Cancelled Games You Wish Had Been Released - I Can't Think of a Good Subtitle

[Just A College Boy]

A year after Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa) was winning awards, there was another game inspired by Inuit folklore in development. Simply titled "Qalupalik." It was a small VR project, but noteworthy nonetheless. The description from the (defunct) official website is as follows: "Qalupalik is a stealth/suspense game to be released in 2016 that provides a modern take on an ancient Inuit myth. Players will venture out into the ice of an early Nunavut spring in an attempt to rescue a kidnapped sibling, taken by the Qalupalik. Players will use stealth, traditional Inuit weapons and just plain guts to see their way past the horrifying creatures of legend and safely to their brothers rescue... assuming such a thing is even possible."

Sadly, no trailer is available, but I was able to find, and articles detailing the game are scarce. There was a demo reel at GDC 2015.

Unfortunately, the video was taken down and even the Wayback Machine is of no help. There are a couple of in-game images that can be found as well as a video of player reactions.

Backup (in case the original video goes private or is deleted):

Original video (unlisted):

I don't know why this game was silently canned. Maybe there was too much in-fighting, maybe they ran out of money, or maybe the ambition killed it, but now the Youtube channel is just run-of-the-mill. The last update from the Pinnguaq has this passage: "In short, we’re not comfortable with how Qalupalik has been proceeding. As slow and underfunded as it has been, it has also meant we’ve moved away from a process of constant consultation with communities and into a 'nose to the ground' development cycle that is hurting the game. The mechanics we have developed are increasingly too 'video gamey' and as we scope out the game it’s clear we need to return to the drawing board with our partners who brought us here in the first place."

Given that Inuit folklore is a perfect yet untapped source for horror, I would have loved to seen this game completed and released.

Additional links: Unfail Even Faster, Influences, Making of, 56k Games page, Official Website (archive), and there are a few of the various concept arts made in the attachments.

 

[Str8Bustah]

Zone of the Enders 3
The unannounced PSVita game that GRev was working on years ago
Deep Down

As far as vaporware goes, where the FUCK is babylon's fall?

 

[Just Here for A and H]

Back when Age of Empires III came out, the collector's edition included a foldout with five panels labeled I - II - III - IV - V. Each showed soldiers from different eras of history, with I through III being what you'd expect, IV showing a Korean War-style soldier, and V showing a "20XX" near-future kit. At least we're getting a new Age game now, but a 1700s-1900s timeframe would've be cool, especially since Ensemble would've been making it (presumably).

Also, KotOR III, Westwood's original C&C3 pitch featuring Yuri's origin story, and Crash Twinsanity II.

EDIT: Not quite what I remember it being when I last saw it a decade ago, but here's the Age of Empires III thing I was talking about.

 

[Antarctic Hellbeast]

Starcraft: Ghost.

A playable build leaked last year and it was very unoptimized especially at the very start of most levels where its a gamble whether or not it freezes from so much going on and played like a third person timesplitters. (No shit. Its unfinished.)
even had alpha versions of units that wouldnt appear until Starcraft 2 in the build's codex located in the pause menu.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

Metal Gear Solid Rising, it would've been great having a stealth action game focused on Raiden's time between 2 and 4 and I think a more action oriented stealth game would be great. I'm not entirely happy with Platinum's product and MGSR had plenty of promise to be unique and interesting.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Metal Gear Solid Rising, it would've been great having a stealth action game focused on Raiden's time between 2 and 4 and I think a more action oriented stealth game would be great.

MGS wrote the book on stealth; yet it seems to drift further and further away from the genre.

It's a chore to listen to the codec, but in Snake Eater, the Boss mentions how she pioneered the stealth mission while 'snatching' VIPS in WW2. That might have been interesting to explore. But others raised the point that playing as the Boss removes her mystique.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Mentioned it in an other thread but was kinda looking forward to the highlander game on xbox 360

 

[Blamo]

I really wanted to play StarCraft: Ghost.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I really wanted to play StarCraft: Ghost.

Hadn't heard of that one. Why was it cancelled?

 

[Raiken]

Metal Gear Solid Rising, it would've been great having a stealth action game focused on Raiden's time between 2 and 4 and I think a more action oriented stealth game would be great. I'm not entirely happy with Platinum's product and MGSR had plenty of promise to be unique and interesting.

The free cutting of everything made it hell to make it, and the combat boiled down to pynch punch kick from the ps1 game while the enemies around you melted like butter. It was clear that they had not planned ahead what they where doing or how long it would take to make.
Mgrr had one mechanic also cut for collition dettection: wall running. If they put it in like one of the trailers showed then it would need far more time.

 

[Blamo]

Hadn't heard of that one. Why was it cancelled?

Blizzard is famous for their long development times, the consoles they have been developing the game for, the PS2 and Gamecube, were pretty much at the end of their life. They put it on hold around 2006.

 

[verygayFrogs]

Super Mario Wacky World. Aka a sequel to Mario World that got turned into Hotel Mario

 

[Dom Cruise]

Recoil: Retrograde, a steampunk action game about time travel where you try to go back in time and stop some organization using time travel to take over the world in your present, you're actions, like who you do and don't kill, would supposedly change the future.

The original version of Dino Crisis 3, it was going to be a direct sequel to the first two games, it would have been about dinosaurs on the loose in an American city, but was canceled because of... 9/11 and Capcom's concerns over imagery of a damaged US city so soon after the attacks.

Metal Gear Solid Rising, it would've been great having a stealth action game focused on Raiden's time between 2 and 4 and I think a more action oriented stealth game would be great. I'm not entirely happy with Platinum's product and MGSR had plenty of promise to be unique and interesting.

I lost interest after the switch, I know the final game has it's cult following and I may still give it a whirl, but for me I was more interested when it was a stealth game.

MGS wrote the book on stealth; yet it seems to drift further and further away from the genre.

It's a chore to listen to the codec, but in Snake Eater, the Boss mentions how she pioneered the stealth mission while 'snatching' VIPS in WW2. That might have been interesting to explore. But others raised the point that playing as the Boss removes her mystique.

Seeing the MGS world's version of WW2 would be really weird and interesting, they could still keep The Boss mysterious.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Seeing the MGS world's version of WW2 would be really weird and interesting

Is there an Axis version of Raikov to humiliate? Herr Raidolph?

Is Quinton Flynn a universal constant?

 

[Boobie Bomb]

Recoil: Retrograde, a steampunk action game about time travel where you try to go back in time and stop some organization using time travel to take over the world in your present, you're actions, like who you do and don't kill, would supposedly change the future.

The original version of Dino Crisis 3, it was going to be a direct sequel to the first two games, it would have been about dinosaurs on the loose in an American city, but was canceled because of... 9/11 and Capcom's concerns over imagery of a damaged US city so soon after the attacks.



I lost interest after the switch, I know the final game has it's cult following and I may still give it a whirl, but for me I was more interested when it was a stealth game.


Seeing the MGS world's version of WW2 would be really weird and interesting, they could still keep The Boss mysterious.

9/11? Have they not seen Jurassic park 2? T-Rex was on the loose killing people. No wonder the series died after 3. Fucking 9/11 get the fuck out Capcom. :/

 

[Rotollo 2]

Not really cancelled but I have nowhere else to put this shit so turns out alot of earthbound's development files were uncovered lately, showing alot of unused stuff Ape didn't use for the game thanks to some localization files

Can't wait to see what unused concepts are lurking in this bad boy

 

[Captain Syrup]

Not really cancelled but I have nowhere else to put this shit so turns out alot of earthbound's development files were uncovered lately

Speaking of EathBound: some of you may already know this, but a lot of Earthbound 64's content was incorporated into Mother 3.

Probably for a the best, but fans of RPGs wound up buying a PS1. Nintendo didn't do much to entice them.

 

[Steinercard]

I have a couple.

There was this Star Trek RTS game that was supposed to come out in the early naughts. You would've played the borg assimilating everything and it was cancelled because Paramount thought it deviated too far from canon.

View attachment Borg_Assimilator_screenshot.webp

There's also the one everyone mentions. The cancelled version of Star Wars Battlefront 3 by Free radical. That looked so cool. Finally I really would've liked Prey 2 to come out. I thoroughly disliked the Prey (in name only) game by Arkane. I have no idea how they forgot to make immersive sims properly between Dark Messiah and Dishonored but here we are.

 

[Steinercard]

Im surprised no one has brought up Secret of Vulcan Fury.

https://youtu.be/IQHyg6nFpAY

A point and click using state of the art tech for the time. It was gonna bring back the entire cast and have a story by D.C Fontana.

Supposedly they didn't get much done before it was canceled due to high cost. Although, thankfully there are similar sprite games 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites that scratch the itch.


Another good one that sadly never saw the light of day was Babylon 5 Into Fire.

There is a playable E3 Demo, but they lost live action footage of the cast doing what amounts to another season of the show. Dam shame.

https://youtu.be/jFp595one_E

Oh and lastly this one seemed like good fun. Have no idea what the hell happened to it.

https://youtu.be/XXrBmWkbLg0

It's not the same thing but there's an excellent Babylon 5 fan game called the Babylon Project that is very similar to the cancelled space sim they were making. It's very fleshed out with multiple campaigns, including the Minbari War, and more.

 

[Dunsparce]

While not a specific game, I wish that Koji Igarashi had made a Castlevania game that took place during the Demon Castle War before leaving Konami. For those unaware, the Demon Castle War was an event that took place in 1999 where Dracula was defeated once and for all. The games released that took place the closest to this event were Portrait of Ruin, which took place during WW2 and mentioned that Nostradamus predicted the event to happen that year, and then there was Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, which took place about 35 years after the war took place, and while Dracula is gone forever his legacy remained in unique ways.

What little we do know is that it involves the Vampire Killer returning to the Belmont clan after being with the Morris branch family for a decent bit(Julius Belmont being the man to take it up again), and it involved both major armies and an order of shinto priests, and Alucard was there as well(It was also possible that characters from PoR to also still be alive at the time, but they would be in their 70's at that point)