New Cancelled Games & Their Lost Media Added to the Archive

Mother 3 [GBA – Unused Boss & Sprites]

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Mother 3 is the latest (and some say last) installment in the Earthbound saga. Released 12 years after the previous game in the series, Earthbound, it offers a radically different story and presentation than the other games it shares its name with, all the while retaining the same combat system and quirky sense of humor.

Creator Shigesato Itoi initially conceived mother 3 to be released for the N64 when it was announced first in 1996. However due to both the teams inexperience in developing with 3D graphics and the commercial failure of the N64 DD drive (which would have been required to play the game) the project was cancelled in 2000, even though the game was quite far in development. For an interesting comparison between the original N64 version and the GBA version, check this nice article by Starmen.net (warning for spoilers).

The next time anyone would hear about Mother3 it would be in 2003, when it was redesigned for the Game Boy Advance. Graphically the game looked closer to its predecessors, a league away from the blocky, early-3D look that it first appeared with. When it finally shipped in 2006 anticipation was high, so high in fact that when Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu polled its readers on what games they wanted most, Mother3 was on top of the list. Sadly, to date Mother3 has never seen a western release. Fans wishing to play the game are left with importing it and using fan-made guides to finish it. Recently however a dedicated group of fans has translated the entire game and made the patch available for the public. So those that never got to experience this hidden gem can now enjoy it in English.

Below are unused sprites (like a taxy, a bus and an UFO) and a video of unused backrounds. Many people said this was Giygas, but it is not:

From Earthbound Wiki:

Although, even if said by fans that the unused boss is Giygas, it has been said by Shigesato Itoi himself, that they were simply unused backgrounds depicting Lucas’s thoughts over the battle with the Masked Man. Although it makes a huge resemblance to Giygas, it is not. As told by Shigesato, the screaming faces of Claus show that Lucas is recognizing Claus and seeing his pain, even the red deformed face of Claus. This makes much more sense, because hackers have used programs to see where some of the unused music’s events originated from, and the “Lucas’s nightmare” music was going to originally be the Ultimate Chimera’s approach, but was later scrapped because it was too scary for a younger audience.

For more info check:
http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Mother/3_GameHelp/41877

[spoiler /Sweden translation/ /Hide/]Sve: Giygas skulle egentligen vara i Mother 3, men var raderat från datan, antagligen pga. att bossfighten var för skrämmande för nyare, ungare spelare (fast ironiskt nog så var Mother 3 mycket mer mörkare än Mother 2/Earthbound), eller pga. att Giygas var förstörd för evigt. [/spoiler]

Some sprites from: www.spriters-resource.com

Images:

Videos:



Lots of debug in those rooms

Our friend Randy355 has started a topic in the U64 forum where to collect various infos / images / videos for debug rooms that are still accessible in released games, here are some of them!

Donkey Kong 64 Debug Room:

Jet Force Gemini Debug Room:

Lost Zelda OOT Debug Room:

Mother 3 Debug Room:

Sonic Adventure 2 Debug Room:

Final Fantasy VIII Debug Room

Final Fantasy X-2 Debug Room

If you want to help the collection, you can read the discussion and add more debug rooms in his topic: Video Game Beta Rooms

Millenium Fire [Saturn – Unreleased]

ENG: This entry in the archive doesn’t have a description yet. If you want to add some info about the beta / cancelled stuff that you see in these images, just write a comment or send us an email! We’ll add your info in this page and your name in the contributors list. Thanks a lot for your help! :)

ITA: Questa pagina dell’archivio non ha ancora una descrizione. Se vuoi aggiungere delle informazioni riguardo le differenze della beta o la descrizione di un gioco cancellato, lasciaci un commento o mandaci una email! Inseriremo le tue informazioni nella pagina ed il tuo nome nella lista dei collaboratori. Grazie per il tuo aiuto! :)

Video:

Source: www.segagagadomain.com/RetroCorepage-main.htm

Unseen Changes overload: Won’t someone think of the children?

At NeoGAF they have an interesting topic about censored games, where you can find lots of great differences between released games in different countries! Some of my favourites are:

Ash in Street Of Rage 3

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While translating this game from Japanese to American and European audiences, Sega of America altered it significantly. The most notable changes were that the miniboss character Ash was removed because he was a stereotyped homosexual, females were given more modest clothing, and the costume colors were changed. Axel is dressed like Adam, Blaze’s clothes were changed from red to white, and Skate wears red and blue instead of red and yellow. Sega stated that these were changed to create “gender-neutral colors.” The voice-effects were also changed, with most noticeably Axel’s catchphrase of “Grand Upper” for his semi-special move being replaced with “Bare Knuckle”. [Info from wikipedia]

German version of Soldier Of Fortune 2

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To avoid being banned in Germany, the German version of the game had all in-game violence and gore removed and placed the story in a parallel universe which was populated by cyborgs. These changes were not accepted at all by the players’ community, and the game was unsuccessful. [Info from Wikipedia]

German version of Team Fortress 2:

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German version of Bloodrayne:

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Xenosaga Episode III

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The North American release of the game, however, was criticized for a number of obvious cutscene edits that many felt were damaging to either the atmosphere or overall story of the game. The majority of these edits were for scenes of violence and blood that would have elevated the game beyond the “Teen” rating given by the ESRB to the “Mature” level. This official reason from Namco is puzzling, especially when Episode I is taken into consideration. Episode I featured several scenes with heavy blood flow (for instance, during the Gnosis attack at the beginning of the game, a crewmember is literally pounded into paste by a Gnosis) and it received a “Teen” rating from the ESRB. While the storyline remains identical in both the original Japanese release and the North American versions, the exclusion of certain violent scenes is quite noticeable, especially in a scene midway through the story in which a child reacts to the death of another character by “putting [the blood] back” in the dying individual. In the North American version, the child has nothing in her hands and several shots are shown of an area presumably splattered with blood, but that looks immaculate and clean in this version. Another scene where a character is pierced through the shoulder and leg by a weapon is also completely bloodless, whereas the scene is accompanied by a spray of blood in the Japanese version. Even more puzzling, the sound effect for the blood spray was not edited out. [Info from wikipedia]

Persona:

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The North American release of Revelations: Persona saw many cosmetic and technical changes. In order to suggest that the story takes place in a western nation, the profile pictures of several characters have been recolored and (at times) redrawn completely. The most dramatic changes are to the main protagonist: his face and hairstyle are completely redesigned. Another notable change is to the character of Mark, who is altered from a Asian boy to an African American character with Ebonics added into his dialog. Both Nate and Ellen switch their hair colors from a dark shade of black to blonde. [Info from Wikipedia]

You can see these and more on NeoGAF forum …keep them up guys! Lots of new Unseen Changes articles in there :)