fighting

Drachen Zor [PC – Cancelled]

Drachen Zor is a cancelled multiplayer arena fighting game that was in development for PC around 1997 / 1998 by 8th Wonder Games, using voxel technology to show off impressive graphics for its time: 

draken-zor-8th-wonder-cancelled-4

“8th Wonder Games today announced the development of the V-Engine, the technology used in fantasy fighting game Drachen Zor. Drachen Zor, set for publication by Southpeak Interactive this October, is the first in a series of action games from 8th Wonder that it hopes will be based on the new technology.

The engine is a combination of proprietary in-house technologies with an open architecture for integration with other technologies. It contains multiplayer networking, high resolution 3-D character definition that doesn’t use polygons, and a voxel-based engine for landscapes. 8th Wonder says that this means more fluid and realistic worlds plus AI that adapts to players’ styles.”

As we can read in an old interview with Bob Chase (former SouthPeak Interactive’s Media Relations Specialist):

“BC: Drachen Zor is a fantasy action CD-ROM game developed by 8th Wonder Games set in the mystical world of Drakkor. Players can choose to be one of eight different characters in an epic-style tournament for control of the Dragon Gate. Drachen Zor’s proprietary V-Engine supports multi-player gaming via the Internet, LAN and modem. We expect Drachen Zor to be available October 1997.”

In our book “Video Games You Will Never Play“ (2016) we published an interview with Gabe Cinquepalmi, who worked at 8th Wonder Games on Drachen Zor. He shared some memories about their cancelled project:

“Gabe: My best memories of making of Drachen Zor were about the people. I made a lot of friends back then that I still keep in touch with today. We were all new to making PC games, and had to go through a lot of trial and error. A multiplayer voxel fighter was probably a little too ambitious for a company comprised mostly of an ex-medical CD-ROM crew and some kids fresh out of school, but we were too inexperienced to know that we were too inexperienced… and we had an irrational confidence and exuberance that would help us negate most of that. We worked on the game for two blissful years, fueled by Mountain Dew and Watchamacallits. I remember animating in 3D Studio R4 using forward kinematics, having to use dry erase markers on my monitor to keep registration points for feet. I remember the pizza guy across the street would call us “computer brains” when we came over to get a slice. I remember that we had an SGI Onyx computer for Softimage, that only one guy could use. It was the size of a small refrigerator and cost as much as a house. During production, 3D PC cards came out for a few hundred bucks that pushed polys faster, making everyone who owned one of those overpriced, oversized hulking cubes feel rather silly. I also remember getting carpal tunnel from playing too much Quake after work, and had to switch to a Wacom tablet exclusively for a few years. Random memories. Good times.

I don’t remember how we got into voxels, but we were sure that it was the silver bullet that was going to set us apart. We were going to be the first game to market with that tech. Our organic characters were leaps and bounds better looking than the industry standard box men running around. I think a Star Trek licensed game ended up coming out eventually, and then it petered out for a few years until it resurfaced as a hip new indie look.

Southpeak was a great ally at first. They treated us and the game well, and weren’t shy about digging into their bottomless coffers. We showed at E3 in Atlanta at a giant kiosk filled with actors dressed as our main characters, and then rented out Planet Hollywood for a fancy party afterwards.They got respected comic artist, Bill Sienkiewicz, to do our box cover and poster. We were riding high! Shortly after that, Southpeak suddenly pulled the plug [cue Price is Right fail sound].

At the time, Southpeak told us that they were going to move into a more kid-friendly direction, and went after licenses like Looney Tunes. Our violent fantasy fighter (with blood splats) did not fit into their plans any more, and voxels were dead now that the 3DFx card was selling like hotcakes. Our company was left in the lurch. We tried to “pivot”, as the kids say, to move the company into a different direction, but we didn’t have the notice or capital to make it. 8th Wonder was scattered to the wind. A few years later, after having worked on some great games, I can look back and see that they probably cancelled it because it just wasn’t the best game. It wasn’t our time.”

In the end Southpeak Interactive officially announced Drachen Zor’s cancellation in September 1998. As we can read on IGN:

“Southpeak Interactive has canned fantasy fighting game Drachen Zor, the company said today. “[It] just didn’t meet the high standards that we’ve established for ourselves and for our products,” said Southpeak president Armistead Sapp. He did note that Southpeak might still make a game set in the fantasy world.

“We still believe the unique characters, environments and story line at the heart of Drachen Zor create a solid foundation for a thrilling fighting game,” Sapp said.”

Images:

 

Star Wars Fighting Game (Studio Gigante) [Xbox – Cancelled]

Studio Gigante was a small team established in 2000 by several former developers of Midway’s popular Mortal Kombat fighting game series. They were able to sign a contract with Microsoft to develop an exclusive “Mortal Kombat Killer” titled Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus. Unfortunately the game received mixed reviews and in 2005 the studio closed down, after releasing their second Xbox exclusive for THQ: WWE WrestleMania 21.

As we can read on an interview made by Polygon with Studio Gigante co-founder Josh Tsui, their team also pitched a (never released) Star Wars fighting game. They develop a tech demo with Darth Maul and Anakin Skywalker fighting each other:

“Gigante was ready to roll onto a proper Tao Feng sequel, and Microsoft wanted it – but the proposed deal gave the team pause, as it didn’t quite offer the resources desired to pull off the more elaborate design, which featured wildly destructible stages. Simultaneously, THQ swooped in with an offer to develop WWE Wrestlemania 21 – a richer contract that could not only help build up the studio further, but possibly also secure a lucrative annual franchise. After much agonizing, the studio principals opted for THQ’s deal, leaving Tao Feng 2 dead in the water.

“Our team was completely crestfallen by that,” says Tsui. “We made the best of it; it’s not like we didn’t work our hearts out,” says David Michicich, another Studio Gigante principal and longtime Tsui associate. “But that was my first experience where I’m working on something that I’m enjoying, but my heart wasn’t into it. We should have found a way to do both deals.” Michicich says exclusivity deals from both publishers prevented such a move.

Not only did the team lose its passion project, but the WWE deal backfired. An incomplete build of the game was accidentally pressed and released, leading to backlash and an eventual recall and revised release. Relations between Gigante and THQ had already soured prior to release, and the poor reaction was the final nail in the coffin.

The Xbox series was dead, and the studio was running out of money. Using a proprietary engine, Gigante prototyped potential Kill Bill and Star Wars fighting games and sought new projects, but decisions weren’t being made quickly enough. By July 2005, just three months after Wrestlemania 21 shipped, the studio closed its doors.”

Videos:

 

Gundam Battle Assault 2 [PSX – Beta / Unused]

Gundam Battle Assault 2 for the PSX, is, disregarding it’s name, the third gundam fighting game for the system to be made, (Gundam the Battle Master, Gundam Battle Assault, Gundam Battle Assault 2) and was released on July 17th, of 2002, late in the life of the PSX system. Being the third in the series, it has four characters leftover from previous games. These are the four that were left out:

Hamma Hamma
Qubeley
The-O
Zeta Gundam (not to be confused with the Double Zeta, which is a normal character)

Aside from a few glitchy moves, and the fact you need Gameshark codes to use these characters, they are fully playable in the Vs. modes. Oh, and yes, it shows the pilots that are in the suits, (they’re turned off in the below video) but the only one that’s acurate, is The-O, with Paptimus Scirocco. The other three pilots are either wrong, or display somewhat glitchy.

Fight 1: Hamma Hamma vs. Epyon
Fight 2: Qubeley vs. Psyco Gundam Mk III
Fight 3: The-O vs. Tallgeese III
Fight 4: Zeta Gundam vs. Hydra Gundam

Video: Gundam Battle Assault 2 Gameshark Characters 

Street Fighter Alpha 2 [SNES – Beta?]

Street Fighter Alpha 2 (also known as Street Fighter Zero 2) is a 1996 fighting game originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom, and later ported to the SNES. Israel has found some beta SFA2 screens for the SNES/SFC version. These were published in the “Club Nintendo” magazine in Mexico.

According to the magazine, SFZ2 was going to include “an special chip to aid in data an sprite processing to make the game more fluid”. The description matches Nintendo’s SA-1 chip but there are no confirmations if it was going to be an SA-1 game.

There is some evidence that it could have been the case, thought:

1. The characters seem to be bigger in the beta, at least in the Rolent vs Vega shot. In the Sakura vs Sakura shot you can tell by the size of her thighs.

2. In the final build, the shadows flickered while in the beta they don’t (both can be seen in the shots). Why is this relevant? In the finalized game the flicker doesn’t look good. Why didn’t they just leave them like in the beta?

Israel thinks that they were indeed aiming towards a SA-1 cartridge but late in the development cycle they switched to a SA-1 + S-DD1 because of space constrains and maybe in the last few weeks decided to settle for a S-DD1 only cart due to costs concerns.

The screenshots were published in August 1996 so that means the the screenshots were taken in June or July. SFA2 was released in November so it must have gone gold in October at least.

Some differences noticed in the screenshots:

  • The game used to have a custom font for the character names. This was changed to a default SNES font.
  • Win icons were red (Sakura vs Sakura screenshot)
  • Shadows didn’t flicker, both are visible in the screenshots.
  • Characters seem to be a little bigger than their final iterations.

Thanks to Israel for the contribution!

Images: 

Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe [PS3 X360 – Beta / Unused Stuff]

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (also known as MK vs. DCU or MK vs. DC) is a crossover fighting game from Midway Games and Warner Bros. Games in the Mortal Kombat series, which was released on November 2008. Ed Boon later revealed via Twitter (June 23rd, 2009) that two new characters were developed for DLC, Quan Chi from Mortal Kombat and Harley Quinn from DC Universe. Boon also stated that these characters will not be released, due to issues surrounding Midway’s bankruptcy. [Info from Wikipedia]

Images:

MK-vs-DC-dlc-Quan-Chi

Also, FaIr_fIghTeR_ noticed many differences in the early videos of the game:

00:19 – Sub Zero does an attack that is almost similar to Jax’s headkick attack.
00:21 – Sub Zero has a different costume then in the final product.
00:32 – The graveyard stage has a big wall with two statues that give a green light.
00:36 – The freefall physics look horrible.

00:05 – Sonya has Batman’s fighting position.
00:19 – Scorpion has Batman’s fighting position.
00:38 – Flash does an uppercut move.
00:46 – Sub Zero’s ice has a sharpy form.
00:55 – Superman’s freeze breath gives a less detailed ice effect on the enemy.
01:06 – The Fatality cameras are further away from the performer and the screen doesn’t turn black in the background.

00:35 – Superman attacks slower then in the final product.
00:48 – Scorpion’s teleport attack sounds different.
01:16 – Superman chains two simple attacks into a promove. This isn’t possible in the final product.
01:44 – Scorpion does Batman’s footgrab attack.
02:50 – Flash leaves much more speed waves behind.
02:58 – Sonya’s bicycle kick voice sounds like a Japanese girl.
03:22 – The opponent who knocks you down in freefall lands softly, you won’t hear or see him land next to you.
03:57 – Superman’s promove circle is white instead of red/blue

Not only Superman’s Brutality is different, but there are quite a few interesting differences in here.

00:00 – There are no ragebars. There were no breakers or possible use of rage.
00:03 – The SUB ZERO WINS! looks different, it looks like this SUB ZERO WINS!
00:06 – There is no intro song when a new round starts.
00:18 – Superman’s laser is fat.
00:47 – The camera is different and the music is different to.
00:47 – Superman’s Brutality animation is ugly.
00:55 – You hear and see BRUTALITY! instead of HEROIC BRUTALITY!

Thanks a lot to FaIr_fIghTeR_ for the contribution!