26 years after, Ultracore is now finally available, the development process was originally halted in 1994, back when the game was titles Hardcore, by developer Psygnosis.
The game, previously known as Hardcore, was cancelled by Psygnosis when it was most of the way complete. It was due to release for the Amiga, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD, but the near-finished game was cancelled by its publisher due to the impending launch of the PlayStation, and the assumption that a game that wasn’t 32-bit would not sell.
In a statement included in the press release, DICE co-founder Fredrik Lilijegren expressed his excitement at the game’s impending release. “I know the care, love, sweat and hard work that went into creating Hardcore in the first place by all involved parties.Thus, I think it is fantastic that this product finally gets to see the light of day and for people to be able to play it.”
Ultracore was set to launch on the Sega CD, Sega Genesis and Amiga and to be published by DICE, who were back then called Digital Illusions. The game was eventually scrapped due to the oncoming PlayStation launch.Ultracore is a side scrolling shooter-platformer, much like Contra. The newly released game is just as it was intended to be in the 90’s, without any remastering or modernising. It is now available on the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.