Check Out the ‘Escape From New York’ Video Game That Never Was

Hollywood is always threatening to remake John Carpenter's action classic 'Escape From New York,' but so far, such a thing has failed to materialize. However, it's recently come to light that the always-pending remake isn't the only recent attempt to revive the character of Snake Plissken, who was so memorably played by Kurt Russell. It seems that Snake almost came back as the star of his own video game and anime series.

According to a newly released treasure trove of art and video (the bulk of which you can go check out over at AICN), Snake came ridiculously close to gracing both video game consoles and TV sets back in 2004-2005. However, the passing of 'Escape From New York' producer Debra Hill, who was heavily involved in both projects, caused both of them to get cancelled by the powers that be.

That's not too surprising for the anime, which never got past the concept art and design phase, but it's definitely surprising  for the video game, which appeared to be coming along quite smoothly. Heck, the developer had even whipped up some mock art for the game's cover!

Although we'll never get to play the cancelled game, we know that it would have been a prequel titled 'Snake's First Escape,' telling of a young Snake's first, uh, escape. Escape from what? Who knows. All that really matters is that game would give players the chance to wipe out massive swarms of bad guys as one of the coolest cinematic badasses of all time.

The footage above certainly looks like a game that was being developed for the PlayStation 2 era (and it would probably be borderline unplayable today), but it definitely shows off some of the franchise's trademark nastiness. You don't stick Snake into a generic shooter -- you stick Snake into a shooter where the player can be as dirty, violent and backstabbing as possible.

For additional details (as well as a glimpse of the anime that never was), head over here. Now, all fans can do wait for the inevitable 'Escape From New York' remake, vow to never see it and then begrudgingly see it on opening day.