Firewings (AKA Oblivion) is a cancelled shoot ’em up that was in early development by Domark Software around 1996, planned to be published by Eidos on the original Playstation. As far as we know the game was never officially announced by either of the two companies, but a couple of background graphics are saved below to remember the existence of this lost project. After just 3 months Eidos decided to cancel Firewings, due to lack of sales-figures from shoot ’em ups on the Playstation.
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Brain Bender (AKA Migraine) is a puzzle game that was in development for the Nintendo Famicom / NES. Players had to move mirrors to deflect laser beams in the right order. A single screenshot of this lost game was found in a japanese magazine, but not much is known about it. Gremlin Interactive developed a Game Boy version that was released in 1991, but we are not sure if it’s the same game nor if Gremlin was also working on the NES edition.
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
Fairytale Fights 2 is the cancelled sequel to Playlogic’s 2009 fantasy hack & slash. Just like in the first game players would have been able to play as cute fairy tales characters, cutting down colorful enemies and flooding levels with blood. The team created an early prototype for this sequel, but it was soon canned when Playlogic officially went bankrupt in 2010. Some screenshots and footage was later uploaded online by former Playlogic developers, preserved below to remember the existence of this lost project.
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Justice Unlimited is a cancelled superhero action RPG with gameplay similar to Diablo, that was pitched by LucasArts around 1997. We would imagine it as a top-down 2D adventure, exploring modern-day cities and the suburbs taking the role of different superheroes to hunt down criminals, level-up and collect rare loot. While the game was never officially announced, some details and artwork were shared in the book “Rogue Leaders – The Story Of Lucasarts”:
“From 1997 to 1998, LucasArts worked on a game concept meant to challenge Blizzards’s popular Diablo RPG game. The entire concept was essentially “Diablo, except with superheroes” recalls LucasArts designer John Stafford. Lots of concept art and story were generated for the game, but no work was completed on a game engine, and the idea was shelved.”
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Pumpkin Man is a cancelled third person shooter that was in development by Metro3d and Red-Purple Game Technology, planned to be released on the original Xbox and PC. Players would take the role of a dead guy named Joshua, trying to open the gates of hell to let demons celebrate Halloween on earth.
The game was shown at E3 2003 and some websites such as Psillustrated and Gaming Nexus wrote about it:
“In Pumpkin Man, Halloween is the most important night for the forces of evil where Hell spirits are allowed to use the Crystal Seal and visit Earth for a single day. To Hell’s misfortune, the path to Earth was suddenly sealed with the All Saints Crystal, and the Gates of Hell officially became the path of no return.
It’s up to the Clown, a legendary leader known throughout every corner of Hell, to begin organizing a secret fight to reopen the Gates of Hell on Halloween. Meanwhile, Joshua, a small-town boy is accidentally killed and becomes a peddler in Hell. Even in his afterlife, he could not forget what a girl once said, “Joshua will definitely become a hero. I want to be his bride on that day.” As Joshua ends up accused of revolting against the leadership of Hell and imprisoned in the Slave Ground, the Clown can’t fight alone and Joshua is his only hope!”
“A large emphasis has been placed on the four-player support although there will be an entirely unique experience on the single-player side of things. Currently there are plans to have 40 multiplayer levels, 20 single-player levels, 25 different enemies and 13 different weapons.”
Unfortunately Metro3d filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and Pumpkin Man was canned and forgotten by everyone, until July 2021 when u/2dmee shared on Reddit a playable demo they found in a Taiwanese online forum (uploaded on Archive):
“A couple of years ago I started buying new & sealed retro games from China/Taiwan and reselling them on Ebay UK. One day I came across a big box PC game and the artwork looked really good and it caught my attention, but I couldn’t find any info about the game anywhere, despite being quite well versed in the art of advanced google search syntax.
“The seller that offered the game for sale also had some other titles that were produced by Red-Purple Game Technology so I can only presume he had the deadstock from their offices after they ceased development/trading in 2004. He had 1 boxed, sealed copy and 1 open copy in a jewel case so I bought them both.”
“I have the complete game files on 3 discs, but I don’t have them ripped to my PC atm so I thought I would upload the demo first.”
Thanks to Aaron for the contribution!
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