The video game industry is a fickle one. Games get proposed, games get made, but a large and unseen mass of games never get the chance to see the light of day. Tonight's top 10 will explore the ten games that were proposed, hyped, and then subsequently cancelled like Chevy Chase's talk show career.
Tonights list is all about the games that time just forgot about, and most likely none of us will ever get the chance to play these "what might have been" titles. Catch you at the end.
Primal Rage 2
The Primal Rage series was lost in the glut of similar games that came out around the same time in the arcade. Let's see you had: Bloodstorm, Time Killers, Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct to name a few. Cool thing about Primal Rage is that you either played as a dinosaur or as a giant ape! Good shit right there man. The arcade game was mildly successful, which guaranteed a sequel but alas, it was cut in the middle of production. Oh well, not a big loss really.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
This PS2 shooter would have answered some questions for me that were leftover from Aliens, too bad it didn't survive. The story was pretty straightforward FPS, a team of marines sent to recover the ship "Sulaco" from the movie Aliens, a week goes by and they make no contact. Its up to YOU to figure out what has happened.
Project: H.A.M.M.E.R.
About the only game that I wanted when the Wii came out. I can vividly remember the sales guy at Gamestop trying to get me to put a preorder on a copy. Luckily, I am still without Wii, and without this game. Too bad though the premise seemed neat, you swing a hammer to hand out beatdowns using your wii-mote. Whoo! Call me John Henry cause I'm pound some bitches!
Capcom Fighting All-Stars
Arika did all of the Street Fighter EX series of 3D fighters for Capcom, however this one never made it past play testing due to negative response. In this day and age I am craving some Capcom glory. I would have jumped at a chance to fight Strider Hiryu against Batsu from Rival Schools fame! And all of it would have been done in 3D!!! I'm just kidding, I prefer 2D fighting games myself, though I give every game that Capcom makes a fair shake.
Sonic X-Treme
This would have been a great Sonic game and would have predated the Sonic Adventure games by a number of years and would have been a game that could have possibly bailed out the Sega Saturn. When it first was in development, it was originally going to appear on the impossibly failed Sega 32X. Too bad it never made it, I like sonic games.
Starcraft Ghost
I'll have to admit, I've never played game one of Starcraft...there I've said it. This potential IP that Blizzard was making had me thinking that I'd have to give it a try. Sure, it seemed to be a Splinter Cell in Space type of game, but it would have been great to have another game that featured a female character as a lead. I'm a
big fan of positive female role models.
Earthworm Jim PSP
Who doesn't just absolutely love Earthworm Jim. Well, Sony didn't, because a PSP version of his story magically disappeared from the radar. It was going to be great, it even had Dan Castellaneta returning to his voice acting, Professor Monkey-For-A-Head, and Evil the Cat, c'mon EVIL THE FREAKIN CAT!!! It makes me a sad sad panda that I'll never have portable Jim...*sniff* wait I take that back, just have to find a Nomad then I can play my Genesis games on it, bonus!!!
Robotech: Crystal Dreams
This more than Final Fantasy VII was the reason that I picked up my Nintendo 64...and was forever pissed at Nintendo, I still haven't forgiven you entirely Nintendo! Too bad really, the game looked to be really promising and was going to include audio dialogue, great scaling and rendering, and open ended gameplay. I would have played this more than I played the other Robotech games we got instead. I'm gonna go over here and cry about being lied to by Nintendo.
Thrill Kill
EA you bunch of assholes, all this game was was just a bunch of Low polygon count people doing horrible things to other low polygon count people. This game was unique for its time thanks to the four player fighting aspect, and it had a Gimp in it, yes a gimp! "The Imp", midget wearing stilts, was originally named Senator Lieberman in defiance to an asshat that has been pushing censorship long before we had Jacko.
Space Quest VII: Return to Roman Numerals
Man Sierra, you used to have such witty tongue-in-cheek games like this populate your roster. Subtitled "Return to Roman Numerals" only because Space Quest 6 used a number instead of Roman numerals, that's pretty fucking funny. I would love to see another game featuring everyone's favorite space janitor Roger Wilco, or at least another King's Quest, or how about another Willy Beamish? It's too bad that Sierra won't take the time to explore it's roots and release a few updated versions of these games, I'd be a serious PC gamer again if I could get me some new point and click adventures.
Well, hopefully some of you out there are feeling about as sad as I feel right now. Looking at this list just kinda bummed me out that some of these games are never going to be made, or distributed. Oh well, at least we have a whole bunch of quality games to last us right?
Are there any games that you were bummed to find out were cancelled? I'd like to hear your opinion, and as always, if you have a suggestions for a top 10 that you'd like to see, just let me know. Thanks for reading!
Major props for including Project H.A.M.M.E.R. on your list. I loved this game when I tried it a couple of years ago. It makes my heart sad to think I'll never get to play the full version.
Wholly shit I want to see "StarCraft Ghost".
you're weird kid.... primal rage is easily top 5
Oh before anyone else says so...Duke Nukem Forever IS GOING TO COME OUT!!! I don't care what anyone else says...
Oh Nova...we hardly knew you and your well-toned ass.
Now I'm sad for remembering Crystal Dreams. Damn it.
I still haven't gotten over the cancellation of Ultima Online 2. And then Ultima Online 2 2. No catgirl elves or lady gargoyles for me...
Fun Fact: The Thrill Kill engine received a new coat of paint and became that Wu-Tang fighting game on the Playstation.
Also fun fact: there is no Star Fox 2 on this list.
list fails for not having AMEN: the awakening. had a cool storyline and the "amengine" was years ahead of it's time graphically
Heh, nice list.
Probably alot of candidates to pick from too.
As always, it's a delight to see Rash running on the spot on the clogs on the right when i visit destructoid
wanted to say too, but i forgot, i still have faith we'll see starcraft chost in the next few years... blizzard is very good at keeping secrets.
Yeah when I saw the list Thrill Kill immediately came to mind.
I actually got a chance to play it and it was a pretty sweet game.
@A New Challenger
good call on the Starfox 2. I remember dying to own that game only to find out Japan got it and the U.S. didn't deserve it. And we had to wait years for 64 version to come out.
@Neonie
I lol'd first you misspell holy, then your comment consists of, "Ass, yes I will take some plz". hahaha but seriously though that is a fine ass. Dammit, I did it too.
Capcom Fighting All-Stars should be #1 simply because the almighty Haggar in it. HAGGAR 2008!!!
The Sam & Max and Full Throttle sequels Lucas Arts was working on around 2004.
Sam & Max episodic makes up for half of that, but the wait and still no Full Throttle 2 still piss me off.
Thrill Kill can be downloaded and played in full, as can a Sega CD game that never saw the light of day, "Penn & Tellers: Smoke and Mirrors.
It was basically a pile of mostly awful mini-games, one being "Desert Bus" an 8 hour real time drive through Nevada, in a bus with a bad lean that will overheat if it hits dirt, meaning you had to stay and play. Upon completing the trip you earned 1 point and there was going to be a competition on release for the high score.
I played it for an hour then realized I was wasting my life.
You should do a list of games that never saw the light of day for good reason.
That Penn and Teller game rules.
Star Fox 2 is around for Emu. It's not that bad, but I could see why it didn't make the list.
Capcom All Stars makes me especially sad.
As for Project Hammer, I think it will still come out.
@ Tron Knotts
I hope it does!
good list man. Great ass on the starcraft chick.
thrill kill leaked.. and sucked. some games go unreleased for good reasons, this was one of them.
I was hoping you would include Robotech! I had the Nintendo Power poster on my wall for years!
Also, isn't Starcraft Ghost currently on indefinite hold? I thought I read that in an interview not too long ago.
Yeah man you never played Thrill Kill? We had some awful times with that game.
What about Team Fortress 2? ... oh wait
Sierra adventures for the .... whine...
I still want them back. I miss getting all excited about the next great game from them. I don't think I have even bought anything with a sierra logo since 99. (I mostly play retro...)