New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Nintendo, Wii

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption [Wii – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
22-06-2009
No Comments

Retro Studios intended to give Metroid Prime 3: Corruption larger environments than Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and enable the game to run at 60 frames per second. The developers were also interested in using the WiiConnect24 feature to provide additional content for the game that would be accessible from the Internet. A small Metroid Prime 3 Tech Demo was shown at E3 2005, created with the MP2 3D Engine. Nintendo then demonstrated how Metroid Prime 3 would take advantage of the controller’s special abilities with a version of Echoes modified for the Wii and shown at the Tokyo Game Show in 2005. The title Corruption and some of the first gameplay footage were revealed at Nintendo’s Media Release at the E3 2006 trade show.

From early screenshots we can notice that the Ridley fight in the beta did not have Meta-Ridley as in the final, different HUD, graphic details and thanks to some concept arts we can see various early character designs that were created before the final ones.

Also, thanks to a model viewer created by Interdpth and Revel8n, it is possible to find various unused models hidden in the game’s data. You can download the Metroid Prime model viewer (mpxviewer) in here. If you are able to find more unused models, please do let us know.

In January 2012, thanks to fundraising organized by user over on Assembler Games, a 2006 demo, which documented a beta version of the second planet of Metroid Prime 3, was dumped and released to the community. The proto was developed to run on Gamecube hardware with 128 mb of ram, so it’s playable only on a custom version of the Wii emulator Dolphin. Using the debug menu it is possible to active/deactivate the various power-up and to try the third-person  camera.  The map is still incomplete, so only a few areas are accessible. Apart from minor differences, the general layout of the location is remarkably similar to the final version. Cutscenes are unfinished, and of course  the interface is still based on the gamecube controller.

Thanks to Dark_ViVi for the contribution!

Images:

Video:

Microsoft, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance [PS2/XBOX – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors
20-06-2009
1 Comment

Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance is a hack and slash developed by Acclaim for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. Early screenshots and footage show many differences, as noticed by Evan Hanley:

#The health bar and magic meter had a very different design.
#The health bar and magic meter are not visible for the tutorial in the final game.
#Invictus can wield all three weapons (sword, axe and arm blades) but he can only wield the arm blades in the final game.
#The select weapon text is different.

#The grab the rope text is different. The button to press to grab is different too.
#The camera work is different.
#A VC text flashes on screen very briefly.
#The arena you enter after using the rope has a completely different design.
#The music is very different.

#The music again is different.

The big and very noticeable differences are the Health and Magic Meter HUD is completely different and the Enemy Health Bars are basic.

Thanks to Evan for the contribution!

Images:

Dreamcast, Sega

Cut Away [Dreamcast – Cancelled]

Damiano Bacci
19-06-2009
1 Comment

Cut Away is a cancelled videogame that was supposedly in development by Classified Games for the Sega Dreamcast. Nothing is known about this project, apart from a poster and few news on IGN.com.

The game was first reported by Anoop Gantayat, with a release date of Fall 1999:

Yes, it’s a poster for a Dreamcast game called Cut Away – a game about which I’ve heard nothing before today. Actually, I’ve never heard of Classified Games at all – pretty odd, since their first DC title is scheduled for a Fall release. Apparently, the company is also working on some Gameboy Color games, including The Mask of Zorro, Burgertime Deluxe Starring the Flinstones, and Magical Drop.

The promise of a photo realistic adventure set in San Francisco and involving terrorists and bombs sounds intriguing, and boy do we love that “Terror so real, you’ll feel the blast” catch phrase, but we hope that Classified Games has plans to at least show us a few screen shots before the game is released. We’ll be back with more information, assuming we can find anything.

Other details were pointed by Matthew Langan:

It turns out that Microsoft is the company behind the title, having formed a small development team called Classified Games to produce it. As a third person adventure, the gameplay will unsurprisingly be similar to both Capcom’s Resident Evil and Pulse’s Undercover. While specifics are still being kept under wraps, it’s clear that the story will take place in San Francisco. Plenty of CG movies are promised, as is an intriguing story to keep you on your feet. Speaking of which, bombs have been planted across the city by terrorists. As the hero, it’s your job to stop them from causing complete and utter chaos, whatever the cost may be!

A release date has yet to be confirmed for Cut Away, but we’ll be sure to keep you fully updated. Keep an eye out for an extensive preview in the upcoming weeks, right here at IGNDC.

Another tidbit was reported on the magazine Dreamcast Monthly (Issue 1), however nothing new was added:

Cut Away on the magazine Dreamcast Monthly Issue 1)

If you try to search about “Classified Games” on the Internet very few informations come up, with the majority of them not even related to the Dreamcast.  Classified Games was also supposed to publish the North American version of Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh (later released as Bangai-O by Conspiracy Entertainment), as reported by IGN. There is maybe a connection between Conspiracy Entertainment and Classified Games, if you know more informations about this game or you have worked with Classified Games drop us an e-mail, we are very interested to know more about this project.

Thanks to Chocomarker1 on the Assemblergames Forum for noticing this game!

Images:

cutawayposter

Magazine Scans:

Dreamcast Monthly Issue 1