PSN ID
by Every so often, there is a game that we make a fuss over, discuss with
our friends and roommates, and touch ourselves with thoughts of its
potential, only to be left feeling like a cheap hooker that's still
moist but hasn't climaxed.
Unfortunately, it's happened more often than we'd like, so we thought
we'd take a look at some of the titles we still haven't lost that
hankering to play. Granted, this list is coming from a guy who once
plotted a road trip across country to storm Majesco when Jaws was
on the verge of being canned (spoiler: the game sucks), just to get my
hands on a dev copy. While that wound up being unnecessary, I'm just
saying, don't f*ck with me.
So what games, if they magically arrived on our doorstep tomorrow, would
we throw in our systems as though they were still the next big thing?
Read on, brave souls.
10. StarCraft: Ghost
When this game was announced in 2002, it graced the cover of multiple
game magazines, whet the appetites of those gamers that were anxiously
awaiting a return to the StarCraft universe (and are still
waiting...), and delivered a big heaping load of hype. And then four
years went by, and that was that. The game was canceled - er, sorry,
placed on "indefinite hold".
The game was going to follow Nova, a stealth operative that would have
multiple platforming abilities, gadgets, and weapons at her disposal.
Essentially, it was StarCraft on a more personal level. While
Blizzard neglects to officially state the title is cancelled, come on.
Let's face facts. But hey, at least StarCraft II, or at least one part of it (wallet rape!), will be out in "2010".
9. Demonik
Oh, Majesco. You are just so unreliable. To be fair, I could give two shits that Demonik was a Clive Barker game, that's not why I wanted to play it so badly. My affection for this game comes purely from Grandma's Boy, as it cameos as the video game that the titular Alex is designing.
My desire to play Demonik comes as a result of fine American
cinema, where friends (should I ever have some) and I would wind up
quoting the movie while aimlessly wandering around in this undoubtedly
broken game.
8. The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage
In 2001, there were not one but two Zelda games released for the dying Game Boy Color, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.
In order to get all of the items and even solve certain puzzles, you
needed to own and play through both games, not unlike Nintendo's Pokemon series. However, each of the games were indeed completely different and worth playing on their own merits.
There was supposed to be a third pillar to these games, titled Mystical Seed of Courage. Though it was cancelled for troubles with its interconnectivity and some of its concepts dispersed into the other games, Seed of Courage was to have puzzles centered around time travel and the time of day. Coming off Majora's Mask, a handheld game similar in concept sounded good to me. Alas, it was not to be.
7. Taxi Driver
Once again, Majesco stuck their wonderstick in something they weren't
prepared to finish off. While I can't say that I think that the Scorsese
classic Taxi Driver lends itself to a game or any sort of
continuing story, I wanted to play this game simply for the train wreck
of it all; still do.
But maybe it's worth noting that the year Majesco announced this game
was the same year they lost $71 million dollars and had to cut 20% of
their staff. Though some of that can be attributed to the general public
being oblivious to one genuinely great game Majesco actually managed to
put out, Psychonauts, it still doesn't exactly say much for the publisher.
6. Shenmue III
Though this is a "never say never" in the same vain as StarCraft: Ghost, it's highly doubtful that Shenmue III will
ever see the light of day. The second installment of the series came
out in 2001, and production on its sequel as stopped and started a few
times.
There is massive fan outcry for this game, which honestly is the only reason it would feasibly ever happen. Sales for Shenmue II were
lackluster at best, but yet even former SEGA of America president Simon
Jeffrey acknowledged that it is one of the most request games by fans.
5. Jurassic Park: Survival
What a gosh darn shame. A game that was a wholly original story in the Jurassic Park universe,
focused on outwitting dinosaurs a la Dr. Alan Grant instead of
unrealistically battling them, and was a third person action/adventure
game was simply too good to be true.
The story features a JP employee (on a previously unknown third island)
that is caught in the midst of a conspiracy, and of course, a shit load
of dinosaurs. If you rack your brain, you'll find it difficult to recall
a game with awesome dinosaurs that was any good. The closest thing I
can think of is Primal Rage, and that game sucked.
4. B.C.
Okay, the cancellation of Jurassic Park: Survival I could handle. It was devastating, yes, but I bounced back. When B.C. went under though, Christ. Full fledged dino-depression.
The awesomely historically inaccurate game saw the player take control
of a tribe of humans trying to survive the elements of the prehistoric
age, including, but not limited to, freaking sweet dinosaurs. Better
yet, B.C. was spearheaded by Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios, the minds behind Fable and Fable II.
Molyneux is nothing if not a go-getter; his ideas are epic in stature
and his goals far fetched. That's why he was the perfect man to head up B.C. Perhaps, in the future, Molyneux will shake is bag of tricks and the dinosaurs will come tumbling out.
3. EarthBound 64
EarthBound 64 is the mother of cancelled games that have fan outcry up to wazoo. In what would have been the third game in the EarthBound series (Mother 3 in the East), EarthBound 64 drew hype upon its debut as Nintendo's answer to the PlayStation's mega hit Final Fantasy VII.
That was Spaceworld 1997. By 1999, the game was still only half done
and the N64DD the game was intended to release on was a mega failure.
Six years after its cancellation, as though it was some sort of reward
for clinging to hope so tightly, Nintendo released a modified version of
the game (in Japan only), refit for the Game Boy Advance. Nice try.
2. Factor 5's Superman
The Superman franchise has a long and terrible history of video game
awfulness. Not simply mediocrity, but pure, unadulterated suck. The only
games that came remotely close to success were The Death & Return of Superman for the SNES, which was essentially a Final Fight with a Superman skin, and Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, which looked like Game of the Year compared to the worse-than-Superman 64 Xbox title, Man of Steel.
When it was revealed the awesome Factor 5 was working on a Superman
game, wouldn't you know it? My first thoughts weren't "god dammit" or
"oh, great...", but instead utter excitement. And then almost as
quickly, we learned we'd never get to play it.
1. Star Fox 2
The original Star Fox is one of those games I would pop into my system and beat every single day. It was awesome. I know that Star Fox 2 was
supposed to be a bit different (featuring more of a free-roaming aspect
instead of linear progression), but I was hot in the nuts for this
sequel. Fully completed and cancelled simply because the N64 was on its
way out and the company wanted to transition to full 3D.
This
is probably the game we stand the most legitimate chance at actually
playing someday, likely through Nintendo's Virtual Console. Though
they've denied it when asked thus far, it makes no sense to withhold a
completed game with a rabid fanbase ready to gobble it up. Hell, they
could even charge $15 for it instead of the normal SNES $8. Pipe dreams.
Source: http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/article/10-cancelled-games-we-still-want-to-play-94501/
our friends and roommates, and touch ourselves with thoughts of its
potential, only to be left feeling like a cheap hooker that's still
moist but hasn't climaxed.
Unfortunately, it's happened more often than we'd like, so we thought
we'd take a look at some of the titles we still haven't lost that
hankering to play. Granted, this list is coming from a guy who once
plotted a road trip across country to storm Majesco when Jaws was
on the verge of being canned (spoiler: the game sucks), just to get my
hands on a dev copy. While that wound up being unnecessary, I'm just
saying, don't f*ck with me.
So what games, if they magically arrived on our doorstep tomorrow, would
we throw in our systems as though they were still the next big thing?
Read on, brave souls.
10. StarCraft: Ghost
When this game was announced in 2002, it graced the cover of multiple
game magazines, whet the appetites of those gamers that were anxiously
awaiting a return to the StarCraft universe (and are still
waiting...), and delivered a big heaping load of hype. And then four
years went by, and that was that. The game was canceled - er, sorry,
placed on "indefinite hold".
The game was going to follow Nova, a stealth operative that would have
multiple platforming abilities, gadgets, and weapons at her disposal.
Essentially, it was StarCraft on a more personal level. While
Blizzard neglects to officially state the title is cancelled, come on.
Let's face facts. But hey, at least StarCraft II, or at least one part of it (wallet rape!), will be out in "2010".
9. Demonik
Oh, Majesco. You are just so unreliable. To be fair, I could give two shits that Demonik was a Clive Barker game, that's not why I wanted to play it so badly. My affection for this game comes purely from Grandma's Boy, as it cameos as the video game that the titular Alex is designing.
My desire to play Demonik comes as a result of fine American
cinema, where friends (should I ever have some) and I would wind up
quoting the movie while aimlessly wandering around in this undoubtedly
broken game.
8. The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage
In 2001, there were not one but two Zelda games released for the dying Game Boy Color, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.
In order to get all of the items and even solve certain puzzles, you
needed to own and play through both games, not unlike Nintendo's Pokemon series. However, each of the games were indeed completely different and worth playing on their own merits.
There was supposed to be a third pillar to these games, titled Mystical Seed of Courage. Though it was cancelled for troubles with its interconnectivity and some of its concepts dispersed into the other games, Seed of Courage was to have puzzles centered around time travel and the time of day. Coming off Majora's Mask, a handheld game similar in concept sounded good to me. Alas, it was not to be.
7. Taxi Driver
Once again, Majesco stuck their wonderstick in something they weren't
prepared to finish off. While I can't say that I think that the Scorsese
classic Taxi Driver lends itself to a game or any sort of
continuing story, I wanted to play this game simply for the train wreck
of it all; still do.
But maybe it's worth noting that the year Majesco announced this game
was the same year they lost $71 million dollars and had to cut 20% of
their staff. Though some of that can be attributed to the general public
being oblivious to one genuinely great game Majesco actually managed to
put out, Psychonauts, it still doesn't exactly say much for the publisher.
6. Shenmue III
Though this is a "never say never" in the same vain as StarCraft: Ghost, it's highly doubtful that Shenmue III will
ever see the light of day. The second installment of the series came
out in 2001, and production on its sequel as stopped and started a few
times.
There is massive fan outcry for this game, which honestly is the only reason it would feasibly ever happen. Sales for Shenmue II were
lackluster at best, but yet even former SEGA of America president Simon
Jeffrey acknowledged that it is one of the most request games by fans.
5. Jurassic Park: Survival
What a gosh darn shame. A game that was a wholly original story in the Jurassic Park universe,
focused on outwitting dinosaurs a la Dr. Alan Grant instead of
unrealistically battling them, and was a third person action/adventure
game was simply too good to be true.
The story features a JP employee (on a previously unknown third island)
that is caught in the midst of a conspiracy, and of course, a shit load
of dinosaurs. If you rack your brain, you'll find it difficult to recall
a game with awesome dinosaurs that was any good. The closest thing I
can think of is Primal Rage, and that game sucked.
4. B.C.
Okay, the cancellation of Jurassic Park: Survival I could handle. It was devastating, yes, but I bounced back. When B.C. went under though, Christ. Full fledged dino-depression.
The awesomely historically inaccurate game saw the player take control
of a tribe of humans trying to survive the elements of the prehistoric
age, including, but not limited to, freaking sweet dinosaurs. Better
yet, B.C. was spearheaded by Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios, the minds behind Fable and Fable II.
Molyneux is nothing if not a go-getter; his ideas are epic in stature
and his goals far fetched. That's why he was the perfect man to head up B.C. Perhaps, in the future, Molyneux will shake is bag of tricks and the dinosaurs will come tumbling out.
3. EarthBound 64
EarthBound 64 is the mother of cancelled games that have fan outcry up to wazoo. In what would have been the third game in the EarthBound series (Mother 3 in the East), EarthBound 64 drew hype upon its debut as Nintendo's answer to the PlayStation's mega hit Final Fantasy VII.
That was Spaceworld 1997. By 1999, the game was still only half done
and the N64DD the game was intended to release on was a mega failure.
Six years after its cancellation, as though it was some sort of reward
for clinging to hope so tightly, Nintendo released a modified version of
the game (in Japan only), refit for the Game Boy Advance. Nice try.
2. Factor 5's Superman
The Superman franchise has a long and terrible history of video game
awfulness. Not simply mediocrity, but pure, unadulterated suck. The only
games that came remotely close to success were The Death & Return of Superman for the SNES, which was essentially a Final Fight with a Superman skin, and Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, which looked like Game of the Year compared to the worse-than-Superman 64 Xbox title, Man of Steel.
When it was revealed the awesome Factor 5 was working on a Superman
game, wouldn't you know it? My first thoughts weren't "god dammit" or
"oh, great...", but instead utter excitement. And then almost as
quickly, we learned we'd never get to play it.
1. Star Fox 2
The original Star Fox is one of those games I would pop into my system and beat every single day. It was awesome. I know that Star Fox 2 wassupposed to be a bit different (featuring more of a free-roaming aspect
instead of linear progression), but I was hot in the nuts for this
sequel. Fully completed and cancelled simply because the N64 was on its
way out and the company wanted to transition to full 3D.
This
is probably the game we stand the most legitimate chance at actually
playing someday, likely through Nintendo's Virtual Console. Though
they've denied it when asked thus far, it makes no sense to withhold a
completed game with a rabid fanbase ready to gobble it up. Hell, they
could even charge $15 for it instead of the normal SNES $8. Pipe dreams.
Source: http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/article/10-cancelled-games-we-still-want-to-play-94501/
