Action Adventure

Metamor Kid Goomin [SNES – Cancelled]

Metamor Kid Goomin (Goromin) is a cancelled platform / action adventure game that was in development for the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo by BPS (Bullet Proof Software?). There are not many info on the project, but from the title and the few scans preserved in the gallery below, it seems that the main protagonist was able to morph into different forms (the italian magazine wrote about 8 different forms, as a dragon and a mole) to resolve puzzles and to reach new areas.

Celine was able to find some Metamor Kid Goomin screens in SuperPower issue #19,  Console Mania #28 and EGM #59, while a couple of screens were posted by Moosmann in the Assembler Forum.

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Voodoo Islands [PC/PS2 – Cancelled]

Voodoo Islands is a cancelled open world action adventure that was in development in 2002 / 2004 by Spirit / 10TACLE Studios for the Playstation 2 and PC. Gamers were able to play in three different modes in both online and offline play, following the life of a pirate, attacking ships, searching hidden treasures and so on.

As we can read in the IGN preview:

Taking the role of a pirate captain, you set forth on the high seas, fighting against evil cannibals, hostile pirates and the omnipresent Conquistadors. Your aim is to control the Caribbean Sea … but these are not calm waters. This is a treacherous sea full of bloodthirsty enemy Pirates, dangerous Voodoo spells and mysterious magical artifacts.

Sadly the game was canned for unknown reasons. In the gallery below you can see various screens from the project: it’s interesting to notice that the early images released were from target renders, that did not look like the “final” game.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution!

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Videos:

 

Jet Force Gemini [GBC – Cancelled]

A GameBoy Color version of Jet Force Gemini was in development by Bit Studios (for Rare) in 2000, but it was cancelled in the end. The original JFG is a third-person shooter / action adventure published for the Nintendo 64 in October 1999, but the GBC version was never officially announced.

We were able to know about this cancelled project only thanks to Dano2k0 from the Assembler Forum, that found a playable prototype and shared some screens with the community. Rare released 2 other GameBoy Color games based on their Nintendo 64 titles, Perfect Dark and Conker’s Pocket Tales, that were received with low  interest by gamers: we could speculate that their third GameBoy Color “N64 port” was canned for this reason or for quality issues.

Jet Force Gemini GBC was going to have an isometric 2D view, while the gameplay was probably going to be “similar” to the N64 version, with lots of shooting and insects to kill.

As we can read in an interview with Martin Wakeley:

JFG on the Gameboy was the only occasion I can remember Rare outsourcing anything. It was being done by Bits Studios and was nearly done last time I saw it, I’m not sure what happened to it.

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God of War: Chains of Olympus [PSP – Beta]

God of War: Chains of Olympus is an action adventure developed by Ready at Dawn and released in march 2008 for the PSP. As we can read on Wikipedia, the game had already been in the development stages just before the completion of Daxter, when Ready At Dawn pitched the idea of a God of War game for the PSP to SCEA’s Santa Monica Studios.

In an interview after the game was completed, director Ru Weerasuriya stated that several things had to be cut from the game given time constraints. These included multiplayer and co-op aspects as well as other puzzles, characters and dialogue

Also, from an article at Industry Gamers, we found out that the game could have been a side scroller action game:

Dana Jan, lead level designer on the game, revealed that Ready at Dawn briefly thought about making the game 2-D. “There were early discussions of making Chains of Olympus a side-scroller rather than 3D in case the experience couldn’t be fully realized on a handheld,” he said. “This really fueled us to prove that it could be done.”

In the gallery below you can see some footage (thanks to L1qu1dSnak3‘s YT channel1) from the early development of the game: the “Making of Attica” (prototype of the first level) and “The Lost Levels” (removed areas and scenes) videos can be unlocked in the final game (Beat the game in God mode and finish the Challenge of Hades).

Thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!

Videos:

 

Moon (Renegade Kid) [GBC – Cancelled]

Moon is a FPS developed by Renegade Kid and released in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, but originally the project was born as a 2D side-scrolling action adventure for the GameBoy Color. Moon GBC was revealed by Jools Watsham, game director at Renegade Kid, in a video from his Youtube Channel.

The GameBoy Color version of Moon was never released, but the scenario and the characters were later reused to create the DS version. Moon looked like an interesting adventure, similar to Metroid II, and it’s sad that it did not had its chance on the GameBoy Color.

Props to Jools Watsham for sharing these screens from the prototype!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Videos (he talks about Moon GBC @ 3:30):

For comparison, here’s the DS version: