New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Others, PC / MAC

Solar (Brat Design) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-06-2021
1 Comment

Solar is a cancelled sci-fi FPS that was in development around 2004 by Brat Designs, planned to be released on PC. The game was inspired by massive multiplayer FPS such as Battlefield 1942, and would have featured both single player and multiplayer modes over vast terrains, with up to 32 players. Single player would use multiplayer maps with the addition of advanced AI bots to simulate multiplayer gaming styles.

Some details about the game were available on the old Brat Design website:

“’SOLAR’ has two warring factions, each with its own set of weapons and vehicles, varying from trench mortars to long range bombardment cannons with payloads of neurotoxins. Transportation in ‘SOLAR’ varies by faction, each with a unique range of land, sea and air units, providing varied game play choices.

In addition to this are the Necro. An army of undead soldiers, re-animated by a toxic brew created by fallout from decades of nuclear, chemical and biological war. Mostly chaotic by nature, these troopers are a constant threat to both sides, but can be a useful resource if brought under the influence of one faction.

Interactive environments add another game play element to ‘SOLAR’. Buildings crumble as they are hit by shells or are crashed into with vehicles; gun emplacements can be manned to cut down the opposition in a hail of bullets trees and other incidental scenery can be cleared by a well placed grenade. All this leads to a dynamic, ever changing battlefield.”

Features:

  • Vast terrains with huge viewing distances
  • Interactive environments with fully destructible buildings
  • Weather conditions including fog, acid rain and snow
  • Three Campaigns (Earth, Mars and the Moon)
  • Two warring factions each with their own technology set
  • Advanced bot AI and path finding
  • Battlefields containing up 32 AI or Human players
  • Ground, aerial and aquatic vehicles capable of multiple crew members
  • Called in air strikes and artillery bombardments
  • Weapons of mass destruction (ICBM’s and Orbital laser platforms) Chemical, biological and radioactive
  • Cooperative MP modes including, Interdiction, Retrieval, Assault, VIP Escort, Search and Destroy, Recon, Rescue and Sabotage
  • Standard MP modes including Last man standing, Death match, Team Death Match, Capture the flag, Assault and King of the Hill
  • MP playable demo currently available for publishers only.

Gaming websites such as Eurogamer and Gamespot wrote about Solar at the time, but it seems Brat Designs was not able to find a publisher interested in their project and that could be the reason for it never being released. A trailer for the game was released by the team (also re-uploaded on GamersHell), but we cannot find it anymore online (if you have a copy of the file, please let us know!). The same team was also working on another cancelled game titled Toon Army for Xbox and Playstation 2.

Thanks to SarkSweet!

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Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic [NES / Famicom – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-06-2021
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Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic (迷路大活劇ぱたぱたパニック) is a cancelled puzzle game that was in development by Varie Corporation for Nintendo Famicom / NES. It’s quite an obscure lost game and there’s no information about it online, but a promotional poster was sold sometime ago on Yahoo Auction Japan, so at least we can see artwork and some tiny screenshots. Varie officially announced the cancellation of their game in Famitsu magazine (December 22, 1989).

If you can find something else on Meiro Daikatsugeki Pata Pata Panic in old japanese magazines, please let us know!

 

Game Boy (+ Color), Nintendo

Jibaku-kun: Zero no Ki no Kajitsu [Game Boy Color – Cancelled]

monokoma
19-06-2021
1 Comment

Jibaku-kun: Zero no Ki no Kajitsu (ジバクくん 零の樹の果実 ワールド) is a cancelled Action RPG that was in development by Enterbrain and Media Factory for Game Boy Color. The game is based on a manga / anime series by Ami Shibata and gameplay is kinda similar to the Tales Of series: players can explore the world and its cities, talking to NPCs and resolving quests, while fighting monsters in side-scrolling combat.

This is one of the playable GBC prototypes that was found in the Nintendo Gigaleak in September 2020, so luckily it was preserved: a few  screenshots and gameplay footage are available online.

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Others, PC / MAC

Heavy Gear 3 (Savage Entertainment) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
12-06-2021
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Heavy Gear 3 is a cancelled mecha based FPS that would have been the third chapter in the HG series, in development around 1999 by Savage Entertainment and planned to be published by Activision on PC. The team wanted to expand the mechanics found in previous Heavy Gear games, adding more robots, on-foot fighting and exploration, similar to what Titanfall did 15 years later.

Some details about this lost game were shared online by former Savage artists and producers:

“This was Savage’s first project after being “spun-off” from Activision. It was an exciting opportunity to build on the success of Heavy Gear 2 and a coinciding children’s TV show based on the series. We started with a very small team of 6 to handle environments, characters, and animation. Some new visual advances were spectacular maps to add shine/material variation, multiple texture terrain painting and emissive alpha.  We were able to expand the universe by introducing a new class of “Gear” called the Paladin. His  design was inspired by a medieval suit of armor and was backed by the new “Bishop” Reich. Many of our features were ahead of their time, such as the Gear Pilot being able to get out of his Gear and fight on foot, while the Gear protected him – this is a major element of “TitanFall” being released March 2014. […] Unfortunately, Activision couldn’t decide what kind of game they wanted to make (single player or massive multiplayer) and cancelled the title.”

“Our first project was to be Heavy Gear 3. Our goal at Savage was to have one team where no one was a pure manager. Everyone would work directly on the project. I worked as a 3D artist on Heavy Gear 3 in addition to my role as Producer, and CFO of the company. Sales of Heavy Gear 2 didn’t live up to expectations and Activision exited the giant robot combat market, cancelling Heavy Gear 3.”

Concept art from this lost game are preserved below, to remember its existence.

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PS Vita, Sony

Broken (Magenta Software) [PSVita – Cancelled]

monokoma
12-06-2021
4 Comments

Broken is a cancelled detective adventure game that was in development around 2011 – 2012 by Magenta Software, planned to be published by Sony on PSVita as one of their launch titles. The team was inspired by movies such as Mystic River, Zodiac, and Se7en: players would take the role of a detective in Miami, examining crime scenes and trying to stop a serial killer.

As far as we know the game was never officially announced by Sony nor the team, but some details and screenshots were shared online by former Magenta Software developers and artists:

“The Idea of the game was to showcase the features of the new PlayStation Vita hardware by utilizing some of the unique game-play scenarios the hardware could offer, such as the touch-screen, the back of console touch sensor, the cameras and the gyroscopes. In the initial game-play, the detective would be represented as a floating first-person camera, and navigate interior crime-scene environments by touching point of interest nodes in the 3d scene which would trigger dialogue, navigation, interactions, and cut-scenes. During development, this progressed through moving a 3d character model along “rails” between points, and further into the player having full autonomy of the character in a first-person perspective.”

“Another unique element of the game was the use of the console itself as an in-game “smartphone” owing to the device’s similarities. When evidence was collected from the crime scene, it could be examined within the smart-phone. The phone could be used to make calls to other officers during the investigation, examine evidence with Mini-games such as DNA matching, and even take photos of the game’s environment using the gyroscopes to detect the orientation of the device.”

In the end Broken was canned by Sony when they switched their market strategy:

“Regrettably for budgeting reasons Broken was eventually canceled by Sony, as early sales forecasts for the PS-Vita indicated that only larger budget games such as Uncharted, or much smaller budget games were expected to be successful on the console, leaving Broken in an unfortunate middle-ground.”

Screenshots from this lost game are preserved in the gallery below, to remember its existence.

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