Metal Maniax
Platform: Arcade
Publisher: Atari Games
Developer: Atari Games

The Basics

Metal Maniacs was a 3D smash-em-up game that took place inside one of eight metal-walled arenas. You selected from six cars and drove around the arena trying to smash your opponents into pulp, knocking their panels off. There were also six different weapons that could be used, including a cannon and a powerful magnet. Panels would fly off and land on the ground, where they could be driven over and picked up for more health. The problem was it ran at a very low frame rate and most players didn't understand the complexity.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Derryl DePriest of Atari Games said, "A beautiful game that should have made it but the technology wasn't in place at the time. We actually have a unit that works here, I am told..."

Primal Rage 2
Platform: Arcade
Publisher: Atari Games
Developer: Atari Games

The Basics

Primal Rage 2 was an arcade game that attempted to add characters kids could relate to more easily than dinosaurs, so each dino character was given a human counterpart that he or she could "morph" into. Also there was a boss character called Necrosan, a giant skeletal proto-dino-demon. In reality all the morphing was done only during special moves, not freely in the gameplay, and all of it was done with stop-motion animation, like the original.

WHAT HAPPENED?
According to Atari Games' Derryl DePriest, there were many good moves, but it just didn't earn great numbers in collection so they couldn't justify building it (much like what happened with Tenth Degree). The game ran on the Sony arcade platform.

Tenth Degree
Platform: Arcade
Publisher: Atari Games
Developer: Atari Games

The Basics

Click to enlarge

Atari's Tenth Degree, originally Juko Thread, was to combine the elements of the Tekken and Street Fighter style fighting games with an emphasis on speed. Videogames.com got a chance to see Tenth Degree in its early stages, and even played a few rounds on the arcade machine. The characters were designed in a 3D anime style, with both male and female fighters available. In the early stages, developers were discussing having a super deform mode and some other surprises as well. The characters would have had a variety of fighting styles, all designed under the creative awning of James Goddard, who worked on Capcom's Street Fighter series as well as on Namco's Weapon Lord among others.

Click to enlarge

WHAT HAPPENED?
As stated in a GameSpot news story, Atari Games cited the poor state of the fighting market as the reason why Tenth Degree was canceled. "We couldn't foresee selling a large enough volume to continue development," Atari's Derryl DePriest told us.

Whether Midway will be bringing the game to the home market, as it did with the similarly canceled arcade title Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. remains to be seen.
 

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