The 10 Best Games Never Made

We all have that one legendary game series that we always will love and adore. For some, it's the Resident Evil franchise. Others might swear by Super Smash Bros, Pokemon, Silent Hill, Super Mario, or if you're like me, the King's Quest franchise.

Yes, it's true. These are some of the best video game franchises ever created. Some of the works under these franchises are so good, they created entire revolutions in pop culture. Critics might even go so far as to call them works of art.

These franchises often hold titles that broke ground. Their graphics were good, their writing was great, gameplay epic, and characters memorable, whether it be the worst villains or the best heroes. These games, straight up, deserve the fandoms, accolades, and sales they get.

But, what about the great games that never quite made it to store shelves? They had potential to be the next major hit, but for one reason or another, never quite made it to release. Here are some of the best games never made—as far as we know, anyway.

"Can a computer game make you cry?"

That was the most common phrase associated with the creation of this game. The game, which is only known as Project LMNO,was meant to be a collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and EA Games—and truly, it was meant to be a movie-like masterpiece.

The much-awaited game was based around a female alien named Eve, who was being pursued by shadowy government agents. The player would play a male character who would interact with Eve. How the player treated her would determine how the game would unfold.

Many major designers clashed on the game's plot, and the game's concept shifted multiple times until it turned into an "alien Megan Fox" plus some other stuff. The game concept started in 2002. By 2009, the game development died.

It's hard to tell what would have happened if Spielberg managed to get his way. Those who saw the original script and watched clips said it could easily rank as the top of the best games never made.

Fable Legends is one of those rare games that has a reputation despite never being released. Gamers might recognize this title as a fairly recent cancellation notice, with much rage coming from fans of the Fable franchise.

Legends was expected to be a massive multiplayer game that had the same classic Fable personality, plus more interactivity. Everyone was hoping to see the city of Brightlodge in Fable Legends come to life, but unfortunately, it was born under a bad star.

Multiple development delays, sudden media blackouts, and funding conflict ended up spelling the writing on the wall. The game was canceled after things just couldn't get put together.

Along with the game cancellation, Fable fans had even more to grieve. Lionhead Studios, who made the epic Fable II, went under with this project. Talk about a two for one loss!

Prey 2 was supposed to be the followup to the smash hit game Prey, and it took a more wild spin to the concepts of the budding franchise. In Prey 2, players play a human bounty hunter living on the alien planet Exodus.

It was meant to be one of the best video games of 2012, and was even showcased at the 2011 E3. Gamers got to see amazing visuals, alien gang fights, and amazing plot excerpts that would make any FPS shooter fan drool.

Unfortunately, production was plagued with political problems. Bickering between developers, in-fighting, and regular shifts from development studio to development studio ended up making Prey 2 too difficult to send to market.

The game itself was developed fully, however, it never made it to store shelves. Those who worked on it said it was a "crazy fun game," and that just makes its loss hurt all the more. The teaser alone would put it among the best games never made, don't you think?

Unlike a lot of the games on this list, the Star Wars franchise is not underfunded by any means—nor is it an ailing franchise, either. They have a ton of Star Wars video games you can play, but none were quite as anticipated as Star Wars 1313.

Star Wars 1313 was supposed to be one of the only games in the Star Wars world that would avoid focusing on the Force, and start focusing on bounty hunter Boba Fett. It was a third person action game that was more about guns and tech than it was the Force.

A breath of fresh air, much?

The long-awaited game didn't seem to have much luck, though. When LucasArts shut down in 2013, the game was put on standby. They also refused to let anyone license it out.

Recently, officials from the LucasFilm company claimed they'd try to find a way to "use the game's assets" but that no solid plans were made. Translation: LOLZ, fuhgettaboutit!

Here's another gaming franchise you might recognize: StarCraft! This franchise was pretty huge throughout the 2000s and to a point, still has its diehard fans among the computer gaming community. As most people know, StarCraft never quite succeeded at console gaming.

StarCraft: Ghost was supposed to be the way the franchise made headway into console gaming. As most Starcraft fans know, this wasn't going to be easy. StarCraft games always involve a lot of clicking around, dragging and dropping, etc.

Blizzard was set to make this game happen, and beginner sets of this game were even played at certain conventions. However, it just somehow fell apart. StarCraft: Ghost was officially canceled in 2014—though it was officially postponed in 2006.

Mega Man is the definition of a cult superhero franchise, pure and simple. We all know about him, but he never quite had the same mainstream success as, say, Mario. Though he's not totally mainstream, Mega Man is a superhero who has a pretty damned popular franchise.

Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends were two games that were actually slated to come out fairly recently. They were both shut down for different reasons.

Mega Man Universe was a game that was supposed to offer world building, much like the Mario Bros game that came out around the same time. Unfortunately, awful graphics and a lukewarm-to-borderline-negative initial reception at conventions shuttered it before it hit the store shelves.

Sure, Mega Man Universe definitely wasn't one of the best games never made judging by the reception. Mega Man Legends 3, on the other hand, was probably way better. This was going to be a rehash of the original Mega Man game, plus new features and concepts that fans were begging for.

What ended up cancelling Mega Man Legends 3 was the fact that creator Keiji Inafune left the team. The franchise died along with his resignation.

The military game genre is one that is very difficult to work with, especially when it comes to games based off battles that happened fairly recently. Six Days in Fallujah was made to show what soldiers went through in 2004's Second Battle of Fallujah.

The game's concept, surprisingly, was seeded before the battle actually happened. When it actually occurred, Konami decided to contract US Marines to help get a more sensitive, realistic look at what engaging in battle was like.

Though Konami did put a valiant effort to show war sensitively, Six Days in Fallujah received a tidal wave of backlash from both veterans and concerned parents alike the moment that teasers were released. Since it featured an ongoing conflict, it was immediately panned as insensitive.

Six Days in Fallujah never made it to market after that, and it's still considered to be one of the best games never made of its genre. Such a shame, isn't it?

Guillermo del Toro has always been an amazing filmmaker, but did you know that he's longed for a chance to try his hand at video game design as well? It's true, and fairly recently, he tried his hand with it via a game that was titled inSANE.

It was announced by Volition Studios in 2010, and was already touted as one of the best horror games of the day. But, oddly enough, that's all that we know about this game. There was little notice of plot, or really anything else.

Was it one of the best games never made? If you're a Guillermo del Toro fan, maybe.

You didn't think this list would be completely composed of post-Millenniuim games, did you? I sure hope not—I'm a retro gamer, after all. So, let's sink our teeth into one of the very few Sonic games that never made it to production.

Sonic X-treme was supposed to be the very first 3D Sonic game, and was supposed to be a direct competitor against the ever-popular Super Mario 64. The problem, though, was that Sega's popularity was waning.

Well, maybe "waning" is a bad word. Dying like Heath Ledger after a Batman movie is a better way to illustrate it. The Sega Saturn, which was the console Sonic X-treme was made for, was as unpopular as can be.

Once execs realized Sonic couldn't save sega, the game was dead on arrival. It's a shame, because this game looked pretty dope. Had this game premiered on the Genesis, it would have gone live and dodged the fate of being one of the best games never made.

Guillermo del Toro's attempts at a game were not done after inSANE. Having seen the awesome reactions people have had to the Silent Hill franchise, he decided to jump on the bandwagon with a game called Silent Hills.

In 2014, gamers got to enjoy a playable teaser that had the game's character walking through a hallway on repeat, with each repeat showing new, disturbing, and creepy things. The trailer showed that Silent Hills was in production.

The game was going to be a star-studded masterpiece featuring Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro's writing, and Hideo Kojima's fantastic direction. No one knows what happened, but the game's teaser was pulled from store shelves and no one mentioned Silent Hills again.

The moral of the story is clear: don't let Guillermo del Toro offer input in a goddamned game. The fucker ruins everything.