New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Project ACLAND (Krome Studios) [Xbox 360, PS3, PC – Cancelled]

Project ACLAND is a cancelled horror game that was in development by Krome Studios around 2006 / 2009, planned to be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. The team spent 3 years prototyping the project, with huge focus on its violent and gory aspects: there are no details about its gameplay but we know players would fight a huge monster while trying to survive its fury.

As far as we know Acland was never officially announced by Krome Studios before its cancellation, but former Krome’s Creative Director Steve Stamatiadis talked about it in an old article published by Games ON:

“We also had this monster game that we’d been wanting to do for a long time, called Project ACLAND”. The game was at least three years worth of work according to Steve, but it was something that publishers had shown definite interest in. “The lack of R18+ rating was a problem, as it was going to be really gory,” he says, “like a monster movie. But there was no way you can sell a game like that in Australia. At times I was thinking ‘Why would I want to make a game that I can’t even play here?’”

The ACLAND monster, named after Acland Lane behind Krome’s Brisbane offices, would later go on to star in Blade Kitten. ”I’d really love to come back do Project ACLAND right,” Steve says, thinking of the future. “It’s been three years, and nobody’s done anything like it, or even close.”

Unfortunately there’s only 1 tiny image showing the monster 3D model in Project Acland: if you know someone who worked on this lost game who may help us preserve more images, please let us know!

Here’s the same monster as seen in Blade Kitten:

Thanks to Maik for the contribution!

Sin 2: Reborn (Ritual Entertainment) [Cancelled – PC]

Sin 2 (AKA Sin Reborn) is the cancelled sequel to Ritual Entertainment’s 1998 FPS, which was pitched around 2003. The team created an early prototype demo using the Doom 3 engine, but they did not find a publisher interested in funding the project. From the available footage it seems the game’s antagonist wanted to mutate every human in the city, you could use the physic engine to destroy the environment and block / damage enemies, and you could drive around in vehicles.

Some details were also published on the old Ritual Entertainment’s website:

“In Summer 2003, Ritual Entertainment created a publisher demo for Sin II in order to find funding for the project. Using next generation technology, Sin II was to be a full blown follow-up to Ritual’s 1998 action hit Sin. Unfortunately, no publisher had serious interest in backing the title, forcing Ritual to abandon the idea for the time being.

While the game is not currently in development, we are able to bring you two exclusive in-game screenshots from Ritual’s demo. Taken in a black test map, the screenshots show the new models for main character John R. Blade and villainess Elexis Sinclaire.

So why doesn’t Ritual just release the demo? The demo was created using an in-development third party technology. Until this technology is completed and officially available for licensing, Ritual cannot release any more media from the demo, or even disclose what technology was used.”

In the end Ritual Entertainment chose to work on an Episodic series of Sin games, and the original Sin 2 was finally canned. Unfortunately even Sin Episodes did not have much luck: of the 9 planned episodes only the first one was published before the company was acquired by MumboJumbo.

Thanks to Piotr for the contribution!

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [Playstation – Cancelled]

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (時をかける少女, Toki o Kakeru Shojo) is a cancelled adventure game that was planned around 1998 by Bandai for the original Playstation. The game was based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui and possibly the related 1997 movie (and not the 2006 anime, unless Bandai leapt through time), which were quite popular at the time.

By looking at gameplay from the available footage (found in the VHS edition of the 1997 movie and on a CD-ROM from “Pre-Pre” PlayStation CLUB magazine) the game looked similar to Revelations: Persona on PS1, with top-down 2D exploration and animated cutscenes. As far as we know there was no combat in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but there could have been some kind of dating-sim mechanics.

Character design for this lost PS1 video game was by Minene Sakurano (who at the time was working on Mamotte Shugogetten) and the scenario was written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi (mostly known for his participation in Gainax and Gonzo). A preview was published in Dengeki PlayStation magazine (Vol.76, June 1998): if you are able to translate the most important parts from this preview, please let us know in the comments below!

Thanks go GIoN for the contribution

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Switch (GRIN) [Cancelled – PSP]

Switch is a cancelled FPS that was in development by GRIN around 2006 (after they finished working on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for PC), planned to be released on the Sony PSP. It seems the game was officially announced by the company, and they wanted to launch it along with some kind of hardware add-on for the PSP. Not much information is still available online, but we know the game was set on a space base, following a sci-fi story similar to Alien.

Some Switch concept art was shown by the company at the time and a 3D model was shared online by a former GRIN artist. These images are preserved below, to remember the existence of this lost game.

In the end GRIN had many more canned games when the company bankrupted: Streets of Rage Reboot, Strider, Wanted 2, Tower, Final Fantasy Fortress.

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Blades of Rage (Ocean) [Cancelled – Playstation, Saturn]

Blades of Rage is a cancelled helicopter flight-sim that was in development by Ocean Software for the original Playstation and Sega Saturn. The game was set in the near future, when maniacal dictators and random violence prevail in the world. Players would take the role of a pilot / tactician, flying in different missions trying to restore peace.

Each mission would offer various objectives, such as transport jobs and assassinations, with day and night cycles. Six custom choppers would have been able to choose from, each with unique, experimental weapons systems. Blades of Rage would have been played in first person view, so we can speculate gameplay could have been similar to G-Police. A couple of screenshots from the game were published in Gamepro’s Cutting Edge (spring 1996).

Thanks to KFHEWUI for the contribution!

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