Lobo [XBOX PS2 – Cancelled]

A beat ’em up based on the Lobo comic was in development in 2003 by Kemco USA for the Playstation 2 and XBOX. The project was officially canned after a couple of years for unknown reasons, but we can speculate that it was because of its quality. Players would have been able to use knives, chains, guns, rocket launchers, grenades, and Lobo’s signature weapon, a hook and chain, or to morph into different creatures, such as a ghost, a skeleton, and a variety of mutant animals. Sadly Kemco never shown any in-game screens or video to the public, even if the title shoud have been presented to the press at E3 2003.

The cover design planned for the game’s box preserve the existence of the game:

Original Game Art Painting ‘Montage Poster’ for Lobo Videogame. This is one of the original paintings Simon Bisley did in 2003 for the Lobo videogame developed by Kemco Games. Simon is best known for the greatest depiction of this famous character published by DC and licensed for videogame production. The piece was also signed by Simon Bisley in 2005 when he received the art back from the games company.

In September 2021, Bleeding Cool revealed another artwork by Bisley, titled Lobo Vs The Rat King:

A bunch of Simon Bisley original painted artwork is goes under the hammer today as part of an extensive and desirable original artwork lot up for auction today from Heritage Auctions. There’s tonnes of amazing stuff, including artwork, neverbeforeseen by Simon Bisley for a Lobo video game developed by Kemco USA Game, that never happened. Lobo Vs The Rat King, apparently. A beat ’em up for the Playstation 2 and XBOX.

If you know someone that worked on this game and could help us to preserve more images, please let us know!

Thanks to ForWhomTheBellTolls for the contribution!

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Spearhead [Saturn – Cancelled]

Spearhead is a cancelled action / puzzle game that was in development by Scavenger for the Sega Saturn. There are not many info available on the project, but it seems that players would had take control of a “sphere suit” to explore 7 levels / mazes in the same vein as Marble Madness / Spindizzy Worlds / Super Monkey Ball. Sadly Scavenger had to close down in 1997 for economic issues and most of their games were never released.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scan!

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Agent (RockStar) [XBOX PS2 – Cancelled]

Agent is a cancelled action / sandbox style game that was in development in 2003 by Rockstar San Diego / Angel Studios, for the Playstation 2 and Xbox. There are not many info available on the project, as it was never officially announced, but we can assume that it was going to be somehow similar to the GTA series. In the end the game was never finished for unknown reasons, but it’s possible that Rockstar San Diego had to shift resources to finish Red Dead Revolver. Only few screens  and a video from an ealry prototype / tech demo are saved in the gallery below, to preserve its existence.

A new project also called Agent is now in development at Rockstar North for the Playstation 3, but we are not sure if the 2 games are somehow related. As we can read in Wikipedia, Agent by Rockstar Nord will be set in the world of the late 1970s and it will “take players on a paranoid journey into the world of counter-intelligence, espionage, and political assassinations”.

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Adventures of Pinocchio (Ottifanten) [GB – Beta]

Adventures of Pinocchio is a beta version of Ottifanten, an action puzzle game developed by Bit Managers and released in 1998 for the GameBoy, based on some german comics. While there is a released Pinocchio game for the Game Boy mono, “Adventures of…” is a completely different title and Bit Managers never listed this one on their homepage, only Ottifanten. A playable version of this beta was leaked online, and it’s often confused for an official released game. Trying out the game shows that you cannot lose any lifes – the counter won’t work. This is no final release and there is none because it’s an unreleased game.

As we can read in a Wikipedia entry, the game relies on 115 separate levels of puzzle action, played by viewing the playing field in isometric projection. Pinocchio’s main objective is to get to the arrow (the exit) on the screne in order to move onto the next level. If the player is able to navigate Pinocchio to the objective before the timer runs out, he gets a certain number of points equal to the time left. Once this number reaches 500, the Fairy will bestow Pinocchio with an extra life.

As noticed by BigFred, a closer look at the dump floating around will reveil a weird internal name “Infrey Quest”, so we can speculate that before Pinocchio and Ottifanten, Bit Managers tried to develope their own original IP. When they did not find any publisher interested in Infrey Quest, they changed the game in Pinocchio and later into Ottifanten, with their more recognized characters.

Ottifanten uses the same game concept as well and the same music as Adventure of Pinocchio. It even looks like the basic stage design is the same.

The released Pinocchio for GameBoy looks like this:

Thanks a lot to BigFred for the contribution!

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