Dune: Ornithopter Assault, the Handheld Dune Game Cryo Never Shipped
In 2001 the French studio Soft Brigade began work on a Game Boy Advance game for publisher Cryo Interactive. The pitch was a 3D flying game seen from inside an ornithopter cockpit, announced as the first Dune title on a handheld. You would be trained by Gurney Halleck as an Atreides officer, then fight for control of Arrakis and, after the fall of the House, alongside Paul and the Fremen.
By summer 2002 the project was reportedly close to done, with its missions playable from start to finish. Cryo's financial troubles ended it before release, and the company itself went under that year. The game was not cancelled for being bad; it was caught in its publisher's collapse.
At a glance
- Based on: Dune, Frank Herbert's novel and its screen adaptations
- Created by: Soft Brigade (developer), Cryo Interactive (intended publisher)
- Released: never in its time; development ran 2001 to 2002
- Genre: 3D flight and combat shooter
- What sets it apart: one of the very few attempts to put Arrakis on a handheld
What was planned
- More than 20 missions with varied goals: reconnaissance, escorts, guarding, destroying troops and buildings, capturing vehicles, and collecting spice and water.
- Five single-player and multiplayer modes, including linked play between two consoles.
- A story arc that moves from Atreides training to the Fremen resistance.
The afterlife of the build
A playable build of the game leaked years later and was written up by the cancelled-games site Unseen64 in 2015. Players who finished it report that the solo campaign holds together, although the multiplayer mode described in the original fact sheet does not appear in that build. The code was later reworked and released commercially under a new name, Elland: The Crystal Wars, with the Dune references removed.