News on Cancelled Video Games & Lost Media

Dead Phoenix was a video game for the Nintendo GameCube that was never released. It was announced as one of the Capcom Five, a set of five Capcom-developed games originally planned as GameCube exclusives. The failed to make an appearance at E3 2003 and was subsequently removed from Capcom’s website and release schedule.

Very little is actually known about Dead Phoenix. The game was cancelled before sufficient development had taken place, so details, such as those regarding the story or gameplay, are virtually unknown. It was said to be set in a somewhat mythical world, full of demons, and dragons. Early screenshots show the player character flying through large, open-ended environments and doing battle with numerous monsters.

Although the game was cancelled, rumors of it being brought back into development are common within certain circles of gamers. One rumor that has become infamous is IGN’s theory of Dead Phoenix being the next generation of Kid Icarus, which began with an article covering GameCube rumors.

While fans have hoped for a continuation of the Dead Phoenix project, Capcom has refused to comment on the possibility of a resurrection. As further confirmation of the game’s demise, the trademark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office was listed as “Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response” in 2004. Therefore, it is unlikely Capcom will ever return to the project. [Infos from Wikipedia]

[Thanks to Matt Gander for the Art Title!]

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GameCube, Nintendo

P.N.03 [GC – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

2 Comments

P.N.03, short for Product Number Three, is a 2003 video game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube. P.N.03 is a third-person shooter featuring a dexterous, cybernetically-enhanced woman named Vanessa Z. Schneider who the player controls to destroy a series of robots.

The game was designed to have a “classic” feel through use of use things such as point combos for destroying multiple enemies in a row. Originally, during the planning stages, P.N.03 was a wargame known simply as “Robot War Game”. Five days after starting development, graphics were put on-screen and Shinji Mikami felt nothing from how the game was turning out.

He then decided to change the direction of the game to its current form, with the female protagonist. Later during development, Mikami felt that the game’s name should be Jaguar to reflect Vanessa’s cat-like agility. However, other staff members did not like the name; some claimed that it didn’t describe the game well enough and others thought that White Jaguar would be a better title. Mikami then forced himself to come up with the name Product Number 03, which he shortened to P.N.03 to give it a more mysterious feel. Even after the name was changed, a staff member made Vanessa’s crouch pose on her hands and knees to resemble a jaguar, saying that the game would always be ‘Jaguar’ to him. [Infos from Wikipedia

In these early screens we can see Vanessa using “real” weapons, while in the final version she just shoot energy from her hands.

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GameCube, Nintendo

Kameo [GameCube – Cancelled]

yota

08-04-2008

4 Comments

Kameo: Elements of Power is a video game launched for the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console and developed by Rare. Kameo was originally slated for the Nintendo GameCube, and was set to be one of Rare’s flagship titles for the system, along with Star Fox Adventures and Donkey Kong Racing. However, when Microsoft announced its purchase of Rare in late 2002, Kameo’s future was put in question. It was decided that work would continue on the Xbox, and a planned release date of 2003 was given. After several revamps, causing repeated delays, Kameo was put on indefinite hold in late 2004. Following this, rumours began that the game was once again undergoing a platform change, this time from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, where it was the first announced game for the system. The original GameCube version had a different character design, but probably the core game was essentially the same. [Info from Wikipedia]

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Kameo: Gamecube Version

Kameo Gamecube Gameplay [Flying]

Kameo Gamecube Gameplay [Fight]

GameCube, Nintendo

Rebirth [GameCube – FMV Tech Demo]

monokoma

08-04-2008

2 Comments

Rebirth was a Full Motion Video presented at Space World 2003 that was created by Mix-Core to show the ability of the GameCube to replay high definition videos.. and to have proof of some of it’s technological power. Keep in mind that before the GameCube, there was the Nintendo 64, that used carts as media for the games and with limited memory it was not possible to have such kind of quality footage. It seems that a small part of the video was running in real time on the GameCube hardware, proving the good graphic that the console could have recreated in the right hands. Even if there’s a bit of confusion on this project, Rebirth was never really meant to be a full game: it was just a “tech demo” to show that finally Nintendo had abandoned the limited cart format.

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Rebirth Tech Demo Spaceworld 2000

GameCube, Nintendo

Thunder Rally Car Battle [GC Retrostudios – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors

08-04-2008

1 Comment

Thunder Rally, aslo know as “Car Battle” or “Car Combat”, was going to be a.. car combat game, similar to Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8. This was one of the first Retro Studios projects, from when the GameCube was still know as “Dolphin”. Retro Studios was probably the first software house to start to work on GameCube games, as Nintendo “assembled” the Retro team in 1998 just for this purpose. Initially Retro had various projects in development, as this one, Raven Blade (Runeblade), Retro Football and an action adventure game that later was changed to Metroid Prime. Sadly the team was badly organized and there were no real progesses on any of those games. Nintendo then decided to take on the situation, lay off some of the developers and cancell most of the Retro Studios projects, to let them to concentrate only on Metroid Prime. Noone ever seen Thunder Rally again after Nintendo’s wrath.

[spoiler /Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano/ /Nascondi la versione in Italiano/]Questo progetto appartiene al periodo buio dei Retro Studios, un periodo composto da licenziamenti, rumor poco confortanti, giochi cancellati, e tante altre pessime notizie che se sommate tra loro fornivano una panoramica piuttosto desolante, tanto che i dubbi sulla futura qualità di Metroid Prime erano tanti e legittimi. Fortunatamente Retro è riuscita a zittire tutti, fatto sta che questo TRC, assieme a Football 2002 e Raven Blade, rimane emblematico della pessima situazione in cui si trovava questa talentuosa società prima di mettersi a lavorare duramente. Il gioco doveva essere una specie di Twisted Metal / Vigilante 8, modalità multiplayer compresa. [/spoiler]