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!

TRUE FANTASY LIVE ONLINE: ORIGINAL OXM PREVIEW (HOLIDAY 2003 ISSUE):

With its decidedly unique visual look, a host of incredible features, and a massively open world to explore, TFLO should be the first console online RPG that will offer gamers a living, breathing universe in which to interact with other players. The result, we’re sure, will be nothing short of stunning.

But many of the details have remained vague and fuzzy until now. When starting a game, players will be able to fully customize their own character from head to toe. In fact, this is one of the elements in the game that the team is most proud of at this point – giving players the flexibility and freedom to make an avatar of their choosing. Once this is done, you’ll be assigned citizenship to a specific world.

In your homeworld, you’ll be able to learn skills by joining guilds – a point that Level-5 is keen on emphasizing as an important factor in the game. Joining guilds and being an active member will help you to progress your rank and level up specific skills. You’ll also be granted access to otherwise secret quests once you clear certain criteria. And the quests are definitely where it’s at.

Quests, which range from simple adventures to mammoth undertakings, will have different requirements. Some of them are manageable for the solo player, while others will, of course, require that you assemble a party. After all, you won’t be able to take on some of the game’s tough beasts without the help of friends. And once you sign up for a quest, you won’t be able to rest on your laurels. There will be other groups competing for the same prize, so you’ll have to rely on teamwork for some of the more difficult quests in order to beat out the competition. And at the end of most of the quests, you’ll be given special items that will most likely be able to be used on your characters or displayed as trophies in your customized “room.”

Sort of like Animal Crossing, your character’s “room” will be what you want to make of it. You’re able to store all sorts of goodies there, while decorating it to your liking. Imagine it as a trophy case that you can show off to friends as bragging rights. And with the use of the Communicator, you’ll be able to invite friends to your room to chat. It’s like the real world, except better… and with trolls.

While there’s still a lot of information about TFLO that has yet to be released or specified, we’re already banking on it being one of the biggest console achievements for 2004. Expect plenty of upcoming coverage of it as it takes a more solid shape in the new year.

THE 2007 OXM RETROSPECTIVE

We come to the end of our seven-day look back at the Xbox games that never were with the most painful cancellation of them all: True Fantasy Live Online. Developed by renowned Japanese role-playing-gamemaker Level 5 as an Xbox exclusive, it was being built with both the Xbox hardware and Xbox Live infrastructure in mind. Its gorgeous cel-shaded art style, MMORPG-abnormal skill-based leveling system, and unique variety of character classes had the Xbox fanbase abuzz for good reason: TFLO looked set to be a fresh take on the massively multiplayer online genre. Worst of all was that Level 5 was literally about to commence public beta testing when the word came down that it had been canned. We were so close!

Furthermore, the circumstances surrounding its death were mysterious. Some say it just wasn't turning out very well as a gameplay experience, while others believe there was a falling-out between Microsoft (who was set to publish TFLO as a first-party title) and Level 5. Still others believe that it was simply a matter of timing; By the time TFLO would've been ready, the 360 would be nearly ready to go, and of course MMORPGs depend on long lifecycles in order to build their player base and recoup their costs (and, if you'll recall, backwards compatibility was a last-minute addition to the 360, so it was likely never an option to be considered at the time).

The news of TFLO's demise sparked many an Internet petition to save it, and even encouraged OXM's own Ryan McCaffrey to write an editorial on the subject in the August 2004 issue. What hurts more is that, given the game's Xbox Live-based online structure and unique visual style, it would actually translate to Xbox 360 very easily. But those hopes have been dead for some time. It will never happen. Of course, it'll be a miracle if any MMORPGs make it to 360 at this point. TFLO? Canned. Citizen Zero? Canned. Vanguard? Canned for 360. Marvel Universe? Rumors abound that it's canned. Huxley? Nobody knows what's going on with that one. Only Final Fantasy XI -- a PS2 port in every sense of the world (it even bypassed Xbox Live in favor of its own horrific PlayOnline interface) -- has made it to retail shelves, and it did so when it was already far past its prime.

Rest in peace, True Fantasy Live Online. Know that we will always believe that you would've been awesome.

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

DAY 5: PLAYING A SAD PIANO TUNE

DAY 6: NOTHING BUT A FOSSIL NOW