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Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony

1906: An Antarctic Odyssey [PS2 – Cancelled]

U64 Staff & Contributors
25-03-2012
3 Comments

1906: An Antarctic Odyssey is a cancelled PlayStation 2 game in pre-production at Darkworks during 1999/2000, but it was put on hold when development on Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare started. Some concepts of the game may have been taken over into the later also cancelled USS Antarctica/Lost Mantis.

Eventually, IGN previewed the game:

The scope of 1906 is a vast action adventure voyage as a team of scientists make their way deep into the world’s uncharted South Pole. Elements of the survival horror pioneered by Alone In The Dark will be part of the play, as the explorers will have to brave uncharted worlds and unknowable dangers. What lies in the frozen arctic is a mystery ready to be discovered, and you are part of the team that will heroically take on that task.

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Microsoft, Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony, Xbox 360

True Crime: Hong Kong (Sleeping Dogs) [Beta – Xbox 360 PS3]

monokoma
14-02-2012
No Comments

True Crime: Hong Kong is a sandbox action game that was in development by United Front Games and was to be published by Activision. It was going to be the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series, but in February 2011, Activision announced that the game had ceased production along with their Guitar Hero franchise. The game was declared cancelled for being “just not good enough” to compete in the open world genre. Activision didn’t expect it to generate enough profit and stopped development. “True Crime: Hong Kong was playable from start to finish and ‘virtually complete’ in terms of content before Activision canned it,” the developer behind the game told CVG. [Info from Wikipedia] In February 2012, it was announced that True Crime: Hong Kong will go trough some changes and it will be released by Square Enix as a different game, named “Sleeping Dogs”.

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Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Rygar [Beta – NES]

U64 Staff & Contributors
13-02-2012
No Comments

Rygar is a 2D side scrolling action game created by Tecmo in 1986 and originally released for arcades in Japan as Argus no Senshi. An home-version for Nintendo was released on April 1987 in Japan for the Famicom as Argos no Senshi and later that year in the United States for the NES. A European release came in 1990.

Yes, a beta version of this horribly under rated classic exists somewhere out there in the world. However all we have to acknowledge its existence with are screenshots. The following screen shots were scanned from the back of the American, European and Japanese boxes as well as a Japanese magazine ad for the game.

The quality is not that great but these were not photoshopped at all.

This was taken from the back of the Japanese box. It shows the first stage. Notice the mountains are not purple and the trees have branches.

Here we see Garloz. Notice the shrine on the right not present in the final version of the game?

Here we see the very top of the Gran Mountain. Just before you travel to the Tower of Garba. Notice that the tree stumps that you use the cross bow on are thinner than they appear in the final version of the game? Also notice that the ropes are attached to different platforms than shown in the actual release?

Last but not least, the Japanese advertisement shown in magazines back in the day. MANY screenshots of an obvious beta are shown. Notice the Hermit’s room has no platform to the left or door to exit? Notice that the boss of the Tower of Garba is being fought on the first floor? Also notice that the world of Lapis is shown with Rygar crossing a rope on cliffs not seen in the actual game?

December 14th, 2012, another screenshot from the beta has been found. This time, a moon seems to have been removed from the background of the Gran Mountain stage. It seems that there was supposed to be some transitioning from day to night in this game that was scrapped.

A beta must exist somewhere and hopefully some day, someone will find it.

Post by Casey Strain

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Playstation 3 (PS3), Sony

True Hero (inFAMOUS) [PS3 – Concept]

monokoma
20-01-2012
2 Comments

inFamous is a game for the PlayStation 3, developed by Sucker Punch. The project is a third-person sandbox  game that combines elements of the superhero MMO City of Heroes with a roaming open-world, allowing the player to make choices between being a hero or an antihero that will affect the game accordingly.

In the gallery below we can see some old concept artworks from Sucker Punch, in which it seems that the game was originally know as “True Hero” and the style was different (more similar to the Sly Cooper art) from the one in the final version. Probably the style was changed to appeal more to the PS3 target.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images (concept):

Final art:

infamous-cover 

Microsoft, Others, PC / MAC, Playstation 2 (PS2), Sony, Xbox

Kat Burglar [Cancelled – PS2, XBOX, PC)

U64 Staff & Contributors
11-01-2012
4 Comments

Kat Burglar is a cancelled action / stealth game that was in development by Krome Studios, probably planned for PC, Playstation 2 and Xbox. In the beginning of year 2000 Krome Studios announced a new game about a lady burglar called Katherine Kelly, who steals works of art for a collector called Hugo Biggs-Lazenby. There wasn’t much information available on the gameplay, but that sure had to be a stealthy game. Some ideas from that project were later used in Blade Kitten.

As we can read in an article on Games.on.net:

Recounting with a touch of bitterness that it was apparently okay to have a dozen identical “muscular space marine” games on the market at the same time, Steve and the team were forced to shelve the game. “They just weren’t getting it, even if they did like the characters”, says Steve, remembering failed deals with partners like Mattel. “I’ll always remember the guys came back from one meeting with a publisher, and the publishers said ‘We’re pretty sure there’s already a 60’s female thief game with a character that has red hair’, and I’m standing there going ‘Are they… talking about our game?’”.

Set on the island of Mont-St. Michael, Kat Burglar featured a number of adventure-game driven mechanics similar to those found in Flight of the Amazon Queen, as well as AI sidekicks who you could give orders to through hand gestures. The intent was to have a Zelda-style unlockable open world, with the island opening up to you as you progressed. Despite the game being developed to a playable state through one prototyped level, they were unable to secure a publisher. Opportunity did come knocking later in the year, as Sony expressed a desire to publish a cartoony platformer on their PS2 – a desire that Krome were only too happy to help fulfill. That game that would later go on to become TY The Tasmanian Tiger, and one of the company’s most iconic franchises.

Post by Chentzilla

Images:

A screenshot (scan from Russian gaming magazine “Magazin Igrushek”, №2/2000)

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