Genre: Racing/shooting

Also known as: Virtual Hamster

Virtua Hamster

This game was announced for the 32X, but never released. Virtua Hamster would have had you pick one of several rodents and then explore large tunnel mazes, whilst dodging obstacles and dealing with enemies on the way. Whilst it was originally meant to be released on the 32X, development was switched to the SEGA Saturn. The game was nearly complete when it was decided for that version to also be cancelled, and that was it -Virtua Hamster was never released at all on any format.

Originally known as Virtua Hamster, it was apparently later changed to Virtual Hamster after a request made by SEGA of Japan -when SoJ learnt about this title, they didn't like the fact that the title had "Virtua" in it, supposedly as they didn't want people associating it with the Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing games.

For more information about this game, check out this article on SEGA-16.

Whilst the game was never released, a prototype of the 32X version was dumped in 2009 and was available from SEGASaturno.com. The prototype is a very early version of the game, but it features one playable level. The level doesn't have much in it -there are some objects, but most of these can't be interacted with.

Other hamsters are dotted around the level, but they don't move. All you can do is move forward and blaze through the tunnels. The level often splits, offering you multiple routes to take. The options menu shows that the game was also meant to have a 2 player mode, however this doesn't seem to work in this prototype.