With the year drawing to a close and the Xbox 360 already two years old, we've seen a lot of high-profile titles hit the cutting room floor before ever seeing the light of day. And the original Xbox had a couple of big-name titles never make it out of the game development birth canal either. So we thought it'd be fun to spend the next seven days taking a look back at seven of the most memorable Xbox games that never were. We'll be going from worst to first, meaning the first few days you'll remember thinking "Thank God!" they were canceled, and the closer we get to the end, your reaction will be more like, "Why God?!" First you'll see our original, undoctored previews. Below that will follow our 2007 post-mortem. Enjoy!

THE CITY OF METRONOME — ORIGINAL OXM PREVIEW (HOLIDAY 2005 ISSUE):

Into a world of systematic, assembly-line-produced videogames comes The City of Metronome. It’s the first title from a small Swedish team called Team Tarsier; when asked to describe the game in 50 words or less, the answer from Team Tarsier’s game designer, Björn Sunesson, is not your typical, carefully crafted feature list: “Basically, the way we see it, The City of Metronome is the essence of what has been going on in the world during the last 100 years or so.” Too hyperbolic? Overly existential? Perhaps, but maybe this type of thinking is exactly what it will take for a game to bust out of the increasingly stagnant, genre-based videogame mold.

The premise is certainly intriguing: A forebodingly named shadow government group, The Corporation, has discovered the secrets behind a machine that can create ideas and designs for building worlds. Armed with this knowledge, they create Metronome, a towering metropolis that’s part Dickensian London but mainly Tim Burton-esque Goth. But in order to keep Metronome running smoothly, the backbreaking labor of children is essential, and The Corporation begins child-snatching to make ends meet. Enter you — a young apprentice steam-train engineer who decides to put a stop to the nefarious ways of The Corporation.

While Metronome is by no means a point-and- click adventure, it does maintain a similar spirit. “[It’s the kind of game] where you take a step back and look at a situation and go, ‘Hmm… how can I accomplish what I want here?’” says Sunesson. “There are lots of ‘redundant’ puzzles in games today — developers underestimate [the player’s intelligence]. What’s the satisfaction of just placing the gold sword behind the gold shield and another door opens? If you haven’t got anything interesting to do or show, just let the player blow the door up in a spectacular way and be done with it.” Sunesson did assure us that there’s a great deal of action in the game, but details remain under lock and key for now.

What we do know is that a lot of the environmental interaction and gameplay in Metronome revolves around the use of audio. By recording and replaying different sounds (via a nifty contraption strapped to your character’s back), you’ll manipulate both your surroundings and various characters in order to progress. But don’t categorize Metronome in the same genre as PaRappa the Rapper or his other rhythmaction buddies. And certainly don’t count on details on how Metronome will play – much of its specific gameplay is currently being redesigned to ensure it’s fun, intuitive, and in Sunesson’s words, “as funky as possible.” Sunesson did reveal to us that much of the audio-based gameplay relies on using the analog sticks in order to coax a response from the world around you.

At this point, the game remains without a publisher — a fact that both worries and encourages Sunesson. “It’s interesting that basically every acquisition person we’ve talked to said they really like Metronome, but doubt the people in marketing will be positive,” he says. “I think this means we’re doing something right, and I think that gamers are ready for new, fun games. Most people buying next-gen consoles have played games for years and are pretty tired of getting fed the same old stuff repackaged over and over, only with more polish. I know I am.” We know we are too.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way — here’s hoping The City of Metronome will provide some of the answers for how to move videogames forward.

THE 2007 OXM RETROSPECTIVE:

It is here at Day 5 that we truly begin to venture into heartbreaking territory. To call The City of Metronome a breath of fresh air would be cliché, so how about this description: it could've been every bit the creative masterpiece that Psychonauts was. Of course, if it also had matched the sales numbers of Tim Schafer's 2005 critical darling, then it would be the publishers who would be proven right for not picking it up. But we'll never know, unfortunately, as no publisher had the stones to find out. (Hey, even the most play-it-safe publishers take chances. Look at EA picking up and putting out Oddworld Stranger's Wrath!)

To the best of our knowledge, Team Tarsier never did find a publisher, and we don't know what's become of them. With any luck, they've all found new gigs at various developers around the world, where they can spread their unique creative energy.

DAY 1: THE ACRONYM SAYS IT ALL

DAY 2: A TRULY "AMERICAN" CLASSIC

DAY 3: MISSING GRANDMA'S BOYS

DAY 4: THE GHOST (NOT) IN THE MACHINE