10 Video Game Characters We Can't Believe Got Cut

Ah, good old Acclaim. Despite their name becoming a byword for moronic marketing stunts, this writer can't help but admit a certain fondness for the now-deceased studio. That affection springs almost entirely from Turok 2, which introduced the world to the delights of the Cerebral Bore and allowed owners of the N64's Expansion Pak to experience the eye-popping glory of 640x480 gaming.

Hard as it is to believe now, Turok the Dinosaur Hunter was a recognizable name back in the late 90's. And, in a neat bit of synergy, Acclaim made the decision to combine it with another cultural phenomenon that peaked around the same time - the WWF. (The wrestling organization, not the World Wildlife Fund, which probably didn't want to be associated with a character whose defining trait was slaughtering a thought-to-be-extinct species).

Turok was slipped into Acclaim's very own WWF War Zone, and is still playable if you use a Game Shark cheat device. However, he was scrapped from the finished build of the game for reasons that have never been made clear. Maybe the WWF (now WWE) wanted the focus to be entirely on characters they owned?

Or maybe it's because War Zone's "Turok" was just a lazy reskin of the wrestler "The Rock", and everyone involved was ashamed of themselves for such a groan-inducing pun.