After the great deal of confusion and controversy surrounding these shots, as IGN attempted to lure subscribers to its "IGN Insider" service with two screenshots of the canceled product, the screens were leaked well in advance and we ran them without knowing their importance to IGN's new subscription service.

In contacting us to remove the pics, Peer was kind enough to let us know that the game's name had indeed changed from "Thunder Rally" and was now known as "Car Combat."

Any one who missed the screens Friday or didn't get to see them on IGN Insider can see them again now. Now that the screens have been posted publicly on IGNCube, we hope IGN won't have a problem with us adding the screens now. ;)

Both shots are very premature examples of what the final product would have looked like.

Last updated: 04/13/2001 by Max Lake

For what it's worth, Thunder Rally sounded like a cool game. It was to be Retro Studio’s answer to Twisted Metal and would be one of the many games Retro hoped would establish itself as a premiere Nintendo second-party NGC developer. Sadly, this was not to be.

After Retro layoffs and the game got canceled, we finally we got to see what it might of looked like in the form of concept art released not too long ago. Now, information about the game continues to trickle out, with sources at Retro all too eager to talk about it. As such, we’ve added this preview, converting our profile to its first update. To top this off, screenshots of the game have surfaced and have apparently circled around the net for some time.

Now, IGNCube in its latest Q&A update offers that it will show off GameCube screens to its paying subscribers of “IGNInsider” tomorrow.

GameCube screens? Really? How can this be? What about Nintendo secrecy and NDAs? There’s a silence so staunch that people actually think Konami or THPS3 won’t have NGC appearances at E3 next month! People are getting so bent out of shape, petitions are flying up everywhere, (including one of our own! We need games on GameCube!)

But wait! There is a source of NGC information to exploit in this info drought! What you may ask? Why, Retro Studios and its plethora of canceled projects! If you have read our Metroid preview recently, you’d get a good idea of the numerous problems and canceled projects Retro has had. Also, since there have been plenty o’ layoffs at Retro, the leaks are springing up all over the place concerning info about Retro’s many games that never were.

Since these projects are no longer active, EGM (safely) posted a “screenshot” of Retro’s Football game, which can be considered (if you don’t count SpaceWorld NGC footage) the first “official” GameCube screenshot ladies and gentlemen. Only problem is was just a picture of a scoreboard & was from project no longer active. But Football isn’t the only Retro product in the trash heap. A racer & a car combat game were also canned. The racer was either an early casualty or was &/or evolved into the car combat game. This game was “Thunder Rally.”

Sure, because the project was canceled, Retro is (most likely) bitter and leaked the screens. Now IGN is trying to lure customers into subscribing to a service just for a look. We love Matt, Peer & Fran and all but this may not be the exclusive sneak peak at GameCube many were hoping for. Instead, it is two screens of the very much kaput Thunder Rally.

We posted them because they have already been leaked and posted in our forums. So “what the hell I figured” and I apologize if this usurps some IGN master plan, we don’t know how they got leaked and now we don’t care. It’s already in the public eye and all over the net. Now it’s in our forums. And seeing as some might be misled by the promise of “GameCube screens,” ya might wanna check this now instead of feeling cheated later.

Because of already massive spread of these shots across the net, we felt it was "safe" to post the pics as they had slipped out into view already. We meant only to document the pictures as they had already been leaked & played no part in "stealing" the pictures. However, we have now removed the pictures with our sincerest apologies to IGN.

One of the shot looked like a combat scene with some pretty far out vehicles, while the other was simply a shot of a level, very similar to one of the scenes of concept art.

Although Retro Studios will never profit from its work on this game, IGN is seemingly trying to. Kinda worrisome, especially when the word is that these screens (which do look good) are actually dated – from 1999 in fact. This would explain why the images aren’t exceeding gorgeous as some of the SpaceWorld demos or even the concept art, it’s probably just because they’re not recent.

Now more than ever I wish this game hadn’t ended up in the dumpster. It’s on “permanent hold” but there’s no reason to give any hope to Thunder Rally. Retro is bearing down on Metroid and the RPG and troubles from the new Nintendo second-party continue to pour out. Possibly we’ll probably hear more about what all was planned for Thunder Rally, though it’s probably best to hope things go well with Retro’s remaining projects. Since Thunder Rally’s screens show promise, it’s definitely encouraging that some of this talent is now working on Metroid.

Of course, this isn’t the first second-party car combat effort to be denied a Nintendo system. Any one remember Buggie Boogie?

Last updated: 04/03/2001

This game was described as a Twisted Metal Black killer. That puts it in the same vein as Vigilante 8 and other car combat games. In fact, the game was known internally as Car Combat.

The game is currently cancelled. It may come back to life sometime in the future, but there is no telling if or when this could happen.

For now, you can look at the concept art leaked to IGN. Looking at these shots, I just have to say... Xwhat?

Ok, so these aren't real screen shots, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the GameCube will have no trouble rendering images of that quality.

The full size version of the shots can be found right here if you're looking for wall paper. The ones above are smaller versions if you're not looking to spend the rest of the night downloading pictures. I also resized them to 640x480 (native GameCube resolution) to give you a better idea of what this might look like if this is more than just concept art. Notice that these shots have the same "look" as the shots from Space World. So far, the "demo" shots we've seen for GameCube games just have a certain clarity to them that the other next-gen consoles just can't seem to reproduce. Will the actual games keep this level of quality? For better or worse, we'll find out in just 6 short weeks.