FX Tanks was a real time strategy game that was in development at FX Interactive, but it seems that it was never released for some reasons. It could have been just an internal prototype, to test the new 3D engine and various gameplay ideas.
Video:
Silent Hill Origins [PSP – Beta]
Silent Hill: Origins was first announced at E3 2006: the game would not be produced by Konami’s Team Silent, who had developed all previous Silent Hill games, but by Climax Studios instead. The first previews of the game featured a radical departure from the original game style with the inclusion of a Resident Evil 4 style camera angle, although Oertel stressed that the game would not be a first-person shooter.
Travis would have access to six weapons, three of which were melee weapons and three of which were firearms, including a pistol, a revolver and a shotgun. There were also plans to introduce a laser-sight for Travis’s pistol and a new “Barricade” system which would allow the player to block access to areas from monsters with improvised objects.
In October 2006, Climax’s US based team working on Origins was sacked, with rumors circulating that the game production was becoming a disaster through mismanagement and “unrealistic deadlines”, and that the final version of the game was expected to have only “three to four hours of gameplay”. Production of the game was subsequently moved to the United Kingdom.
Later previews of the game showed that the game had changed significantly, and contained gameplay more in line with that found in the previous titles in the series, scrapping the Resident Evil 4 camera angle and some of the enemies seen in the original trailers [Infos from Wikipedia]
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
Images:
Video:
Bayonetta [Beta – Xbox 360 / PS3]
Bayonetta is an action game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, developed by Platinum Games in cooperation with Sega, who will publish the title. In April 2009, the official Platinum Games Youtube Channel released an interesting video in which we can see an early prototype version of the game, a build created in about a month of work.
Also, at Platinum Games’ blog we can find various concept arts with early designs of Bayonett’as characters and weapons. In Japanese TV special on the game we can seen even more concept arts, with a blondie and readhead protagonist. At 1UP we can read an interview with Kamiya, in which the talks about the design of the game:
“I had Mari Shimazaki, one of the designers, draw her for me,” the designer said. “She gave me a woman in a full-body black suit with her hair running through her hands. I thought that having black hair and a black outfit would make it hard for the player to see what the character was doing. But I loved that long hair; I could see it flowing in the air as she fought and I wanted to depict that. So we went through lots of minor changes; at one point she had red hair. But at the end of it, we went back to a style that had her hair around her arms, making her look really witch-like — and from there we said ‘Well, why don’t we just have her hair cover her all the way?’ That was how the current Bayonetta was born.”
More beta videos were upload to the Sega Youtube Channel. As we can read at The Silent Chief:
A lot of what’s seen in the videos never made it’s way into the final game, including the ability to ride Bayonetta’s motorcycle throughout a level and use it as a weapon. You’ll also notice that Bayonetta is a bit younger in the prototype footage.
Also, Mystie noticed that:
The models of Bayonetta and the Affinities that were used in the beta/prototype are left within the files in the final release.
In the TGS 2008 trailer, the crumbling clock tower scene takes place in modern times rather than old times, and Bayonetta has a slightly different model. Her eyes are pure blue instead of blueish-gray, the Umbran Watch looks slightly different, and the chains (as well as the belt buckles on her sleeve flaps) are silver instead of gold.
Thanks to Celine & Mystie for the contribution!
Images:
Videos:
NiGHTS into Dreams [Saturn – Beta]
Thanks to the Nights Into Dreams website we are able to see an early video of the game, when the beta had different graphic details and different level layout in Spring Valley. A more recent beta was shown at E3 1996 with some different sound effects and item placement. In january 2009 the E3 beta version (that is the same build of the Japanese NiGHTS Special Sample disc) was somehow leaked online and you can donwload it from the X-Cult mirror! Thanks to MalanTp that has created some videos to compare the beta to the final game, we are able to check all those differences. You can download some hi-quality videos from the beta disc from Segagaga Domain.
Also, OKeijiDragon found some more beta videos from an episode of Sega Video Magazine and it features the initial unveiling of NiGHTS at the Japanese Tokyo Prince Hotel way back in March 26, 1996; followed by an old, rare interview with Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, and Takashi Iizuka:
Included in the segment are footage of the game’s early stages of development, including a different stage layout for Spring Valley. Many of the sound effects heard are also very different, and even the music sounds unrefined! Such elements are highlighted in the video though annotations. There has been no translation for the interview, yet.
Thanks to Yakumo for the contribution!
Videos:
Maximo 3 [PS2 – Cancelled]
Maximo 3 is the cancelled third episode in the Maximo series, a game that many fans were waiting for, but unfortunately things went not as planned. The original Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is a 3D action game created as a spiritual sequel to the 2D Ghosts n’ Goblins series, developed by Capcom Production Studio 8 and released for PlayStation 2 in 2001 / 2002. A sequel, Maximo vs. Army of Zin was released in 2003 and the third game was in the works by the same team, but after only a few months of development it was canned due to lower than expected sales from Maximo 2.
Maximo 3 was started soon after Studio 8 finished to work on the second chapter (Maximo 2 ends with the promise of a third game, with Maximo and his allies teaming up to find Queen Sophia), and they created many concept arts that you can see in the gallery below, with new enemies, settings (an Arabian theme, inspired by the success of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time) and features. The “cartoony” feel of the original games was dropped for a more gritty look.
In the original design doc we can read more about Maximo 3’s gameplay mechanics and story:
Across the Southern Sea, in a land of exotic culture a great history, lies the city of Mashhad, the gateway to the ancient east, but lurking in the shadow of a proud people are the forces of blood and corruption. The Cult of Chut, a religious order legion with fanatics, is preparing to transform the city into a single bloody alter whose population will be the sacrifice in their apocalyptic ritual.
But all is not lost: Maximo stands against this tide of destruction. Having followed the trail of his lost love, Maximo arrived in Mashhad with hopes that his journey will soon end. Now he will pit his sword and wist against the church’s faceless leaders and rescue Sophia; the possessed conduit through which Chut makes itself heard.
Maximo 3 stars with Maximo and his band in bad shape. In their quest for Sophia, the heroes have encountered the Cult of Chut, death worshipers who find a “man who walks with Death” an affront to their beliefs. As a result, Baron has beel killed, Tinker maimed and Maximo and Grim have been merged into one, thanks to a curse. Maximo and Tinker have been hunting down cultist sects when they arrive in Mashhad, seeking revenge and a cure to Maximo’s condition.
The new connection between Maximo and Grim would have been used as one of the main features of Maximo 3, needed to progress through the game:
Maximo is covered in tatoos, which are actually the external manifestation of the cultist’s curse that has trapped Grim within him. With the press of a button, Maximo transforms into Grim, allowing him several abilities.
As a result of the curse on Maximo, turning into Grim drains Maximo’s Health. Stay as Grim for too long and Maximo will lose a life. Only by collecting the souls of the evil cultists can Maximo sustain himself in Grim form.
At some point in the game, Maximo will use Grim’s form as a disguise to infiltrate the cult’s tower during Chut Holy Day. Gameplay will have the players switch the two forms.
As a phantom. Grim can slide up walls, flow like a shadow along walls, give a little extra distance to a jump and glide down from long drops. In addition, the player can perform several attacks with his scythe. Grim attacks do not always kill, rather they are used to “prep” an enemy for Maximo’s attacks, such as breaking a cultist’s protection spell or “mortalizing” ghostly foes.
While in Grim form, the player cannot talk to innocents as they are too scared. However, Grim’s attack will free the innocents of the cult’s influence, turning them from enemies to normal innocents that Maximo must rescue from othe enemies.
After this first concept phase, Capcom Studio 8 created an early playable prototype with a test level which would have been the hub world of the game, to test out Maximo’s new abilities, as Wall Jump, Carry / Push / Pull / Throw items, Swim (to maneuver around obstacles, resolve puzzles and find hidden treasures in deep lakes), Talk to NPCs to gain information, advance the story, start mini-quests, rescue innocents from enemies and free them from the influence of the Cult.
Some new items and weapons features were also planned, as the Sword Grapple to grab ledges, the Flintlock Rifle (a new gun-weapon type), Claws to climb up walls, the Crossbolt Gauntlet (to shoot bolts and to use it as a grapple hook to swing or to be pulled towards a secret area) and the Horn (to knocks enemies back and to cause parts of the scenario to shake and break to find new paths). There was also a “lock on” mechanic, very much like the 3D Zelda games.
Maximo 3 was going to be a much more ambitious project than Maximo 1&2 and would have taken the series into a full action-adventure game, more similar to The Legend of Zelda. The new lead designer was heavily inspired by exploration / puzzle aspects of Zelda, so the game was going to be more focused on exploration and to be less linear than the previous titles.
In the Maximo 3 prototype it was possible to explore a small town, to interact with a few NPCs, climb upon its walls and fight with some enemies. There was just one functioning enemy, which was a the basic cultist that you can also see in the concept arts. Looking at this unfinished prototype and reading the design doc, it seems that Maximo 3 could have been the best game in the Maximo series, but unfortunately not much more work was done on it, as it was canned soon after the creation of this early demo.
Capcom Production Studio 8 was full of talented artists and after they finished Maximo 2 they started to work on 3 interesting pitches: Maximo 3, DeVargas and Final Fight: Seven Sons, the unreleased FF that was planned before Final Fight: Streetwise. In the end, only FF: Streetwise was greenlighted from Capcom, but when it was released it failed to achieve mainstream success and it bombed in sales. Capcom decided to not invest in their California team anymore and sadly Production Studio 8 was closed down in 2006. Only few concept arts, a video and a few pages from the design doc remain to preserve the existence of Maximo 3.
Images:
Video: