Retro|Spective 204: Cancelled Games - Sonic Xtreme

[Neon Ignition]

Despite how many threads I throw out there I do usually try to maintain some restraint in places and that has included trying to hold back from having too many RS threads running at the same time. It's one of the several reasons that actual new numbered entries post-200 have been so slow as we steered toward moving away from a franchise by franchise tour. However, I've been sitting back on 204 for a good six months and it's distinct because for the most part, unlike every other thread, this one is dedicated to games that we never actually played.



Cancelled Games

Some have leaked over the years and I want to pretty much side step cancelled ports etc of titles that were playable on other formats or means but most will have been shown in some form only to never see the light of day for one reason or another. Here we will take a nostalgic trip into gamings history of retro gaming experiences that could have been but never were.


Game 01 - Maximum Surge
Planned for PC, Mac, Saturn and 3DO this sci-fi game used FMV as was a common approach at the time of its development around 1996 but merged it with normal game visuals to offer greater freedom. Starring Walter Koenig and Yasmine Bleeth the game focused on a soldier fighting off an enemy intent on replacing humanity with cyborgs. The studio behind it spent $3m developing the game and its footage was later repurposed into a Maximum Surge direct to dvd movie. A demo disk in 1995 contained a short demo but that is all that was released of the game that by all accounts was developed right up until the point just before its planned release.






Had it released in 1996, would this have Surged your interest?

[Asura]

Had it released in 1996, would this have Surged your interest?

No. The FMV game "craze" really was a bust. I think the only ones I ever enjoyed were Rebel Assault 1&2, but that was only due to (1) the novelty of Star Wars and (2) that, the second game shares a distinction with Jedi Knight - when they were made in ~1995, they were the first live-action Star Wars content to be officially made in over a decade, and they gave a glimpse that we might actually get more Star Wars.

The novelty was well over by that point.

[Neon Ignition]

It was interesting so much went into it when it was clear very fast that it wasn't the direction gaming was going in. This FMV gaming during the dawn of 3D era so I imagine had this game seen release it would have bombed.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 02 - Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors
Planned for Mega CD and 3DO, the latter was axed when the former failed to materialise. The game was made up of mini-games based on acts from the duo's shows and the Sega version was completed and reviewed by magazines however at the last minute the publishing company collapsed and the game never saw shelves. Years later a copy made it onto the internet where its fame grew. Each mini-game involved a trick such as a two player shooter that always let the primary player win and some Q&A rigged games but the most famous is a real time 8 hour road trip driving game where the player drives from Tuscon to Vegas without stopping or exceeding 45mph. The vehicle veers to the right meaning players had to remain constantly at the controller and once complete it would reward one point then give a few seconds to decide whether to do a return 8hr trip for another point and so on. The mini-game is said to have been a retort to the claim videogames are all violent and had the game seen a release a contest was to have been held whereby the player with the highest amount of consecutive trips completed in one sitting would have won an all expenses paid real life road trip to Vegas holiday.







A trick that should have been played?

[wakka]

I've always loved the idea of this game, really innovative. A kind of anti-game.

[Neon Ignition]

It's one of those were at the time I'd have not even batted an eye at it but as an almost was title it's fascinating

[Neon Ignition]

Game 03 - Shredfest
Originally a project for Mega Drive, EA moved it to the 3DO, Saturn and PS1 to make use of the shift to 3D. The game was a snowboarding title which would have focused on Road Rash style use of aggressive racing. No reason was ever given for the games cancellation but suggestions were that it was given repeated rapid release dates but never got past around 10% completion suggesting the project couldn't keep up with internal demands.



Could this have been a contender in 1996?

[Asura]

Game 03 - Shredfest
Originally a project for Mega Drive, EA moved it to the 3DO, Saturn and PS1 to make use of the shift to 3D. The game was a snowboarding title which would have focused on Road Rash style use of aggressive racing. No reason was ever given for the games cancellation but suggestions were that it was given repeated rapid release dates but never got past around 10% completion suggesting the project couldn't keep up with internal demands.

Could this have been a contender in 1996?

Seems wise to cancel this. I mean I doubt there was much room in the market between 1080, Coolboarders 1&2 and Coolboarders 3&4 (which were effectively 2 totally different games), Chill, even Snowboard Kids... I mean maybe on the Saturn where it only had to level off against Steep Slope Sliders.

[Neon Ignition]

That could explain why, supposedly, the Saturn ended up being the lead development platform. The 3DO version drifted away and presumably the Saturn market dried up too much for them to look at the PS1 version and expect to make much back.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 04 - Star Trek: The Next Generation - A World for all Seasons
Developed for the 3DO, this game was a narrative adventure set on pre-rendered backgrounds. Players would be given choices that would determine the direction the story took until its conclusion and these sections would be broken up with real time space battles of the type featured in Wing Commander. Promotion of the game began in 1994 but it never saw release.




Would you have liked to see the devs Make it So?


Tomorrow we move on to the history of cancelled Nintendo 64 games

[Asura]

Game 04 - Star Trek: The Next Generation - A World for all Seasons
Would you have liked to see the devs Make it So?

Oh wow, I'm actually devastated I never knew this was on the cards and kinda wish I hadn't found out!

Spectrum Holobyte made numerous Star Trek games, and they were generally fantastic - but their best one, by far, was the TNG game, Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity, which was basically just like playing a series of TNG episodes in a mixture of gameplay styles, mostly graphic adventure and Lucasarts-style point-and-click. Notably, the game was fully voiced by the entire cast, with huge amounts of spoken dialogue; it really feels like the show.

I actually never finished it; I got stuck very near the end. Despite that it was an amazing game, and the idea that they could've made a follow-up, but didn't, is something I find very disappointing.

[Neon Ignition]

The Nintendo 64 Era begins:


Game 05 - Dinosaur Planet
Though the game did go on to be released in an altered form, the original plan was for this to be a Nintendo 64 Zelda type game following two foxes called Krystal and Sabre as they faced a lizard foe on a Dinosaur populated planet. The game was one of the late big projects for the platform before Nintendo intervened and agreed with Rare to retool it into the Gamecube franchise title we now know. With the prototype leak last year there has been a real insight into what the game was originally meant to be like and as the final game was mixed in response from Starfox fans, questions around whether they made the right choice always hung over the game.










Would it have been better if Dinosaur Planet had remained unrelated to Star Fox?

[Neon Ignition]

I downloaded the rom when it first appeared but only tried the initial bit which the device I was using struggled with, I plan to return to it at some point but whilst it made for a merely okay Star Fox game I feel it would have been better being its own thing - just not the thing Rare planned as the planned look was generic as hell

[Neon Ignition]

Game 06 - Freak Boy
The developer of Mr Bones and Alien vs Predator: Extinction was working on this 3D action game for the N64 which would see players control a blue character who's limbs can absorb powers to solve puzzles with as they work through 25 levels. Development issues struck and the game was restarted twice until finally the plug was pulled though years later crowdfunding would see a playable alpha for the game be released.








Interesting or Freak you out?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 07 - Rev Limit
Revealed alongside the console itself as Shoshinkai 1996, this arcade racer was intended to hit the system and arcades based on a new 64 bit arcade board. The game suffered several delays however and eventually its developer Seta hit financial woes leading to the games cancellation. In 2016 a prototype leaked though giving the world some insight as to how far along the game reached.







A missed opportunity for a racer on N64?