New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Backstage [PS2/GC/PC – Cancelled]

Backstage is a cancelled arcade racing game somehow similar to Crazy Taxy, that was in development in 2003 by Carapace and it would have been published by Wanadoo. The player would have start the game as a young and surf wear clothed bike messenger (with a scooter) named Zack. The action took place in a Los Angeles like city (its Studios, different districts and suburbs).

Zack is a kind of jack-of-all-trades, he had to accomplish such different jobs as deliveries, taxi, collections, races, track-races, and shooting (with a camera). Doing this, Zack would have meet important people of this universe who could have give him access to filming: his secret dream.

For unknwon reasons the project was never released and a couple of years later Carapace closed down.

Thanks a lot to Kyle for the contribution!

Images:

Survivor [XBOX / PC – Cancelled]

Survivor was a “Disaster Survival” game that was in development at Replay Studios in 2004 for the original XBOX and PC. The player would have had to survive through “historical” disasters from the 20 – 21 th century, like the Titanic, Hurricane Andrew or the 9/11. The project was later cancelled, maybe because of the controversial scenarios.

Images:

Eden [PS2 – Concept]

Through GameSetLinks, Robert Seddon linked us to the International Hobo website, where they talk about one of their unreleased project for the Playstation 2, known as “Eden”. Eden was going to be a simulation / puzzle game in which the player would have been able to explore and grow his personal garden, but for various reasons Eden was shelved before they even started the  development. Only the concept design remains and you can read it all on ihobo:

When circumstances in the market changed and Play with Fire ceased to be a PS2 project (with a commensurate fall in budget), Eden was effectively shelved. Plans were tentatively made to resurrect it later, and inventive Belgian developer Tale of Tales were considered as an option for developer.

However, over the following years the project was to suffer further blows. The Japanese gardening game Shiki-Tei (“Four Seasons Garden”) was released in June 2008 for download on the PS3 and featured time-lapse as part of its gimmick – it was apparent that the technology for this is still very expensive, and the quality of the time lapse in Shiki-Tei was nowhere near the standard we had hoped to use in Eden, suggesting we could not have delivered this part of the design pragmatically. Then, the following month, Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games released Pixeljunk Eden for download on PS3, which meant the name “Eden” would have to be shelved.

Finally, in February 2009, Jenova Chen’s thatgamecompany released their game Flower for download on the PS3 which had so many fundamental similarities to Eden that this project was officially shelved. Flower is a magnificent piece of work, and more beautiful than Eden could ever have been on the budget we were intending to use for it. Although the play of the two games is very different, it’s apparent given the issues with time lapse technology that Eden was too ambitious for its time.

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe [PS3 X360 – Beta / Unused Stuff]

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (also known as MK vs. DCU or MK vs. DC) is a crossover fighting game from Midway Games and Warner Bros. Games in the Mortal Kombat series, which was released on November 2008. Ed Boon later revealed via Twitter (June 23rd, 2009) that two new characters were developed for DLC, Quan Chi from Mortal Kombat and Harley Quinn from DC Universe. Boon also stated that these characters will not be released, due to issues surrounding Midway’s bankruptcy. [Info from Wikipedia]

Images:

MK-vs-DC-dlc-Quan-Chi

Also, FaIr_fIghTeR_ noticed many differences in the early videos of the game:

00:19 – Sub Zero does an attack that is almost similar to Jax’s headkick attack.
00:21 – Sub Zero has a different costume then in the final product.
00:32 – The graveyard stage has a big wall with two statues that give a green light.
00:36 – The freefall physics look horrible.

00:05 – Sonya has Batman’s fighting position.
00:19 – Scorpion has Batman’s fighting position.
00:38 – Flash does an uppercut move.
00:46 – Sub Zero’s ice has a sharpy form.
00:55 – Superman’s freeze breath gives a less detailed ice effect on the enemy.
01:06 – The Fatality cameras are further away from the performer and the screen doesn’t turn black in the background.

00:35 – Superman attacks slower then in the final product.
00:48 – Scorpion’s teleport attack sounds different.
01:16 – Superman chains two simple attacks into a promove. This isn’t possible in the final product.
01:44 – Scorpion does Batman’s footgrab attack.
02:50 – Flash leaves much more speed waves behind.
02:58 – Sonya’s bicycle kick voice sounds like a Japanese girl.
03:22 – The opponent who knocks you down in freefall lands softly, you won’t hear or see him land next to you.
03:57 – Superman’s promove circle is white instead of red/blue

Not only Superman’s Brutality is different, but there are quite a few interesting differences in here.

00:00 – There are no ragebars. There were no breakers or possible use of rage.
00:03 – The SUB ZERO WINS! looks different, it looks like this SUB ZERO WINS!
00:06 – There is no intro song when a new round starts.
00:18 – Superman’s laser is fat.
00:47 – The camera is different and the music is different to.
00:47 – Superman’s Brutality animation is ugly.
00:55 – You hear and see BRUTALITY! instead of HEROIC BRUTALITY!

Thanks a lot to FaIr_fIghTeR_ for the contribution!