Vanquish, Platinum Games' high-speed futuristic shooter for Sega, left some fascinating concepts on the cutting room floor. One notable deletion was protagonist Sam's best friend—a robot dog that launched missiles, provided mobile cover and more.
Borrowing a page from another Sega game, Shinobi sequel Shadow Dancer, it appears that Sam would have had faithful four-legged partner that would help take down bad guys. The robo-dog was loaded with ammo and could transform into a back-mounted missile launcher that would attach to Sam's super suit.
That's not all. Platinum's Yoshifumi Hattori writes on the dev's blog that "there was even an idea that a female android 'partner' would transform and combine with Sam (I was a fan of that one). As the player would hoist her up, their bodies would change shape in various ways from forming an enormous gun to having the android change into a boomerang and be thrown into the field."
Knowing Platinum, creators of Bayonetta and Madworld, there's little doubt that would have been a very sexy android boomerang.
Vanquish should be out this October on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, sadly devoid of cyber-pups.
The Augmented Reaction Suit System [PlatinumGames]