Is there anything more tragic than the canceled video game? It's frustrating to see games that have a lot of vision, unique ideas, and interesting stories get canned. In this industry, it happens all too often, whether due to studio closures, money issues, a lack of investment, or loss of a designer. Back when the 360 was a new console, I used to read magazines cover to cover, getting excited about all these new games that were going to come to this console. I don't know whether it was because the console was new or due to the financial crisis, but it seems like about 1/3 games that got previewed never made it out of development. More recently, the most tragic case is probably Silent Hills. This amazing brainchild of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro teased us, quite literally, with the staggeringly good PT, and then...nothing. You can't even play PT anymore.

In this article, we've pulled together a list of games that, for one reason or another, never got released. We've gone back to the Genesis and the SNES era, right through to the early days of the 360. From Indiana Jones to Harry Potter, StarCraft to After Burner, these are games that we'll never play. All we have to look at is concept art, design docs, and prototype videos for most of them. Like tears in the rain, these moments are lost in time. Did you get hyped for any of these? Can you think of any other canceled games you'd have loved to play? Let us know!

24 Grand Theft Auto 64

We all know that GTA only came out on the PS1 and PC, don't we? Well, it was not always set in stone. DMA Design had planned a Nintendo 64 port, and screenshots were released, but for reasons unknown, it was never released. The game was to have upgraded graphics, larger cities, and added levels. It seems likely that the developers were planning to utilize the Nintendo 64's power to create a kind of ultimate version of GTA. Maybe if it had come out and been a success, we'd be seeing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the Switch.

23 Indiana Jones (360 And PS3)

I remember reading previews for this game that emphasized how cool LucasArts' new systems for modeling materials, Digital Molecular Matter, and AI, Euphoria, were. It seemed like the Indiana Jones game we'd all been crying out for, a fantastic third-person action-adventure game. It looked like it was going to utilize all the power the 360 and the PS3 had to muster. It was not to be, however. Ultimately, it ended up being moved to the less powerful Wii, and uh, PS2. It was absolutely terrible, too. I'm still waiting for that amazing Indiana Jones game.

22 This Is Vegas

This is another bloody 360 game that I'm still annoyed about. In development for several years, This Is Vegas was a GTA-alike set in an in-depth recreation of sin city. Players would be able to take part in any number of activities associated with the city, including bouncing, dancing, gambling, and more. In addition to this, players would also be able to commit all the crimes we'd come to expect from a GTA-style open-world game. A supremely promising game, I'm not entirely sure why it was canceled.

21 King’s Field

Are you a fan of the Souls series? If you are, King's Field should be pretty interesting to you. Published only in Japan and created by From Software, King's Field is essentially a prototype of the series. It's an exceptionally difficult game played from a first-person perspective, with players having to trawl their way through dungeons. The plot doesn't even sound too outlandish for a Souls game, featuring a returning dragon and a kingdom at war with evil. An important bit of video game history, this is a very cool game.

20 Green Lantern For The SNES

For all of its popularity, Green Lantern is a franchise that's never had a proper videogame. One was planned, and developed, for the SNES. The game pitted the character of Hal Jordan's Green Lantern against the Queen of Xaos, who is planning to conquer the universe. The game would culminate in a shooter that utilized Mode7, seeing the lantern fly across space to end the plot once and for all. It was previewed in a French magazine, but nothing more was heard of it.

19 Mega Man Legends 3

The long-awaited sequel to the PS1's Mega Man Legends 2, this game was extant for just one year from its announcement to cancellation. It seemed to take full advantage of its rabid fanbase, with fans picking MegaMan's design, the new heroine, and a new mech via its website. Its cancellation was seen as a huge disappointment by just about everybody involved, including Keiji Inafune himself. Inafune would later go on to make the abortive Mighty No. 9, with fans never getting the Mega Man game they so desperately wanted.

18 Aliens: Crucible

How would you feel about an in-depth RPG, in the style of KOTOR, set in the Aliens universe? Sounds pretty cool, right? Obsidian, famed for their fantastic writing, were working on this game, which would have pitted a group of workers on a large colony against a Xenomorph invasion. It would have had perma-eliminations and limited resources, bringing in elements of the survival horror genre. This fascinating idea was, however, DOA. Due to economic issues and difficulty of marketing the game to executives, it was canceled in 2009, despite being nearly finished.

17 Fallout 3 (Van Buren)

You know that Fallout 3 that you've probably played at some point? That wasn't the original! This game, codenamed Van Buren, was developed by Black Isle Studios, who made the Fallout CRPGs. The prototype was set in Utah, Colorado, and Nevada, with locations including Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Taking place in the midst of a war between the Brotherhood of Steel and the New California Republic. The game was fairly far along, but Interplay fired all of the PC development staff, cancelling it by default.

16 Resident Evil For The Game Boy Color

Most portable versions of console games are dramatically scaled down, with just the scarcest resemblance to their bigger brothers. Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color was not to be so. This port was to take the game we're all familiar and put it on a GBC cartridge. No abridgment. It looks ugly as sin, I know, but considering the system's limited capabilities, it's not actually that bad. A very, very ambitious attempt that does at least show some passion, it was replaced with the far more pedestrian Resident Evil Gaiden.

15 StarCraft: Ghost

This game got trapped in production woes. It was to be a third-person shooter set in the StarCraft universe. Instead of looking down from above, getting just the most cursory view of the world, you'd instead be right in the middle of the fray. It was announced way back in 2002, with a multitude of previews and hype about it spreading like wildfire over the coming years. With little by way of announcements, it was put on ice in 2006, before its cancellation was officially confirmed in 2014.

14 The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition

If you never played it, Four Swords was a wonderful multiplayer experience, with four players each taking on a different colored Link with much merriment had by all. Released for the series' 25th anniversary in 2011 on the Nintendo eShop, it was a fun and faithful recreation of the original game. After being on sale for less than six months, it was pulled from the store. Its only been on sale once since, for four days in 2014. If you didn't grab it then, well, tough luck, since you can't now.

13 After Burner Climax

Are you a fan of After Burner? It's an arcade classic for a reason, which has been giving players thrills for decades as they take on the role of a fighter pilot. Climax was originally an arcade game, but was brought to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network in 2010, where it got a warm reception from fans. However, four years later, in 2014, it was abruptly pulled off the stores, for reasons thought to be related to a licensing issue.

12 Tetris

I know what you're thinking: "but Solomon, I can play Tetris anytime I want on my phone!" Indeed you can, but if you want to play the old Game Boy version without having to trawl through your garage to find your long-abandoned system, then you're out of luck. For a while, the game was a standby of the eShop, but, as all good things do, it had to come to an end. Tetris' rights were held by Ubisoft who had released a new portable game, and they didn't fancy the competition from the eShop's classic. As such, it got pulled.

11 The Sims Online

To me, The Sims doesn't seem like a natural fit for a multiplayer game. Regardless, for a few years, it was, and it was pretty active too! You could choose from four cities to live in, each with different levels of difficulty (e.g. higher item costs). As usual in Sims games, you had to pursue different careers, but due to their low pay, most players also took up other professions, such as selling items or offering lodging to other sims. A bizarre mix of a classic game and a sociology experiment.

10 Lethal Encounter 64

Another canceled Nintendo 64 title, Lethal Encounter, while not having the most inspiring name, was a very cool take on the milsim genre. Developed by British company Digital Image Design, famed for their work on extremely accurate flight sims. Such sims are pretty much exclusively on the PC these days, and it was the same back then. However, this looked set to break that trend, making them more accessible to all. However, the studio was the subject of a takeover that led to the departure of key staff, leaving the project unable to continue.

9 Metal Lancer

If you don't know what Mode 7 is, it's a mode on the SNES graphic chip that allows game's background to be manipulated, leading to fantastic games like F-Zero. The Genesis didn't have Mode 7, but that didn't stop some devs from trying to make such games. Metal Lancer puts the player in the body of a girl in control of a giant robot, flying through space and fighting off aliens. Headed up by Yuji Naka of Sonic fame, it was likely cancelled for being too complex.

8 Harry Potter

If that title seems rather vague, let me explain. Back before the movies came out, when Harry Potter wasn't the giant of pop culture it is now, Nintendo nearly got the series' exclusive rights. These weren't even just the rights to the games, they were the rights to all forms of adaptation. While they were included, they could also have potentially stopped any of the movies from being made, unless Nintendo gave the go-ahead. Concept art was drawn up and the proposal even got as far as J.K. Rowling. Ultimately, however, she declined.

7 Penn And Telller's Smoke And Mirrors

Are you familiar with Desert Bus? The seemingly pointless game that sees you driving a bus from Tucson to Vegas, in real time? This is the collection that game is from. Five of the six minigames in this collection are similar anti-games, designed to trick your friends into playing these pointless experiences. An interesting concept for a minigame compilation, its publisher went out of business before it could ship, meaning it was never widely released. Only one copy made it to the internet, which gave us Desert Bus.

6 Super Kid Icarus

It's not an exaggeration to say that Kid Icarus for the NES is an absolute classic. Did you know that there was a SNES sequel in the works? This game was hinted at by Nintendo, who told fans to await news, but that news never came. Very little indeed is known about what the game would have been, but given its fairly succinct follow-up time after the original, it would have probably been a fairly simple sequel. However, given the SNES' increased power and the original game's huge fanbase, that's something I would have liked to see.

5 Quik The Thunder Rabbit

Here's one that I'm sure you've never heard of. Despite that, it's worth talking about. Developed for the SNES by a studio called Stywox, it was likely a follow-up to the Amiga game of the same name. What's interesting about this game is that, while at first glance it looks like a Sonic clone, it's got some aces up its sleeve. Most importantly, it's a very, very varied game. In addition to your standard platforming, it also features darker moments, as well as a section inspired by fighting games.