Action

Red Dead Revolver [Beta – PS2, XBOX]

Red Dead Revolver is a western third-person shooter published by Rockstar Games and developed by Angel Studios, a team that is now known as Rockstar San Diego. The game was released in May 2004, for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but its development begun 3 years before (2001 / 2002) and the project was originally meant to be published by Capcom.

In 2002, Angel Studios were acquired by Take Two Interactive and Rockstar Games purchased the rights of the title and expanded on it. The original version of Red Dead Revolver had a more arcadish and fast gameplay, while the final one had a more “open world realistic” approach. The “Angel Studios Version” was played more like an “on rails” shooter (but with free movements), instead the “Rockastar San Diego Version” is more like an action adventure.

Chek the trailers below for a comparison. If you played the game and can help us to notice more differences, it would be appreciated!

Thanks to BemaniAK for the contribution!

Images:

Beta Videos:

Here’s the final version of the game for comparison:

 

Metal Gear Solid [Game.com – Cancelled]

Before being cancelled, a version of Metal Gear Solid was in development for the ill-fated Game.com, a portable console released by Tiger Electronics in 1997. It seems that the game was going to be a port of Metal Gear Solid PSX, but there are just few info on the project. At one point, a gameplay video of this game was distributed among group members of the now-defunct America Online account “TigerGcom”, but sadly this footage seems to have been lost forever.

After many researches, Celine was able to find a screenshot of Metal Gear Solid Game.com in Console Plus magazine issue #90! On the 22 January 2010, Parasyte posted some more screens in the Lost Levels Forum.

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Rat Attack [N64/PSX – Beta]

Rat Attack! is a puzzle / action game developed by Pure Entertainment that was released in 1999 on PlayStation and in 2000 on Nintendo 64. The object of the game is to clear each level of a certain total of rats, without getting hit enough times to lose a life, or ensuring the room wasn’t destroyed, which would also kill you. [Info from Wikipedia]

LavaWave has found some beta Rat Attack screenshot with removed levels , high quality models (instead of the low quality ones in the final game) and a boss stage with the scorpion king totally revamped (probably a target render). Also, the official site of the game surprisingly is still alive since 1998 or so, in which we can read an interesting “the making of rat attack” section.

Thanks a lot to LavaWave for the contribution!

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Escaper [Playstation – Cancelled]

Escaper is a cancelled action / adventure game that was in development in 1997 by Sony (SME) for the original playstation. Players would have been able to create their own super hero, to resolve puzzles and fight enemies. The game was shown at the Tokyo Game Show 1997 and few screenshots were published in old gaming magazines, but we cant find any more info on the project. It seems that Escaper was never released, but it could also be possible that i was released under a different name, at least in Japan. If you recognize this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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MegaMan X7 [PS2 – Beta]

Megaman X7 (Rockman X7 in Japan) came to the American PS2 in october of 2003, and brought with it some of the biggest changes the X series of Megaman games has seen. For the first time, players could control X and Zero in 3D worlds, as well as switching back to 2D at times. It also brought with it, a new face to the series, Axl, with the ability to completely transform into certain enemies.

Players could now switch between 2 characters of their choice in any given level, with the Intro stage, being the only exception, considering that for the first time ever, X, was an unlockable character, instead of being available right from the start. However, it seems this wasn’t always the case. Take a look at these beta videos and screenshots taken from before the game was released.