shooter

Flying Aces [32X/Saturn – Cancelled]

Flying Aces is a cancelled flight simulator / shooter set in the first World War, that was originally in development by Rocket Science Games for the Sega 32 X in 1994 / 1995. As we can read in GamePro #68 (thanks to Celine for the scan!), the gameplay was depicted with live action FMV and included multiple views from both inside and outsite the aircraft.

Only few screenshots remain from the 32X project and when the Sega Add-On was already dead, it seems that RSG tried to port the game to the  Saturn (scan from Cd Consoles #4), without any luck. Neither version of Flying Aces was ever released.

Unfortunately, while some Rocket Science’s games were critically acclaimed, none of them did particularly well financially, and unable to secure additional funding, RSG was forced to close down in 1997. [Info from Wikipedia]

Images: 

After Burner [X360 – Concept]

In 2005 Juice Games had an idea to develope a “next gen” Flight simulator / Shooter, probably for the soon-to-be released Xbox 360. To easily find a publisher and funds they tried to pitch their flight project to Sega, as new game in the After Burner series,  but without any success. As the After Burner pitch was unsuccessful, Juice Games decided to use an original IP for their Flight Shooter and the project became Stormbirds for the Xbox 360 and PS3. In the end Stormbirds was canned by THQ, Juice Games’ publisher.

Only few concept arts remain to preserve the existence of this project.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

Images: 

Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat [NES – Cancelled]

As we can read on Wikipedia, Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager (born 1923) is a noted test pilot. He is widely considered to be the first pilot to travel faster than sound and his career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army Air Forces. In 1991 Electronic Arts published Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat for PC, an aircraft simulation in which Chuck Yeager was a technical consultant in the game and his digitized voice is featured in the game, giving encouragement and praises before and after missions.

A NES game featuring Chuck Yeager, titled “Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat” was also in the works for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it was never released for unknown reasons. In May 2010, mrmark0673 and BeaglePuss were able to buy a prototype of Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat NES from an eBay auction and shared many screenshots of the game. Chuck Yeager’s Fighter Combat will

As BeaglePuss and mrmark0673 wrote in the Nintendo AGE Forum:

This game is fantastic!. It’s extremely involved for an NES game. There are two selectable training options and two gameplay options including a two player game where Player one flies the jet and Player two is in charge of artillery. There are four weapons (including remote missiles that the player take control of to seek out long range targets), tons of baddies (Planes, helicopters, tanks, etc), awesome pseudo 3-D effects (Think 8-bit Star Fox), well developed story line, tons of in-game options (multiple camera angles), and some of the most ridiculous digitized voice overs of all time. Not only is the voice fantastic, but Yeager’s disembodied head appears on screen every time another one liner is shared.

The two things that continue to stand out for me are:

– The digital voices. Every five seconds, Chuck says something bizarre like “Engage!” or “Out of Missiles” and my favorite “You call yourself a pilot?!”

– The “polygon” graphics that I never thought I’d see on the NES. For the hardware, I can’t believe they can pull it off. Sure, it’s primitive next to something like Starfox, but not bad at all for the NES.

The game will be released (Cart and box) for less than $60 shipped. If that doesn’t interest you as a collector, you could always wait until the initial sale is over and play the rom for free. As always, huge props to mrmark0673 and BeaglePuss!

Images: 

Phase Zero [Jaguar – Cancelled]

Phase Zero (also know as “Hover Hunter” in early previews) is a cancelled first person shooter developed by Hyper Image for the Jaguar. A playable demo was somehow leaked online and many videos and reviews of the game can be found on Youtube. Phase Zero looked really nice and it was fun enough, but something went wrong during the development and Hyper Image were not able to finish their project.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Scans from Cd Consoles magazine, issues #4, #5, #8 and #13.

Images:

Videos:

 

Rip Squad [Arcade – Cancelled]

Rip Squad is a cancelled driving shooter / action game that was in development from 1999 to 2001 by Midway for the Arcades. It was going to be a war-themed game, inspired by Call of Duty and a TV show called “Rat Patrol”. The gameplay featured 360° of on-screen movement, a mounted .50 cal rifle inside the cabinet and a seat with a shaker beneath it, to simulate the motion of the jeep driving over different types of terrain.

As we can read on Arcade Heroes:

Back in 2001, Midway made a decision to dump their long standing coin-op division in favor of focusing developments on console gaming.  When that decision came down, there were still some arcade games floating around in the development cycle, which were subsequently canceled and were lost to the knowledge of the public.

Thanks to kieranmay for the contribution!

Images:

Videos: