5 Cancelled Games That Weren’t Meant To Be

The development of any game is fraught with peril. The tiniest thing can cause disaster for your game and it may end up not making it to release day. In some cases, your game could be completely finished and still not appear on shelves.

Let’s take a look at a few games that don’t exist. So don’t go looking for them, got that?

 

StarCraft Ghost

Okay, let’s get this heavy hitter out of the way. People still live in hope that StarCraft Ghost will somehow get released. We’ve no idea how much of this game was completed, but there have been many, many screenshots and footage.

People like the look of this game, but a third-person stealth game wasn’t really what the company was known for, and with World of Warcraft becoming such a big deal and StarCraft becoming a big eSports title. it seems as though Blizzard decided to focus on these two major titles. Blizzard didn’t stray into any new genres until Overwatch popped up, naturally.

 

WarCraft Adventures – Lord of the Clans

Blizzard again with another nearly complete title that got cancelled late in development. It was an old school point and click affair, featuring 2D graphics.

The game was in development since 1997 but with the game unable to hit its 1998 deadline and the discovery that LucasArts’ next adventure game would feature a 3D engine, Blizzard decided that the game was dated and subsequently cancelled. The alpha version was leaked onto the internet this year and it revealed the game was practically finished.

 

Star Fox 2

Another well known game was Star Fox 2. It was practically complete and scheduled for release in summer 1995 when Nintendo pulled the rug out from under developers Argonaut Software’s collective feet and cancelled the game.

It’s a shame because the game wasn’t a simple rework of Star Fox, it offered a new type of gameplay with a Star Fox vibe. The game had been highly publicised by Nintendo so it was a shock to see it not released. No official reason was given for Star Fox 2’s cancellation but it was most likely due to the impressive 3D offered by the Playstation and Saturn in 1994 – Nintendo decided not to releasing a lesser-looking 3D game and focus on the upcoming Nintendo 64.

 

Bio Force Ape

It was long considered that Bio Force Ape didn’t exist. The game was touted for release in 1992 for the NES, and media for the game had been sent out. But the SNES was released in Japan in 1990 and by 1992 it was available worldwide. With NES game sales diminishing, the game was quietly canned and forgotten about. It then came to the attention of game archivists and any info on the game was like a little lost gem. Years ago, a fan claimed to have discovered a prototype cartridge of Bio Force Ape, and the online communities went wild. However, this turned out to be a cruel hoax and the fan ‘destroyed’ the cart.

So in 2010 when someone announced they’d procured a prototype cartridge of Bio Force Ape, the community was sceptical, despite a hoax of another destroyed cart, it was the real deal and not destroyed and the ROM was released online. There are some that say that the nearly finished prototype is a fan made hoax in itself. But it looks like a NES game and plays like a NES game. Whether it’s real or not, Bio Force Ape is available for download, and it’s pretty badass.

 

Death Cargo/Gorebreaker

This one is an odd one to add to this list. Whereas the previous games have been completed and not released, Death Cargo was released but may not even exist.

Death Cargo was an ultra violent, Mortal Kombat inspired digitalised fighting game by Necrostorm, a splatter movie studio. Personally I thought the game looked awful, but nostalgia is big business and fighting fans eagerly kept tabs on the game.

The game was released in 2014 but it seems that anyone who preordered the game wasn’t actually able to play it. When they complained about this, they were banned from the company’s forums and even had threats of legal action. The only people who claimed to have played the game are users with newly created accounts. So scam, you say? Maybe, but Necrostorm were quick to refund anyone who complained or asked for a refund. The game was renamed Gorebreaker and planned for release before the end of 2015, but as of yet, neither Gorebreaker or Death Cargo are yet to see the light of day.