platform

GameCube, Nintendo

Don’t Call Me Max [GC – Cancelled]

monokoma
05-10-2009
No Comments

In 2002 Prolific Publishing were working on a new platform / action game for the GameCube, known as “Don’t Call Me Max”. The project was going to be  originally published by TDK and later by Destination Software, but in the end it was never released for some reasons. As we can read from the original press release the story was a real masterpiece:

In Don’t Call Me Max! the player takes control of a kangaroo named Max, who has run away from home looking for the circus that his father once traveled with. Max arrives at the Great Circus, only to find that it is a ramshackle, a shadow of its former glory. The circus has been overtaken by the curse of the evil Ringmaster. At the circus Max stumbles into an abandoned tent and finds himself surround by magician’s props. The ghost of the magician appears and gives Max his quest to travel to the magic realms and release the circus clans from the evil Ringmaster’s curse. Max’s only companion is the spirit of his father who resides in the magic staff he carries over his shoulder. Together they must travel through a variety of unique circus worlds, using magic and skill to survive the perils set forth by the Ringmaster. Can Max free the innocent Circus clans from the spell of the Ringmaster, and change the fate of the Great Circus?

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images:

Video:

 

Microsoft, Xbox

ToeJam & Earl III [XBOX – Unused Stuff]

monokoma
03-10-2009
1 Comment

ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth is an action video game released in October 2002 for the Xbox, and is the third game in the ToeJam & Earl series. It was originally developed for Sega’s Dreamcast before being ported to the Xbox after the Dreamcast’s commercial failure. You can find more screens and videos from ToeJam & Earl III Dreamcast in our Unseen Archive.

Phugolz was able to find some unused cutscenes hidden in the final game, as he wrote in the U64 Forum:

I began to dig through the files. I found what appears to be a set of hot tub cutscenes that were never used! On top of that, there seems to be a video capture test video lost among them that has footage of what appears to be the grass level, with a hot tub! The hot tub is -kinda- used in a secret area linked from the grass area.

You can find some videos of the unused scenes at X-Cult!

Images: 

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Plok [SNES – Beta / Concept / Unused Stuff]

monokoma
01-10-2009
1 Comment

Plok was a Super Nintendo game developed by Software Creations and published by Tradewest Games in 1993 in the United States, and later by Nintendo in Europe and Activision in Japan. The game is a traditional platform game starring a character named “Plok.” [Info from Wikipedia]

At the Pickford Bros’s website they have an interesting archive with many info and concept arts from the development of the game, in which we can see some unused costumes and characters. The Plok project started out as another game called “Fleapit” a coin-op developed while Pickford Bros worked at Zippo Games, for Rare’s custom hardware ‘Razz’ board. The game was fully playable and about half complete when it was put on hold and eventually canned by the closure of the studio.

Retrogamer96 has let us known about three unused / test levels that were found in the game code. If you use an action replay you can acces to some glitched up stages called “Bedream Fens”, “Bredanni Bog” and more “Test Drive” levels. One interesting level includes all of Plok’s costumes including the ones used in the Fleapit stages.

Thanks to Adrien Baptis we found out more info about these removed levels (check the video below!). For the Test Drives, only the first one is playable and let you test all the vehicules and costumes of the game (the code is 7E084A28). The others Test Drives will drop you in an invisible water.

For the three beta/secret levels, they are “Brendammi bog” (the codes is 7E084A1D), “Badream fens” (the codes is 7E084A1E) and “Breezy beach”(the codes is 7E084A1F). Actually, we can see where those levels are on the map. All you have to do is to go in a regular level without the code, put the code on when you’re in the level, then die. With that, Plok will not return in the level but will be on the map : he acts like he just beat Rockyfella and wants to go in the fleas’ hole. But instead of jumping in, he walks forward and stops on the bogs. That’s where the level “Brendammi bog” is. With the other two levels, Plok walks through the bog and go to the south beach.

Thanks to Retrogamer96 and Adrien Baptis for the contributions!

Images:

Videos:

 

Nintendo, Nintendo DS

Henry Hatsworth [DS – Beta & Concept]

monokoma
25-09-2009
No Comments

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is a Nintendo DS action-adventure and puzzle game created by Kyle Gray, who founded the “Experimental Gameplay Project” with Kyle Gabler, the creator of World of Goo. Gray led a seven-man team at EA Tiburon to develop the game.  While the game is an action-platformer on the top screen, once enemies are defeated by Hatsworth, they are sent to the bottom screen as puzzle blocks. [Info From Wikipedia]

In the beta version of the game there were some differences in the HUD, levels and gameplay:

  • The Puzzle Meter was in the top screen.
  • Different icon for the Rifle weapon.
  • “Young” Henry had a full series of “silver hearts” to consume before return to the “old” Henry. In the final game, only half of the hearts are silver ones.  It was like to have 2 energy bars at once (making the game easier).
  • Some of the puzzle blocks had a different design / face.
  • Henry’s animations were still incomplete.
  • A couple of parts in the beta videos seem to be from a removed level or an early design of a final one.
  • The bouncing baloons were pink, instead of yellow.

Also, in the concept arts we can notice many Bosses that were cut from the final game, as the ones that look like Benjamin Franklin or the 3 muscle men from the circus. In the artworks we can even see early and unused designs for  the normal enemies, Henry’s ship (from one of the secret levels) and puzzle blocks.

Images:

Video:

 

Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega

Keeper of the Gates [G/MD – Cancelled]

monokoma
20-09-2009
4 Comments

Keeper of the Gates is a cancelled action game that was in development for the Genesis / Mega Drive by Razorsoft. This was meant to be a sequel to Stormlord, in which we would have played through 8 levels with hard puzzles and traps to resolve. Also, “six players would have been able to alternately compete in tournament play, to test their adventuring skills”. The project was never finished for unknown reasons.

Celine has found some screens of the Game in EGM 40 & 41, while Ross Sillifant found even more in Sega Force magazine, you can check them all in the gallery below!

Thanks to The Punisher we found out that Keeper Of The Gates was going to be a new game in the Stomlord series or a port of Stormlord 2: Deliverance. The screens from the Genesis / Mega Drive version look exactly like S2:D released for Amiga, as we can see at Hall of Light.

Images: