Welcome to June and this is the glorious return of the Lost Media Files where I rundown lost pieces of important media throughout the years like movies, games, music, art whatever and on this edition since E3 2019 is around the corner and it’s that time again I will rundown more lost or cancelled video games in what will probably be a regular thing so let’s get this done, this is the top 15 lost or cancelled video games part 3 and at the end I will reveal what will be the topic for July of the second anniversary of the Lost Media Files.
15. Chucky: Wanna Play?
(main menu of cancelled Chucky game)
Starting off this entry is a cancelled title for a video game everybody’s sociopathic doll: Chucky. Originally planned for a 2012 release for PC players, this was to be a stealth game set in the Chucky universe and he’s back for an incoming movie starring Mark Hamill as the role of the talking doll. Don’t get me wrong him as a villain is a genius casting since he voiced the Joker in Batman.
The game was announced in 2011 by TikGames and attached was a Kickstarter campaign, now this was no surprise because some famous titles like Yooka-Laylee or Friday the 13th are notable examples, however this game failed to reach its funding goal of &925,000 as the total amount only reached $585,000 dollars in 2012. If I did a list of failed kickstarter campaigns this would rank the top 5 easily but this looks interesting, then again, I’m pretty sure this would be another one of those games YouTubers would play for clicks. Screenshots of the cancelled game is the only evidence of its existence including its Kickstarter pledges.
14. Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters
(magazine teaser for Godzilla)
This cancelled title was to be a planned fighting game like the future Godzilla NES title but for the Super Famicon as a Japan exclusive game and based likely from the film of the same name released in 1968 and a sequel to the previous title “Godzilla Battle Legends” on the TurboDuo. Also, I have to add this how many console exclusives does Japan have that never got released western?
The game was to be released in April of 1995 in addition the game was to be somewhat similar to the Street Fighter series, however outside of a Nintendo Power article stating a future release nothing came from it. What happened was the game was eventually cancelled due to the poor reception of “Super Godzilla” and the Nintendo 64 system a year into its pre-production and development. Also, an interesting tidbit that this game was almost complete sort of how Star Fox 2 and the previously mentioned Earthbound 64 in last year’s list that got cancelled and in 2002 a Godzilla game with the same title was released for the GameCube. Its unknown if any ROM’s exist for this previous version.
13. Hercules in the Underworld
(promo screenshot of the shut down game)
On June 19th, 1998 Disney Parks released an attraction called Disney Quests and why it was made for is interactive games and planned for a worldwide release however, the attraction in general suffered low attendance in years to come until the theme park would officially close in 2017.
One of the games that is lost is “Hercules in the Underworld” a virtual reality arcade game inside the attraction that used something called the CAVE system. The Cave system is where players is enclosed with multiple screens and plays along with the use of 3D glasses, the plot of the game is four players working together with as they played as Hercules, Megara, Phil and Pegasus as they traveled through the underworld to stop the plans of Hades (how did he get out of that swirling pool in the movie) and his henchmen Pain and Panic. The game was removed in 2000 and replaced with a Pirates of the Caribbean and the original hardware may be lost entirely considering Disney Parks has a habit of throwing away stuff. The only evidence of the game’s existence is this YouTube video.
12. Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot maybe back from obscurity and maybe down the line a future title (we can only hope) but he along with the rest has a collection of lost media.
Starting with a Crash and Spyro crossover title called “Crash Bandicoot & Spyro Adventure World” released in 2004 on the site candystand.com as a tie-in with Crash Bandicoot title “Riptide Rampage” and Spyro’s “The Cortex Conspiracy”. Outside of screenshots nothing else has been revealed not even a plot.
The second is a cancelled title for Crash called “Crash Landed” was under development in 2009 and aim to release on the PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and DS, however Activision the company that owns the rights laid off the entire team which is Renegade Kid as they changed focus to “Prototype 2”. The evidence to confirm the existence of this game is screenshots and a demo for the 3Ds.
The third cancelled game is a series of racing titles the first is “Crash Tag Team Racing” of course this game was eventually released in 2005 for PlayStation 2, XBOX and Gamecube but the Ds port of the game was cancelled due to a likely rumor that Mario Kart DS was to be released on the same time which is November 14th 2005, but another rumor of this game’s cancellation was a creative differences between Sensory Sweep and Sierra Entertainment. Outside of character models and screenshots of racetracks these are the only available information of “Crash Tag Team Racing” as of now.
Lastly is “Crash Team Racing” that was made also in development with the aforementioned “Crash Landing” that also got cancelled and suffered the same fate with Activision. The only existence of the game was a gameplay video, and this was under development by former members of Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games.
11. Married… with Children
(title card of “Married… with Children” game)
If your asking yourself “How can this be a video game” I’ll answer: yes this was at one point to be a video game and slated to release on the NES system and based on the hit Fox sitcom series and published by Sharedata, however not much other information is known about this video game other than a article within a magazine cover. No images or a prototype build of the “Married with Children” game has been revealed since Sharedata struggled maintain finances.
10. Worms Battle Rally
(one of two screenshots of “Worms Battle Rally”)
This cancelled racing game was under development by Team 17 and was to feature the same chaotic gameplay under the Worms franchise. This was to be released for the XBOX, PlayStation 2 and GameCube however this was later cancelled and changed to another Worms title called “Worms Fort: Under Siege”. Not much is known outside of an interview from one of their developers Martyn Brown that the racing title was under development by an unknown company, and despite almost completed the publisher was unhappy so this was changed to the later “Worms Fort”. No other information of this game has been known to exist outside a single screenshot or any available demos.
9. Ultimate Journey
(cover art title of “Ultimate Journey”)
Well this title is an unfortunate loss. “Ultimate Journey” is a cancelled action game planned to be released to the Super NES in 1992 as the player controls a Mojavo Indian, who fights a witch and her army who destroyed his village. Also, what was planned was the Mojovo fellow was to take form of different animals like dolphins and eagles.
The idea for this game was from Dan McArthur, a programmer from Bandai of course how this game got cancelled is going to be odd. Bandai was very impressed with the game during development as the game when testers tried it out it the gameplay was said to be similar to Ninja Gaiden and say it with me was almost nearing completion when Bandai went and scrapped the game abruptly. Maybe newer heads of Bandai couldn’t see a game involving a Native American Indian character as appealing to a Japanese audience, something like this is not common look at Scalebound which was set to be released to the XBOX 360. The only information of this game that we know off is box art and screenshots, no ROM’s exist as of this writing.
8. Scalebound
(Scalebound cover)
Speaking off said “Scalebound”, this cancelled title was under development by Platinum Studios and was planned for an exclusive XBOX One release in 2017 a more recent entry of this list, the game was to be an action RPG. The plot was to follow a third-person perspective with a character named Drew in a fantasy world and they can control a dragon named Thuban. Boy very innovative, outside of Skyrim.
The game was previously revealed in 2014 at E3 but was absent in 2015 but was shown at Gamescom in a playable demo along with other titles like Crackdown 3 and Quantum Break. Scalebound was to be released in 2016 and then moved again until 2017. My guess was the game was too innovated for them beyond their control and the game was eventually cancelled in that year. The info we have of Scalebound is E3 trailers from 2014 and 2016 and a playable demo from Gamescon 2015. No builds of “Scalebound” has been released.
(From YouTuber user: UpcomingTopGaming)
7. Sam and Max
(Sam and Max)
Before becoming a video game Sam and Max was a comic strip by Steve Purcell and a animator for Pixar later for such titles known as “Ratatouille”, “Brave”, Incredibles 2” and “Coco”, Sam and Max followed the story of a fedora wearing detective and his sidekick a white rabbit in many misadventures. Of course Sam and Max had a video game title released in 1993 called “Hit the Road” for the PC and became critically acclaimed, so naturally a sequel was announced years later called “Plunge through Space” announced in 2001 and aimed for a release on the XBOX as an exclusive title developed by Infinite Machine which was formed by executives who left LucasArts.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, Infinite Machine would later go bankrupt cancelling not just “Plunge through Space” but another rumored title “Freelance Police”.
Steve Purcell later said in an interview about what he wanted to do with “Plunge through Space” was based on a previous comic strip with the same title to recover a lost Statue of Liberty when its being used as a alien casino location and to focus on adventure than action. They would also control Sam and Max to solve puzzles that could’ve worked perfectly if the money problems didn’t bury the developer. What’s left of these two cancelled titles is production sketches for “Plunge through Space” and for “Freelance Police” what’s left of this project is animation reels.
6. The Flintstones
(The Flintstone family)
Yes, the Flintstones once had planned video game titles set to be released.
The first was based of the movie “Viva Rock Vegas” to be released on the Dreamcast but after the Sega console died it was later moved to PlayStation 2 and also for the Nintendo GameCube but knowing how that movie did it’s a good guess why this game got cancelled because has one ever watched that movie at all? Why was this made is the obvious because maybe not unintentionally resulted in the rise of Mario Kart, but there was a sharp rise of video game and racing titles, but some failed to deliver as did this one since it was cancelled. As of now no build of the GameCube port has been known to exist.
The second cancelled Flintstones title was “Dino to the Rescue” originally to release on the Game Boy Advance developed by Tantalus Games and Swing! Entertainment. The player was to take control of the Flintstones’ pet dinosaur named Dino to rescue either the Flintstone or Rubble family, nothing really is known of this title outside of an interview on why this game was cancelled. John Szoke said they were planning to release this game soon but ran into a dilemma of another game slated to race called “Top Gear Racer” in October of 2003 so they pushed the release into the next year, but nothing came from it. No ROMS of “Dino of the Rescue” is known to exist but screenshots do exist.
5. RubyDong
(one of five screenshots of RubyDung released by Notch)
Before we had Minecraft, we had this lost unreleased demo.
Minecraft today has exploded into popularity and was created by Marcus “Notch” Persson and released all the big consoles like XBOX, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, IPad and PC, but before we had this, we had RubyDong the precursor to Minecraft. The inspiration of said game was based on “Dwarf Fortress” an open sandbox title released in 2006 by Tarn and Zack Adams to which years later Adams would praise Minecraft as the inspiration. Not a bad stamp of approval.
Many of RubyDong’s textures that would eventually be grass and cobblestones blocks were reused for Minecraft. For whatever reason Notch never made RubyDong public and then remade it into the game that we know of Minecraft. The only existence of RubyDong is screenshots released by Notch in October of 2009 via his Tumblr blog but nothing else has surface.
4. Marl Kingdom: Happy Hunt
(promo post card for cancelled “Marl Kingdom” game)
Before being known as the developers that released “Disgaea” Nippon Ichi Software released their magnum opus was the “Marl Kingdom” series that was released into the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The main character is a sixteen year old girl named “Chocolate” who lives in a museum and she has a ability to communicate with puppets then uses a flute to command them for battle as each plot of this mobile game was to follow three chapters that were later translated but the third chapter was unable to translate due to errors, the first was to follow Chocolate meets a prince named Lunin who gets turned into a doll and has to meet sage to reverse the spell, the second chapter is about Lunin sending a letter to Chocolate to attend a ceremony but they later go on a circus.
This mobile game was removed when more “Marl Kingdom’s” were released it became unavailable making it impossible to track.
3. Grand Theft Auto
(screenshot of Grand Theft Auto 64 from a Spanish magazine)
Now this one would’ve been interesting.
Grand Theft Auto is one of gaming’s most successful franchises even though it has a lot of controversial subject matter I won’t discuss but I will discuss two interesting ports that never made past development.
The original Grand Theft Auto was released on PC’s in 1997 and eventually the original PlayStation in 1998 but also planned for the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 and both of them had magazine articles covering their releases one for the Sega Saturn from a UK article in 1995 and a IGN article for the N64 version in 1999 from a Spanish magazine preview. However these games were later cancelled into their development phase and as for the N64 version this was to use enhanced graphics, new levels and new characteristics and was shown in 1999’s E3 conference but and say it with me almost completed when that project was shelved, I may have to have a counter for each time I use that word. No prototypes of both the Sega Saturn and N64 has been leaked.
2. Donkey Kong
(Donkey Kong)
Will this ape have another adventure down the line? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Donkey Kong is my favorite series having spanning from the days of feuding with Mario and going as far as part of the Super Smash Bros. roster however, this ape has a collection of lost titles. First is “Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi” or “Donkey Kong’s Fun with Music” was a planned educational game for the SuperFamicom and it starred Donkey Kong Jr teaching kids how to play music, so did Guitar Hero take inspiration of this? Maybe. This was originally planned to release in 1983 on the SuperFamicom system but was cancelled due to likely legal issues on the licensed songs, of course the Famicom looked compared towards its future NES predecessor, and the fact that the microphone didn’t analyze sounds properly and other info was scarce until Twitter user DentoTeramachi uploaded a screenshot from a magazine article.
(screenshot taken by Twitter user “DentoTeramachi”)
The second were two racing game titles one was “Diddly Kong Racing Adventure” and the other was “Donkey Kong Racing” and both were planned to release on the Nintendo GameCube but we all what changed. In 2002 Microsoft purchased RARE the developers of Donkey Kong, Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark and a lot of upcoming titles set to release with the partnership of RARE and Nintendo were cancelled. Only trailers and original artwork of the planned are known to exist and its unknown if any playable demos were ever leaked.
1. Bio Force Ape
(Nintendo Power Magazine about “Bio Force Ape”)
And now we have come to the legend of “Bio Force Ape” that has caused more in-fighting between people then now with AEW and wrestling fans.
Bio Force Ape was a video game title set to release for the NES in the west in 1992 after been released in Japan a year previously but was cancelled for unknown reasons, could it be an April Fool’s joke? It wouldn’t be the first time like the infamous Yoshi gag on Pokémon for a Nintendo Power magazine or the ever-legendary Mew underneath the truck. The plot was to follow a chimpanzee that performs pro wrestling moves on enemies like suplexes and piledrivers. So, he originated Suplex City before it became a thing, sorry Brock.
For a long while this game was shrouded in mystery and discussed in many of message board sites and leaving people puzzled on whatever happened to this famous game until in 2005 a man named Paul Brown revealed to have found a prototype copy of “Bio Force Ape” and a lot of his captured footage matched the details of the Nintendo Power article, then what happened something caused fans something of a divide to weather or not to sell the game some in favor of selling it and some to not that would damage the value and the discussions got way out line until Paul Brown revealed an image of the smashed up prototype but that was then later revealed to be a joke.
Eventually it went back into obscurity until later in 2010 a prototype of the game surfaced in March of that year from a Yahoo auctioned site from a buyer who priced it very high like $250,000 yen seemingly unknown to what was inside the cartridge or did this person know? Who knows and it was a lot on the line for Chris Covell do they make the deal or not, or will this cartridge work or not? Chris eventually bought it along with the infamous Paul Brown who was a forum user by the name Bratwurst” and Lost Levels founder Frank Cifaldi and offered $2,700 to pay for it and on April 1st of 2010 Chris revealed a disappointing photo of a smashed cartridge however a day later an uploaded gameplay footage of Bio Force Ape was revealed for all to see. These guys sure do love messing with fans.
(Bio Force Ape playthrough from Frank Cilfladi’s YouTube channel)
And that is it for this month’s edition of the Lost Media files, join me for July’s edition of the files as it’s the 2nd anniversary since this series kicked off way back in 2017 and in this one is profiling one of Argentina’s most out spoken but unknown animator’s at a time where the political turmoil was at its height in that year in his home country while the first world war was at its height, but again he would face those turmoil’s again later in his life, this is a profile of Quirino Cristiani and his lost films.
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