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Gauntlet [DS – Cancelled]

Gauntlet DS is the cancelled chapter of the popular hack and slash series, that was in development at Backbone Entertainment and it would have been published by Eidos Interactive / Midway Games. The game should have been released in October 2008, but after its initial announcement, the project vanished from their release list. There’s not any official statement, but it’s possible that Gauntlet DS was canned for economic reasons.

The bankruptcy of Midway Games, owners of the Gauntlet license, could be one of the reasons behind the game’s death. The game would have had local wireless and online four-player mode, 40 maps, and voice chat capabilities. We really hope that in the future a playable version of this game could be leaked and preserved, it looked like an awesome coop-game!

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San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing [GBC – Cancelled]

Announced in 1998, around the time of the Game Boy Color unveiling this cancelled conversion of San Francisco Rush looks quite excellent from the only image in our possession. Sadly this racing game was never released and the port for the little handheld of the  following episode, San Francisco Rush 2049, looked totally different and with a more conventional top-down perspective.

Image from Consolemania issue 78.

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This is Vegas [X360 PS3 – Cancelled]

This is Vegas is an action / sandbox game that was in development for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 since 2006 / 2007  by Midway Games / Surreal Software, but sadly it seems that the game was cancelled in fall / late 2009.  Due to Midway’s financial troubles in 2009 the company sold certain assets to Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment which included This is Vegas and developer Surreal Software. SS then worked on some animations and characters for Snowblind’s LotR: War in the North. In December/January 2010 there were some layoffs and departures and in June 2010 the studio was closed down. 4 years of work on This is Vegas went directly into the bin.

Here is an introduction to This is Vegas’ story from an old Gamespot preview:

The game’s story follows you, an unnamed nobody, as you arrive in Vegas with 50 dollars in your pocket and hazy goals. As luck would have it, you’ll cross paths with Joey Nissan, a local “entrepreneur” who winds up working to get you in with the Vegas crowd. From the sound of it, this bit in the game will be your license to be decadent as you play. Of course, all good things don’t last forever, and soon you meet your nemesis: Preston Boyer, a fast food tycoon bent on cleaning up Vegas to be a family-friendly tourist trap. This doesn’t exactly fly far with you and your new crowd, so your goal will be to stop Boyer and preserve the town’s special atmosphere.

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Mortal Kombat: Fire & Ice (Shaolin Monks 2) [XBOX 360 – Cancelled]

Mortal Kombat: Fire & Ice is the cancelled sequel to Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, that was in development from late 2005 till early 2006 by Paradox (later renamed Midway Studios Los Angeles). A prototype was created for the Xbox 360, to test their new “next generation” graphic engine, but soon the project had to be canned, as revealed by Ed Boon to Game Informer:

“When they finished [Shaolin Monks], the guys at Paradox were gonna do another one called Fire & Ice. It was gonna be a co-operative Scorpion and Sub-Zero game,” Boon said. “They actually started the early stages of that game, but they couldn’t do it in time and under budget, so the project was canceled and kind of went away.”

Also, in august 2009 The Realm of Mortal Kombat fansite was able to get in contact with a former Paradox developer, that shared some more info and a level design concept for Shaolin Monks 2:

It was canceled within a few weeks of my arriving at Midway. I don’t have anything else to show you unfortunately. Half the studio was laid off, and new management was brought in. Then we started work on TNA Wrestling.

A prototype level was built, but that was it. A few design docs were worked on, and a few characters were made in 3D – Scorpion and Subzero. The game was codenamed Fire & Ice – as those two characters were to be the main characters. I was really looking forward to doing level design and construction for it. It was a shame it was canceled.

In 2008 Midway Studios Los Angeles was relocated and merged with Midway’s San Diego office and their last game was TNA iMPACT!

Thanks to MKFan for the contribution!

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Area 51 [PS2 XBOX – Cancelled]

Area 51 is a cancelled action / shooter game planned for Playstation 2 and Xbox that was in development by Midway Games West in 2000/2001. It was meant to be a direct successor to Atari’s 1995 light gun shooter which saw a re-release on PlayStation, PC and Saturn in the same year.

Sadly in 2003 Midway Games West closed down and only in 2005 Midway Studios Austin released a loose remake of the 1995 game and in 2007 another sequel called Blacksite: Area 51. We can assume that Area 51 2005 is a completely different project than the 2000 / 2001 one, as the development teams were different.

It’s interesting to notice that in 1998 / 1999 Midway Games West also worked on Area 51: Grey Dawn, an unreleased arcade brawler that could have been re-used as a base to create the concept for their cancelled Area 51 for Xbox and PS2. The only video preserved from the 2000 / 2001 project looks infact a mix between a shooter and a traditional beat ’em up. If you have more info on this lost game, please let us know!

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