Microsoft

The Fast and the Furriest [XBOX 360 – Cancelled]

The Fast & the Furriest is a cancelled party game that was in development in 2006 by Rare for the Xbox 360 Xbox Live Arcade digital service. Other than the normal joypad, the game could have been played with the Xbox Live Vision camera, to track players’ movements in a similar way to the PS2 EYE Toy or Microsoft’s own Kinect. The Fast & the Furriest would have included many different mini-games, as 100 meter dash, bungee run, hurdles and tip-tup curling. As we can read on Joystick:

Each player will be able choose a character like Conker or Banjo which will actually be a “suit” (think mascot suits). Players will then be able to scan their face using the Vision camera to skin the face opening of the character suit.

A playable prototype was created by a team headed by Dale Murchie and composed of developers of Perfect Dark Zero. Still, the project was canned, maybe for quality reasons. Only a short video from The Fast & the Furriest proto was shown at the Develop 2010 Keynote, a revelation that is not usual for a studio as secretive as Rare.. huge props to them!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Recoil: Retrograd [X360 PS3 PC – Cancelled?]

Recoil: Retrograd is an action adventure based on time travels, that was in development by ZeitGuyz in 2006 / 2008 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The studio was searching for a publisher interested in their project in 2008, but as the game is still unreleased, we can assume that they did not have any luck and Recoil had to be cancelled. In an interview by IGN, we can read some more info on the gameplay:

Now, gameplay — the player travels back in time, changes the past, returns to the future and experiences the consequences of his actions and sees the world change, dynamically and realtime. How the world evolves, is very much dependent on choices and actions in the past — so we rely on a lot of replay value for this game. What if I go back and do it differently — what then…? Beyond that, there’s a lot of interaction with machines, vehicles, crowds– and big, powerful steamy guns!

We can still hope that they could be able to find a publisher in the future.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution!

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Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones [Beta]

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is an action-adventure game developed and published by Ubisoft Montreal. It was released in December 2005 for the Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2 and the GameCube. In the game the Prince develops a split personality, known as the Dark Prince, and this alter-ego constantly bickers with him in his mind about right and wrong. At times, the Prince physically transforms into the Dark Prince. [Info from Wikipedia]

As noticed by Zapages from the NeoGAF Forum, initially the Dark Prince had a different design than the one in the final version. Check the videos below for a comparison:

Video (Beta Dark Prince)

Video (Final Dark Prince)

 

Catalyst (Next Level Games) [Xbox 360, PS3 – Cancelled]

Catalyst is a project pitch for a new action game for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, developed by Next Level Games, famed for Punch-Out and Mario Strikers on Wii. Details are unknown as the project was never officially announced. Next Level Games may still try to find a publisher for this title though.

Thanks to CNL for the contribution!

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Sky Gods [PS3/X360/PC – Cancelled]

Sky Gods is a cancelled shooter based on HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) Special Forces operations. The project was in development at BlackFoot Studios in 2008 for the  Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. As we can read in the official press release, in a typical HALO exercise, the parachutist will jump from the aircraft, free-fall for a period of time at terminal velocity, and open his parachute at a low altitude. The combination of high speed downwards and minimal metal and forward air-speed serves to defeat radar, enabling a stealthy insertion.

In Sky Gods players would have been in full control of their character during HALO freefall as well as while under canopy and were required to properly steer to a landing zone and land without injury or fatality. Once on the ground, players would have been tasked with various missions based on real life SOF experiences, observing and engaging targets through various terrain environments.

The game was planned to have 8 Coop missions playable with 1-8 people, customizable weapons and kit, a training scenarios playable solo or Coop and mod capabilities out of the box.

Sky God was officially cancelled when BlackFoot Studios went through some internal restructuring. As we can read in their official website:

BFS has been operating as a virtual company for some time now and we have had some good people move on to other ventures as well as those still with the projects finding themselves in need of other income sources and/or other outside influences effecting their involvement.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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