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Malice is a mediocre game with in an interesting history, developed by Argonaut Games and published by Mud Duck Games and Evolved Games in 2004. Originally slated for release on the original Playstation, the game was met with constant delays, technical issues, development and publishing issues, and would not see release until several years after it's original conception. The game was originally quite different and was about a young girl named Alice, a lively girl who lived in the forests. She accidentally let loose an evil fire spirit which possessed the closest thing near her, her dog, and now the dog became mad and is out to destroy everything in the forest and eventually the world. Featuring altered play mechanics (such as solving actual puzzles, getting turned into a cat, swinging around, and more), more colorful graphics (and quite amazing looking for Playstation I might add), broader levels, and a story that actually makes some sense, the game was considered to be one of the greatest games that would be cancelled on the original Playstation... but then it went through development hell and Argonaut invested a lot of money into the game that ultimately wouldn't pay off.

The game was later moved to the Xbox platform with the team aiming for it to appear at the system's launch. The game, almost jokingly addressing the delays it faced, changed Alice into a teenager and enlisted the aid of band members from "No Doubt" doing various voice-overs and the singer "Gwen Stefani" doing the voice for the heroine. Her name, now changed to "Malice" (which was the name of the original game probably due to the series of events that took place and a play on her name) is a Temporal-Diety-Paradox and Goddess who is fighting the evil "Dog God" who is out to destroy the universe. She fails the first time and gets her head bitten off (quite foolishly I might add), only for her to end up in the afterlife and "Death" wants nothing to do with her as she's an "administrative nightmare". Malice then somehow ends up meeting the "Metal Guardian" who is keeper of the universe and travels through time and space to find "Logic Keys" to locate Dog God... yet still travels to several of the places from the Playstation Alpha Build like forests and "Bone Henge".

The gameplay has been heavily restricted to doing simple tasks like "kill all enemies on screen" and "collect something dumb" while you gain a few basic spells and three weapons throughout the game -- at the expense of all the neat things it had going on beforehand however. The game was also made way too easy and it holds you by the hand nearly every step of the way for an utterly boring experience. Additionally, the game never did get that assistance from No Doubt or Gwen Stefani either. Tragic. Well, the music and sounds that made it into the game are okay; they're totally forgettable, but a few of the scenes are at least mildly funny.

So the game went from a heavy contender to be a "Mario 64 Killer" to "Utter Mediocrity" in just a few years, becoming another shallow 3D platform/adventure game in the sea of platforming/adventuring games. Normally, I wouldn't be quite so sympathetic, but Argonaut (pioneers of the Super FX Chip technology and creators of neat games like I-Ninja and Red Dog) really wanted this game to succeed... it was the last game they ever produced and, given the circumstances, they were willing to fold to make it see the light of day, even if it strayed greatly from the original concept. A person involved with the game (Alex Ilic) DIED before it could see the light of day... clearly it's easy to joke a bad or mediocre game relentlessly, but when there was as much at stake as there was with this one, even I'm not so cold-blooded. The game is cheap these days, but I would only recommend it those who truly love the genre. This is a video showing some of it in action.