New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Xtreme-G 3 (Extreme-G) [GBA – Cancelled / Proto / Tech Demo]

The original Extreme-G is a futuristic motorcycle racing game developed by Probe Entertainment and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo 64. In 2001 Acclaim released Extreme-G 3 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2, while Similis were working on a Gameboy Advance version too. Sadly the GBA version of Extreme-G 3 / Xtreme-G 3 was cancelled very early in development.

Below you can see a very early prototype / tech demo of “Xtreme-G 3/XG3” for the Game Boy Advance. It was only about four weeks in development and more meant as a proof of concept. It ran at constant 60 FPS on the GBA using a special graphics mode (not real 3D as this would have been to slow).

Thanks a lot to Collect-Thor for the contribution!

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Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wave Net [Unreleased – Arcade]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Wave Net was a rare network version of the game. It was tested only in the Chicago and San Francisco areas that used a dedicated T1 line, connected directly to Midway’s Chicago headquarters; many people outside the test area were not aware of its existence during its release. One store kept the T1 line installed after the test concluded, but eventually removed the Wave Net game in favor of a Golden Tee game that uses a dial-up connection.

It is highly unlikely that any Wave Net test games were ever released to the public after the infrastructure was dismantled, and so there are no known dumps of the ROMs used by the games designed for it.

One of the reasons this version was not widely adopted was the rarity and cost of T1 lines at the time. The game was released before alternative broadband access was available. At the time, a T1 was the only guaranteed way to get broadband into an arcade, but the game didn’t utilize the full bandwidth of the T1. Midway subsidized the cost of the line during the tests to make it more attractive to the arcade owners.

Thanks to kieranmay for the contribution!

 

True Hero (inFAMOUS) [PS3 – Concept]

inFamous is a game for the PlayStation 3, developed by Sucker Punch. The project is a third-person sandbox  game that combines elements of the superhero MMO City of Heroes with a roaming open-world, allowing the player to make choices between being a hero or an antihero that will affect the game accordingly.

In the gallery below we can see some old concept artworks from Sucker Punch, in which it seems that the game was originally know as “True Hero” and the style was different (more similar to the Sly Cooper art) from the one in the final version. Probably the style was changed to appeal more to the PS3 target.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images (concept):

Final art:

infamous-cover

Phantom Brave [Beta / Concept – PS2 Wii PSP]

Phantom Brave is one of the many Strategy-RPGs created by Nippon-Ichi Software. Phantom Brave offers some twists on the traditional SRPG formula (no grid-based movement, but characters freely move within a movement circle), along with ludicrous amounts of customization, and an emotionally engaging story.

Initially for the Playstation 2, Phantom Brave was also ported to the Nintendo Wii and Playstation Portable. The Wii port, “We Meet Again”, was bundled with a media CD, containing illustration work, sprites used in-game, and character artwork featuring some aspects not found within the game. The images found reveal characters details (Sprout’s cape, Marona has more emotion, character being able to dual-wield weapons, etc.) that never made the final cut.

Thanks a lot to Elliott Temple for the contribution!

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Metallica: Damage Inc [Cancelled Game – PS2]

A game featuring the band Metallica was in development  by Black Label Games and it would have been published by Vivendi Universal Games for the Playstation 2. There is little known other than it was to be a racing gaming looking possibly like twisted metal type using vehicular combat game play inspired by metallica’s music with a new exclusive song from the band for the game.

Below you can also see a collection of concept arts from this game, created by calumalexanderwatt. Thanks to Kouban for the link!

Post by Charlie W

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