Dead Phoenix: Will this bird ever fly again?

[pedrocasilva]

Back in November 2002 Capcom announced five exclusive games coming from Capcom's Studio 4, they were Resident Evil 4, P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, and Killer 7, plus, there was one extra name who would come out unoticed... it was called Dead Phoenix.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8260/deadphoenix6fe.jpg

Dead Phoenix was a third-person flight game. The player would take on the role of an angelic, winged man armed with massive guns. The trailer sparked even more salivating. It could be inferred from the trailer that it was an action heavy title. The main character appears to fight along side other troops, destroying hordes of monsters and gigantic bosses (which resemble giant lizards like triceratopses and dragons). The hero's arm also appeared to continually evolve into different forms of an energy cannon (similar to Vash the Stampede) -- eventually transforming the main character into a phoenix.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1834/deadsmall0016ag.jpg http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/72/dead034zb.jpg

The only other details were revealed during Capcom's initial presentation. Dead Phoenix took place on a flying island that was constantly evolving and changing. The main goal of this project was to allow you to "freely fly like a bird into a world of epic proportions." Capcom wanted the flying to be so good that you'd actually be able to feel the wind beneath your wings. (Perfect for Wii, heh?)

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/9646/smalldeadphoenix0054ih.jpg http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/6214/smalldead047rt.jpg

The engine was fast paced and looked like a Metroid Prime breed engine wise (most likely running at 60 frames per second), prefering polygon detail over bump mapping, it had more than 50 soldiers on screen at times with no slowdown aswell as some destructible enviroments. The cities were so detailed that still look good today, infact they showed that this was no ordinary game.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/8992/deadphoenixsmall0049rg.jpg http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/5516/deadphoenixsmall0024aj.jpg http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5802/deadphoenixsmall0014fh.jpg http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3082/deadphoenixdestrcut5kt.jpg

Sound-wise this game proved it was no average ordinary attemp, with the music from the trailer, who was epic and atmospheric.

It was quite a shock at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo when Inaba's new project didn't make an appearance. As the summer passed and there was no new news from Capcom, rumors circulated that Dead Phoenix had quietly been cancelled, also helped by the fact that dead phoenix was removed from capcoms website in August 2004.

But Capcom never officially confirmed that the title was cancelled. The official line is that the company had decided to focus its attention on other projects. A Capcom North America spokesperson commented, "Currently, Dead Phoenix is still to be determined." This means that the project is officially in a state of purgatory, neither actively worked on nor actually canned. Officially, it's unknown whether this title will ever be finished.

As of 2004 that Dead Phoenix was still in production. Otherwise it wouldn't really hurt Capcom to announce that it was officially cancelled, which means Capcom could still have plans for the title back then. But, with 2 extra years of development we should be talking about a completly diferent game.

The following is an excerpt from IGN's interview with Atsushi Inaba at the Tokyo Game Show 2003:
Cube-IGN: What's the status of Dead Phoenix?

Inaba-san: [stalls] Project Dead Phoenix? Hmm.

[covers mouth and begins to mutter]

Actually, the project I was talking about is not Dead Phoenix, and when you asked me what happened with Dead Phoenix my mouth closed shut, and I couldn't speak anymore! [covers mouth and laughs]Source: http://cube.ign.com/articles/452/452923p1.html

Inaba-san's abrupt dismissal of the topic hints that the fate of Dead Phoenix was not death, at least last October. From Inaba's tone, it sounded like there was a surprise in the works.

(this thread/post was mostly adapted and recycled from this old article (http://cube.ign.com/articles/496/496714p2.html) over at IGN)

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For those interested the trailer can be found here:

-> http://rapidshare.de/files/24269263/deadphoenix.wmv.html - 6,1 MB -

-> http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=4197&type=wmv&pl=game

I'd like to ask the readers to... please leave your coments (as putting this thread together was hell)

[mike-zim]

it looks like an interesting game and it will be cool if it came out but for there to be absolutly nothing on it for 2 years i think it is a clutch of straw you have in your hands.

[demonmike04]

Hmm, it could be doing a Duke Nukem forever tactic.

The forever in Duke nukem could mean we wait forever..

And the Dead in Dead phoenix could mean its a dead project...

I'l stop blabbering.

[Retro_Link]

Fantastic thread Pedrocasilva!!

Dead Phoenix looked to be an awesome game in the making and it's certainly a game I'd like to see make a return. The phoenix transformation is so cool!

Not quite sure what type of game this would have been, at first it looks like just a straight forward action/shooter;
However, I wonder if you could command the armies on the ground in some way, giving it some RTS elements! or maybe just give them commands like you do in Star Wars Rogue Squadron etc...

It looks like there's also a First Person view point for some battles.

There was talk for a long time after the game was canned that it was going to be made into a Kid Icarus sequel, which would also be extremely cool!

[pedrocasilva]

it looks like an interesting game and it will be cool if it came out but for there to be absolutly nothing on it for 2 years i think it is a clutch of straw you have in your hands.Of course it would need a overhaul but the engine was good so it's like in Metroid Prime... between Metroid Prime 2 and 3 we have the same engine only heavily modified, so this one definetly has potential, besides the video and images are all from November 2002, god knows what they pulled two years after.

I'd say this product just needs a available capcom team and the green light from Capcom to be finished.

The reason I made this thread is because this game is perfect for Wii, and it was not in early stages when canceled/canned or rather... on-hold, Capcom should really revive it and bring it over. if this title is talked about now, pre-wii release in various forums, it might even reach capcom ears and if they are not thinking of reviving it... they might.

I know petitions never did anything... but good ideas can. I felt this is the perfect time for this game to be talked about again over the Nintendo Forums/Comunities, this is my attemp to putting fuel on the fire.There was talk for a long time after the game was canned that it was going to be made into a Kid Icarus sequel, which would also be extremely cool!yeah, but judging from Pit in Super Smash Bros... it wouldn't fit in a Dead Phoenix scenario.

Besides... we'll probably get Kid Icarus on Wii anyway, Nintendo is being heavily presured in that way, so I'd prefer to get them both, Dead Phoenix and Kid Icarus.

[mike-zim]

ok i will be used as fuel fire me up baby yeah.

[Patch]

Amazing. How you avoided using the words 'rising from the ashes' I'll never know...

[Pit-Jr]

I cant believe they canned this and greenlighted Gotcha Force. I think Nintendo saw the awesomeness of the main character and commanded (paid) Capcom to rework the concept around Kid Icarus. Thats the only explanation i can think of for a game that sexy to just vanish.

So my wishful thinking is that we'll see a more colorful Nintendo-published game that uses the Dead P. engine

[DCK]

Pedro, you're not really interpreting that quote as a hint to surprise are you?

He's quite obviously avoiding the question - he doesn't want to say directly it got canned.

There's no chance we'll see this game I reckon. Capcom have other things to worry about.

[pedrocasilva]

Amazing. How you avoided using the words 'rising from the ashes' I'll never know...That must be due to the fact that I'm not a native speaker, so I actually missed that phrase :)

It fits this game well, though.Pedro, you're not really interpreting that quote as a hint to surprise are you?

He's quite obviously avoiding the question - he doesn't want to say directly it got canned.

There's no chance we'll see this game I reckon. Capcom have other things to worry about.Well, back in 2004 it was a hint, but of course I'm not counting on them coming out and saying "well, we were working all the time (full speed) on this" (and show dead phoenix in motion).

But I'm sure it was advanced in development; a game can be ressurected, specially considering how similar the coding is between GC and Wii.

As for capcom having better things to do... judging how they lost time porting RE4, Killer7 and Viewtiful Joe to PS2, or RE2, 3 and RE:CV to GC... I'd say they have plenty of available teams to waste on ports so they could indeed develop this game, it would be better than investing on another port.

They have to create concepts that work with the wii-mote, do the engines for them, so dead phoenix with a engine, soundtrack and possibly storyline/concept it's already half work done for a Wii game, a pretty "cheap" option for capcom.

[david.dakota]

Dead Pheonix looked outstanding, as did all the Capcom 5 at that point - and i'd give good money to play it (either as Dead Pheonix or as Icarus).

Back in 2003/4 I doubt Capcom would have been aware of the Wiimote, so if its still being developed, its being developed as Icarus (as Nintendo would have likely said, "well, just hold onto that one... we've got somehting you might like to see...")

[21st century cowboy]

If they really want to make an epic game like this, there is only one place I can see Capcom taking this. PS3. I don't like saying it but I just can't see this appearing on the Wii.

[pedrocasilva]

If they really want to make an epic game like this, there is only one place I can see Capcom taking this. PS3. I don't like saying it but I just can't see this appearing on the Wii.Do you think only PS3 can have a epic game? all consoles should have it's share of games like this, and I hope Wii is no exception.

Also why porting a dead game for the PS3? it would mean start over again, porting it over to wii is inexpensive on it's own account.