In 2008 MKO Games, a French independent studio, worked on a platform / adventure game prototype based on The Little Prince book. The project looked really nice, with a colorful style that was similar to the drawings that are in the book. Microsoft was interested in this proto for their Xbox 360, but they asked MKO to create a second prototype based on the art style of The Little Prince animated series created by Method Animations. Sadly neither of these prototypes was developed into a full game, maybe becaue Microsoft and other publishers seen The Little Prince as a “difficult” IP to sell to gamers.
Dota-kun no Bouken Roman is a cancelled side scrolling platform / action game that was in development for the Famicom / NES that was produced by Atlus and was going to be published by Imagineer. There are basically no info about Dota Kun’s gameplay, but we can look at some scans that were uploaded on a japanese website. On GDRI we can read some more info on the development:
Dota-kun no Bouken Roman (“Dota’s Romantic Adventure”) is some sort of side-scrolling action game that was to be published under Imagineer’s WaveJack Jr. label. It was based on an MSX game by SystemSoft. You can see ads and screenshots here. The point is, I asked Esaki if it was developed by Atlus (because I suspected it was). He said it was produced by Atlus, but it was programmed outside the company. That seems to have been a common practice for Atlus, especially in the early days.
Green Lantern is a cancelled platformer / adventure game based on the DC comic of the same name that was in development for the Super Nintendo at Ocean Software in 1994.
A small preview of the game was feature in the French publication, Super Power Magazine issue 29. Their write-up reveals that the game was a side-scrolling platformer with shooter elements. The story featured Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern hunting down the queen of Xaos, who is planning to conquer the universe with an army of invisible alien soldiers, once she collects a set of all-powerful crystals.
Seven levels in total were planned, each taking place on a different world in the DC universe. It all culminated with a final stage using mode 7, where the player would have flown the Lantern through space in a shoot ’em up style endgame.
A contributor from SNES Central was able to get in touch with some former members of Ocean to learn more about the project, as well as its demise. According to these sources, the game’s original programmer was Andrew Deacin. Unsatisfied with his efforts, the company’s management later replaced him with Bobby Earl, who rewrote its code from the ground up. This is just one of a number of restructuring moves made during Green Lantern’s development, says John Lomax, who was an artist on the team:
“Green lantern was an interesting one as I was only on the game for the first few weeks before moving of to work on Jurassic park 2. It kinda went through development hell (new programmers coming on to finish it as the original guys were fired).”
Bobby Earl, the coder who succeeded Deacin, revealed the circumstances of the project’s eventual cancellation:
“Green Lantern was a project I worked on quite a few years ago, for the Super Nintendo. The project was infact finished, but DC Comics wanted some very difficult and arduous changes to the product, thus considering the budget already spent, Ocean Software deemed it was not worth continuing with the project.”
Given the apparent pressure the license holders were placing on Ocean, it is likely that they were also to some extent responsible for the changes in the team’s staff throughout its development.
Dean Evans, the composer of the game’s soundtrack has since come forward about his experience with the title, even releasing some of the music he created for it on YouTube. According to Evans, a number of his songs from Green Lantern were re-used in Ocean’s Waterworld tie-in game.
Thanks to Celine, Ace, RetroGameFan9000 and Rod_Wod for the contributions! (Scans from Super Power magazine #29, CD Consoles #7, Joypad #39, Edge #8)
Update: OldClassicGamer sent us some info to prove that these info about Croc 3 are fake, so we’ll just leave this page as a “rumor” to let people to still find the original story and the updated info. Here is what OldClassicGamer wrote:
I don’t know who sent you that info but whoever did it was not from Argonoaut and was probably someone with too much free time since he came with all those details.
Where is my proof? Well, first of all, here is website: www.storybox.club This is new game from creators of Croc and they are asking for donations. They promised they will include Croc characters in-game if they get enough donated money. Here are more details you can read first post and find out everything.
Story Box developers do not own the IP, but they are currently contacting Jez to see if they can get permission to use Croc characters in their game called Story Box. Jez San is founder of Argonaut. Here, you can read all the info about Jez: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3965937.stm
And two final evidences I have are conversations with Story Box developers and Zenimax. I will attach screenshots in email as a proof. So if Zenimax confirmed themselves that they never owned Croc, then the whole story and Croc 3 playable build that cannot be leaked because Zenimax is not allowing it is fake. I would like to ask you nicely to take down that article because it is spreading lies and it can damage potentially new Croc games that will come after Story Box is successful.
Also, if game was started being developed in 2001, then how come no info was known even in 2004 befor Argonaut bankrupt. The truth is, Croc 3 was going to happen but they only started talking about it in 2004, before they went bankrupt. Prototype for game was never created since game was never in developement.
What do you think about this? Leave your comment below!
Original post:
The original Croc is a platform game published by Fox Interactive and developed by Argonaut Software (AKA Argonaut Games) in 1997 for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. A sequel, Croc 2, was released in 1999 but the third chapter of the series was never released, even if development was started. The game was called Croc 3: Stone of the Gobbos (also known as Croc 3: Barons Revenge and Croc 3: Croc Returns! during development). It was to launch on Playstation 2, Gamecube and Xbox in 2005. The game would of been a direct sequel to the events of Croc 2, and would feature 2 player on all 3 platforms. In this game, Croc was to yet again, be faced with stopping Baron Dante and saving the Gobbos. However this time Dante has a spell that is not able to be stopped unless Croc finds the Sacred “Stone of the Gobbos”.
Sadly after Argonaut Software closed in 2004, the IP for Croc was sold to Zenimax Media Inc, and Zenimax Media had Mud Duck Productions continue development of Croc 3: Stone Of The Gobbos. However, the game was cancelled after trouble with the developer and thus, ended the Croc Franchise.
The world shown in the render below is the Croc 3 castle hub. In Croc 3, rather than the former games, Argonaut Software were using Full Explorable Hub Worlds sorta like Spyro The Dragon. This way it was more easy for younger kids to play the game. Some of the Croc 3 inspiration was coming from Spyro Year Of The Dragon (One of the biggest being hub worlds with portals).
Croc 3 started development in the summer of 2001. Argonaut Software had split into three teams to work on their big games, Malice (Which started development in the 90`s but later bumped dev up to PS2), other small projects (like Carve), and Croc 3. Croc 3 was having trouble finding a publisher. They had contacted Fox, and they wanted no part of Croc 3 due to the sales of Croc 2. Argonaut then contacted EA and they said they would publish it, but their fees were too high. The Publisher they stuck with was Activision, who said they would publish it and help Argonaut work around their budget. With a team of only 10 people working on the project, Croc 3 went through many changes.
First it was in development for Dreamcast, Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC, however with the failing sales of Dreamcast (And due to Croc 2 never appearing on sega), Argonaut stopped working on the Dreamcast version and focused more on the PS,PS2,XB and GC versions. They later cancelled the PC version as well.
The next problem Argonaut ran into was the voice actor for croc had no wish to return to the role. So they would need to recast. The engine they were developing on was an unstable version of their in house engine, BRender, which also powered Malice and a couple of other Argonaut games. This version was a new updated one exclusive to Croc 3 to allow for certain things to try to push the 4 consoles to their limits.
What started to take more time was the Playstation 1 version. This was due to the fact that Argonaut were using croc 1/2 version of BRender because BRender for Croc 3 was not compatible on Playstation 1 due to the “Next Gen” graphics. The new console versions would feature top of the line graphics developed in house to push them to their limits, while the PS1 version was simply the same graphics as croc 2. The reason Argonaut were insisting to release Croc 3 on PS1 was to keep the trilogy in line with each other on Playstation. The series was always planned as a trilogy and the third was supposed to be the final one.
Croc 3 on PS2, GC and Xbox would of been 2 player. Player 1 was Croc, and player 2 was a new crocodile named Ginger, who was a love interest to croc. (Kinda like a Amy/Sonic relationship). To appease players who hated multiplayer, Ginger would only appear in the story IF you were in 2 player. If not, she would disappear. As for the soundtrack, Justin Scharvona from croc 1, who composed the C1 soundtrack would make a return to compose it in this game. Thanks to former Argonaut Employees from the Croc 3 Team for the contribution!
Asterix in Egypt is an action / platform game that was published for the Sega Master System based on the the french Asterix comics. In some old magazines we can see a lot of beta screenshots, with vairous graphic differences from the final version!
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