New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Playstation, Sony

Spyral Saga [Playstation – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
21-07-2010
4 Comments

Spyral Saga was a large, ambitious adventure game, created by Software Creations, planned for the PlayStation, and a sequel to the Super Nintendo game Equinox. However, only the isometric perspective and style of gameplay were kept the same; the story did not continue from this game.

Work initially started on the 1st of January, 1995, under the leadership of Ste Pickford (the game’s designer, producer and lead artist). The programming team included Andy Miah, David Gill and Pete Scott, while the graphics and concept designs were created by Justin Eagleton, Lyndon Brooke, Dave Mac and Weston Samuels, among others.

Although published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the game had a planned worldwide release. Progress on the game slowed due to multiple development complications, and the project was eventually cut after Pickford left Software Creations to found a new company, Zed Two.

While not much more information on this game is available, it is likely that its gameplay would have been very similar to that of its prequel, Equinox (which is in turn a sequel to the Nintendo game Solstice). This game combines puzzle-solving and adventure elements, presented from an isometric perspective, and the player must traverse rooms searching for tokens to unlock boss fights and new areas.

The only available screenshot from Spyral Saga  (shared by the Pickford bros in their site) appears to show a significant improvement to the graphics engine (as expected on the PlayStation) and a more open environment than in Equinox.

Thanks to Scatman and Vegard we were able to preserve two more images!

Article by Franklint

Images:

Mega Drive / Genesis, Nintendo, Sega, SNES + Super Famicom

The Lawnmower Man [SNES GEN MD – Beta]

monokoma
21-07-2010
3 Comments

The Lawnmower Man is a platform / action game based on the 1992 film of the same name, developed by Sales Curve (SCi) and released for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (with different versions on PC, Sega CD and Gameboy). As we can read from Wikipedia, player takes control of either Dr. Angelo or Carla Parkette (the mother of Jobe’s best friend) in a typical side-scrolling shooting action. A Lawnmower Man beta was somehow leaked online, and you should be able to find it easily with Google.

Some screenshots from a supposed “Lawnmower 2” project were published in Super Pro magazine (scan by Retromags) before “Lawnmower Man 1” was released, but it seems that they are really beta images from the first game. As 90’s Gamer wrote in our Forum:

The Lawnmower Man II is of course the actually released Lawnmower Man for SNES, one of my fav’ titles on it, created by Simon Pick. A beta version of the game is also brought into the open. It contains another soundtrack, different sound effects, other intro sequence, the order of levels was altered, some level designs were changed, and it seems a harder game. Unfortunately i could not find any footage of it. The upper screen however seems a unique one, as i didn’t encounter a gigantic head of the antagonist ‘Jobe’.

Those screens published in Super Pro are probably from an earlier beta version than the leaked one.

Thanks to 90’s Gamer and Celine for the contributions!

Images:

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

ClayFighter [SNES – Beta / Unused Stuff]

monokoma
21-07-2010
2 Comments

ClayFighter is a fighting game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Interplay for the Super Nintendo in 1993, and later ported to Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. In an old promo video, uploaded on Youtube by gamecubedude03, we can see some beta differences as a removed Super Move green meter. As noted by Falcovsleon20, Blue Suede Goo was originally named Elvis the Impersonator, Ickybod Clay was originally named Ghost Guy, Helga was originally named Val, and Tiny was originally named Crusher.

Also Nabz noticed that on back of the Box Art there is a picture with the Blob transforming into a Bomb and another screen in which an opponent is thrown into the slime river at the clowns stage. These special moves were removed from the final game. The unused Blob / bomb move can still be seen thanks to a game genie (6280-DD6F): Blob will turn into a bomb and after a couple of seconds, it will explode and hurt both himself and the opponent. Kind of a pointless move, which was probably why it was disabled in the first place.

Lucas also noted that Taffy was orginally named Taffy Man and his alt pallete is Green, The Blob was orginally named Blob, Blue Suede Goo outfit orginally is Blue, Ickybod Clay was named Icky Bod Clay after Ghost Guy and all the charatcers have his own intros

Beta Biographies

Bad Mr. Frosty
Likes: Pizza
Hates: Fire
Clay Type: O-
Sex: Clay
Married: No

Taffy Man
Likes: Glue
Hates: Perns
Clay Type: B
Sex: Clay
Married: Yes

Crusher
Likes: Color
Hates: Sega
Clay Type: R
Sex: Clay
Slogan: Win!

Blob
Likes: Hair
Hates: Port
Clay Type: X
Sex: Other
Moto: Ill

Ghost Guy
Likes: Wind
Hates: Day
Clay Type: M
Sex: ???
Moto: Float

Bonker
Likes: Xmen
Hates: Soap
Clay Type: Z
Sex: Clay
Slogan: Pie!

He also rumored these Biographies

Impersonator
Likes: Music
Hates: Drugs
Clay Type: J or O+
Sex: Clay
Rival: Val

Val
Likes: Opera
Hates: Food
Clay Type: AB
Sex: Clay
Rival: Elvis

Thanks to Lucas Araujo for the contribution!

Images:

Videos:

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

Recoil: Retrograd [X360 PS3 PC – Cancelled?]

monokoma
20-07-2010
No Comments

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!

Images:

Videos:

GameCube, Microsoft, Nintendo, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones [Beta]

monokoma
19-07-2010
No Comments

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)