With exclusive games likeFinal Fantasy VII,Chrono Cross, andSilent Hill, it was easy to forget about how thePS1was actually struggling to participate in its first console war. PlayStation gamers were happy and on top of the world (when their systems weren’t breaking and playing the dreaded “Fearful harmony”), meanwhile the executives were swamped with self-induced problems to solve. To be sure, the gaming world is much richer for Sony having stuck through their setbacks to become the leader that it is today.
RELATED:10 Nintendo Games That Were Cancelled For Strange Reasons
Still, there is a time to look mournfully back on those games that did get messed up and abandoned on that very first console. Licensing disputes, glitches, and poor porting abilities destroyed games that could have easily become franchises and likely prevented a series or two from ever seeing the light of day.Madden 96andDungeon Keeperwould, thankfully, function on other consoles just fine, but other games didn’t get so lucky.
10Creation
As players search forthe greatest RTS games in the spirit ofStarCraft, they will experience games from all time periods that span from the earth to the stars in the heavens. But a lack of underwater games overshadows the genre.
Things could have been different.Creationwas set to be a first-person oceanic RTS, but when Electronic Arts bought out Bullfrog Productions, the team was told that “Sub games don’t sell,” and that was the end of this project.
9Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
There is no denying thatDungeons & Dragonshad an impact on early developers. Those who played through a campaign wanted so badly to get a version onto consoles as soon as the technology was available.
Whilethe modern games workshop has yielded some excellent tabletop options,Advanced Dungeon & DragonsgameDark Sun: The Shattered Landswas from an earlier time of limited capabilities. Banking on the technology of the PlayStation was a lost bet, so the team at Strategic Simulations tried to port it over to MS-DOS, where it was too broken to be reliably played.
8Hyberblade
Some games failed so badly on the PS1 that EA Sports famously refused to give Sony a license for their games. In light of Sony’s low standard of quality assurance, developer Wizbang! Software decided this was their chance to fix the image by making a futuristic hockey game calledHyperblade.
Forsakingother good old-school hockey gamesfor a game that had decapitations and fatal cross-checks, they hoped to take advantage of the PS1’s 3D technologies. Sadly, Sony didn’t feel up to the task and the project was scrapped. The team tried to put a very buggy version on Windows 95, but the game was not playable until after newer graphics cards were made publicly available.
7I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream
When this game was reviewed by critics back in 1995, they couldn’t get enough of the point-and-click adventure with various endings dependent on player choice. Sony was set for a colossal success with an exclusive release that summer, but they buckled at the last minute due to developer Cyberdreams’s reputation for advanced concepts that targeted an intellectual audience.
RELATED:10 Canceled Marvel Games You Never Knew Existed
The game was quietly released on PC with very little fanfare. Twenty years later, demand from devoted fans would revive the game on Windows and Mobile devices to resounding acclaim. It seems the concept was too far ahead of its time for Sony to risk.
6The Indestructibles
Originally titledMIST - My Incredible Superhero Team,The Indestructibleswas a game determined to give fans of comic book legends another universe of characters to cheer for. The graphics team had completed model vectors and rendering that had not yet been accessible to the public.
It turns out thatthe strongest of all of theMarvel’s Avengersweaponsis their power of litigation. After threatening to sue if any of the characters resembled, in appearance or power, any of Marvel’s characters, Sony got squeamish and put a desist production order on the game.
5Legions Of The Undead
For the players of today whoswap secrets about how to avoid and kill the predator inPredator: Hunting Grounds, it’s a good time to look back at Rebellion Development which putAlien Versus Predatoron the video game map.
They almost established another first-person action role-playing franchise withLegions of the Undead. Hailed to be the nextUltima, downsizing from publisher Atari forced them to cut all funding from the project. With the advertising in the papers and critics already playing the game, Atari quietly stopped production, and the public only got wind of the cancellation after the license lapsed.
4Mace: The Dark Age
People who have worked at an arcade have inside knowledgeof games likeMace: The Dark Age. For its time, it was a fighting game with graphics that even exceeded the bar set by trusted titles likeMortal KombatandStreet Fighter.
Another casualty of the Atari downsizing, PS1 players never got ahold of this game. It would later go on to debut in arcades instead, but this medium featured only combat and cut out the advanced plotline that Atari had included in the base game.
3Major Damage
When a company like Capcom says they’re going to add some brand new charactersto their already memorable lineup, even Sony can’t pass that up. Indeed, Sony did not pull the plug on this project, hotly anticipating the new run-and-gun game.
RELATED:10 Cancelled Games Nintendo Actually Showed Off To The Public
Unfortunately for PS1 fans, Capcom suffered some financial setbacks and had to restructure its US Division to save money, sacrificing the branch of employees working on this game. As a final blow to excited fans, when Capcom recouped the staff to finishMajor Damage, Sony had already releasedBastoand said the games were too similar-looking for another release.
2Marvel 2099: One Nation Under Doom
Marvel fully embraces that there are several different universes with the same heroes following different plotlines. One fan favorite is the Marvel 2099 series of comics, which more heavily feature villain All-Father Doom and protagonists like The Punisher.
Developer Mindscape Inc. had already made the merchandise and completed the demos for exhibitions, but outspent themselves and had to layoff much of their staff. Strangely, they never officially canceledMarvel 2099: One Nation Under Doomin any capacity, but they stopped paying for its producers to work, effectively ending the process.
1Thrill Kill
Thrill Killwas the first game to be rated Adults Only not due to sexual content. The over-the-top violence and frequent “fatalities” might have been a bit much for younger audiences, but Virgin Interactive had no problem delivering an experience that even put the graphic scenes in competitorMortal Kombatto shame.
The same could not be said of Electronic Arts, who bought out Virgin Interactive right before the game’s release. Even with fully printed games ready to ship, EA decided the potential public backlash was not worth it. The game’s engine would be used as the foundation of many other games, but that doesn’t stop players from thinking about what might have been.
NEXT:10 Canceled PS4 Games We Wish Saw The Light Of Day
