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Snake Plissken Chronicles [PS2/XBOX – Cancelled]

Snake Plissken Chronicles (also know as Snake Plissken’s Escape), is a cancelled action game that was in development at Namco Hometek in 2003, for the original Xbox and Playstation 2. The game was based on Snake Plissken, the protagonist (portrayed by Kurt Russell) in John Carpenter’s films Escape from L.A. and Escape from New York. A playable demo was created, but the project was never finished for unknown reasons.

S0me videos from the game were shared online by Neurobellum:

This video shows a functional SNAKE PLISSKEN game built in 2004 by the remaining Dead to Rights 2 staff. Campaign design was complete, storyline was approved by Carpenter, Russell, and Hill, and concept was well underway. The game would have included full particpation by all three, including a completed cyber-scanned version of Kurt. This game was going to rock. Video produced and edited by Mike Kennedy. Music by KMFDM and John Carpenter, remixed by DJSkavenger.

A sequence of key events storyboarded for the campaign mode of the unproduced Snake Plissken’s Escape video game, by Namco. These boards were illustrated by Comic Book legend Chris Warner.

 A compilation of Environmental concept art developed for the campaign of Snake Plissken’s Escape, developed for Namco in 2004 before cancellation. Contributing artists included Francisco Ruiz Velasco (Hellboy 2, Pacific Rim) and Tim Tao (Dead to Rights).

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Rebelstar – Psionic Rebellion [X360/PS3 – Cancelled]

In 2007 NamcoBandai asked Kuju Entertainment to work on a successor of their GBA game Rebelstar, for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The game was set in the near future and was about an Alien army attacking Earth. The game was cancelled when NamcoBandai decided to allocate their resources to other projects.

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The Adversary: City Under Siege [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled]

The Adversary was a new prototype in development in 2002 for XBOX and PS2 by the same team at Namco USA that worked on Kill.Switch (an average third person shooter, but with interesting and innovative “hide ‘n’ shoot” elements). The project started as another third person shooter with human soldiers, but it slowly evolved into a more complex concept, untill in the latest builds there were even robotic  tanks and mechs fighting in a big city. At this time of development, the project took the new name of “City Under Siege”. The game was created with emphasis on multiplayer deathmatches and it seems that a playable multiplayer demo was even available at closed doors at E3 2004. City Under Siege could have been a fun game, but sadly it was cancelled by Namco for unknow reasons, maybe because it was too risky economically.

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Xenosaga [PS2 – Beta]

Xenosaga is a rpg trilogy for the Ps2 that was developed by Monolith Software. Originally, however, it was meant to be a saga of six episodes, but after the poor sales of Xenosaga II Namco decided to close the series in 2006 with the third installment. In the trailer of the first Xenosaga, embedded below, we can see that some cutscenes were slightly changed in the final version or removed and later inserted in the sequel. Also, the game was supposed to be released on two dvds, but at the end the producers opted for a dual-layer.

Xenosaga II was instead heavily cut after the original script, created by the scenario writer Soraya and the director Tetsuya Takahashi,was completely rewritten. In 2005, Soraya listed in her website what got removed:

  • Ziggy’s past history (as seen in The Pied Piper)
  • U.R.T.V.’s past history (as seen in the Episode II)
  • Shion’s past history with Febronia
  • Jr’s rapid growing
  • Both juvenile and grown-up Jr. switching available in the battle
  • The ghost of the old Miltia
  • The death of Sakura
  • Brief reunion with grown-up Citrine
  • Gaignun vs Zohar emulators
  • Jr.’s transformation/overdrive
  • Jr. & Albedo vs U-DO vs KOS-MOS 3rd armament
  • Shion’s spiritual seeking/witnessing/awakening
  • The truth about KOS-MOS
  • Conversation between chaos and the red cloak man
  • Conversation between Nephilim and the boy with the blocks
  • An antimatter annihilation of Albedo

Almost all the story sequences were later restored in Episode III and in Xenosaga I+II for DS.

Two other games related to Xenosaga, Xenosaga: Frontier and Xenosaga: Exceed, of which we know nothing, were also cancelled.

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Extreme Force [XBOX/PS2/GC – Cancelled]

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Extreme Force: Grant City Anti-Crime (A.K.A. Strike Force / First Strike: Grant City Anti-Crime) was a third person shooter set in the Dead To Rights city – a fact that will be of precisely no interest to most people. It was all about law enforcement, covert operations and all that lark, as the title suggests. Fun items such as night vision goggles, grenades and door charges would have been at your disposal as you rid the city of criminals by making them dead. Stealth maneuvers and “run-and-gun combat” were promised. It was in development at Namco for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube but it was later cancelled for unknow reasons.

[Contribute by Matt Gander from www.gamesasylum.com]

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