Recently did a video about several cancelled games for the Playstation! Let me know what you think!
Heres the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1WR-NLgxCY&list=UUnLBpuFZwsZkFZCbSzvb9ZQIco (PSX)Not many people know that before team icos masterpiece hit the playstation 2… It was originally planned for its preddesssor. Fumito usda came up with the concept of ico way back in 1997 and envisioned what he called a boy meets girl story, which would see the two main characters holding hands and forming a bond throughout the duration of the adventure. Work began on the game in 1998 driven by three ideas, to make a game that would be indistinguishable from its competitors in its genre… Feature a style that would be consistently artistic and for it play out in an imaginary yet realistic setting. The game steadily made progress in development for two years and then the team started to run in to problems mainly due to the limitations of the playstation hardware. They faced a daunting question… Should we cancel the game, alter the vision so it was able to run or continue to explore more options…. and one of those options was the playstation 2. The project was thankfully moved to the ps2 and the rest is history… If you haven’t played Ico I highly suggest you go and do that right now!
Thrill KillOriginally penned for a 1998 release, Thrill Kill was set to take the gaming world by storm by allowing up to four players to battle it out at the same time! So what made Thrill Kill so different to the countless other 3D Fighters avaliable to the system? If I could some it up in one word… That word would be pervy. Developed by Paradox development the amount of hype surrounding the game had everyone calling it the new mortal Kombat… The game was ready to go and with only a few weeks left until its planned release… Are good friends EA decided to pull the plug and shelve the game, mainly due to its violent and sexual content citing that the title would harm there image. Now I’m not going to sit her and debate what is to violent or sexual for a video game but when games are depicting blatant bdsm and fetish acts I can see why a company like EA would make the decision they did… Are they still cunts?? Of course they are… Ok not as bad as konami but there still cunts and Due to that game being all but finished before getting cancelled… Bootleg copies started to surface and now the game is widely available for anyone to try out! So if your feeling a bit pervy… Why not crack on a bit of Thrill Kill.
Baulders GateThe classic PC title was initially planned to also release for the playstation. Set in a dungeons and dragons inspired medieval fantasy world, the game would take place over 3CDs packed to the brim with 10,000 game screens. The reason for its cancellation lies with its developers Runecraft and interplay who were having issues with the games loading times and optimisation… The decision was made to pull the plug.
Over the years Boulders gate has garnered a very active and passionate fan base who have been working hard to bring the unreleased playstation version to fruition… and they succeeded although the game is not 100% complete it is possible to play through from start to end and is one hell of a journey. If you enjoy the classic dungeons and dragons game you will feel right at home as soon as you press start!
Onimusha Warlords (PSX)Onimusha is a game with a long history… Originally penned as sengoku biohazard, the game was meant to be an ancient spin on the resident evil franchise set in feudal japan. The player was to traverse a ninja house filled with traps similar to the one found in the first resident evil game and was originally being developed for the Nintendo 64DD. The ideas behind Sengoku biohazard slowly changed in to something tangible and was renamed Onimusha. Capcom saw the game being part of a trilogy and began work on the first entry for the original playstation. Unfortunately the playstation version was scrapped even with it being about 50% complete… The teams excitement about the new flashy playstation 2 resulted in the game being switched over to the new hardware in order to take advantage of the extra power the system offered. Luckily Onimusha is one of those games that we got to see and I’m thankful as the series went on to become one of my favourite franchises… All we need now is a sequel or at least a HD remake…. Make it happen Capcom!
Eternal ChainEternal Chain was an RPG being developed by Victor Interactive Software and started development in 1998. Not much is really known about this game except it s plot summary that was published by RPG gamer way back in the day! heres the summary:
“16,000 years ago humans lived on Mars. After using up the resources of Mars, the humans started moving to Earth. At that time another lifeform, Gods, inhabited the Earth. After the humans settled on Earth, they eventually split into 2 groups, those who liked the Gods, and those who disliked Gods. It was only a matter of time before battles betweenGods and the two groups of humans began.”
Now that sounds like one hell of a story to me and something I probably would have enjoyed but unfortunately for reasons still unknown the game was cancelled. Although the title was seen in playable form during the tokyo game show of 1999, the footage and game build are no where to be found…. If anyone has any details about this game let me know in the comments!
Enemy ZeroEnemy Zero is a survival horror which was released for the Sega Sautrn in 1996, directed by Kenji Eno, the game was initially being developed for the playstation but Kenji was not happy with how his previous game ‘D’ had been handled by sony and became irritated with there failure to meet the preorders for the title resulting in low sales. In a classic move and what could be considered as a giant fuck you… Kenji took the stage at a son press conference and presented enemy Zero to the public… With the playstation logo appearing at the end of the demonstration many assumed the game would release for the console…. The image slowly transitioned in to the sage saturn logo and all but confirmed that development was now taking place on that system instead. Despite the popular opinion at the time that the Sega Saturn was not capable of handling 3D games as well as the playstation, Kenji noted that the playstation and saturn are not so different, so moving it the to saturn wasn’t too difficult. Personally I think the game might have done better if it got a release for the playstation due to its larger popularity at the time. But at least we got the game and it can be enjoyed even to this day….Moral of the story don’t piss off Kenji Eno!
Konami RallyNow I’m a huge rally fan and upon hearing about Konagi Rally way back in 1999 I was excited to see how the game would turn out! First shown to the public during E3 99 the game was a spiritual successor the MSX rally title Konagi Hyper Rally… originally planned to release for the playstation and gameboy colour the game was set to follow in the footsteps of it predesscor and provide a great rally experience… Unfortunately in true Konagi fashion the game was cancelled and vanished from existence… All that remains from the game are a few screenshots and the footage that was showcased during the event. So yeah Fuck Konagi.
PopcornDeveloped by eight wonder in 1997, popcorn was going to be the first title to come from several Rare employees that decided to leave the company and setup the eighth wonder studio with funding being provided by none other than sony themselves. The deal saw sony committing to publish the studios first three titles with the option to pick up another three should they be successful. The first title was Popcorn an action adventure game that featured six distinct worlds which each had three levels… at the end of each world you would encounter a boss and were tasked with defeating them in order to progress… By E3 1998 the game was being displayed by Sunsoft and would have been published by them in the west… However by this time cracks were starting to form within the eight wonder studio and due to a number of internal issues, by 1999 the game was cast to the dustbins of obscurity.
Monstrous CityNow this game sounded like a whole lot of fun… developed by Northstar studios for the original playstation. The player would assume the role of various monsters and would be tasked with reaching havoc upon the citizens of various cities, it was all very Godzilla like. A lot of work went in to the project with a load of monsters being designed for the game including a dracula style monster, a giant robot with powerful energy beams, bizzare mutants and a godzilla inspired dinosaur. Sadly the game never had the chance to be finished, due to Northstar Studios being unable to find a publisher willing to publish the game… All that remains of the game are a few screenshots from magazines that were issued during its development.
Lufia 3: Ruins ChaserDuring 1998 a Japanese publisher by the name of Nihon Flex announced that it would be funding the development of the third game in the Lufia series. This title was to take place 300 years after the events of the original game and set to tie up all of the story threads from the past titles whilst simutanesolsy introducing a new one for further games in the series. The game was introduced to the public during the tokyo games show of 1998, a 12 page booklet was handed to attendees including artwork and details about the title… At this time it was stated that the game was 20% complete and development was moving along nicely… However shortly after the announcement the company financing the project Nihon Flex filed for bankruptcy which forced the project to be put on hold. A year later the game resurfaced under a different title of The legend returns and was no being developed for the Gameboy Colour…. At least the game did see some sort of a release it is just iunfortuante that the original vision was comprimised in order tocater for the Game boy colours hardware.
