Action

Propaganda [Playstation, Saturn – Cancelled]

Propaganda is a cancelled mission-based racing game that was in development at Burst for Sega Saturn and the original Playstation in 1996 / 1997 and it would have been published by Virgin Interactive. The gameplay was going to be somehow similar to the Driver series, in which the player could have been able to explore the city with a car to complete various tasks. It’s currently unknown why the project was canned and only few screens were found in GamePro #92.

We can read more about the game in its original press release:

The world of Propaganda is perfect for the standard game story. In an alternate universe where Eastern Europe never really lost power, you play an ex-military loner, Jack Heller, who has been pulled into a rebellion against an evil government.

The film clips depicting this tale contain sets, costumes and acting (including an impressive performance by Yancy Butler of Drop Zone fame) that are worthy of a feature length film. Special effects have also been produced in a more traditional fashion – when the script called for a huge explosion tearing through a warehouse, the crew set up an actual explosion with a 20 foot jet of flame rather than use computer modeling which would have been easier, but looked less realistic.

And what about the game? After all, no amount of video, no matter how impressive, will keep players entertained if the actual play is terrible. Here also, Propaganda seems to shine. Although it’s far too early to make a final call, even at this stage of development, the game looks great. Finished stages revolve around player piloting armed cars through a 3-D world in which they have complete freedom.

Enemy cars loaded to the brim with amazing retro-tech weapons like wheeled torpedoes and side mounted guns are everywhere. Each of the game’s cities offers different challenges and more confusing pathways that the player will need to sort out in order to survive. Even better, the design team has gone to amazing lengths to blend the video footage with the game, creating a unified look that will be absolutely absorbing.

Thanks to Alex and Celine for the contribution!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAWxUugTRSc 

I-Ninja 2 [Cancelled – PS2, XBOX, GameCube]

The original I-Ninja is an underrated action game that was developed by Argonaut Games and released for the Xbox, Playstation 2 and GameCube at the end of 2003. The works on the  sequel were started after a few months, but sadly the studio had some economic problems and they had to closed down in October 2004. I-Ninja 2 was never officially announced: only some concept arts remain as a memento of the project.

From the looks of these arts, it seems that the sequel would have been set in the same setting as the original I-Ninja, with a scenario that mixed ancient Japan and futuristc robots, with even more crazier and hardest levels to play in.

Thanks a lot to Tanguy for the contribution!

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Prowler [PSX – Cancelled]

Prowler (also know as Storm Troop and Prawler) is a cancelled sci-fi action game with mechs, that was in development at Origin Systems (the team behind the Wing Commander series) in 1994. Initially the project was meant to be released for the 3DO, as their Super Wing Commander remake, but with the failure of the console the game was soon moved to the Playstation. As we can read in an interesting article written by Sean Murphy (former Origin Systems designer) on the Wing Commander News website, the project had many problems right from the start:

Team communication was poor. Leadership was iffy. There was almost no dialog between the art staff and the programming staff. I remember one day, months into the project, sitting in a meeting and hearing the programmers drooling about how cool the game was going to be, how “dark…and gritty…and dirty, and oily and all mechanical and functional and stuff!” Clearly they had not gotten the memo about our grand notions of Neo Victorian design…

And some time later – as little as three months, possibly as long as six months – sure enough, EA pulled the plug on Prowler and let most of the team go.

You can read the full article from Sean Murphy in here. Some early concept videos from the game were preserved by the Origin Museum in 2008, and they will be shared with the community sooner or later. For now you can see some concept arts in the gallery below.

Celine was also able to find an in-game screenshot of Prowler, from TopConsoles #4 and CD Consoles #4 magazine (the same screen was in the 2 magazines). Anatoly Shashkin found even more promotional screenshots in July 2018!

Thanks to OMJoe for the contribution!

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Agent [X360/PC – Cancelled]

Agent is a cancelled action adventure that was in development at Ensemble Studios before their closure, probably in the works for the Xbox 360 and PC. The project was revealed in an article about the “last visit” at the studios by Gamasutra, in which they were able to check some of Ensemble’s lost projects. Agent had an art style inspired by Pixar’s The Incredibles and it seems that the gameplay could have been similar to Tomb Raider. On September 9, 2008, it was officially announced that Ensemble would be closing after the release of Halo Wars and Agent vanished forever with them.

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Titanium Angels [PS2/PC – Cancelled]

Titanium Angels is a cancelled action adventure that was in development in 2000 by Mobius Entertainment (now known as Rockstar Leeds). As we can see in the screenshots and the video below (that show a 40% complete build), the player would have used a girl named “Carmen Blake”, a bounty hunter with an armored spider vehicle named Titan. Titanium Angels was cancelled after two years of development when Mobius was purchased by Take-Two Interactive. In april 2004 the studio was officially renamed Rockstar Leeds.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution!

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