Tuesday 17 March 2009

The Top 10 Cancalled games...

Games get cancelled. Some are good, some are bad. Some are great, some are so great that the mere fact that they were cancelled leaves you crying yourself to sleep every night whimpering their name, This is the Top 10 biggest Cancelled Games.

10. Donkey Kong Racing

That’s right, not Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong. The big bad ape himself had his own racing game, and man did it look a treat. Not only were the power-ups and characters great, you got to ride animals. No longer would you be confined to a kart when you could race on Rambi or Zinger. Unfortunately when Rareware left they took their games with them, so there’s little or no chance of anyone ever playing this.

9. Dead Phoenix

Dead Phoenix was originally announced as one of the “Capcom 5″; a set of five Capcom-developed games originally planned as GameCube exclusives. However it failed to appear at E3 2003 and was suddenly removed from Capcoms Website, gone without a trace. Very little is actually known about the game, as it was cancelled in early stages, but you appear to be a winged-man, flying through what appear to be open ended levels and fighting monsters.

8. Glover 2

In 1998 N64 players were introduced to one of the coolest (by that i mean oddest) videogame characters of all time, Glover. Glover was a four fingered magical glove, who is thrown out of a tower due to an explosion, releasing several crystals that protect the kingdom into the world. Now Glover, being the quick witted glove he is, decided to turn these crystals into into rubber balls so they bounce away. You traverse realms returning the crystals, and the world slowly becomes good again. Glover was received with mixed reviews, and no-one really knew what to think of it. There had been plans to release 'Glover 2' but the idea was scrapped, and there has been no further information on it since then.

7. Shenmue III

Since the release of Shenmue II back in 2001 there has been rumors of a third installment. It’s not like players around the world don’t want one, fans have been clamouring for Shenmue III for years. The game has been announced for development and cancelled at least two times, to much disappointment. Despite all this, a sequel may still be possible because of continued massive fan demand, Suzuki’s insistence that “the story will be finished through games”, and SEGA’s current trend of reviving old franchises, we may get lucky and see Shenmue III in the future.

6. Kirby’s New Adventure

Kirby and the Crystal Shards for the N64 was amazing, seeing Kirby in his own 3D adventure was worthy of any fans dreams and expectations for a true Kirby experience. It played just like a 2D Kirby game, but on a single plane;(2.5D if you want to get technical). The game was announced and screenshots ensued. Everyone expected it to be officially announced for the Gamecube and fan's would get a shiny release date. No such luck. The game was thrown into limbo and is currently rumored to be on its way to the Wii, Kirby fans wait nervously...

5: Winter

Mature games for the Wii are rare, but recently they’ve been emerging quietly, hoping to make a small success. Well the developers at n-space made Winter, and it was one hell of a game. Due to some seriously crap publishers it got canned, they were turning their noses up at the game and thanks to this it never saw the light of day. Originally announced in 2007, it was created in hopes of both reinventing the survival-horror genre and introducing a darker, more mature game to the “family friendly” Wii. One of the game’s biggest focuses early on would be to survive the harsh environments brought on by the mysterious blizzard. Players would have to find buildings in which to take shelter in and warm the main character before succumbing to frostbite or hypothermia. Winter sounds like a fantastic game, and according to n-space they’d love to carry on where they left off.

4. Metroid Dread

Metroid always kept its roots in 2D, even with the release of the Prime series, people would still go back and play the classics. The side scrolling adventure couldn’t be beaten and 2D Metroid reigns supreme. With Super Metroid being the best out of them all. But with such success in 2D why doesn’t Samus backtrack to sidescrolling land? Because it got cancelled that’s why. Metroid Dread, a 2D Metroid adventure for the Nintendo DS. There were cryptic denials that the game never existed, but questions were never fully answered and the general opinion is that it existed, and got canned. Hope emerged in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption where there is a message in the Metroid breeding zone of the Space Pirate Homeworld on a computer panel that if scanned says “Experiment status report update: Metroid project ‘Dread’ is nearing the final stages of completion.” For all we know it could be a joke to the fans but I hope not.

3. Chrono Break

Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross are two of the best RPG’s ever made, and on December 5th 2001, Square-Enix registered the name Chrono Break. Amongst talks of continuing the series Chrono break was considered a serious possibility, it was being talked about, and it could still happen. Fan's hold their breath, the project had not been given the go-ahead yet, so there was a chance it wouldn’t happen. And guess what, it didn’t. Square-Enix dropped the trademark in the U.S and nothing was said. With Chrono Trigger being ported to the DS, its clear Square haven’t given up on the series. But whether we’ll see a brand new game, who knows. The demand is there, and demand = sales, but so far we’ve been given nothing.

2. Starfox 2


Everyone who played the original Starfox on the SNES fell in love with it. The sequel, Star Fox 2, was set to be just as great. The Japanese version of the game was fully completed and pretty much ready to ship. However there was a little problem. Star Fox 2 was binned because the release of the N64 was right around the corner, and Nintendo’s desire to use the most advanced system available for a new Star Fox game was irrefutable. The saddest thing is that somewhere out there that game still exists but we'll never get to play it.

1. Super Mario 128

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Super Mario 128 falls into two categories; the first being one of the most wanted games of all time, the second being one of the biggest screw overs in the entire history of gaming. When I think of Mario 128 I hate Nintendo. I want my Mario 64 sequel, I didnt want Mario Sunshine, we all want Mario 128. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto referred to Mario 128 in 1997 as a possible name for a Mario 64 sequel, it was mentioned again at Spaceworld in 2000, along with a video. The game seemed certain. In 2002, Miyamoto confirmed the development of 128. In 2003 fans were told it wouldn’t appear on the Gamecube at all, okay not the end of the world, we’re still getting it though, right? It was once again confirmed at E3 2004. Where the hell was it? Reggie Fils-Aime, stated that Super Mario 128 would be shown at E3 2005. This was the point where most people thought that the game would finally surface. But oh no, it failed to appear. Later that year it was revealed Mario 128 would finally surface on the Wii. However it was in 2006 that Nintendo pulled the biggest switcheroo you’ll ever see, Miyamoto finally confirmed that the project was no more, and that bits and pieces of the concept had evolved into the Wii title Super Mario Galaxy.

After 9 years of being led on, they screwed the fans over. So much for Nintendo being “friendly”. Mario 128 is one of the most hyped cancelled games ever, you can’t hype a game that much then say you scrapped it. That’s just not right... at least Mario Galaxy turned out to be a return to form...

3 comments:

Michael Powell said...

what about Dragon Empires from Codies... and will OPeration Flashpoint 2 ever see the light of day? What about Microsoft Train Sim 2, now canned twice which has to be somesort of record...

Barry2_2001 said...

"Most of you have already played [Mario 128] - but you played it in a game called Pikmin." - Shigeru Miyamoto, GDC 2007

Del said...

i sometimes still weep a little at the thought of what Chrono Break might have been...