I think many of us are agreed that we’re ready for The Flash to conquer TV later this year when the new CW show premieres (plus, however DC and Warner Bros. decides to handle the character post-Batman v. Superman). But some of you might not know that the Old Speedypants once nearly had a game on previous-generation consoles.

The story’s knocked about for a couple of years now, and some footage made its way onto YouTube back in 2009, but the legend goes that the game was under development at Bottlerocket Entertainment. The studio, which developed the Mark of the Kri sequel, Rise of the Kasai and was famously pulled from Namco’s failed Splatterhouse reboot had been commissioned to work on a game based on The Flash license for DC/WB, getting as far as the early gameplay footage you see below.

It’s not like the character hasn’t had his share of game appearances over the years: he’s shown up in everything from the fighting game Justice League Task Force to DC Universe Online. Most recently, the character ran circles around his opponents in Injustice: Gods Among Us and the second LEGO Batman game.

From the looks of the early footage, The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive took a few pages from Activision’s Spider-Man games, set in an open world allowing Barry Allen (or more likely Wally West given that Barry was dead in the comics at the time) to zip around his hometown, up and over buildings and throw baddies around. While the short clip doesn’t show off too much of the combat, it does look like The Flash would have incorporated some button prompt finishing moves.

Sadly, it was not to be: when Bottlerocket’s publisher, Brash Entertainment folded in late 2008, Bottlerocket’s fortunes also went south. It’s not clear why development on a Flash game didn’t go forward at another studio, but the next DC game to reach consumers would be 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum. Given the award-winning work that Rocksteady did with Batman’s combat, I’m sitting here wondering what could have been if Bottlerocket could have developed their own high-speed fisticuffs.

So what do you think? Should DC get on a new game based on The Flash?