New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

N-Gage, Others

Hinter Wars: The Aterian Invasion [N-Gage, PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
10-02-2022
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Hinter Wars: The Aterian Invasion is a cancelled online RPG that was in development around 2005 / 2006 by Activate Interactive, planned to be published by Nokia for N-Gage and PC. As in other MMORPG players would choose between different characters, each one with their own skills and appearances, then log online to explore the game world, fight enemies and chat with their friends.

A playable beta was available for free on their official website, and people could help the team testing their server for online multiplayer. Players could then play on their PC while at home, then continue their adventure outside using the same profile on N-Gage. Some more details on Hinter Wars’ settings and gameplay were also shared at the time:

“HinterWars: The Aterian Invasion’ was derived from an original storyline that revolves around a group of space-faring races that face the possibility of being invaded by the Aterians. The game features four broad character types – the Humans, Firans, Brucians and Taikuus – whose costumes, appearances and armour can be customized according to each player’s specifications. The game also allows interaction between players such as broadcast and private chat, trading of items and teaming up for conquests. Successes are rewarded by new downloads, rare items, additional power and experience, virtual cash rewards – and ultimately, fame within the HinterWars gaming community.”

Possibly because of the N-Gage failure on the market, Nokia and Activate canned the project and Hinter Wars was never completed.

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Videos:

Playstation 3 (PS3), PS Vita, Sony

This Means War! (bigBIG Studios) [PS3, PSVita – Cancelled]

monokoma
06-02-2022
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This Means War! Is a cancelled third person team-based shooter that was in early development by bigBIG Studios around 2009, planned to be released on Playstation 3 or PSVita. The team was mostly known for Pursuit Force and Little Deviants, but they worked with Sony on many more canned projects, such as Survive, Autorobotica and this one.

By looking at the only remaining images we speculate This Means War!’s gameplay could have been similar to Battalion Wars, possibly with a huge emphasis on team VS team online multiplayer. Players would have been able to use military weapons and vehicles to fight other teams on small spherical levels (somehow similar to Mario Galaxy planets). Many different character classes would have been available as DLC to be purchased on PSN, each one with different skills, appearance and nationality.

Unfortunately as far as we know This Means War! was never officially announced by Sony nor bigBig Studios, so we don’t have more details about the project and why it was never released. In 2012 Sony closed bigBIG Studios: some images from This Means War! are preserved in the gallery below to remember the existence of this lost project.

Thanks to Tonz for the contribution!

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Others, PC / MAC

Sabotage (Insane Logics) [PC – Cancelled]

monokoma
05-02-2022
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Sabotage (not to be confused with “Sabotage 1943” by Replay Studios, which later became Velvet Assassin) is a cancelled stealth FPS that was in development by Insane Logics between 2001 and 2003, planned to be released on PC. The game was set in a sci-fi world dominated by large corporations and players would be hired to sabotage these groups by infiltrating their buildings. It seems the Lead Game Designer for this lost game was Marc-André De Blois, who later worked as Lead Game Designer for Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time.

A playable demo was released online in 2003 and you can still download it on FilePlanet:

“This Demo version of Sabotage by Insane Logics contains 2 playable levels (level 1 & 5). Level 1 is at 80% of completion (lighting and textures are not complete). This first level takes place in the old sewers system of a gigantic complex owned by a bio-genetic corporation. This is the only way to infiltrate the complex. Level 5 is at 50% of completion (game play balance, lighting & textures are not complete). This level gives you a better vision of what the game will look like, a modern setting of a multinational bio-genetic corporation.”

We don’t know why Sabotage was never completed, but as it often happens with these projects we speculate the team was not able to find a publisher interested in supporting their project. As far as we know Replay Studios never released any other game and vanished after the cancellation of Sabotage.

Some screenshots saved from Old-Games and FactorNews.

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Playstation, Sony

Strike Jaguar (Gaps) [Playstation – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-01-2022
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Strike Jaguar is a cancelled shoot ‘em up that was in development in late ‘90s, planned to be released by Gaps for the original Playstation. The game featured some original mechanics for a vertical shmup, with a multi-route system that would create a new series of levels each time you play (including rare hidden areas) and combination attacks when playing in coop with a friend.

Screenshots and details about Strike Jaguar were published at the time on Gaps’ old website, but the game was canned when it was about 10% complete. It seems a former Gaps developer reused some of the Strike Jaguar sprites to create another shmup for PC and released it for free on their website.

Images:

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

Surface Tension (Krome Studios) [PS2 – Cancelled]

monokoma
28-01-2022
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Surface Tension is a cancelled Playstation 2 strategy / adventure game that was in early development by Krome Studios around 2008. Gameplay would have been similar to a mix between Pikmin and Populous, with players exploring an alien “non-Newtonian fluid” world commanding creatures to resolve puzzles and fight enemies. Krome worked on this prototype to try some new ideas but it was soon pushed aside to work on new projects for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

As we can read in an old article by GamesOn (now closed):

“[Surface Tension] was sort of a cross between Pikmin and Populous,” says Steve. “The surface of the world was this sort of non-Newtonian fluid, and you had to guide your creatures from island to island, but if you had too many in one spot, they’d sink.” The team worked on the game’s development for six weeks, creating a demo which allowed you to order your creatures around, drop markers to attract and repel enemies, and so on. The objective was to send your creatures to the end of the level, directing them to solve problems along the way – chopping down trees to serve as bridges across the water, and generally being completely adorable.

“It was never really meant to get shown,” says Steve. “It was more a test to see if we could do something different.” Developed on Krome’s PS2 engine, the game was abandoned when they began to migrate to the next-gen engines built for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, although they did discuss returning to it after the first episode of Blade Kitten was published – a dream that, sadly, may never be realised.

Only a few tiny screenshots for Surface Tension were published on GameOn, if you know someone who worked on this lost game who may help us preserve more images, please let us know!

Thanks to Maik for the contribution!

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