Shadow Stalker is a cancelled 2D side scrolling action game that was in development in 1993 by Athena for the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom. From the few screens preserved in the gallery below (scanned from Console Plus #24, EGM #51 and Game Power #25), we can assume that the game was probably going to play similar to Shinobi / Ninja Gaiden, but with lots of huge robots and other mechanical enemies.
Thanks to Alex and Celine for the contributions!
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Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is an open world action game developed by Pandemic Studios and published in 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. DCodes7 was able to find 2 unused cut scenes, one placeholder intro and one unused trailer still hidden in the final game. Also, from looking at the data on the disk it’s possible to see some E3 files (maybe a beta level / demo?) and a debug menu (disabled).
In the gallery below you can see some beta screens with:
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Airborne Ranger is a cancelled action game / third person shooter that was in development by Microprose for the Super Nintendo. The game was a sequel / remake of the original Airborne Ranger released in 1987 / 1988 for Amiga and various PCs. As the original version, we would have play as a sole airborne military to infiltrate enemy territory to complete various objectives. It’s currently unknown if the SNES version was going to use the same level system as the original game, that created maps and objective locations randomly so missions were never the same.
Some screens of the game were found in magazines Banzzai #14 and Super Power #12
Thanks to Celine for the contribution!
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Heist (HEI$T) is a cancelled action game that was in development by inXile Entertainment and would have been published by Codemasters for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game was to be set in San Francisco, California, circa 1969, where the players would have been able to control a group of criminals as they perform various thefts. In January 2010 Codemasters announced that the game had been officially cancelled, as we can read on CVG:
“After a much extended development period, Heist has been terminated as a project and removed from our release schedule,” a Codemasters spokesperson told CVG.
“Codemasters is focusing its future portfolio on high quality titles that will, in the majority, be developed and produced by our internal studios.”
Some more info on Heist’s gameplay can be found in the original press release:
In addition to knocking off banks, each with their own set security precautions, throughout the city, players will be highly motivated to pull off further jobs. These include raiding bars, restaurants, strip clubs, armoured cars, and more in order to acquire the bigger and better tools needed to penetrate the increasingly more difficult banks.
Thanks to Robert Seddon and Landlock for the contribution!
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ResQ is a cancelled 2D shooter / action game that was in development by Tempest Software for the Genesis / Mega Drive. The project was almost finished when the publisher, Psygnosis, decided to pulled it out: even if ResQ was never officially released, a rom of the game was leaked online and can be easily found through Google.
The look and feel of the game seem taken from an Amiga project, probably because the team was inspired by the Bitmap Brothers graphic style back then. Other inspirations were games such as R-Type (for the ship) C64 version of Turrican, Super Ghosts and Goblins (for the centurion) Starwing/Starfox (for the 3D bonus game).
As a former graphic designer of Tempest Software wrote:
The Game was programmed on 486 PC’s by Bill Pullan and Pete, while Jason used Deluxe Paint II and III on an Amiga 1200 with RAM upgrade for Graphics and Animation. Bill actually worked on an Amiga title before RESQ, “Bill’s Tomato Game“.
Thanks to Jason and Celine for the contributions!
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