New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Microsoft, Xbox

Brute Force [XBOX – Beta / Prototype]

monokoma
20-05-2009
2 Comments

Brute Force is a third person shooter released for the Xbox in 2003. It was developed by Digital Anvil, one of Microsoft’s internal developers. The team had previously worked on games such as Wing Commander, Strike Commander, and Starlancer. Brute Force was designed to be a first-party game for the Xbox and begun in 1999 / 2000, before the console had launched. However development had begun before the takeover of Digital Anvil by Microsoft, and the title was originally meant for PC. Microsoft promptly turned it into an Xbox exclusive title.  Only three months were spent on the concept stage of development, but would spend the next two years on the prototype cycle of development. Brute Force has the distinction of being the last game developed by Digital Anvil, as the studio was closed down officially on January 31, 2006. The staff was integrated in to Microsoft Games Studio in Redmond. [Infos from Wikipedia]

In the video below we can see a comparison between the final character design and some of the early prototypes.

Video:

Jaguar, Others

Phear (Tetrisphear) [Jaguar – Unreleased]

monokoma
20-05-2009
13 Comments

Celine as make us to notice about a couple of interesting posts over at NFG Games (you can read them here and here) in which they talk about their visit to CES 1995, where they were able to play Phear.. the Jaguar game that later became  Tetrisphere for the Nintendo 64.

Tetrisphere is a variant on Tetris in which various shapes are shifted across a sphere and destroyed. The objective of the game changes depending on the mode, but generally depends on removing layers of shapes to reach the core of the sphere. [Infos from Wikipedia]

As NFG Games wrote in their posts, it seems that “Nintendo saw it running in Atari’s booth, walked over to the developer and offered $madcash for the rights to it”. A couple of pages from the original Jaguar’s Phear (aka Tetrisphear) brochure can also be see in there. Also Celine found a scan from EGM 98, in which we can see a Phear in-game screen from the early Jaguar version. Other screenshots could be admired in CdConsoles issue 4 and Game Fan issue 5-3.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Game Boy Advance (GBA), Leaked, Nintendo

Motocross Challenge [GBA – Cancelled]

monokoma
19-05-2009
4 Comments

From 2004 to 2007 DHGames were working on a GBA racing game similar to Excitebike, but sadly their publisher changed its mind later and the project was never released to the market, even if it was finished. The game was later reworked and it’s now coming out for the Nintendo DS (maybe? It seems that the official DHGames site is down, maybe they have closed down and the DS version is cancelled too). A rom of the original GBA version was shared online by the same developers, so it can be played and preserved by the community instead of being lost forever. Props to DHGames!

In April 2010 Motocross Challenge was finally released for the iPhone / iPod Touch, so at least it was not lost at all! You can see some videos of the iPhone version in DHGames’ YT Channel or buy Motocross Challenge from the iTunes Store (only $0.99!)

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Video:

Microsoft, Xbox

Knights of Decayden [XBOX – Cancelled]

monokoma
18-05-2009
No Comments

Knights of Decayden, also know as Project Archipelago, was meant to be a fantasy action game with some RPG elements that was in development for the XBOX in 2002, at Totally Games. The game was based around flying ships and dragons, but the player was even able to fight in melee combats when needed… the result could probably have been something like the recent Lair for the PS3. Sadly, the game was cancelled for unknow reasons.

Thanks a lot to Hey Hey

Images:

Video:

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

The Executives [PS2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
17-05-2009
No Comments

The Executives was an action game in development in 2003 for the Playstation 2 by The Collective studios, that was going to be published by Midway. The game was never officially announced and it was cancelled during the early stages of development. Only some screenshots and concept arts remains from the project

It’s interesting to note that in some of these concepts, the title of the game was changed to “Career Criminal”. A title which was also used for an internally developed but also cancelled Midway game (see “Career Criminal”, a cancelled Xbox 360 / PS3 game). That project was started soon after the efforts of The Collective were cancelled.

Images: