Retro|Spective 204: Cancelled Games - Sonic Xtreme

[charlesr]

Donkey Kong racing looked really fun. I'm a big fan of Diddy Kong racing

[Asura]

Game 25 - Lamborghini

Silky smooth, like all of Rage's games (in my experience anyway). It was nice that they used to be so committed to that.

Truly though I'm not sure if it would've done so well on release. It's not a sim, it's not OutRun and it's not Burnout. The brand name might've carried it a bit (I love Lambos so I would've probably tried it).

[Neon Ignition]

Game 26 - Mega Man Legends 3
This one caused a fuss back in the day as Capcom teased fans with a 3DS revival only to dash those hopes a year later. Despite the long wait, the game was set to directly continue on the plot of the PS1 entries and despite the narrow time between its announcement and cancellation it progressed enough that a journalist was able to play a planned prologue section that would have been released to eshop.




Should Capcom have ever started this attempt?

[Asura]

It's weird because I've never played these, but there's a decent sized cohort who absolutely LOVE these games.

[Neon Ignition]

I played both the originals and they were clunky, janky games even back in their day. Never understood the thirst for them

[Neon Ignition]

Game 27 - Thrill Kill
Developed by Paradox, the game became notorious for both its content and for being an early example of a game leaking and doing the rounds amongst those capable of running it. Supporting up to four players, fights would fill a players bar and once it hit its limit the ability to land a Thrill Kill would become available. The game came within touching distance of being complete but when publishing responsibilities changed hands from Virgin to EA, the latter developed cold feet and pulled the games release. Some arguably still played it in some form however as even if you never crossed paths with the games leaked copy, Paradox reskinned the project and released it as Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style.







A Thrill to Kill for?

[Neon Ignition]

I did play this briefly back in the PS1 days and it wasn't that great but the breakdown of the core gameplay actually sounds a bit like Smash

[Neon Ignition]

RS204 will run until the 40th game so time to dive on in with the next in the line up:


Game 28 - Dead Phoenix
The Capcom 5, announced to much fanfare for the Nintendo Gamecube to help evidence that strong third party support was in place. The five projects would give us quirky content like PN03 as well as all time classic Resident Evil 4 however amidst the line up was a darker outcome, that the five would never be. The fifth game, Dead Phoenix, was a third person shooter with players taking the lead role of a man gifted with wings and weapons. The game very quickly disappeared from the news updates however and Capcom just let it drift away.







Better left Dead or should it have risen like the Phoenix?

[Asura]

If you close your eyes it sounds kinda like Panzer Dragoon.

[wakka]

I remember looking forward to this. It looks, erm, alright I guess? It might have been kind of fun. Graphics weren’t up to much.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 29 - Project H.A.M.M.E.R
Worked on for several years by Nintendo and shown off early in the Wii's life, the game was aimed to be cross between beat em ups and mushou games with combat based around the motion controls of the Wii remote. However, reportedly Nintendo couldn't work out a way to make the combat fun enough so cancelled the project.







Was Nintendo right to put the killing blow on HAMMER?

[Asura]

I seem to recall a lot of games which were cancelled during the Wii's life, mainly, I assume, because they thought they'd be able to do things like sword-fighting etc. before finding out the WiiMote couldn't really do that.

[Yakumo]

Was Nintendo right to put the killing blow on HAMMER?

Absolutely! This is coming from someone who was there day 1 to buy a Wii. Within a week the reality that motion controls sucked had set in. Within a month I really couldn't be bothered playing most Wii games.
The final straw came when the Metal Slug collection had no way to throw granades beside shaking the bloody knumbchuck. I do beleive they changed this in the western release.
Even now I basically avoid any Wii game that doesn't have normal controls and even then I use the classic controller or game cube controller if compatable.

[Asura]

Absolutely! This is coming from someone who was there day 1 to buy a Wii. Within a week the reality that motion controls sucked had set in. Within a month I really couldn't be bothered playing most Wii games.
The final straw came when the Metal Slug collection had no way to throw granades beside shaking the bloody knumbchuck. I do beleive they changed this in the western release.
Even now I basically avoid any Wii game that doesn't have normal controls and even then I use the classic controller or game cube controller if compatable.

Gah yes. There were even Wii games I quite enjoyed except for the motion; like it wasn't amazing but Sonic & the Secret Rings might've been fun, but it was ruined because playing it for half an hour gave you RSI.

In the Wii's life, the only games I played with good motion controls were Nintendo's own sports games, games like Ghost Squad which just used it as a pointer and Red Steel 2 (which wasn't great, but did nail the idea of a motion controlled character-action game).

[wakka]

It should have had the Motion+ built in from day one. That improved things considerably and was how I had envisaged the Wii working. I had tons of fun out of my Wii over the years, but on day 1 of ownership I have to say I was disappointed in how well it worked. It was far from 1:1 mapping in its original incarnation.

The final straw came when the Metal Slug collection had no way to throw granades beside shaking the bloody knumbchuck

I didn't know that was a thing but that's hilarious.