• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

IGN: 15 Most Heartbreaking Game Cancellations

no Lily Bergamo?

d520f497.jpg

I'm still mad
 
Am I the only one that remembers the Level 5 MMORPG OG Xbox exclusive True Fantasy Live Online? It must've been hyped for two years before being canceled.

But for me the worst game cancelation must've been Megaman Universe. I was so looking forward to that game....
 
I haven't seen mention of these two (Not that I expected them to be on IGN's list...):

Warcraft Adventures - Lord of the Clans (I think this one eventually leaked, saw some Youtube recently):

10rO1WK.jpg


Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury (Follow up to Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites):


I played a lot of Adventure games growing up, and these two looked great. Not sure how far Star Trek got into development, but I'm pretty sure Warcraft was all but done when Blizzard axed it. It looked very "Curse of Monkey Island".
 
Hmm, what would be on my list...

-Starcraft Ghost (I was really looking forward to this for so long... it was awful when it finally got cancelled!)
-Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans (the PC Warcraft adventure game from '97; as a big Blizzard fan at the time, it was sad to see it never release.)
-Dead Phoenix (GC) - Looked very cool.
-Zero Racers (Virtual Boy) - I still would buy this instantly if it ever appeared.
-Fallout 3 [Van Buren] (PC, Interplay's Fallout 3 game)
-Hot Rod Rebels (Arcade - this is the racing game Midway Games West was working on when they got shut down; remember, this team was coming off making San Francisco Rush 2049, one of the best games ever made)
-Project Copernicus (the Amalur MMO for PC) - It's really too bad it didn't happen :(
-Geist Force (DC rail shooter, prototype looked and played great!)
- The original N64 version of Dinosaur Planet (Star Fox Adventures just wasn't the same at all...)
-The expansion pack to Quest for Glory V (PC) (sure it's maybe the worst QFG game, but it's still a great game, and there was so much that had been promised but wasn't in the final game (other playable characters, for instance... and more content), and the expansion pack could have put back in! It's really unfortunate it didn't happen.

Honorable Mentions: Eyedentify (PS3), This Is Vegas, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (went down with Acclaim's death), Viewpoint 64 (N64), Mega Man Legends 3 (DS), Mini Racers (N64), Bound High and Dragon Hopper (VB), Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound (PC), Torn (PC), Raven Blade (GC), Rodea the Sky Soldier (Wii/DS), etc etc -- lots of interesting games never release! Oh, and was that Dreamcast version of Scud Race far enough long to count it? If so, that too.

Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury (Follow up to Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites):
Oh yeah, this game. I was interested in it too, though I'd forgotten it. The worst thing about this one, of course, is how Interplay put the very cool looking trailer for the game in like all of their games for a while... and then it never released. Argh!

Another big Interplay one that I thought of including on my list, but didn't, is Stonekeep 2. That game was in development for a long time, but we saw so little of it that there isn't much that can be said... and the first game was only average anyway.
 
This much was obvious back then, but the illusion and sales pitch made by news outlets at the time was this was a real thing coming. I mean this was the mid 90s, you didn't have much to go on other than what you were being told. When multiple magazines are talking about a game and a potential release you start believing.

You know, the internet existed back then...
 
I saw Star Wars 1313 and a bunch of irrelevant titles few people would've wanted to play in the first place.

Where the fuck was Mega Man Legends 3?

Also, Lily Bergamo isn't on there because it wasn't canceled, it was "transformed". But I'm heartbroken by what it's become, definitely.
 
This list misses like, half the titles it should have included.

No Megaman Legends 3? No Thrill Kill? No Aliens: Crucible? No mention of Gotham: Gaslight, Star Wars: Battlefront 3, or even Megaman Universe?
 
"final fantasy 64" was never a game.. just a tech demo at most

There was never a Final Fantasy 64 tech demo. There was Final Fantasy VI's battle engine remade in 3D for SGI workstations, but never any N64 tech demo, or even a product named Final Fantasy 64 in the works. The FFVI battle demo was controlled with a mouse. It was never intended as an n64 project, ever.
 
Way too much modern stuff. Nintendo has some of the most interesting ones, problem is we never saw a lot of it, just tidbits in interviews.

- Conker's Other Bad Day
- Mother 64 (yes, this turned into Mother 3, but not the same)
- Super Mario 128
- Virtual Boy Mario Land
- Pocket Monsters RPG (N64)
- The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage
- Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble GCN
 
The dreamcast version of Gunvalkyrie sounded way, way better than the Xbox version we actually got. It sounded pretty revolutionary, to be honest. The dreamcast version was supposed to be played with a light gun in one hand and a handheld controller in the other hand. This would give you pointer aiming ala the wiimote, with a second controller containing additional analog sticks and buttons and triggers. The main reason the Xbox version has such fucked up controls is because they had to fit this control scheme into a dual analog stick controller.

Like AiR NiGHTS, it sounds like Sega was planning on doing with the Dreamcast what Nintendo did with the Wii, only half a decade sooner.
 
Way too much modern stuff. Nintendo has some of the most interesting ones, problem is we never saw a lot of it, just tidbits in interviews.

- Conker's Other Bad Day
- Mother 64 (yes, this turned into Mother 3, but not the same)
- Super Mario 128
- Virtual Boy Mario Land
- Pocket Monsters RPG (N64)
- The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage
- Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble GCN

I was disappointed that Twelve Tales: Conker 64 was changed.
That game actually looked enjoyable.
Bad Fur Day, not a chance in the world I was going to bother with that.

Agreed on Mother 64 (as I said earlier as well), Mario 128 (we really needed a Mario 64 sequel on N64 with Luigi), VB Mario Land (which looked great. Plus the VB needed more games in general), and Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage (the 3-way linking would have been awesome. Even if it took longer for them to work it all out, it would have been worth it for all of the possibilities)
 
I was disappointed that Twelve Tales: Conker 64 was changed.
That game actually looked enjoyable.
Bad Fur Day, not a chance in the world I was going to bother with that.

Agreed on Mother 64 (as I said earlier as well), Mario 128 (we really needed a Mario 64 sequel on N64 with Luigi), VB Mario Land (which looked great. Plus the VB needed more games in general), and Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage (the 3-way linking would have been awesome. Even if it took longer for them to work it all out, it would have been worth it for all of the possibilities)

How in the hell would you not play Bad Fur Day? It's arguably Rare's greatest platformer, and I'm god damn obsessed with the Banjo series. Twelve Tales looked awesome as well, but damn I'm glad we got what we got. You should rethink your decision on BFD.
 
A lot of good choices in this thread. I'd forgotten about Steambot 2.

For me though the biggest is still the North American Dreamcast version of Shenmue 2.
 
Going back to some older games, I was disappointed that Rev Limit for the N64 was never released. I remember that at one point it was supposed to be the N64's answer to Ridge Racer. Of course that obviously changed when the N64 got its own version of RR.
 
How in the hell would you not play Bad Fur Day? It's arguably Rare's greatest platformer, and I'm god damn obsessed with the Banjo series. Twelve Tales looked awesome as well, but damn I'm glad we got what we got. You should rethink your decision on BFD.

Because I was too old at that point to find the kind of juvenile "humor" in that game entertaining (don't think I ever would've found it entertaining, honestly), and instead it detracted massively from the overall look and feel of the game.

Yeah, the outer coating that is put on a game shouldn't matter that much, but, when you're pouring it all over like that, it's hard to get past it.
 
Star Wars 1313 and Streets of Rage (I guess Super Mario Volleyball lol as well) are the only ones that is actually sad to me.

Also...ironically never knew that a Volleyball game was in the works/originally planned o.O.

Also Streets of Rage RIP.
 
Top Bottom