Puhleeze. Who wants a Hideo Kojima produced Silent Hill game written by Guillermo Del Toro and starring Norman Reedus anyway?

A few weeks ago, a potential classic, Silent Hills, was cancelled, and all trace of it was removed from the Playstation Network Store. What would have been a potential game changer for both the franchise and the survival horror genre in general is yet another case of what could have been. Although no definite reason was given for it, if you’ve kept up with the drama over the past few weeks, it’s evident that business politics, internal conflict, and the pending departure of Hideo Kojima all played into the cancellation. Sadly, Silent Hills isn’t the first high profile cancellation, nor will it be the last. Gaming’s history is rife with games that could have been classics being canceled due to a variety of reasons. I’ve done 5 previous installments on this subject alone.

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Sure sign of trouble: The intro features a generic martial arts guy who isn’t in the game. It’s not too late to turn back now.

I think I may have very well found the worst fighting game ever. This isn’t an exaggeration folks. Unlike other shitty fighting games such as Karate Champ (which gets a pass as it was among the first of its kind and for that awesome bullfighting bonus stage), Survival Arts (with it’s goofy character designs), Time Splitters (with its creative use of gore), and Rise of the Robots (that at least had nice graphics), there was no redeeming value for Best of Best. No, I take it back. There is some unintentional comedy in some of the poses, backgrounds, and animations. By the way, Best of Best should not be confused with Best of the Best: Championship Karate, Electro Brain’s 1992 fighting game nor should it be confused with the movie of the same name that the previously mentioned Karate Game ISN’T based upon.
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This past memorial day, we remembered the brave men and women in our military who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We as gamers also remember the many games that have been left on the cutting room floor, some due to budget issues, others due to executive meddling, and others due to censorship. This list of titles once again mentions 10 games that didn’t make it past previews and concept stages. Some titles we were better off without. However, other titles were potential classics that were killed off before their time. All games mentioned deserved their time in the spotlight, even if metacritic would have given them a rating of only 5.5.
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Developed by Pack-In-Video and released by LJN/Acclaim, Rambo is an NES game loosely based on Rambo: First Blood Part II. If any action movie franchise seems ripe for a video game treatment, it’s Rambo. I mean, basically all you’d have to do is give him a bunch of weapons (including his explosive arrows) and have him kill the ever-living fuck out of anything moving. This formula does work (see Contra, Heavy Barrel, Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D). So why the hell would PIV/LJN/Acclaim turn Rambo into a RPG-ish Zelda II (although it was released a few months prior) clone?
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This Thanksgiving, we show thanks for the many things that we have. We as gamers are also particularly thankful for the many games that have been released or are on their way, considering that there are so many that don’t make it off the drawing board. On the flip-side, we should also be thankful for all the crappy video games that have been left on the cutting room floor that gamers and critics never had to endure. Without any further ado, lets take a look at 10 of these cancellations, some of which are especially heartbreaking.
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This past weekend saw the news that the Neo Geo X would cease production. With that note, it brings to mind another handheld which had an all-too-brief existence, Gamepark Holdings’ GP2X Caanoo. What’s that you say? Never heard of it? Well, that’s part of the reason it didn’t last long. Normally, Maximum Letdown takes potshots at bad games or/hardware. However, this Maximum Letdown is a letdown of a different variety, because the product had some potential, it just succumbed to poor timing and poor marketing.
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As I noted in my review of Datura a few weeks back, indie games often use vagueness and minimalism as a means of attracting players. However, there is a difference between using minimalism to benefit the game and being vague for the sake of being vague. Sadly, Vigil (or Victi as it’s known in Europe) does the latter. While it drags players in with its Sin-City-style graphics and interesting storyline, it’s vagueness and frustrating gameplay will turn off players with the quickness.
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Datura stramonium, also known as moonflower and Angel’s trumpet is a genus of flowering weeds in the Solanaceae family of plants. This family also includes Tomatoes, Mandrake, Potatoes, and Tobacco. While it’s used to treat Asthma and nausea symptoms, it can be very harmful at larger doses, causing delirium, photophobia, amnesia, and even death. For this reason, it’s known by another name: The Devil’s Weed. Shockingly enough, unlike marijuana, it’s not illegal. You can grow it, cultivate, and even use it. However, only a complete moron would do so.

So why am I telling you this? Because apparently you have to be high as shit in order to play Sony’s 2012 PS Move title, and even then it still won’t make any sense.
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