World Heroes is a cult-classic series of fighting games developed by Alpha Denshi (ADK) and released in the early / mid ‘90s for the Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet. In 1997 SNK released the Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade system as the successor of the MVS, a new 3D arcade board to play such games as Road’s Edge, Samurai Shodown 64 and Buriki One. It seems Alpha Denshi was planning a 3D “World Heroes 64” for the Hyper Neo Geo 64, but after some time it became clear the HNG64 would have not been able to compete with the more powerful Capcom, Namco and Sega 3D arcade boards so the project was canned.
As far as we know this “World Heroes 64” was never officially announced by the company, but it seems Japanese Neo Geo fans were able to get in contact with a former Alpha Denshi developer (?) who shared an early 3D model of Hanzo that he made for the game. If you know something else about this cancelled game, please let us know!
“I dared to make it so that the (Alpha Denshi) president would give up (this project).”
Chrome 2 is the cancelled sequel to Techland’s 2003 FPS, announced in 2006 by the company. This second chapter would have featured the same vast open areas and non-linear gameplay that made the first game quite impressive for its time, adding multiplayer squad-based play for up to 64 players, new vehicles, weapons and items to use. Early screenshots show a huge, mechanical spider roaming the area, with players moving between thick trees and grass killing off enemies.
“As in the first part, the main advantage of Chrome 2 is the vast expanses of space, and the authors have filled them with a living world like those known from MMOs. The gameplay is non-linear, so the player has much more freedom than in the original. With the ability to take over different bodies, Chrome 2 requires a slightly more tactical approach to solving the problems encountered. For example, in order to neutralize the giant walking machine, we have to enter the engineer’s body, which has a deactivator installed to protect the moss of the power field.
The authors were tempted to introduce to the game powerful mosses, the size of which exceeds even those known from the game Shadow of the Colossus. On our way we will meet many such moss. However, not all of them need to be eliminated. Some will turn out to be much more useful in combat when we sit behind their control cockpit.
There was no shortage of the well known from the previous part of the system of implants and implants increasing the coefficients, our body is stuffed with the latest achievements of genetics, cybernetics and bionics (e.g. exoskeletons). Hundreds of different types of weapons and a wide range of vehicles, gliders, ships and combat machines are at the player’s disposal. All of this will be used to fight against the cunning opponent who reacts to our previous actions in the game.”
Unfortunately the game was put on hold soon after its announcement, when Techland had to focus their efforts and resources on Dead Island. As we can read in an old interview by OnPause:
“Lastly – please tell us one thing for each of your three upcoming games, Dead Island, Warhound and Chrome 2 that you’d want your community to know.
Regarding Chrome 2 and Warhound I can only repeat our official statement we issued a while ago: those games are on hold for the time being. We may revisit them in the future but for now we’re focusing on other titles including Dead Island which is doing great! Stay tuned for more announcements from Techland and our partners.”
Rites of Acerbus (AKA Crest of Dharim) is a cancelled Action RPG that was in development in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s by OMG-Games, a small, forgotten studio founded in 1998. The project started as an Unreal mod, changing the popular FPS into a role-playing game. Soon the mod evolved into a full-fledged game with some interesting features for its time:
“You are Jordan – the son of Eldric, King of Arzaron. Your birthday is a shamble as you are arrested for the murder of your father, rushed through a mockery of a trial and thrust headlong into prison – forever. You’ll be seeing more of your world than you ever wanted as you follow the effects of the rituals of a dark, ancient prophecy bent on the destruction of life on your planet. Step through the political intrigue, militaristic maneuverings, and just plain treachery in search of your father’s killer and the answers you need to stop Acerbus Caelestis from engulfing the world in darkness. You’ll be stepping in style, too, disguising yourself as anyone you can to get the information you need; from a soldier in an enemy army to a priest behind the confessional lattice. You won’t be stepping alone either – several people will find it necessary to join your cause along the way, be it for their own reasons or the noblest cause of all.”
Third-person 3D Action/Adventure/RPG
Dramatic and compelling storyline and characters, with in-game cinematics
Puzzle-based and action-based challenges
Ability to disguise yourself as the enemy and other characters
Up to three AI characters in your party
Multipath dialogue tree-based interaction with all NPCs
Real-time combat system based on unique weapon skills
Unique magic system
“Beast of Burden” for travel and inventory storage
Vast game world covering 4 different kingdoms
All unique races
70+ hours of gameplay
According to the developers you could meet hundreds of NPCs in this world, each one with its own side quests. They planned an action-combat system against crowds of enemies, and it would have been possible to climb rocks to freely explore the land (just like what Zelda: Breath of the Wild did 17 years later).
The plot followed the misadventures of a certain prince, sent to jail after being accused of killing his father. After escaping the protagonist would try to find out who set him up:
“Once a world of magic and beauty, the Kingdom of Arzaron has fallen into Darkness. You are Jordan, First Prince and sole heir to the throne of Eldric, King of Arzaron. Your father led his nation honorably and fairly, and you have followed closely in his footsteps. It is the eve of your twentieth birthday when the King dies mysteriously in his sleep, of poisoning, says the royal physician; a vial of poison is found in your bedchambers the next day. By law, a prince is old enough to govern the nation without the supervision of the Council on his twentieth birthday. According to the law, a prince must be raised to the crown the day after the king dies.
The coronation proceeds directly after the funeral, which is cut short by the magistrate and a number of guards who accuse you of murdering your father and arrest you. You are shuffled through a mockery of a trial, branded as a slave (tattooed on the inside of your left forearm), and nearly dragged behind a horse across your nation’s borders to a slave camp where five years pass.
You must travel through distant, foreign, not-always-friendly lands in order to gain support and learn about the conspiracy against you in any way you can. You’ll disguise yourself as anyone you can to get the information you need. What follows is a quest into the depths of evil as you discover that your fathe’rs murder was but a small part of a much larger chain of events. Ancient prophecy speaks of the six Rites that would bring about the return of Acerbus, the Ruler of the Dark. “
Development of Rites of Acerbus continued until 2002, but as it often happens with cancelled games by small teams, it was probably too ambitious for their skills and resources. With no publisher backing the project, the game was canned after four years of development.
GunForge is a cancelled run ‘n gun that was in development in 2005 by TKO Software for the ill-fated Nokia N-Gage. As far as we know the game was never officially announced by the company and was soon cancelled when TKO Software was closed down by their parent company. A few GunForge sprite animations created by a former TKO employee are preserved below, to remember the existence of this lost project.
Dead Justice is a cancelled third person shooter that was in development by Cat Mother between 2001 and 2003, planned to be released on PC and Xbox. As far as we know the game was never officially announced, but after the team closed down for lack of funds they decided to release online the full Dead Justice source code and prototype PC demo. While this is just an early demo for a linear shooter, it’s cool that Cat Mother decided to share it online, huge props to them! Just think about how many lost games we could preserve if every team could do something like this.
Before closing down they were also working on another project titled “Bladeball”, but it seems only a few, tiny screenshots remain in their old website.
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