No! Watching TV shows doesn't create psycho killers... cancelling TV shows does!

This time of year usually sees people look back on the year just past and to the year coming up, or at least the year coming up until things get announced at E3. Those are taken care of elsewhere so here we are going to look to the cancelled games and devs that got shuttered, possibly for no great reason. Also playing are things where the game series might have been given to or picked up by someone else, and things which radically changed between the initial announcements and earlier showcasings and final release.
Bonus internet points for those making it about 2017. Did Scalebound's promise of PlatinumGames and Hideki Kamiya taking on Bethesda raise hopes and dash them? Visceral games is no more but did they deserve it? Mass Effect: Andromeda seems to have ended the franchise, thoughts?

[prebreak]Older titles[/prebreak]
MX vs ATV, or indeed the Motocross Madness franchise that preceded it, has a rather interesting history. After THQ's demise it was purchased by a company many would have said was a distributor, there was an effort at a new one in 2016 which was not amazingly well met and apparently we get another this year some time. Similarly the Skate series seems to be not there any more, EA's black box studios being shuttered and no real further announcements on its fate, and for all EA might have done it was this that hurts the most for me. That said them selling an everything unlock DLC cheat was probably a sign of things to come. In any case those two franchises represented two of the better options for me for free roam switch off and play, replacements for them being a bit thin on the ground.

This is another entry in our new series exploring game mechanics, concepts within games and other such things. Previously we discussed story canon. We have a long list of topics already planned but guest spots and suggestions are certainly welcome.

 

[WeedZ]

Silent hill series rip

 

[TheGreek Boy]

p.t ps4 and crash landed ps3

 

[MaverickWellington]

where the fuck is prey 2
prey 2017 is fucking garbage -- it's a lazy rehash of System Shock 2 with a lazier meta story element added to it that just makes it seem like it wants to be deep when it really isn't and never will be -- give me my space bounty hunters and native americans damnit

 

[MiguelinCrafter]

Dinosaur planet, I mean it looked like it was going to be loads better that star fox adventures

 

[VassagoX]

Chrono Break - While Chrono Cross made a horrible sequel/prequel to Trigger, it was decent in its own right. Obviously Chrono Trigger is one of the most celebrated RPGs of all time. I would have loved to see where this went.

Suikoden - We all now what happens when Konami changes a project team. It's equally obvious why the newer games did so bad.

Megaman Legends 3 - For how close they say this game, and at least the Prototype version, came to completion, it's a shame we haven't seem it in some form. Capcom blamed lack of interest, but come on! People have begged for this for two decades! If they had jumped on it when the support was high...

 

[Kioku]

The Duke Nukem 3D remake which was canceled by Gearbox left a hole in my heart. Ugh.

Seriously, they need to sell the rights as they're doing nothing worth a damn with the Duke Nukem name.

 

[gnmmarechal]

Poor Star Wars Battlefront III.

 

[grossaffe]

Here's a few for ya.

Winter for the Wii. Looked like a pretty interesting Survival/Horror game. Same developer that was responsible for Geist, which was pretty unique.


The Grinder, also for the Wii. A Left 4 Dead with a bit more fantasy elements in the creatures, and the different playable characters having unique abilities. They apparently decided to put it on the back-burner to make a sequel to The Conduit, which is a shame, because I thought this had a lot more potential.


And then if you wanna go really far back, being a Star Trek fan, Secret of Vulcan Fury is one I'd have liked to have seen. Very few Star Trek games exist that actually capture the spirit of the franchise. 25th Anniverary and Judgement Rites on the PC were fantastic point-and-click adventures with new missions for the classic crew, and A Final Unity was pretty decent for Next Gen. But there's another game that never was. It would have marked the original cast's final performance together, as the voice acting had been recorded in 1998, and DeForrest Kelley having passed in 1999. The story was written by D.C. Fontana, who was a veteran writer for the series. Game wound up getting cancelled for being too expensive. I'd like to think that some day, someone will take the script and voice-acting and make a new adventure game out of it.

 

[Yil]

Cancelled games are very interesting to me and I sometimes spend hours looking at magazine shots, previews and interviews about cancelled games. My favourite is defenitly Agartha. Its a horror/survival game for the Dreamcast, which was developed by the Studio No-Cliche (They also made Toy Racer)

It had an amazing mysterious atmosphere and was way ahead of its time with the game being heavy on choices and having a ton of endings. The Music is something else too, it has a very scary feeling about it that is very hard to describe. Im just really really sad that it had to get cancelled because the Dreamcast got left behind by Sega.

It had so much potential and after reading interviews with the devs being extremly passionate about the game, I am even more sad it had to die. If anybody is interested, i'll leave a link to a video showing gameplay and concepts for the game. If any of you are interested in cancelled games, I really encourage you to check out unseen64. The channel has a playlist with a ton of beta footage and cancelled games.

Golden sun the dark age? Give me the switch sequel already!

 

[hippy dave]

The Bomberman game for 3DS, I think it was almost finished before they pulled the plug. Might not have been my favourite kind of Bomberman game but I was really unhappy when it was cancelled as it seemed to be solidifying the total death of the franchise. Better news since then as they came out with a more classical Bomberman game for Switch, but I still don't have a Switch yet.

Older one I can think of was the sequel to Lucasarts' awesome point&click adventure, Full Throttle. I don't think it was the only point&click that I was sad to see cancelled as that genre was killed off for a while, but it's the first one springing to mind. The later non-point&click sequel was cancelled too, but eh.

 

[grossaffe]

Older one I can think of was the sequel to Lucasarts' awesome point&click adventure, Full Throttle. I don't think it was the only point&click that I was sad to see cancelled as that genre was killed off for a while, but it's the first one springing to mind. The later non-point&click sequel was cancelled too, but eh.

Tim Schaffer had left LucasArts by then. Not sure how worthy of a sequel you'd get without him at the helm.

 

[kragzy]

Cancelled games are very interesting to me and I sometimes spend hours looking at magazine shots, previews and interviews about cancelled games. My favourite is defenitly Agartha. Its a horror/survival game for the Dreamcast, which was developed by the Studio No-Cliche (They also made Toy Racer)

It had an amazing mysterious atmosphere and was way ahead of its time with the game being heavy on choices and having a ton of endings. The Music is something else too, it has a very scary feeling about it that is very hard to describe. Im just really really sad that it had to get cancelled because the Dreamcast got left behind by Sega.

It had so much potential and after reading interviews with the devs being extremly passionate about the game, I am even more sad it had to die. If anybody is interested, i'll leave a link to a video showing gameplay and concepts for the game. If any of you are interested in cancelled games, I really encourage you to check out unseen64. The channel has a playlist with a ton of beta footage and cancelled games.

 

[bjaxx87]

I wish Telltale Games would return to LucasArts Franchises like Monkey Island. Tales of Monkey Island was a really cool game and it had some cliffhanger ending implying a sequel.

As for cancelled projects:

Dinosaur Planet (N64):


Twelve Tales: Conker 64 (N64):


Perfect Dark Zero (GCN):
https://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/08/perfect-dark-zero-gc-tech-demo/

Perfect Dark Core (XB360):
https://www.unseen64.net/2011/03/21/perfect-dark-core-xbox-360-cancelled-prototype/

Several never translated Dragon Quest games (especially DQM2 3D and DQX)

 

[Geezerdorf]

Resident Evil Gaiden was a totally different game, I'm talking about the original Resident Evil from the PlayStation, made for the Gameboy Color.

Oh. Sorry about the confu-Wait, WHAT!? How did i never heard of this? I want to know more about it!

There's also Battletoads, for the GBA. The idea was interesting. Too bad Rare didn't wanted to do it, as it was in a tough spot after being bought by Microsoft in those years.

I'm also disappointed that almost none of the Amiga ports planned for GBA got completed for many reasons. I'd had killed to have games like GODS On the go. Alas.

 

[BvanBart]

Metroid Dread, although it was never really announced and its existence was merely speculated based on a message in Metroid Prime 3 and an internal E3 games list.

There is a Switch Metroid 4 coming? Or is that not what you mean.

 

[Taleweaver]

Meh...I don't care much about franchises. Story is rarely my reason to play it, and in cases I do, I don't really want it to continue because I liked a previous story (or game). And at the rate the industry is spewing out games, cancelled series get spiritual successors at a pretty decent rate anyway (e.g.: rollercoaster tycoon died and came back as a zombie (rollercoaster tycoon world), a decent sequel to RCT3 (planet coaster) AND a successor to the 2D ones (parkitect) ).

That said: there are a few franchises that are overdue for a new version:
-half life 3 / half life 2 episode 3. There's something to be said about quitting when at the height of the series, but this is more like walking out during a performance
-F-Zero: I don't understand why nintendo just keep adding captain Falcon in smash bros or put that minigame in nintendoland when they're not going to do anything with the series. Granted, it's hard to improve upon the insanity of GX, but still...jeez.

Command & Conquer where are you?

You know the answer to this at least partially: they got absorbed and assimilated by the soulless blob that is EA. Then some (many?) of westwood studio employees left to form Petroglyph games.

 

[Jayro]

Oh. Sorry about the confu-Wait, WHAT!? How did i never heard of this? I want to know more about it!

There's also Battletoads, for the GBA. The idea was interesting. Too bad Rare didn't wanted to do it, as it was in a tough spot after being bought by Microsoft in those years.

I'm also disappointed that almost none of the Amiga ports planned for GBA got completed for many reasons. I'd had killed to have games like GODS On the go. Alas.

At least we got a good port of Another World for GBA. I remember playing it on my dad's Amiga 2600 in the late 90's.

 

[anhminh]

I want to believe that Neverland studio is still alive and working for Marvelous.

Their announce of bankruptcy is really hit me hard consider at that time I still very much enjoy my long waited Rune Factory 4. But it just so long, my hope get smaller and smaller as year pass. I just want a goddam confirm if my favorite series of all time is still alive or not goddamit.

 

[BORTZ]

Surprised no one's mentioned Golden Sun series yet. 3 games, 3 massive cliffhangers (Dark Dawn being obviously the biggest offender).
I loved both GS1 and 2, and while the DS version had a nice graphics upgrade the story was just really weak and clearly butchered, it's like they ran out of budget before finishing the story which was pretty sad.

I'm not really sure what to expect from an eventual "conclusion" if it ever happens.

I have been after a real ending to those games for a long time now but I really dont think Camelot is really interested in doing that. GS 1 and 2 technically should have been one game so I am not sure what you mean about there being 3 massive cliff hangers and the end of 2 was pretty conclusive. Wasn't it? 3 was probably the worst though in all regards. I really dont want the series to continue IMO. I think they had a good and conclusive story for 1 and 2 but 3 doesnt feel special anymore. But that's my opinion.

Command & Conquer where are you?

Also my opinon, but C&C truly died when EA bought Westwood, let them finish YR2 and then fired them. RA3 was "fun" but nothing compared to YA2. I feel like we will never get another worthy C&C title, as sad as that sounds.

Shuttered Devs?
Surprised we aren't getting more Bungie complaints considering Destiny's life cycle.

I can field this one. As someone who dumped 1000+ hours into D1, D2 is utter trash. Destiny 1 was not perfect, segmented, and somewhat grubby in terms of begging players for money. But there was enough right that it kept me coming back like an abusive relationship. I loved the artwork, the progression, the sense of accomplishment and social aspects. Destiny 2 is hand-holdy, money grubbing cash milk that extorts players and fails to focus on gameplay. I can say this, it is nice to not be in an abusive relationship with a game anymore. I sunk pretty low with Destiny 1 so... 6 of one I guess.

 

[eriol33]

Does Moon Rpg remix count? that game was not canceled, but the english version was. I have been waiting the fan translation forever.

megaman legends 3 was probably the saddest story. But at this rate I couldn't care about that game anymore. every plot has a predictable resolution anyway (thank you tvtropes!)