ARGH.

Those of you with good enough memories to recall Bonk: Brink of Extinction will be aware that the game never saw the light of day; developed by Pi Studios in the US, the download-only release was scheduled to hit PSN, XBLA and WiiWare, but publisher Hudson Soft pulled the plug in 2011 — just after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The plot of the game involved a cataclysmic natural disaster, which is presumably why Hudson Soft decided against releasing it.

Pi Studios was sadly forced to close its doors following the cancellation of the game, which was thought to be practically complete.

We've now had confirmation from Nintendo Life reader and hardware collector Thomas Andrews that Brink of Extinction was indeed ready for release. He's sent us footage of the game running on a PS3 development kit which used to be the property of Pi Studios, as well as this short explanation:

I have a PS3 developer unit FROM the owners of Pi Studios. The only game that was on it was Bonk: Brink of Extinction. Analyzing the dates and the name of the package, the game was READY to launch. The last edit date was over a year before the game was to be released. There was planned to be 3 DLCs, none of which added to the story; appear to be multiplayer games.

The game looks pretty impressive, and it's a real shame that it didn't see release — Bonk was once considered to be a true rival to the likes of Mario and Sonic, and he surely deserves another crack at stardom.