ocean

Vampire Circus [N64 – Prototype]

Vampire Circus was a Gauntlet-like type of game full of vampires and zombies planned for Nintendo 64 by Zed Two who started working on it in 1996. The game was designed so that you controlled just a single character out of the five in the party, and the others would be under AI control, although you could switch which of the five you were controlling. Each had different skills and abilities, so there was good reason to swap your control between different characters, and it was also possible to lose members of your party to the vampire hoard, so you could only control members of the party that remained alive.

Zed Two got quite far with a playable prototype but when Infogrames took over Ocean, who originally struck a two games deal with the developer (the other one was Wetrix), they forced the team to work with Warner Bros properties they just bought at a great expense. The promising project was thus morphed into the less ambitious Taz Express.

All information and artworks are courtesy of Pickford Bros official website.

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Vanished Powers [PSX PC – Cancelled]

Vanished Powers is a cancelled action adventure / RPG that was in development in 1995 / 1996 by Neon Software (creators of Tunnel B1) and it would have been published by Ocean for the original Playstation and PC. It was going to use an isometric 2D graphic style, with prerendered backgrounds and lots of FMVs, along with more than 70 (weird) characters, modeled with Silicon Graphics. In the end the Vanished Powers was never released, but we dont know the reasons behind this decision.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Scans from Cd Consoles #15 and Player One #62

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Offensive (Ocean) [Playstation, Saturn – Cancelled?]

Offensive is a strategy war game that was in development by Ocean Software for the original Playstation and Saturn. It seems that the project was never finished, as it does not appear in any release list of titles published by Ocean, but maybe it could have been released with a different title on a different console or PC. Sadly we dont have any more info about Offensive and only few  screenshots were found in Electronic Gaming Monthly issue #86 and in PlayerOne Magazine issue #62.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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Joe The Wall [SNES – Cancelled?]

Joe The Wall is a platform / action game that was in development by Ocean (?) for the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo. There is essentially no information about this project, apart from a short article published in Joypad magazine issue #8 (found by Celine). We examined Ocean’s SNES release list but did not find any title that looks like a potential match to this one, so we can assume that Joe The Wall was cancelled for some reason.

If you have more info on this game, please let us know!

Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Zoiks! (Pandemonium) [PC – Cancelled]

Zoiks! (aka Pandemonium) is a cancelled point and click adventure that was in development by Ocean Software’s Tribe team, featuring a cast of classic Hanna Barbera cartoon characters,  including Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred Flintstone, Penelope Pitstop, Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss.

As we can read from the ECTS 1997 press release, in the game’s story Dick Dastardly used a sound machine to rob the Hanna Barbera world of the sounds that bring it alive. Through cunning detection techniques, Fred Flintstone had to trace the devilish Dastardly and put a stop to his mischief.

Tribe, Ocean’s in-house development team, have successfully combined traditional animation techniques with the latest video and graphic technology to bring the world of Hanna Barbera to life. The beautiful animations in Zoiks! allow for maximum interaction and are works of art in themselves. Add to this a stunning ‘surround sound’ soundtrack and speech recorded by the original cartoon cast and the result is a cartoon experience that you can truly interact with.

Zoiks! uses sound in a way no other game has before. Players learn by trial and error how certain sounds affect certain objects and characters, giving them clues to help them track down Dastardly. This format allows younger players to learn intuitively as they play without patronising more experienced gamers.

The game was meant to be published by Infogrames in 1997, but something went wrong during the development and Zoiks! was never released in the end. A little article on the game was published in Edge issue 32.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

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