Saints Row: The Cooler was a motion-controlled brawler spin-off
Kinect and Move game canned by THQ in 2010.
Unseen64.net has unearthed images of Saints Row: The Cooler, a motion-controlled brawler spin-off that never saw the light of day.
It was in development in 2010 for PlayStation 3 using the Move controller and Xbox 360 using Kinect at Heavy Iron Studios, which went on to create motion game UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System for defunct publisher and previous Saints Row intellectual property owner THQ.
"It was a brawler game," someone who worked on the game told Unseen64. "Go to a bar, pick a fight, smash a bottle over someone's head."
Combat involved timing blocks, kicks and punches the player performed in front of the Kinect sensor. During a fight the camera switched to a first-person view.
The Cooler subtitle was apparently a reference to the game's protagonist, a bouncer who "cooled off" heated situations.
According to Unseen64 Saints Row: The Cooler was in development for half a year before THQ pulled the plug in September 2010.
Nowadays, Saints Row is in the hands of Dead Island owner Deep Silver. The next game in the series is a standalone expansion to Saints Row 4 called Gat Out of Hell, due out January 2015 for PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. There's also a PS4 and Xbox One version of Saints Row 4, subtitled Re-Elected, in the works.