Æon_Flux

1996 Cryo Interactive Entertainment

Platform: Sony PlayStation

Following on from our recent post on the cancelled PlayStation 2/Xbox edition of Æon Flux by Argonaut Games, Steve Cook of Videogame History recently got in touch to highlight that this wasn’t the first attempt to bring MTV’s cult animated series to consoles.

Several years earlier, Cryo Interactive Entertainment had been working on a PlayStation adaptation for Viacom New Media, with development already underway by 1996. Based upon the surreal animated series created by Peter Chung, the game aimed to translate the strange world of Æon Flux into a third-person 3D action adventure.

Early previews suggested an ambitious project, with GamePro’s September 1996 issue describing the title as taking players through “35 levels” where “shooting and some strategy are required to banish the extra-terrestrial Demiurge”. The magazine noted that although the game was “still only a shadow of a working game”, Æon herself already appeared finished as a “sharply designed polygonal character”. Peter Chung was also heavily involved with production, personally directing the motion capture work that GamePro claimed would result in “velvet-smooth movement from the high-booted heroine.”

At the time, the magazine reported the game as being “40% complete” with a planned December 1996 release. A few months later, PSX magazine provided further details, describing six missions set within a real-time 3D environment. The game loosely adapted the television episode “The Demiurge”, with Æon attempting to stop Trevor Goodchild from exposing humanity to a mysterious all-powerful being described by Chung as “some kind of divine being who’s neither good nor bad… just all-powerful.” Those who encountered the entity became blue-skinned followers under its influence.

According to PSX, players would need to clone themselves, battle these followers, uncover mysteries involving time travel and stay one step ahead of Trevor Goodchild. The magazine also revealed that “complex running, jumping, fighting and swinging motions were filmed to ensure fluid character movement”, whilst Viacom reportedly enlisted actual MTV animators in an effort to faithfully reproduce the look and feel of the television series.

One of the more interesting gameplay concepts involved Æon’s ability to clone herself. Rather than functioning as a simple extra-life system, players would need to collect and preserve fluid samples while alive before using cloning facilities. The mechanic was intended to tie directly into the puzzle-solving elements of the game and reflected some of the unusual concepts seen within the television series.

Chung was particularly enthusiastic about the adaptation at the time. Having travelled to France to direct the motion capture sessions himself, he later commented: “I couldn’t have expected it to be any closer, in terms of a 3-D-modeled, computer-generated rendition of the Æon Flux world.”

Despite positive coverage and a planned release window that eventually shifted to May 1997, the game never reached store shelves.

Thankfully, some material has survived. In 2019, a prototype dated 18th November 1996 was released by preservation group CVLT OF OSIRIS. The build contains the entirety of Mission 2, comprising seven playable levels, and offers an important glimpse into the game’s development. There is a download below via Hidden Palace that you can check out.

The prototype also helped confirm what happened next. Following the loss of the Æon Flux licence, it seems that Cryo significantly reworked the project into Pax Corpus, which was eventually released in 1997. Anyone familiar with Pax Corpus will immediately recognise similarities in both gameplay systems and overall design, making the prototype a fascinating link between the two projects.

With thanks to Steve Cook / Videogame History for flagging up and for details, Hoagie / AbandonwareFrance for scans and archive.org for scans.

Download

• Hidden Palace prototype download

Gallery