and an unknown developer heading up the ambitious project. Still, the mature theme and original concept of the game got many anxious gamers excited for the title’s undetermined release. While a teaser trailer was released in 2006, Nibris indicated that a gameplay trailer would be released before the end of 2007, but failed to make good on the promise. With no new details or screens of the game coming out, media outlets suspected the game was cancelled, or outright doubted the game’s existence. In 2008, Nibris’ website claimed that they would make an appearance at the Games Developer’s Conference, but unsurprisingly they were no-shows. In late 2009, a source close to Nibris confirmed that Sadness was still alive, but in need of a publisher. Finally in April of 2010, a music composer for the game mercifully confirmed to N-Europe that the project had been cancelled. In an N-Europe interview with a scriptwriter for the game, Adam Antolski indicated that the game never really left the conceptual stage, with little or no actual development ever occurring, at least to his knowledge. The title’s ultimate demise was attributed to an extremely small development team that was low on experience and resources, and had fundamentally opposing ideas on key elements of the game.

Will it ever come out?: Extremely unlikely. Nibris failed to ever produce an actual Wii title, and while Sadness definitely had a cool concept, it was obviously much too ambitious for this developer. It sounds like despite all the talk, Sadness was more or less conceptual and never really experienced any actual development. If there is any glimmer of hope to be found, it would be in that Nibris’ projects are said to have been handed to another developer after the developer closed shop in early 2010.

Star Fox 2

Platform(s): SNES
Developer: Nintendo, Argonaut Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Cancelled: 1995

What was it?: Following the success of the Super NES hit Star Fox in 1993, Nintendo set out with the next iteration of the Super FX chip (the technology that made 3D graphics possible on the SNES) to make a sequel. The formula was considerably different than its predecessor though, with the linear flight paths scrapped in favour of more free-roaming space. Players would navigate the Lylat system on a map screen (think Mass Effect’s navigation screen) until they encountered a group of enemy fighters or a captured planet, at which time the game would switch to the more traditional action perspective for classic Star Fox battles. The goal was to rescue planets (particularly Cornelia) from annihilation and to destroy enemy battleships and installations. More missions were added every time you would kick up the difficulty level as well, actually significantly altering the experience between difficulty levels. Players were apparently also given the ability to custom outfit their craft with weapons and even transform into a giant walking robot with the press of a button. The game was to make some technological advances as well, with more enemy types, bigger battles, and detailed bases above and beyond what was possible in the first Star Fox.

What happened?: Star Fox 2 was actually nearly (perhaps fully) completed by the time it got canned in 1995. Nintendo never gave a reason for the cancellation, but a programmer later claimed that Shigeru Miyamoto axed the project because it was too close to the impending launch of the Nintendo 64. Miyamoto wanted a long enough break between the 3D games on Super NES and the Nintendo 64 games in order to clearly define the technological leap between consoles. Ironically, the Nintendo 64’s launch was pushed back until the middle of 1996 in Japan and late 1996 in North America, so there would have been well over a year between the release of Star Fox 2 and the launch of the N64 anyway. Several of the ideas from Star Fox 2 were eventually utilized for the N64 hit Star Fox 64 in 1997, and some of the game's programming elements were utilized in Super Mario 64.

Will it ever come out?: Those who have played beta versions of the game were generally extremely impressed with the title, which makes it all that more difficult to let go. We can always hope for a Virtual Console release, but Nintendo is yet to indicate that they have any interest in a VC release. There are forged versions of Star Fox 2 available on the internet from fans who acquired the code for the game and added their own patches and debug codes.

Thrill Kill

Platform(s): PSX
Developer: Paradox Development
Publisher: Virgin Interactive/Electronic Arts
Cancelled: 1998

What was it?: Thrill Kill was the fighting title that was to one-up the controversial Mortal Kombat games with its own brand of insane over-the-top violence and sexual innuendo. Up to four combatants could face off against one another on a single stage, with the idea to build up your character’s “bloodlust” until you could finish off your opponents with the titular “thrill kills”. Since the characters are actually dead souls rotting in hell, characters could not actually be damaged so the traditional health bar was replaced by a “kill meter” which would fill up bit-by-bit with each attack. Once the meter was full, players could finish off an opponent with one of a variety of brutally violent thrill kills (the game’s answer to Mortal Kombat’s “Fatalities”). Examples of these finishing moves included tearing an opponent’s limbs off and then beating the opponent to death with them, and decapitating an opponent, drinking the blood from the severed head, and eating their arm. Once a character was killed, the kill meters would reset to zero and the process would begin again with the three remaining combatants. The twelve characters, who are portrayed in demonic forms according to their sins, ranged from a cannibal to a pyromaniac and a murderous librarian/housewife. The game’s story indicated that the winner of this cruel tournament would win reincarnation from Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, as their reward.

What happened?: With an industry that generally craves blood and gore in its videogames (especially in the late 90s), Thrill Kill gained some impressive hype prior to its cancellation. The title was actually completely finished and ready for release when Electronic Arts gave it the axe in 1998, deciding it was too senselessly violent to publish. The ESRB still has the title listed on its website, sporting the rare “Adults Only” rating due to its extreme violence. Electronic Arts even deemed it so repulsively offensive that they wouldn’t sell the game to another publisher for release. Times have changed: anyone play EA’s Dante’s Inferno or Dead Space 2? Yeah...

Will it ever come out?: Since the game was actually finished, former members of the development team predictably released full versions of the game to the public via the internet after its cancellation, and bootlegged copies flooded the web for anyone interested in getting a taste. Beyond that, Thrill Kill will never see a commercial release. Don’t get too upset though: despite the hype, word has it that the gameplay wasn’t very good.

(Watch the video at your own discretion, as it contains extreme violence)

Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

Platform(s): PC
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: (none)
Cancelled: 1998

What was it?: With the Warcraft franchise having already established itself as a premier RTS franchise with Warcraft and Warcraft II, Blizzard Entertainment decided they wanted to flesh out a more detailed storyline for the series. Warcraft Adventures was to be a point-and-click adventure game for the PC (inspired by other popular point-and-click games like Monkey Island), following the story of Thrall, a young orc who was raised by a human lieutenant who intended to use Thrall to build and control a powerful orc army. Thrall ditches his human overlord and seeks out more of his kind in an attempt to find out more about orc heritage and history and to build a resistance against their human oppressors. While the story sounds fairly serious, it was to be presented in a dark-comedic fashion, with plenty of funny dialogue and colourful characters.

What happened?: Blizzard sank quite a bit of resources into the development of Warcraft Adventures, including the expensive outsourcing of a large team from experienced company Animation Magic to build the animated sequences. Originally planned for release in late 1997, the game slipped into 1998 while the developer reconstructed many of its elements because it wasn’t reaching their standards of quality. In the meantime, LucasArts released their own point-and-click adventure, The Curse of Monkey Island, to rave reviews, and also announced plans for Grim Fandango, which took a similar gameplay approach into 3D. Blizzard quickly realized that Warcraft Adventures was not able to perform at the same level as these titles, deeming their own project to be outclassed and outdated when compared to the current precedents in the genre. Even though it was close to completion, the studio needed significantly more development time and resources to bring the title up to snuff, but decided to nix development instead of incurring more delays or releasing a substandard product.

Will it ever come out?: A petition from fans of the franchise was circulated shortly after the game’s cancellation, demanding that the project be resurrected, but Blizzard was unwilling to comply for the reasons cited above. The storyline in Warcraft Adventures was eventually adapted to the novel Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, written by Christie Golden in 2001. Protagonist Thrall also later played significant roles in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos in 2001 and World of Warcraft in 2004. With Thrall’s story having been told, along the decline of point-and-click adventures and Blizzard’s current focus on World of WarCraft and StarCraft II, it is very unlikely that we will ever see Warcraft Adventures resurface.

Written by: Mike Glubish

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