10 Incredible DITCHED Video Game Ideas

Scrapped but not forgotten.

Dark Souls 3
From Software

Bringing a video game to market under even the most harmonious of circumstances is a tremendous feat of willpower and perseverance, and it's safe to say that no game hits stores exactly as the developers originally envisioned it.

The iterative process of gamedev often results in features being added late in the day or, perhaps more commonly, being removed when the team realises they're not quite working.

These 10 video games, all of them hugely successful and acclaimed in their own right, nevertheless planned to bring even more ingenuity to the table with these brilliantly creative ideas which sadly never came to fruition.

In some cases they were left on the cutting room floor due to time constraints or the sheer technical difficulty of implementing them, while in other instances it was a pure storytelling decision, or the simple belief that the end result wasn't as fun or interesting as they hoped.

Even so, these inspired storylines, modes, and mechanics would've added another fascinating wrinkle to these already terrific games...

10. The Psycho Mantis Mask - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty

Dark Souls 3
Konami

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is so utterly overflowing with creative gameplay that it's little surprise Hideo Kojima hasn't been able to realise every madcap idea in his head.

But perhaps his most brilliantly off-the-wall concept was one cut from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where players would be able to find a special mask modelled after the previous game's iconic boss, Psycho Mantis.

Wearing the mask would allow protagonist Raiden the ability to read the thoughts of other characters during gameplay and even cutscenes, which given Kojima's insane attention-to-detail naturally had a ton of potential both comedic and creepy.

According to Kojima himself, players would be able to use the mask on Iroquois Pliskin early in the game and deduce that his identity was Solid Snake hours before it was actually revealed.

Sadly the Mantis Mask never made it into the final game for unspecified reasons, though given the enormous complexity involved in implementing such a feature, it's highly probable that time constraints were a factor.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.