Feeling a bit too happy today? I’m not – looking over this list of some high profile games that were cut off mid development makes me sad. Be it Ensemble Studios Halo MMO or Blizzards Starcraft Ghost, no one likes to see a potentially awesome game cut off during development, never to see the light of day again.
So grab some tissues, hit the jump, and shed manly (or womanly) tears with me as we look at some of these games that never quite made it.
Road Rash
Remember Road Rash, the motorcycle combat racing game for the Sega Genesis? Turns out that EA might have been developing a next-gen version of the game, and goddamn if it didn’t look awesome. I mean, you’ve got to give a game credit for having powerups for throwing another rider off his bike, right?
Warcraft Adventures
Canceled in 1998, Warcraft Adventures was a point and click adventure game set in, you guessed it, the Warcraft universe. While the game may have sold like crazy due to its Warcraft namesake, Blizzard obviously saw some sort of flaw with the game that caused it to not live up to their rigorous standards of quality games.
Fallout 3
Before Fallout 3, there was Fallout 3 – or Van Buren, as Black Isle called it. Confused? Even though Bethesda released Fallout 3 last year, it wasn’t the same Fallout 3 that was slated to be released back in 2003. The original owners of the Fallout intellectual property, Interplay, ended up laying off the entire PC development staff working on Van Buren, a top-down isometric RPG styled in the same vein as the original Fallout games. Interplay later sold the rights to the Fallout license to Bethesda, who made the first person RPG game we all know. Not that I don’t love Fallout 3, but it would certainly be interesting to see what Black Isle would have done with the game. Curiously enough most Black Isle employees moved on to Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind the announced Fallout: New Vegas game.
The Flash Game
I find The Flash a rather boring superhero, but that doesn’t mean that this cancelled game doesn’t look fun, though – kind of like Infamous or Prototype on crack. And with red tights.
B.C.
Peter Molyneux may be a bit of a douche when it comes to personality, but the games the guy makes are always high quality. B.C., a “prehistoric nomadic tribe simulator”, probably would have been awesome. Dinosaurs and cavemen? I’m there, dude.
Star Wars: Battlefront III
Star Wars is a fucking license to print money if you ask me. Why anyone would cancel a game with supposedly seamless planet to ground combat or a Sith Obi-Wan is beyond me, and I personally would punch whatever executive made this decision in the face if I ever met him or her.
I would love a new Road Rash. I remember sitting around the Genesis as a kid playing with my friends.
road rash would have been the shit….. also you left off thrill kill for the ps i loved the bootleg of that game. it played like shit but at the time it was violent as all hell.
Never heard of Thrill Kill, I’ll have to give it a h-whirl sometime.
i warn you it isnt a great game but its fun to mash away with the absurd players. also if you could play with four other people its chaos
Fallout 3 is the saddest of all. For a Fallout ultra-geek like me, not having Black Isle do FO: 3 was tough to swallow. What ended up being made was fun on it’s own but fell miles short of the first two.
you forgotten Sonic Xtereme & SHenmue 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpfMxNi5bAI
I’m still holding onto the hope that Star Wars Battlefront 3 will be picked up by a different developer sometime soon.
Looking at the Van Buren trailer always makes me shed a tear =(
“Sith Obi-Wan”… with those three words, I weep for what might have been….
Umm where is Starcraft: Ghost now thats a game that for sure needs to be on this list!
fear effect: inferno is the saddest imo. I hated the fact that eidos let such a sucessfull franchise die.
Mutant League Sports games… Hockey…. Football…
I used to rent those and Road Rash all the time.
Sonic Xtreme still looks like an amazing concept. Very catchy music hook if you watch the youtube vid’s. The spherical layout was an amazing way to mask the limitations of the Saturn hardware. I’d buy it.
Lamborghini for the Xbox was a brilliant game in the making at the time, they even released a demo of it and a few months before release the developer went into administration
. Still got my demo disc with it on !!
Also B.C would have been a great game thats for sure!
Glad Fallout 3 was not originally released back then too, bethesda did such a great job, and i hate rpg’s too !
Add to your list:
Halo DS (independent developer, project shut down)
Marathon DS (different independent dev, not allowed to release title)
Opps forgot to mention shenmue 3, how silly of me ! that game was a classic
why could we never get to finish the story is beyond me but life is a b****
agree with Fear Effect what great games, those should have never died, rock on cell shading!!!
Good article, although, i’m not keen on anyone being called a ‘douche’ as you did with Peter Molyneaux. He can be a bit overzealous to the point of being near dilusional at times, but I do not believe that warrants him being called ‘douche’.
how can you not even mention the infamous duke nukem forever.
come on if 12 years in development dont warrant a mention i dont know what does.
i would of put 8 days and the getaway 3 there too.
i doubt sony will be going back to those any time soon since sony UK just announced there working on a new IP after eyepets out.
i would love for you to suck my cock in public
road rash was the shit
That dino one and Van Buren would have been awesome ’cause im a fallout freak and dinos are pretty cool.
Yea they should make a stone age Fallout/Oblivion type game. Except base weapons would suck, and the best weapons would still suck haha.
Worst weapon in the game = a stick.
Best weapon in the game = a sharp rock. Sweet!
Best armor = tree bark