WI: Famous Cancelled Games Didnt Get Cancelled.

Whoa,Never heard of A Conker SNES Game.

Conker's Quest eventually became Twelve Tales: Conker 64, another 'lost' game. This mostly got changed because Rare didn't want to be known for another 'kiddy platformer' on the N64. Later during its development, it was eventually changed from the Banjo-Kazooie/Banjo-Tooie type stuff to Conker's Bad Fur Day. And, according to former Rare employees who worked on the game, this was ultimately for the best considering that it, uh, wasn't very good before that.

There was also some concept art released a while back about a sequel to Kameo: Elements of Power for the 360; it, too, dispensed the cartoon look of the first game for a more realistic approach. Shame nothing else about it has been released.

Here's one I think is pretty obscure, and once again involves Nintendo in some way.

Raven Blade (Retro Studios, GameCube): Back when Nintendo formed Retro Studios in the late 90s out of the ruins of Acclaim (which had been a big supporter of the N64), they tasked the new team with creating four titles for their upcoming console, the GameCube, then known as Project Dolphin.

The first was an action adventure game, though we know no details of what it was, but it eventually morphed into Metroid Prime because Nintendo was interested in reviving the IP due to its dormancy in the N64 era, except for Samus' presence in Super Smash Bros.

The second was a vehicular combat game, which sounds a bit like Twisted Metal, but drew on far different influences (such as Quake) and possibly had a post-apocalyptic setting. This eventually got canned because Retro was getting overwhelmed with the workload.

The third was a football game as Nintendo had rights to use the NFL license at the time, but this was eventually scrapped due to the above problems with development management and big names like EA supporting the GC, ultimately.

The last, as you might have guessed, was originally going to be a turn-based RPG but later changed to an action RPG called Raven Blade (originally, Rune Blade). When the football and vehicular combat games were cancelled in 2001, Nintendo allowed Retro to focus on Metroid and RB, but this still wasn't enough. Not happy with the progress Retro had made with RB (it was plagued by issues with its combat system), they gave a deadline for significant progress to be made by June 24th, 2001. Development also wasn't helped by the fact Nintendo moved at least 9 employees who were working on RB to Metroid at the time, further slowing progress.

You can look it up on YouTube, but all we've got is a fairly interesting E3 2001 trailer. However, according to those that had a hand in it, it wasn't very good so perhaps its cancellation was a blessing as MP turned out great.

And while not technically what the OP was asking for: ever wonder why Resident Evil was set in a mansion? It was originally a remake of a Famicom RPG called Sweet Home based on a Japanese B horror movie about a group of treasure hunters who get haunted by the mansion's wrathful former owner.
 
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Conker's Quest eventually became Twelve Tales: Conker 64, another 'lost' game. This mostly got changed because Rare didn't want to be known for another 'kiddy platformer' on the N64. Later during its development, it was eventually changed from the Banjo-Kazooie/Banjo-Tooie type stuff to Conker's Bad Fur Day. And, according to former Rare employees who worked on the game, this was ultimately for the best considering that it, uh, wasn't very good before that.

There was also some concept art released a while back about a sequel to Kameo: Elements of Power for the 360; it, toot, dispensed the cartoon look of the first game for a more realistic approach. Shame nothing else about it has been released.

Here's one I think is pretty obscure, and once again involves Nintendo in some way.

Raven Blade (Retro Studios, GameCube): Back when Nintendo formed Retro Studios in the late 90s out of the ruins of Acclaim (which had been a big supporter of the N64), they tasked the new team with creating four titles for their upcoming console, the GameCube, then known as Project Dolphin.

The first was an action adventure game, though we know no details of what it was, but it eventually morphed into Metroid Prime because Nintendo was interested in reviving the IP due to its dormancy in the N64 era, except for Samus' presence in Super Smash Bros.

The second was a vehicular combat game, which sounds a bit like Twisted Metal, but drew on far different influences (such as Quake) and possibly had a post-apocalyptic setting. This eventually got canned because Retro was getting overwhelmed with the workload.

The third was a football game as Nintendo had rights to use the NFL license at the time, but this was eventually scrapped due to the above problems with development management and big names like EA supporting the GC, ultimately.

The last, as you might have guessed, was originally going to be a turn-based RPG but later changed to an action RPG called Raven Blade (originally, Rune Blade). When the football and vehicular combat games were cancelled in 2001, Nintendo allowed Retro to focus on Metroid and RB, but this still wasn't enough. Not happy with the progress Retro had made with RB (it was plagued by issues with its combat system), they gave a deadline for significant progress to be made by June 24th, 2001. Development also wasn't helped by the fact Nintendo moved at least 9 employees who were working on RB to Metroid at the time, further slowing progress.

You can look it up on YouTube, but all we've got is a fairly interesting E3 2001 trailer. However, according to those that had a hand in it, it wasn't very good so perhaps its cancellation was a blessing as MP turned out great.

And while not technically what the OP was asking for: ever wonder why Resident Evil was set in a mansion? It was originally a remake of a Famicom RPG called Sweet Home based on a Japanese B horror movie about a group of treasure hunters who get haunted by the mansion's wrathful former owner.
Ive Played Sweet Home Before,But Yes,I Knew that Capcom knows if theyre going with the Sweet Home Direction,R.E Will Different From Now.

Nintendo.Cancelling Things Since...1990.
Ever Heard of "Luigi Mansion" Beta,Dude?
 
And Everything turned to dust by bethesda's hand.

I think that might have been a big motivator for Fargo and Co. to get Wasteland 2 done (even if they had to Kick Start it to get it made): The thought of somebody at EA dusting off Wasteland, thinking 'Hey! We can use this to make a game that'll compete with Fallout!' and then proceeding to do to Wasteland what Bethesda did to Fallout.

Hey, in the end, whatever brought Fargo, Alan Pavlish, Michael Stackpole, Liz Danforth and Ken St. Andre (BONUS! Chris Avallone on board as well!) back together again, all I care about is that Wasteland 2 can't be 'Bethesdaed'.

25 years to wait for a sequel (technically, it'll only be 24 for me because I didn't get Wasteland and finish it until 1989) may seem like a long time...until you consider the fact that a LOT of us thought 'Wasteland 2' would never happen at all.

Then it seems like a blink of an eye.

When I saw the Kick Starter page for it, it's the only time in my life that I actually said, out loud, 'Shut up and take my money!'.:D

October of next year just can't get here fast enough...
 
I think that might have been a big motivator for Fargo and Co. to get Wasteland 2 done (even if they had to Kick Start it to get it made): The thought of somebody at EA dusting off Wasteland, thinking 'Hey! We can use this to make a game that'll compete with Fallout!' and then proceeding to do to Wasteland what Bethesda did to Fallout.

Hey, in the end, whatever brought Fargo, Alan Pavlish, Michael Stackpole, Liz Danforth and Ken St. Andre (BONUS! Chris Avallone on board as well!) back together again, all I care about is that Wasteland 2 can't be 'Bethesdaed'.

25 years to wait for a sequel (technically, it'll only be 24 for me because I didn't get Wasteland and finish it until 1989) may seem like a long time...until you consider the fact that a LOT of us thought 'Wasteland 2' would never happen at all.

Then it seems like a blink of an eye.

When I saw the Kick Starter page for it, it's the only time in my life that I actually said, out loud, 'Shut up and take my money!'.:D

October of next year just can't get here fast enough...
Bubba,Ever Heard Van Buren?
 
Bubba,Ever Heard Van Buren?

Yep.

And that, I think, is just the point: Van Buren can't ever be made. The minute it got cancelled and the formula was changed and the Fallout franchise became Fallout 3 and New Vegas, it killed any chance of Van Buren ever being made, because now, what Van Buren would have been is not what Fallout has been turned into.
 
Mother 3: Is a 65% Cut down Earthbound64(Mother64). Do You know that Ness and Crew is supposed to Meet the Protagonist of Mother 3?

I know specifically they were worried about (spoilers) the fate of Claus and the drug use in the game and thus it didn't get an export. Just because a game is fucking amazing doesn't mean it will get an export. (see: Captain Rainbow)
 
Oh, this is another example of not a cancellation in the strictest sense, but...


Portal 2. Or as it was to be, F-Stop.

For any one who doesn't know the story, Valve did a thing called the Directed Deisgn Experiments, where all development was ceased for a month and their employees were given even more free reign than normal to work on whatever the hell they liked. One of the products of this was a new gameplay mechanic called F-Stop.

So when they came together to start work on a new Portal game, they decided that Aperture was definitely staying, but GLaDOS was dead, Chell had escaped so her story was finished, and that this F-Stop thing was sufficiently cool that they didn't even need the Portal Gun. So they planned out a prequel set in the 70s, with Cave Johnson as a protagonist turned antagonist and a robotic uprising. So that's where the old Test Shaft and everything in it came from when they decided to do a more straightforward Portal sequel.
 
If Radical Dreamers Gets a Breath Of Life(Not being the way it was),Final Fantasy 7 Will be delayed. (My Opinion)

Whoa,Never heard of A Conker SNES Game.

Ah Yes.Sonic XTreme.Good Times.

Well, it Radical Dreamers comes out in 1995 on the SNES as it was supposed to, it would have been part of the 48-72 megabit era RPGs with Games like Tales of Fantasia, Star Ocean, and Magic Knight Rayearth.

The Conker SNES Game got a full writeup in the April 1991 issue of Nintendo Power and a screenshot in the Launch Titles list centerfold, alongside Super Mario World, F-Zero, Castlevania IV, and Gradius III. Then it ran into delay after delay as just about everything else seemed to take precedence.
 
not famous now but back in the eighties, there was an article about an upcoming computer game (can't remember the name for sure but could have been "4 colors hero") that would have allowed you to take on the personna of a super hero. The game had (for the days) some nifty feature like the (limited) ability to chose your hero's costume and powers. The game environment itself was a side scroller which used visual sound effects ("kapow !" ) and frames to reinforce the comics books connection.

I remember that the game was heavily reported on at the time due to the innovation it brought and I waited for months for it to come out but alas, it never did.
 
Yep.

And that, I think, is just the point: Van Buren can't ever be made. The minute it got cancelled and the formula was changed and the Fallout franchise became Fallout 3 and New Vegas, it killed any chance of Van Buren ever being made, because now, what Van Buren would have been is not what Fallout has been turned into.
But N.V Turned Into a Van Buren On Steroids.
Freedom Fighters 2. I bought a PS2 for the first one.
Well,If It Get A Breath Of Life...Nothing Great Will Happen,I Think.
I know specifically they were worried about (spoilers) the fate of Claus and the drug use in the game and thus it didn't get an export. Just because a game is fucking amazing doesn't mean it will get an export. (see: Captain Rainbow)

Oh, this is another example of not a cancellation in the strictest sense, but...


Portal 2. Or as it was to be, F-Stop.

For any one who doesn't know the story, Valve did a thing called the Directed Deisgn Experiments, where all development was ceased for a month and their employees were given even more free reign than normal to work on whatever the hell they liked. One of the products of this was a new gameplay mechanic called F-Stop.

So when they came together to start work on a new Portal game, they decided that Aperture was definitely staying, but GLaDOS was dead, Chell had escaped so her story was finished, and that this F-Stop thing was sufficiently cool that they didn't even need the Portal Gun. So they planned out a prequel set in the 70s, with Cave Johnson as a protagonist turned antagonist and a robotic uprising. So that's where the old Test Shaft and everything in it came from when they decided to do a more straightforward Portal sequel.
Jeez! A Cave Johnson Game Can Give Me Nightmares.
Well, it Radical Dreamers comes out in 1995 on the SNES as it was supposed to, it would have been part of the 48-72 megabit era RPGs with Games like Tales of Fantasia, Star Ocean, and Magic Knight Rayearth.
(Currently Researching)
The Conker SNES Game got a full writeup in the April 1991 issue of Nintendo Power and a screenshot in the Launch Titles list centerfold, alongside Super Mario World, F-Zero, Castlevania IV, and Gradius III. Then it ran into delay after delay as just about everything else seemed to take precedence.
That Means That It Have a "Potential"..Wonder if its Released On SNES..
not famous now but back in the eighties, there was an article about an upcoming computer game (can't remember the name for sure but could have been "4 colors hero") that would have allowed you to take on the personna of a super hero. The game had (for the days) some nifty feature like the (limited) ability to chose your hero's costume and powers. The game environment itself was a side scroller which used visual sound effects ("kapow !" ) and frames to reinforce the comics books connection.

I remember that the game was heavily reported on at the time due to the innovation it brought and I waited for months for it to come out but alas, it never did.
(Researching)
 
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