There are games we seem to wait forever for that seem to take years to be released (and in some cases, DO take years). Then there are games, that no matter how good they are or how much work seems to get put into them, never see the light of a public release. I thought today I’d start a series of posts that talk about games that haven’t reached the light of day, and as far as we know, won’t.
Monster Bash 3D
25th Oct 2004 – ???
A sequel to the 2D side-scroller Monster Bash, the game was officially announced as in production a little under 5 years ago. As a fan of the original game, I was intrigued at the idea, and some of the features announced sounded ingenious; shooting out a light darkened the nearby area being one interesting example. The game was going to be limited to 3 episodes (to correspond with Monster Bash’s 3 part style), but had an additional extra in the form of an unlockable bonus game.
Those that played the original game (which is available from 3DRealms here), remember it’s unique settings of graveyards and haunted houses, which from the looks of game screenshots were for the most part retained. From screenshots some of the features can also be determined, including a few different lighting effects (wall shadows can be seen in the screenshot to the left, and in night scenes actual lightning flashes occasionally in the sky), and the breakable objects that featured heavily in the original (treasure chests, skulls). Minor gameplay extras, such as bonuses for destroying all the floating skulls and needing to help all the pets escape their cages also appear to be included from the game.
The game opened up a lot of ideas at the time, with talk of MB3D bringing out ideas of a Bio Menace 3D and maybe even a Catacombs 3D remake (of course, neither have been made to my knowledge, as amazing as a Bio Menace remake would be)…however, after a year of no news, it came out that the game was on indefinite hiatus while xgthug took a break from wolfing. Since then, it’s been three years and still nothing has been said about the game. Hopefully this doesn’t mean the end, and we’ll still see this game come out, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be playing Monster Bash 3D anytime soon.
For those interested in reading more of the game, there is a ModDB profile, and a four page thread on DieHard Wolfers. Monster Bash 3D was a great idea and we can only hope to see it complete.
