One of the great tragedies of all time is that Akira – one of the most influential anime and manga series – has never received a decent video game adaptation. Sure, people have tried, but the resultant efforts always seemed to fall short of the greatness of Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece.
It turns out we almost had the next best thing in 1996 – an N64 game that borrowed heavily from Akira's aesthetic without actually being an official game. OutSider was never officially announced at the time, but one of the developers behind it has released images on Twitter.
It was mooted as an open-world bike game, with the main vehicle looking a lot like a cross between Kaneda's iconic red motorcycle and a Light Cycle from Disney's equally seminal Tron. The screenshots show the bike navigating a futuristic city, not entirely unlike Neo Tokyo from Akira. It's not known how far development progressed before the plug was pulled.
The developer who has shared these images hints that the game was inspired by western titles and that it was ultimately canned due to the arrival of Climax Entertainment's thematically-similar PlayStation title Runabout in 1997 (also known as Felony 11-79).
[source twitter.com, via unseen64.net]
Comments 13
That colour palette looks great. I wonder if any footage will emerge now that this has surfaced?
This would have been an N64 Magazine cover if it had ever come out. Wil Overton would have been right in there.
@Rosalinho You know it!
I mean, claiming that this game is giving off Akira vibes and saying it borrowed heavily from the film's aesthetic is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. We know next to nothing about the game, aside from those few screenshots.
The original Sin and Punishment shares more with Akira than this.
@Rosalinho Wil Overton is a legend! Nice guy too!
Just by those images you can't actually see what the game would look like. Mostly because of the quality and size of the images. For what we know that could have been some kind of FMV game. Open-world back then might not have worked so well due to the consoles limitations but a kind of small bigger areas would have been nice, á lá Zelda - Ocarina of Time.
More of an Xtreme G racing vibe imho.
@aznable This. I would love an Xtreme G remaster or reboot. Very underrated racer.
At least we got Excitebike 64 though not open world is still cool.
Ah yes, the anime that got me into anime. Confusing due to its condensed nature, but still a must-watch film, if you can stomach the gross parts. Astounding level of animation, to be sure!
NINJA APPROVED
I'm still mad that Panty and Stocking never got anything resembling a video game, either. Sure, it'd have to be rated AT LEAST M considering the tone of the show, but come on...you could easily make a Wario Land or Mega Man X kind of game featuring the duo. I've even fantasized about teaching myself how to build a game on something like the GBC or GBA to make my own for the series, but alas...
Why does he have a Doctor Mario capsule on his back?
Does it give off Akira vibes? Maybe I need my eyes checked but I’m not really seeing it.
Tap here to load 13 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...