Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick is one of the few instalments to land on home consoles, and among the many forgotten games based on a popular IP. Little is known about early beta footage of the Evil Dead games on PS2, but thanks to a rare video, we can see a glimpse of the early changes prior to the game’s release.
Whiplash was a fun 3D platformer developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive in 2003. One of the main protagonists in the game, Spanx, originally appeared in another CD game titled Mad Dash Racing. Whiplash early in development went by various codenames: Bust It Up, Spanx & Redmond and others. Even more interesting was the game’s birth, as it all happened after Gex 4 was mysteriously cancelled.
Below, we can observe a few beta changes before the game was released. The images below date back to a late 2002 beta build of the game that, as of the time of writing this article, remains inaccessible…. Unfortunately. If you know anything more about the game, do not be shy to share!
Images:
Differences:
Different HUD (cool DNA design)
Different idle animation
Slightly different attack animation (kinda slower)
Some guards in the game are wearing different uniforms (?)
Battlantis was a fun, although hard, Arcade game originally developed and published by Konami in 1987. The game was a marriage of Space Invaders and Galaga, where the player had to shoot down on-screen targets to progress further. While the game is long forgotten nowadays, it appears that there were plans for a sequel back in 1992 for the Super Famicom, though there’s no way to confirm this, as information online is scarce. What remains are a couple of pre-production sketches that you can look at.
From the sketches, we can pretty much deduce that the game was going to take an entirely different art direction, featuring a cute cast of characters to meet standards of yore. Other than this, it’s unknown how far the game progressed beyond these early sketches.
Starhawk was a darn good sequel to the beloved Warhawk. This third-person shooter didn’t try to recycle formulas from other games—it stood out by blending real-time strategy (RTS) with fast-paced gunplay. One moment you’re blasting enemies, and with a quick button press, you’re calling down a turret from orbit. The way battles unfolded—and the overall feel—was fantastic.
But before Starhawk reached its final form, this 2009 prototype build told a different story. Below is an in-depth comparison of the game’s early version versus the one we ultimately played.
Video:
Different character
Different movement animation
Different HUD
Different gun sounds
Different pickup designs
Different deployable Rifts
Different map design
Different main menu
Different main logo
Different bike
Different weapon icons
Different energy pick up
Different aim HUD
Different gameplay system (you use money instead of energy to build)
Images:
The Main Character
The Enemies
Main Logo
In addition, Starhawk was originally planned to be released sometime in 2011 but was pushed back to 2012. With all of the changes shown from the prototype and final, the core idea of the game remained the same.
Conan: The Dark Axe was a fun action-adventure game based on the iconic Conan franchise. You played as the legendary barbarian as he slashed and clashed with enemies of all sizes, and rose victorious like he always does. Unlike the 2007 Conan game, this one didn’t play like a copy of God of War or Devil May Cry. It felt unique with all its pros and cons. Looking back, this game excelled in several areas over the 2007 Conan iteration by THQ.
Below, we can see a couple of beta images and concept artwork showing some of the changes.
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