New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

MagBall [PSX – Cancelled]

MagBall is a cancelled Playstation game that was in development by Trimark Interactive in 1995. The gameplay was going to be somewhat similar to a soccer game, but with spaceships that have to knock a ball into a goal. The project was never released for unknow reasons and few year later, Trimark was closed down. Celine was able to find some screens from the game in EGM issue 74, even if the images were probably taken from a FMV or a target render and no real gameplay was shown.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Earthworm Jim 2003 [XBOX/PS2 – Prototype]

In 2003 a new chapter of the Earthworm Jim series was in development at Interplay as a side-scrolling 3D platform that was probably meant to be released on the Playstation 2 and Xbox. Sadly the project was soon cancelled, just after the preproduction stage. The basic structure of the game would have been somewhat similar to Klonoa or Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, with 3D environment, but viewed along a track with a fixed camera.

Jim’s head would have been used to not only swing and attack, but also as a grappling appendage that could hoist heavy objects. Aside from a few tests and the concepts you can see in the gallery below, not much more work was done before this new Earthworm Jim was canned, probably because it was seen as a risky project.

Lots of crazy ideas got tossed around during the early stages of development, as a musical sequence in which Jim went to Heck (hell) and had to do a boatride through the river styx. Jim was all mopey because he was dead, and the Grim reaper turns to him (in the small boat) and says “Cheer up Jim… it’s not that bad.” [in a terribly over the top British accent] and whips off his robe to reveal the Zuit Suit (that you can see in the concept arts). At this point, it was going to be a whacky musical boatride into Heck, to the tune of something like the Squirrel Nut Zippers song Afterlife/Hell. There would have been dancing skeletons, and demons and stuff as they travel down the river.

The Cyclops monster that you can notice in another concept art was a boss for a level made entirely of cheese. Imagine Rome, constructed of cheese, with the citizens all being mice, wearing togas. He was the “Gorgan Zola”. Made of cheese, with a pimento olive for a head (the red pimento being his eye). There would have been a showdown / boss-battle within the Fondue Colliseum, with cheering / jeering mice in the crowd.

Thanks a lot to Michael and Earthwormjim for the contribution!

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Manhattan Project (Blood Lines) [PSX – Beta]

Manhattan Project is the early working title of Blood Lines, an action / puzzle game developed by Radical Entertainment in 1998, for the original Playstation. In the game the player needs to touch the light sources that are placed in the levels, to change them in his own color. At the end of the time, the player that owns more lights wins the match.

From these early screens we can notice that the characters in the beta version were different and even the light effects are not like the final ones.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Video (from the final version):

[Video Article] Kid Icarus Wii

LiamRproductions has recorded a video-article in which he talks about the development of Kid Icarus Wii, a prototype that was in the work at Factor 5. It’s still unknown if the project will ever be finished or not, but it seems that after the closure of the american studios, F5 are still working on some Wii games in Germany . You can check the video article below, thanks to Liam for the video!

Star Wars Battlefront IV (4) [X360/PS3 – Concept]

When LucasArts terminated their contract with Free Radical Design (nowadays known as Crytek UK), the studio was not only working on Star Wars Battlefront III and Time Splitters 4. Instead, the company started the pre-production of another Star Wars Battlefront game.

As the status of Star Wars Battlefront III (Free Radical version) is currently unknown, we do not expect any news about a fourth SW Battlefront game in the near future.

Thanks to Hey Hey.

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