Games are canceled all the time for lots of reasons. Sometimes they're secretive projects that never get revealed to the world, and sometimes they're games we know about and follow closely to the bitter end. But sometimes, in very rare cases, being canceled isn't the end. Sometimes those games are brought back to life.
To celebrate Halloween, we rounded up a few standout games that were seemingly lost, only to come back from the dead.
From the Depths of Nintendo Power
From the very beginning, Mother 3, the sequel to cult classic Earthbound had a rocky road. Shortly after starting development in 1994, the SNES sequel was shuffled over to the N64 and promoted in the US as Earthbound 64. Like many gamers, I only learned about the title from tiny screenshots and captions in the official Nintendo magazine Nintendo Power. But the upgraded hardware proved to be the game's undoing, and after a number of delays, the game was officially canceled in August 2000.
But then in 2003, Mother 3 came back, this time as a Game Boy Advance title. The graphics were scaled back to fit the less-powerful hardware, but it didn't detract from the emotional, mature story when it was finally released in 2006. Mother 3 still has yet to come out officially in the US (though it did come to Virtual Console in Japan last year), but there's a great fan translation available over at Mother3.fobby.net if you want to experience this nearly canceled classic in English. -- Justin Haywald Managing Editor
Alien Autopsy
It's hard to forget the ill-fated Prey 2's debut trailer from E3 2011. It depicted a grimy, Blade Runner-esque world and cast players as a futuristic bounty hunter armed with all manner of gadgets and weaponry--not to mention some serious parkour skills. Sadly, Human Head Studios' vision for the franchise never quite came together, and when publisher Bethesda shut the project down, Prey's future seemed not just uncertain but...empty. Fast forward to 2016 and the franchise has suddenly returned, revived by Dishonored developer Arkane Studios and reimagined as a sort of creepy, System Shock-inspired shooter. The reboot--simply titled Prey--might bare little resemblance to either the original game or its intriguing sequel, but it still proves no series is ever completely dead and gone. -- Scott Butterworth, Editor
The Legacy Lives On
By 2008, Rainbow Six had established itself as a franchise you could expect a new entry or expansion in every one to two years. Yet there was an eight-year gap following Rainbow Six Vegas 2 before we'd get a new game. This wasn't for lack of effort: Ubisoft originally intended to take the franchise in the direction of a story-driven experience with Rainbow Six Patriots. A 2011 video showed tense moments like you and your family being taken hostage in your home, and there was talk of "tough ethical decisions," which is a far cry from what we'd eventually get in Rainbow Six Siege. Patriots was canceled in 2013 when it was deemed "not good enough." When it returned in 2014 as Siege, Ubisoft had brought in almost a completely new set of developers to focus on a much different sort of vision: a multiplayer, esports-centric title that now appears to be paying dividends. -- Chris Pereira, News Reporter
From Modern War Simulator to Hat Simulator
Team Fortress started out as a Quake mod, helping to pioneer the concept of class-based shooters. For its follow-up, Valve revealed the expected sort of sequel. It featured a shift from World War II to modern warfare, and its 1999 showing at E3 garnered awards. Despite that, repeated delays ensued, years passed, and the game largely disappeared from sight. Its reappearance in 2007 came as something of a shock, as its realistic art style was abandoned in favor of a Pixar cartoon-esque look (while retaining the class-based gameplay). In the years since launch, it's arguably undergone an even more significant transformation, adding an incredibly deep loadout and customization system. This has led to the not-entirely-inaccurate joke that the game is now, first and foremost, a hat simulator--not something you would have ever guessed back in the late '90s. -- Chris Pereira, News Reporter
Attack on Titan
While Blizzard put its Titan MMO out to pasture, the game was ultimately resurrected as Overwatch. Like most zombies, if you look at the game closely enough, you can find traces of its former self.
Titan was originally billed as an MMO shooter that had players traversing around a sci-fi version of Earth. The planet had just defended itself against an alien invasion and there were classes like the reaper or jumper, the latter of which was purported to allow you to quickly teleport around environments. Blizzard eventually made the switch from aliens to Omnics for Overwatch and reaper morphed from a class to one of the game’s most bad-ass characters. The jumper class also evolved into Overwatch’s iconic Tracer.
While Blizzard’s CEO Mike Morhaime said that the company “didn’t find the fun” in Titan, Blizzard kept the game’s core development for Overwatch. Even though the game has a much smaller scope, strong remnants of Titan’s DNA still remain. Aside from re-using certain assets, there’s still a certain globe-trotting element to the game with Overwatch’s diverse locales. While the fall of Titan may be tragic for Blizzard, one of the best shooters in recent memory arose from its ashes. -- Jimmy Thang, Technology Editor
Battlefront Lives On
Star Wars Battlefront III might be dead and buried, but its legacy lives on with DICE's new Battlefront shooter, released in 2015. The game lacked the kind of depth some hardcore players might have wanted, but it appealed to a wide audience, going on to ship some 14 million copies. That makes it one of the best-selling Star Wars games in history.
The story of Star Wars Battlefront III is a long and twisted one, muddied by the fact that LucasArts (which has since closed down) never even acknowledged that it was in development. A playable version of Battlefront III, which was in development at Free Radical, emerged earlier this year, providing one of the best looks yet at the ill-fated game.
While Battlefront III was not meant to be, DICE's reboot of sorts is a welcome replacement. EA sees a future for it, too, as a sequel is currently on the way from DICE and Motive Studios. Little is known about the sequel, but EA has said it will feature content from "the new movies." -- | Eddie Makuch, News Reporter