It's not often that cancelled video games ever see the light of day. From legal contracts preventing the work from ever being shown to early game prototypes simply being lost or destroyed, there is a ton of video game history that will forever go unseen.

That isn't the case with Volition's cancelled Saints Row Undercover. Originally a port of Saints Row 2 for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP), Volition eventually turned it into its own unique game. Unfortunately, Saints Row Undercover never met the developer's expectations, so it got the axe.

One would think the game would then forever be lost, but that's apparently not the case. Volition recently discovered the Saints Row Undercover prototype and, rather than simply destroying it or hiding it from the world for all eternity, it's decided to release it online for anybody who's interested to check out.

You can download it over at Unseen64, a site that has a knack for finding and reporting on unfinished video game projects. You'll need a modded PSP or a PSP emulator to give Saints Row Undercover a go, but even then, it sounds like some players are having a hard time getting it running properly. It is a prototype, after all.

Still, it's extremely cool that Volition went out of its way to provide a working prototype of a long-thought-dead game for its fans to check out. Maybe more developers will follow Volition's example. If you're in the mood for more cancelled video games, you can also download a prototype version of Star Wars Battlefront 3 that recently hit the Web.