Aspect Warriors is a cancelled action game / RTS based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Genesis / Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. The game was previewed in some european magazines, but in the end it seems that it was never released (or was it published under a different name?). Only few screens remain to preserve the existence of Aspect Warriors.
Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scans!
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In 1997 / 1998 Spectrum Holobyte was working on an action game based on the Starship Troopers license, that would have been published by Microprose for PC and Playstation, but it was later cancelled. This project was really different from the 2000 released Starship Troopers game, that was instead developed by Blue Tongue. The producer of the 1998 version was named Simon Finch, who is not in the credits of the 2000 game. In 1996 Microprose / Spectrum Holobyte signed a contract with Sony over the development of several games based on Starship Troopers, but in the end only one was released.
The first in the series of four games is in development under the MicroProse brand for Windows 95 which will be followed by a Sony PlayStation game console version. […]
“As we build our merchandising program for the upcoming theatrical release of Starship Troopers, we felt it would be natural to develop a thrilling multimedia game based on this high action film,” said Scardino. “Through our new relationship with Spectrum Holobyte, we are confident that they will create an innovative game which will appeal to the consumer marketplace.”
As we can read at Economypoint:
Although the [Starship Troopers license] purchase was celebrated at that time of MicroProse as large success, MicroProse drew the enterprise downward. Mismanagement and bad firm politics affected additionally creativity and work of the developers. One had to accept larger losses than before. 1997 were temporarily stabilized the financial situation by high incomes, but they came too late, in order to still save the enterprise. The enterprise was bought up 1998 by Hasbro Interactive, which fired thereafter the flight simulation team already briefly.
It seems that Hasbro decided to cancel Spectrum Holobyte’s Starship Troopers game for economic reasons.
Thanks to derboo for the scans!
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“Hammer vs. Evil D. in Soulfire” is a cancelled action game based on MC Hammer, an American rapper most popular during the late 1980s until the mid-1990s. The game was in development by GTE Entertainment and it would have been published by Sega for their Mega CD add-on for the Genesis / Mega Drive, but for some reasons it was never released. We don’t even know much about “Hammer vs. Evil D. in Soulfire”‘s gameplay and only a short video can be seen in the videos below (second one at 03:45). If you know someone that worked on this game, please let us know!
Thanks to myfishbone and Calvin for the contribution! First video from GrooveRaider‘s “Sega Welcome To The Next Level 1994” video.
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Pac-Man Ghost Zone is a cancelled platform game that was in development in 1996 by Namco Hometek for the original playstation. This would have been the first 3D Pac Man game to be released for home consoles. Ghost Zone was previewed in various old magazines and it seems that it was even shown in some form at E3, but after a while Namco decided to kill the project for quality reasons. As we can read on the Playstation Museum:
We built a playable demo and even though there was some fun gameplay, the game just never felt right. The environments all felt too much the same and it was lacking a sense of grandeur found in other games like the recently released Mario 64. Japan must of felt the same way too – when we flew to Japan and presented it to Namco president Nakamura-San, he was very displeased. As a result, almost the entire team – save 1 designer (myself), 1 programmer (Gil Colgate) and 1 artist (Neil Strudwick) – were fired and we had to start again on what eventually became Pac-Man World.”
Thanks to Celine for the scans! (GamePro #100, Console+ #78, GameInformer #53)
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In 1994 / 1995 Core Design was working on a new golf game titled “Tee Off”, planned to be released on the Sega 32X, Playstation and Saturn. Various magazines published 3D models for the characters, taken from an early tech demo, that shown an awesome graphic for its time. As wrote by Yakumo and Segafreak_NL on the Assembler Forum, Tee Off later became Virtual Golf / Tournament Leader and was released in Europe and Japan only for the Saturn. The 3D pre-rendered models were never used in the final game, but the option select font remained the same. You can see a video from the final version on Segagagadomain!
Thanks to Rod_Wod and Celine for the scans!
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