Canceled Early Development of a Jumping Flash VR Game for PlayStation

Sure, here you go:

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Okay, so picture this—I was somehow caught up in this tug-of-war between nostalgia and tech. Weird combos, but hang with me. Former PlayStation bigwig Shuhei Yoshida spilled the beans, or maybe he just let it slip, about a VR makeover of Jumping Flash that was, well, canned before it even got real.

He was chatting away with VGC, you know, just having one of those classic “remember when” kind of conversations. Yoshida, who’s like a PlayStation veteran—served as the head honcho at SIE Worldwide Studios for a good chunk, from 2008 to 2019, before he said his goodbyes this year—mentioned this in a not-yet-out interview. So here’s the thing, before Sony got into modern licensing, Yoshida told VGC they were toying with the idea of bringing old-school franchises back to life in VR. Which is kinda wild, right?

Now, when VGC pressed him about which games they had lined up for PlayStation VR—can you imagine?—he revealed that Jumping Flash, the quirky 1995 platformer from Exact and Ultra, was in this barely-breathing stage of development. No idea who was supposed to be working on it or when it all fizzled out, but Yoshida said, “some developers wanted to license Jumping Flash to develop it into part of their new VR game.” And then, poof. The whole thing just evaporated into thin air or something.

Anyhow, here’s a twist—Fantavision 202X, remember that one? That did make it through. A reboot of the 2000 puzzle game from the now-gone PlayStation Japan Studio. Got itself a neat little spot as one of 2023’s PlayStation VR2 launch titles, and even hit Steam later. Cosmo Machia took the wheel there, complete with optional VR support on both sides. Fancy!

And here’s where it gets kinda sweet: Even though Yoshida stepped back from Sony in January, he’s still the front-row cheerleader for PlayStation VR2. Sure, he had this “oops, my bad” moment about Sony’s latest headset in a Kinda Funny chat, but gosh, does he love Synapse and Before Your Eyes. Last anyone checked, he was spotted at Summer Game Fest, hanging out with nDreams promoting their upcoming gig, Reach. Go figure!