Sega

32X / Mega CD, Sega

Ookami Hei (Ranpin) [Sega CD – Cancelled]

monokoma
11-10-2009
2 Comments

In December 2008 GDRI has created a topic in the Lost Levels forum linking to a japanese blog, that had posted some scans with cancelled Sega Mega CD games. One of these unreleased games is Ookami Hei (Wolf Soldier – Ranpin) an action game that was in development by SIMS. As Dais suggests in the same topic, it seems that the working title of the game was “Ranpin” as also noted by Gamengai:

Ranpin: A side-scrolling action game by Sims, which was to be compatible with the Fighting Pad 6B. Had a setting like that of Dennin Aleste (a mechanical, medievil Japan) and featured the same character designer as Devil Buster.

Images:

ranpin-sega-mega-cd

 

Dreamcast, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sega, Sony

La Femme Nikita [DC/PS2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
04-10-2009
2 Comments

La Femme Nikita is a cancelled action game that was in development in 2000 / 2001 at Infogrames Lyon House: the project originally started in 1999 as “Mission Impossible 2”, a sequel to the original Nintendo 64 game. It seems that Infogrames soon decided to stop the development for the N64 and port MI2  to the new-released Dreamcast.

Fabien Lacaf, a professional story boarder, worked on MI2 and created different level environment (for 3D artists) and some parallel action designs  for the missions. The first concept to MI2 was based on levels that would have been completed following the progress of the main protagonists that worked in parallel at the same time.  The player was going to use different characters to complete the missions divided in different parts: in every single part the actions would have affected the next parts of the mission with the following characters.

After some months of work, the studio did not have the “Mission Impossible” license anymore and so they had to change the game into “La Femme Nikita”, based on the film / TV series with the same name. The project was then moved to the Playstation 2 but after 2 years of development, the publisher (Atari) decided to cancel “La Femme Nikita” for economic reasons.

That was the end of “Mission Impossible 2” for the Nintendo 64.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution and to Rodolphe for his help to preserve more images from the project! 

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Keeper of the Gates [G/MD – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-09-2009
4 Comments

Keeper of the Gates is a cancelled action game that was in development for the Genesis / Mega Drive by Razorsoft. This was meant to be a sequel to Stormlord, in which we would have played through 8 levels with hard puzzles and traps to resolve. Also, “six players would have been able to alternately compete in tournament play, to test their adventuring skills”. The project was never finished for unknown reasons.

Celine has found some screens of the Game in EGM 40 & 41, while Ross Sillifant found even more in Sega Force magazine, you can check them all in the gallery below!

Thanks to The Punisher we found out that Keeper Of The Gates was going to be a new game in the Stomlord series or a port of Stormlord 2: Deliverance. The screens from the Genesis / Mega Drive version look exactly like S2:D released for Amiga, as we can see at Hall of Light.

Images:
 

Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Pandemonium [PSX / Saturn / PC]

Gh0stBlade
09-09-2009
4 Comments

Pandemonium is a 2.5D side scrolling platform game, developed by Toys For Bob and published by Crystal Dynamics, originally for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Celine has found some beta screenshots (20% complete?) of the game in GamePro #83 in which we can notice the early graphic and some possible other differences (sadly i don’t remember the game that well, if you find more changes, please let us know!).

It’s interesting to notice that Pandemonium was released in Japan by Bandai under the title Magical Hoppers, with story, cutscenes and characters completely changed with a more “japanese” style. [Info from Wikipedia]

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

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Alpha Stage – July 1996
Platform: PSX

This version contains some rather interesting differences. You can switch the characters whilst in-game unlike the final verison which doesn’t allow this. Most of the levels are there but they appear to be incomplete towards the end. The world map/level selection is also incomplete and very basic. The HUD is different from the final game and so are the collectibles which seem to be red gems of some sort.

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August/Early September 1996 Beta Trailer

A trailer which shows footage of an unknown build of the game. My estimate is between August/Early September 1996. There are numerous differences, especially the HUD which has a picture of the character itself. I actually prefer it like this.

 

32X / Mega CD, M2 / 3DO, Others, Saturn, Sega

Darkside / Dark Ride [Saturn 3DO – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
07-09-2009
1 Comment

Darkside (sometimes written as Dark Ride or Darkride) was one of many titles being devloped by Rocket Science Games before being cancelled. It was to be a psychodellic tunnel-based game with bizarre graphics, and was briefly previewed in the December 1994 issue of Games World: The Magazine, which stated that ‘the team behind the game are perfecting the smooth scrolling of the ride… before the gameplay’.


Rocket Science Games themselves are probably more interesting than the games they made- funded by Sega Enterprises and promising more than they could deliver on, they mostly made Sega-CD and PC-based FMV based titles such as Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm and Obsidian. However, their titles never sold well, and Sega themselves cancelled half of the company’s titles around 1994/95 to keep costs down- it seems Dark Side / Dark Ride was one of the victims of this. They eventually went out of business in 1997.

The preview in Games world: The Magazine states that the game was being developed for the 3DO, although almost all other RSG games were being developed for either the Sega CD or the PC- whether this is a mistake on the magazine’s part is unknown.

In a short article published in French magazine CD Consoles issue #4 we can read that “Darkside” was in development for the Saturn and the game would have took the player into an imaginary world, to explore it aboard a cart on rails (as in a rollercoaster). Could this have been an on-rails shooter? We are not sure.

As written in an article in Wired 2.11 (page 108), Rocket Science decided to cancel this project because it was too similar to other games of its time:

The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. “We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we’ve put those on hold,” says Caldwell. “But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works.”

If you have some more info on this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the scan! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

Images: