New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Playstation, Sony

Chrono Cross [PSX – Beta]

monokoma
04-06-2010
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Chrono Cross is a RPG developed and published in 1999 by Squaresoft for the original PlayStation. As we can read on Wikipedia, Square began planning Chrono Cross immediately after the release of Xenogears in 1998. Chrono Trigger’s scenario director Masato Kato had brainstormed ideas for a sequel as early as 1996, following the release of Radical Dreamers.

Developers brainstormed traits and archetypes during the character-creation process, originally planning 64 characters with unique endings that could vary in three different ways per character. As production continued, the length of Cross increased, leading the event team to reduce the number of characters to 45 and scrap most of the alternate endings.

More info about the Chrono Cross beta can be found in the Chrono Compendium:

Before the official release of Chrono Cross, Square Enix marketed a PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger and attached a demo of the game to it and Legend of Mana.[…] This demo has allowed a short look into the late stages of the development of Chrono Cross, offering a few prizes such as a scrapped facial portrait of Kid and missing playable characters.

Serge’s Swallow is tinted green and looks like the Mastermune.

Once the Fort Dragonia sequence is concluded, Serge wakes up in Arni and is instructed to find Leena as usual. Una has no portrait, hampering the suggestion that she was once planned to be a playable character.

The most glaring difference is the presence of a seemingly new character in Pierre’s slot. Since Pierre’s dialogue icon was already in its final state, it’s probable that this was an earlier design for Pierre.

There’s a different Viper Manor Study window.

There’s a different Lucca drawing.

Yasuyuki Honne is the artist of the Chrono series, and made some background art that was never used in the final game.

There’s also an incomplete debug room in the beta demo and some unused characters can be seen in the Chrono Cross artbook.

Also, GlitterBerri translated the Chrono Cross Ultimania interview in which we can read about some ideas that were never used in the final game. You can read the full interview at BerriBlue or in the Chrono Compendium.

Thanks to ace.dark and Megalol for the contributions!

Images:

Arcade, Others

Marble Man: Marble Madness 2 [Arcade – Cancelled]

monokoma
04-06-2010
3 Comments

As we can read on Wikipedia, Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a trackball.

An arcade sequel titled Marble Man: Marble Madness II was planned for release in 1991, though Cerny was not involved in the development. Development was led by Bob Flanagan who designed the game based on what he felt made Marble Madness a success in the home console market.

Because the market’s demographic was a younger audience, Flanagan wanted to make the sequel more accessible and introduced a superhero-type main character. Marble Man expanded on the gameplay of the original game by featuring new abilities for the marble such as invisibility and flight, included pinball minigames between sets of levels, and allowed up to three players to traverse isometric courses.

Flanagan intended to address the short length of the first game and, with the help of Mike Hally, developed seventeen courses. Atari created prototypes for location testing, but the game did not fare well against more popular titles at the time such as Street Fighter II.

Atari assumed the track balls accounted for the poor reception and commissioned a second model with joystick controls. Because the new models were met with the same poor reception, production was halted and the focus shifted to Guardians of the ‘Hood, a two-dimensional beat ’em up game. Marble Madness 2 was never officially released, but the few proto machines are in the hands of various collectors.

Thanks to kieranmay and Celine for the contributions!

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Videos:

Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

God of War 2 [PS2 – Beta]

monokoma
03-06-2010
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God of War 2 is an action adventure developed by SCE Studios Santa Monica and published in 2007 by Sony for the PlayStation 2. In the final game it’s possible to unlock a bonus video in which to take a look at some removed levels, as the Colosseum, an Aquaduct, the Rhode’s Marketplace, Atlantis and The Tomb, plus some test / debug levels as the one in the river. An unused move was also found in the game’s code.

Videos:

Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony

The Protector [PS3 – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
02-06-2010
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In 2006, Eurocom and Sony Computer Entertainment started to work on their PS3 exclusive “The Protector”. Although even voice recordings had started in 2007, the project was cancelled in early 2008. As the game was never officially announced, game details are still unknown. After this lost project, in 2008 / 2009 Eurocom  developed and released Quantum of Solace (PlayStation 2), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC), G-Force (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC) and Dead Space: Extraction (Wii).

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Playstation, Saturn, Sega, Sony

Opposite Lock (Wreckin Crew) [PSX Saturn – Beta]

monokoma
01-06-2010
4 Comments

Update: thanks to GalacticeMage, we found out that Opposite Lock was an early beta version of Wreckin Crew! The graphic style remained the same, but the screenshot in the gallery below is probably from a target render (also the HUD is different). Check the video from the final game for a comparison.

Opposite Lock is a cancelled racing game that was in development by QUICKDRAW DEVELOPMENT / Telstar for the Playstation, Saturn and PC. Celine found a screenshot of this project in PlayMag magazine issue #4: it seems that Opposite Lock was going to be an arcade with colorful graphic and stylized vehicles based on real-life cars (as Chevrolet and Ford). It’s currently unkown why the game was canned.

Here’s the original press release:

Based around a blisteringly fast game engine, Opposite Lock is an arcade style, 3D hot rod racing game that also includes combat and stunt driving aspects. With most driving games nowadays concentrating on showing off the polygon engine rather than presenting a fast and furious racing game, Opposite Lock sets out to redress this balance by putting the FUN back into the genre. Modern racing games tend towards the simulation end of the driving spectrum and ignore the qualities that made Hard Driving, Power Drift and Mario Kart so popular. Opposite Lock offers you the chance to drive a whole host of stylised and customised vehicles from 1957 Chevrolets to Ford pickups, each with their own individual attack moves. There are stunt tracks, cup competitions and head to head modes,  not to mention a demolition derby competition and a complete action replay and video editing suite to play back and save your favourite moments.

– Multi-player option that allows up to 32 players on a network.
In-game pickups and upgrades, including weapons, nitros and repair kits.

– Over 100 different road side objects which interact with the players car. Hit a tyre stack and the tyres bounce all over the track!

– Full screen VGA and SVGA modes ensure that you are in the thick of the action at all times.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Video (from the final version):