Sonic Battle is a fighting game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team and released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 / 2004. As we can see at Sonic Cult, there are some images of a beta version, even if most of the differences are just an old HP meter.We can only hope that some earlier beta could be leaked in the future, to learn more about Sonic Battle’s development.
Thanks to HydroZor for the contribution!
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As we can read on Wikipedia, Kasumi Ninja is a 1994 one-on-one fighting game developed by Hand Made Software and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar. The game went through several changes before it was released to the public. Kasumi Ninja was previewed approximately 8 months before its original release by a virtual game magazine distributed via CD. In this preview, Kasumi Ninja had a very heavy story element to it. Beating the game with each character would produce a specific key which, when combined, would unlock the gates to the final confrontation with Lord Gyaku.
This method of gameplay would have required the player to invest more time in order to complete the story mode. Players would have to navigate the labyrinth to find their opponents, and characters would be unlocked for play only as they were defeated by Senzo and Habaki.
Many of the backgrounds and character designs went through several revisions. For example, Alaric’s default outfit had red trim, as opposed to blue. Habaki was garbed in black, but this was changed to represent Lord Gyaku. A fourth palette-swap ninja, garbed in blue, was seen in previews but apparently never made it to the final game.
The final game became a rush job. Pressuring the development team to get Kasumi Ninja out in a “timely fashion” (holiday season 1994), Kasumi’s story mode was dropped in favor of the fighting concept sans storyline. The labyrinth exploration and key gathering concept was condensed, but the character unlocking system remained intact. Video from viMasterJag’s YouTube Channel!
Thanks to Adam for the contribution!
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Bug Blasters: The Exterminators is a cancelled on-rails shooter, made by Stargate, that was supposed to come out in 1995. Aside from being one of the most shameful rip-off of Ghostbusters ever created, there is nothing too interesting about this game: it is just a long sequence of FMVs in which you have to aim and shoot… bugs. A complete version of Bug Blasters was commercialy released in 2001 by Good Deal Games.
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In the last couple 4 months we have added some screens, videos or info in these Unseen Archives: Yoshi’s Story, Zelda Twilight Princess, Uncharted, I:8 Resistance, Fable 2, Gears of War, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Kart R 64, Half Life 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman, Metroid Zero Mission, Zelda 64 Beta Items, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Apocalypse, Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy 7, Wario Land 4, Crash Bandicoot, Resident Evil, Doom 3, Dragon Sword 64, Water World, Unreal PSX, Moonlight Fables, Perfect Dark Zero, Dream / Banjo Kazooie, GoldenEye 007, Soul Reaver, Yoshi’s Island 2, K Project REZ, Ghost Rider, Bio Force Ape, Vectorman PS2, Comanche SNES, Fallout 3 Van Buren, Ambrosia Odyssey, Mega Man Legends 2, Halo 2, Halo Titan MMORPG, Project Enwor, Freelancer 2, Speed Tribes, Loose Cannon, The Unseen, Maximo 3, Super Princess Peach, Driver, Storm, Anathor, Deathtrap Dungeon, Xenosaga, Mortal Kombat 4, Alone, The Legend of Zelda NES, Egghead 64, MK VS DC Universe, Warcraft Adventures, Prowler, Cyber Clash, Dyno Blaze, Stip, 4×4 Off Roaders, Divided City, Cell Damage 2, Fear Effect Inferno, Mario 64 DS, Prince of Persia Prodigy, Pokemon Red – Blue and Armed!
Split Realities is a cancelled 2D side scrolling action game that was in development by Funcom for the Playstation and Saturn. The game looked a lot like Flashback and it’s possible that the gameplay would have been similar to Delphine Software’s title. Split Realities was canned for some development issues, but its core concept, setting and characters were reused to build “The Longest Journey”, a Point and Click adventure released by Funcom in 1999 for PC.
As we can read in an interview with Funcom’s Ragnar Tornquist on Adventure Gamers:
How did you come up with the concept for TLJ? Were you guys just writing down ideas when someone suddenly cried out “Eureka!” ?
If I remember correctly, I think it was “Geronimo!”. Okay, that’s not really how it happened. The core idea of TLJ—two worlds, one of magic, one of science, and a Guardian to keep watch of the Balance between them—was actually the setting for a platform game (of all things) that Funcom was developing at that time, called Split Realities. I wasn’t involved with that project at all, but when for various reasons the game was canned, the lead artist, Didrik Tollefsen, wanted to take the core concept and build a new game around it. Which is where I entered into the picture. We sat down for quite a while, played around with the setting and the characters and the story, and the end result of that process was the beginning of The Longest Journey. There are only little bits and pieces left of the original idea, but that’s the nature of any good game design; it grows and changes with the people working on it. At this point, it’s difficult to say who came up with what, but it’s really been a cooperative process between me and the lead artist, with constant input from the whole team. So, no, it was never “Eureka!” It was more of an organic process.
Celine and Rod_Wod were able to find few Split Realities screens in CD Consoles magazine issue #11 and other old magazines.
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