A treasure trove of unreleased Xbox games has been discovered and there are some great surprises

Date:
Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:04:35 +0000

Description:
From He-Man to Pac-Man, check out the Xbox games that nearly made it to Xbox.

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Game development is as much a tale of the also-rans as it is the big blockbusters. For every Halo , theres an FPS prototype that didnt make the cut, for every Mario Kart a racer whose engines stalled before it left the starting grid.

Today were getting a wonderful glimpse into some of the titles that nearly graced the original Xbox and Dreamcast, thanks to the unveiling of a
priceless stash of unreleased builds and prototype games over at Hidden
Palace .

Hidden Palace, if youve never heard of it, is a video game development preservation community collecting not just such early builds and prototypes, but also unreleased artwork, hardware, code and more. Its latest push has
been Project Deluge collating materials from thousands of development discs and sharing the best of whats been found.

The latest release is a real wonder , showing off early versions of Tony
Hawks Pro Skater, Jet Grind Radio, WWF Attitude and more for Dreamcast. But its the Xbox stuff where some really wild stuff sits. Best PS5 games Best
Xbox Series X games Raiders of the lost Xbox

Perhaps the greatest gem here is an unreleased English localization of Dinosaur Hunting: Ushinawareta Daichi, which despite seeming
all-but-complete, never made it outside of Japan. Its a bit like Jurassic
Park crossed with Monster Hunter, and was destined for the original Xbox. (Image credit: Hidden Palaces)

Next up is another near-complete game, starring that Saturday morning cartoon idol, He-Man. He-Ma: Defender of Grayskull saw a PS2 release in Europe, but nowhere else, and its Xbox version, preserved now by Hidden Palace, never saw the light of day. Another interesting find is a near-complete build of
Pac-Man World Rally. It made it to PS2 and Gamecube, but this Xbox build
never went past the prototyping stage. (Image credit: Hidden Palaces)

That so many of these games were close to completion but never made it to their intended home on the Xbox speaks volumes about the console wars of the time. The original Xbox was a powerhouse, and one that paved the way for Microsofts modern Xbox Series X successes. But it couldnt compete with the mighty PS2 , which remains the best-selling console of all time with over 155 million units sold worldwide. Its likely publishers saw a greater return possible by just focussing on a PS2 release, and leaving Xbox ports of the time to flounder.

One last curio to highlight from the hundreds of items here is an unreleased title called The Vatz. Developed by Beenox Studios for PC and Xbox, it was
set to be shown off at E3 2002, and worked on a custom engine called Goliath that was said to be capable of advanced physics rendering. Set to be a vertical slice to entice publishers, the demo was as far as development on
the third--person sci-fi game went, and it faded into obscurity. (Image credit: Hidden Palaces)

Theres much, much more to be found over at Hidden Palace , and theres even
the ability to download the builds for those that want to attempt to make
them run on original hardware or emulating software a feat thats more than possible, according to the site. Have a dig around, and let us know if you spot any treats weve missed here. PS5 vs Xbox Series X



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/a-treasure-trove-of-unreleased-xbox-games-has-b een-discovered-and-there-are-some-great-surprises/


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