10 Cancelled Games We Still Want to Play

Every so often, there is a game that we make a fuss over, discuss with our friends and roommates, and touch ourselves with thoughts of its potential, only to be left feeling like a cheap hooker that's still moist but hasn't climaxed.

Unfortunately, it's happened more often than we'd like, so we thought we'd take a look at some of the titles we still haven't lost that hankering to play. Granted, this list is coming from a guy who once plotted a road trip across country to storm Majesco when Jaws was on the verge of being canned (spoiler: the game sucks), just to get my hands on a dev copy. While that wound up being unnecessary, I'm just saying, don't f*ck with me.

So what games, if they magically arrived on our doorstep tomorrow, would we throw in our systems as though they were still the next big thing? Read on, brave souls.

10. StarCraft: Ghost



When this game was announced in 2002, it graced the cover of multiple game magazines, whet the appetites of those gamers that were anxiously awaiting a return to the StarCraft universe (and are still waiting...), and delivered a big heaping load of hype. And then four years went by, and that was that. The game was canceled - er, sorry, placed on "indefinite hold".

The game was going to follow Nova, a stealth operative that would have multiple platforming abilities, gadgets, and weapons at her disposal. Essentially, it was StarCraft on a more personal level. While Blizzard neglects to officially state the title is cancelled, come on. Let's face facts. But hey, at least StarCraft II, or at least one part of it (wallet rape!), will be out in "2010".

9. Demonik



Oh, Majesco. You are just so unreliable. To be fair, I could give two shits that Demonik was a Clive Barker game, that's not why I wanted to play it so badly. My affection for this game comes purely from Grandma's Boy, as it cameos as the video game that the titular Alex is designing.

My desire to play Demonik comes as a result of fine American cinema, where friends (should I ever have some) and I would wind up quoting the movie while aimlessly wandering around in this undoubtedly broken game.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Seed of Courage



In 2001, there were not one but two Zelda games released for the dying Game Boy Color, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. In order to get all of the items and even solve certain puzzles, you needed to own and play through both games, not unlike Nintendo's Pokemon series. However, each of the games were indeed completely different and worth playing on their own merits.

There was supposed to be a third pillar to these games, titled Mystical Seed of Courage. Though it was cancelled for troubles with its interconnectivity and some of its concepts dispersed into the other games, Seed of Courage was to have puzzles centered around time travel and the time of day. Coming off Majora's Mask, a handheld game similar in concept sounded good to me. Alas, it was not to be.

7. Taxi Driver



Once again, Majesco stuck their wonderstick in something they weren't prepared to finish off. While I can't say that I think that the Scorsese classic Taxi Driver lends itself to a game or any sort of continuing story, I wanted to play this game simply for the train wreck of it all; still do.

But maybe it's worth noting that the year Majesco announced this game was the same year they lost $71 million dollars and had to cut 20% of their staff. Though some of that can be attributed to the general public being oblivious to one genuinely great game Majesco actually managed to put out, Psychonauts, it still doesn't exactly say much for the publisher

6. Shenmue III



Though this is a "never say never" in the same vain as StarCraft: Ghost, it's highly doubtful that Shenmue III will ever see the light of day. The second installment of the series came out in 2001, and production on its sequel as stopped and started a few times.

There is massive fan outcry for this game, which honestly is the only reason it would feasibly ever happen. Sales for Shenmue II were lackluster at best, but yet even former SEGA of America president Simon Jeffrey acknowledged that it is one of the most request games by fans.

5. Jurassic Park: Survival



What a gosh darn shame. A game that was a wholly original story in the Jurassic Park universe, focused on outwitting dinosaurs a la Dr. Alan Grant instead of unrealistically battling them, and was a third person action/adventure game was simply too good to be true.

The story features a JP employee (on a previously unknown third island) that is caught in the midst of a conspiracy, and of course, a shit load of dinosaurs. If you rack your brain, you'll find it difficult to recall a game with awesome dinosaurs that was any good. The closest thing I can think of is Primal Rage, and that game sucked.

4. B.C.



Okay, the cancellation of Jurassic Park: Survival I could handle. It was devastating, yes, but I bounced back. When B.C. went under though, Christ. Full fledged dino-depression.

The awesomely historically inaccurate game saw the player take control of a tribe of humans trying to survive the elements of the prehistoric age, including, but not limited to, freaking sweet dinosaurs. Better yet, B.C. was spearheaded by Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios, the minds behind Fable and Fable II.

Molyneux is nothing if not a go-getter; his ideas are epic in stature and his goals far fetched. That's why he was the perfect man to head up B.C. Perhaps, in the future, Molyneux will shake is bag of tricks and the dinosaurs will come tumbling out.

3. EarthBound 64



EarthBound 64 is the mother of cancelled games that have fan outcry up to wazoo. In what would have been the third game in the EarthBound series (Mother 3 in the East), EarthBound 64 drew hype upon its debut as Nintendo's answer to the PlayStation's mega hit Final Fantasy VII. That was Spaceworld 1997. By 1999, the game was still only half done and the N64DD the game was intended to release on was a mega failure.

Six years after its cancellation, as though it was some sort of reward for clinging to hope so tightly, Nintendo released a modified version of the game (in Japan only), refit for the Game Boy Advance. Nice try.

2. Factor 5's Superman



The Superman franchise has a long and terrible history of video game awfulness. Not simply mediocrity, but pure, unadulterated suck. The only games that came remotely close to success were The Death & Return of Superman for the SNES, which was essentially a Final Fight with a Superman skin, and Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, which looked like Game of the Year compared to the worse-than-Superman 64 Xbox title, Man of Steel.

When it was revealed the awesome Factor 5 was working on a Superman game, wouldn't you know it? My first thoughts weren't "god dammit" or "oh, great...", but instead utter excitement. And then almost as quickly, we learned we'd never get to play it.

1. Star Fox 2



The original Star Fox is one of those games I would pop into my system and beat every single day. It was awesome. I know that Star Fox 2 was supposed to be a bit different (featuring more of a free-roaming aspect instead of linear progression), but I was hot in the nuts for this sequel. Fully completed and cancelled simply because the N64 was on its way out and the company wanted to transition to full 3D.

This is probably the game we stand the most legitimate chance at actually playing someday, likely through Nintendo's Virtual Console. Though they've denied it when asked thus far, it makes no sense to withhold a completed game with a rabid fanbase ready to gobble it up. Hell, they could even charge $15 for it instead of the normal SNES $8. Pipe dreams.