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Almost 20 years later, cancelled Daredevil: The Man Without Fear video game prototype surfaces online

Hickory, Dickory, Murdock.

Screenshot from cancelled Daredevil game for Xbox and PS2 showing Matt Murdock's Daredevil chest
Image credit: Hidden Palace

Fresh footage as well as a playable prototype of a cancelled Daredevil game have appeared online.

Known as Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, this prototype was initially conceived all the way back in 2004, but the full game was never released. It has since come back into circulation, however, with the prototype being shared online by an anonymous developer who worked on it almost 20 years ago.

Let's Play Marvel Avengers PS4 Co-op - TEAM EUROGAMER ASSEMBLE!Watch on YouTube

You can find this Daredevil prototype, along with several screenshots, over on Hidden Palace. According to the notes included with the prototype, The Man Without Fear was being developed for the PC, PS2 and Xbox, and was set to be a "third-person beat 'em up" style game.

But alas, it ultimately never saw the light of day. According to this recent listing, it was cancelled after Marvel's " refusal to approve the game due to the various changes that were made due to Sony's recommendations that steered far from the original concept the developer had sold to the licensor".

However, previous reports stated that a Daredevil game being developed by 5000ft - as this one was - was cancelled not only due to the aforementioned conflict between Marvel and Sony, but also because several studio staff members would reportedly turn up to work after taking illegal drugs. One worker allegedly turned up to an afternoon meeting "drooling" after a lunchtime top-up.

But, back to the playable prototype. If you don't fancy giving it a go, and it is reportedly quite buggy, you can see some more footage from Daredevil: The Man Without Fear via the video below.

Daredevil: Man Without Fear (Mar 22, 2004 prototype) (Unreleased PlayStation 2 Game).Watch on YouTube

Will we ever see a Daredevil game like this realised in the near future? Well, perhaps, yes, kind of. You see, Spider-Man 2 fans believe developer Insomniac has been teasing some sort of Matt Murdock DLC.

The sequel's recent patch brought the once missing plaque back to the offices of Nelson and Murdock. When this started getting noticed online, Spider-Man 2's senior creative director Bryan Intihar teased: "Guess they paid their rent..."

This led to plenty of fan speculation about what could be next for Spider-Man 2. However, nothing has been confirmed by the developer yet, so we will just have to wait and see.

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