Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship - Air Combat Game (Dreamcast 2001)
2Propeller Arena was a classic air combat simulation game for the Sega Dreamcast console. The game was originally slated to be released on September the 19th, 2001, but was subsequently cancelled by Sega following the tragic events that had unfolded just a week prior on September the 11th of the same year.
The game featured dog fights in an arena type setting, and was meant to be an online multiplayer experience (with the exception of the European release, which was not intended to have any online functionality at all) .
Players start out the game with a standard gunner, but could also unlock additional weapons and abilities, such as homing missiles, cluster bombs, a cloak function that hides your plane from enemies, as well as a freeze function that throws your enemies off course by disabling their steering abilities.
The power-ups are generally hidden inside floating crates that when destroyed reveal each crate's contents.
In a bizarre twist, the game's story line is said to be set in the year 2045, yet the majority of planes in the game are actually from the World War II era; which I thought was kind of odd.
The game's battles often set in modern day metropolis like surroundings. Although, not all stage are depicted within cities, with some stages boasting volcanoes, and there's even an ice world with polar bears in one stage.
The game's development was spearheaded by Sega's AM2 studios, was produced by Yu Suzuki, and designed by Junichi Yamanaka.
Sega's cancellation of the game made sense given the game often depicted dog fights within the presence of skyscrapers, with planes often crashing into them; which Sega thought would be insensitive to release given the tragic events that had just unfolded. Even the game's artwork depicted skyscrapers in the background.
Close to two decades after its cancellation, a Sega of Japan employee Makato Osaki, shared photos of an original prototype of the game on twitter in 2019. A disk image of the game was eventually leaked online, later breathing life to a game that was never meant to be, and simply as a result of bad timing.
The Japanese version's soundtrack was developed in house by Sega's Sachio Ogawa and Tomoya Koga; while the North American version was set to have an officially licensed soundtrack consisting of popular tracks from punk rock bands.
The game was originally named "Propeller Head" during the initial development phase, but was later changed to Propeller Arena.
While the game is functional, the weak thrust for many planes and lack of 360 maneuverability left a lot to be desired.
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