Thankfully, canceled games on the Sega Genesis mostly made their way to the Super Nintendo, earned a PC port, or were released on the Sega Saturn. Players looking forward to these games had to wait for publishers to work out licensing deals or for updated copies to find their ways onto other gaming devices, but they usually got lucky enough to get the game eventually.
Unfortunately, not every game saw the light of day. The pitches and development team on them never got to do a sequel. They simply ceased to exist. Some are known only because of subtle leakers and coding masters extracting bits and pieces of information. This does not stop gamers from thinking of what could have been and what the gaming world would be like today had these projects continued.
10 Aspect Warriors
Art by DiegoGisbertLlorens.
Warhammer fantasy games are delighting fans even to this day. Fans know the games, both in video and tabletop format, for their splendid battlefield controls and mix of space travel and medieval-style that is truly an artistic genre all on its own.
But the game could have also had an RTS angle attached to one of its most popular storylines. Aspect Warriors was perhaps too ambitious of a project for Electronic Arts to put together in 1994.
9 Dragon’s Lair: The Adventure Continues
Famously one of the hardest games of all time, Dragon’s Lair is still the butt of jokes about a fun concept ruined by bad controls. The animated style appealed to younger fans by putting a Disney-like character in a dark, dungeonesque setting.
Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp came out with the same problems as the first, both sets of issues allegedly caused due to poor porting. In 1994, a non-ported sequel called Dragon’s Lair: The Event Continues finally seemed set to make the gameplay as fun as the concept. Unfortunately, the game got nixed, becoming yet another sequel players never got.
8 The Flintstones
TV Shows have served as the basis for some great games, but The Flintstones is not one of them. A game called The Flintstones did come out on the Sega Genesis in 1993.
It was met with a lukewarm reception at best, with a plot that centered on Fred platforming around Bedrock to find Wilma’s pearl necklace. The boring plot and gameplay were panned, but a different developer wanted redemption. Despite Ocean Software’s impressive resumé, the bad taste hadn’t left the public’s mouth by 1995, so the (hopefully) improved Flintstones game was scrapped.
7 Hard Yardage
In 2005, EA signed an exclusivity deal with the NFL, making it very hard to find great non-Madden football games. Any other releases are hamstrung from the very first day, as they are unable to simulate games or use official logos and players.
Hard Yardage had a chance to prevent all of that. As a basic arcade game, Sega sought to bring it to their Genesis console and create a realistic football experience. The port failed and focus turned to the doomed Joe Montana Football, indirectly leading to a monopoly for EA that might have been averted with a quality competitor.
6 Interplanetary Lizards Of The Texas Plains
The title alone, Interplanetary Lizards of the Texas Plains, brings an immediate comparison to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That’s not an accident, the game was based on a comic book of the same name and hoped to bring a much-needed Western vibe to the gaming universe.
Instead of learning tidbits about the Lemoyne Raiders, players would be studying up on one of their favorite lizards. Sadly, Doc, Tumbleweed, and Rattler never got the opportunity to hit the screens in spite of their comic book success as Tengen, of Pac-Man and R.B.I. Baseball fame, went under.
5 Jesse “The Body” Ventura Wrestling Superstars
Dreamworks, yes THAT Dreamworks, wanted to make a little history in 1991 when they began production on Jesse “The Body” Ventura Wrestling Superstars. Unlike some other unreleased titles, this game was complete and ready to ship.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura Wrestling Superstars was canceled when Ventura and the WWE had a falling out. As wrestling games can be notoriously awful, if this title had been released, it probably would not have done well. Nevertheless, Jesse “The Body” Ventura Wrestling Superstars might have provided some unintentional laughs.
4 Kartoon Kombat
Baby versions of animated children actually have a surprising history of success. The Muppets and WB cartoons both had spin-offs that turned back the clock on their cast to when they were babies. Now imagine this with the Mortal Kombat lineup.
It might sound like a joke, but Technos, the developers behind the wildly successful Double Dragon games, was seriously on pace to make this game. No doubt slated to be a game that looks like it is for kids but is surprisingly difficult, the project ended up going by the wayside.
3 The Lord Of The Rings
The industry spits out poorly-made Lord of the Rings games at a surprisingly high clip, so nostalgic gamers can only lean back in their seats and wonder what could have happened if these confusing projects were set aside in place of a fighting game.
Sega itself took the reigns on this production, imagining a Middle Earth combat game that featured unique abilities and weapons for favorites like Gandalf and Frodo. Unfortunately, Sega never put the finishing touches on this work.
2 Ratchet & Bolt
The existence of the abandoned project Ratchet & Bolt wasn’t a secret, but only recently did players find out what this game was supposed to be. It sounded like a Ratchet & Clank rip-off, and while it was set in the future, it was actually closer to RoboCop.
The leaked footage uncovered some great music and the presence of two differently-shaped robotic officers opening fire. Sega was working on the game, but with the Sega Saturn on the horizon, they set this project down and never returned to it.
1 Sonic Crackers
The discovery of Sonic Crackers was originally thought to be an April Fool’s joke, since the timestamp on the leaked image indicated it was April 1st, 1994. After the team broke apart the game and instead made Knuckles’ Chaotix, the public learned that this was indeed the real deal.
The music and gameplay were totally complete. The game played a lot like Donkey Kong Country, with Sonic and Tails attached by two rings. Sega was trying to get away from Sonic the Hedgehog‘s basic formula in a move that gamers still haven’t fully understood, so they ditched him and this game to focus on other pursuits. By the time the publisher realized their error, the world had moved from Sega to Sony.
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