It’s not all that uncommon that a game takes a slight change in direction. If games didn’t end up different from beta to final release, Unseen 64 would be out of a job! Something gets cut out due to money and/or time constraints: Yoshi’s Island is no different. Although having a very unique development history which included a graphics overhaul later in development, it seems Nintendo also wanted to tweak some of Yoshi’s special abilities in Yoshi’s Island before release. Nintendo dropped these abilities on the cutting room floor but was kind enough to leave the sprites in the cartridge for everyone to see.
A few months prior to Chrono Trigger‘s market release, a beta version was given to magazine reviewers and game stores. An unfinished build of the game, it contains numerous differences from the final version, such as unused music tracks and a location called “Singing Mountain”. Curious fans later explored the ROM image through various methods, discovering two unused world map character sprites and presumed additional sprites for certain non-player characters. This has led some to rumor that an eighth playable character exists or was intended for play, but there is no evidence to this claim. [Info from Wikipedia]
Soon enough, it became the time in which the Super Famicom was completed and released. During that time, we were still seeking a higher capacity media for our games, and upon getting word from Nintendo that they were developing a CD-ROM adapter for the Super Famicom, we decided to start a project in a different direction from Final Fantasy IV, which at the time was in the middle of development and was touted as a next-generation RPG fitting the large storage capacity the new cartridges had. The development codename for the new project was Maru Island, and we were making it as a collaboration work with Akira Toriyama-sensei after we established contact through Shueisha. I frequently ran back to the office just to receive and look at the screen mock-ups that Toriyama-sensei did in the initial stages of the project.
Despite that, the CD-ROM adapter was never completed. Once everyone learned that the CD-ROM adapter was never going to see a release, they decided to abandon everything that had been planned for development since the very start, including Toriyama-sensei’s contributions, and decided to revise the project in order to make it release into a ROM cassette. We said that we would wait for the CD-ROM to make a collaboration project with Toriyama-sensei, but when it was revised, it actually became an entirely different project with an entirely different direction. That was what later on was completed into the game we know as Chrono Trigger.
FX Fighter (also known with the tentative name “Fighting Polygon”) is a 3D fighting video game released for PC in 1995. It was the first realtime 3D fighting game to be developed for the PC. The game was also being developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but eventually only the PC CD-ROM version for MS-DOS was released. The game features 8 different characters, eight different arenas, movie cut-scenes, and 40 attacks per fighter. The player selects a character to face against eight of the best fighters in the universe for a prize consisting of the most powerful weapon in the universe.
A version for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was previewed in Nintendo Power #69 and relied on the Super FX2 processor to deliver groundbreaking 3D graphics that were otherwise unattainable on 16-bit game platforms at the time. However, the project was canceled prior to release along with Star Fox 2, another Super FX2-powered title for the system. [Info from Wikipedia]
StarFox 2 is an unreleased video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was to be a part of the Star Fox series and the direct sequel to Star Fox. The game was never released due to the impending release of the Nintendo 64 and the desire to use the most advanced systems available for the game. There have since been various rumors about a release of the game in various formats.
The game was extensively covered by the various gaming magazines of the time, both at its one E3 appearance as well as in the many screenshots provided by Nintendo to generate interest in the sequel. Since the leaking of the unfinished beta code, some individuals have managed to take and compile a large variety of screengrabs. These were taken using an emulator. Though it’s likely that a promotion video was put together at the time, no copies of it have ever been made public. The lack of media coverage about the compiled beta may be due to a fear of legal action from either NCL or NOA. Early in development, Fara Phoenix from the Star Fox comic (called “Lady” in the alpha) and the Andross look-alike “Saru” were in place of Miyu and Fay. Fay replaced a sheep character (gender unknown) from the game’s early development.
On the Internet, ROM images exist of two very early alpha versions of the game, which were originally shown at trade shows. Another ROM, compiled from the latest known source code before the project was cancelled, can also be found — this version is nearly complete and contains minor bugs, debug code, and unfinished features such as a rudimentary multiplayer mode. These ROMs can be played using a SNES emulator. Additionally, fan-made patch can be added to the near-final ROM — this fixes most of the bugs, removes the debug code and the unfinished features, and translates the game’s dialog into English. – [info from Wikipedia]
Sound Fantasy is a cancelled video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and its Japanese counterpart, the Super Famicom. Interactive media artist Toshio Iwai designed the game in the early 1990s using concepts from the installation art piece Music Insects, which he created during his time as an Artist in Residence at the San Francisco Exploratorium. However, the finished product was never brought to market by Nintendo for unknown reasons.
Its eccentric concepts and untested game mechanics may have been the main factor in its cancellation; music games, especially on home consoles, were not popular in the early 1990s, and it wouldn’t be until much later in the decade that they gained mainstream attention. A working prototype was found in October 2014 as you can see from the video below.
Images:
Thanks to MathUser & Celine for some of these images!
Sound Fantasy was to come packed-in with the SNES Mouse and mouse pad, and it would arrive in a larger game box to hold its contents similar to Super Nintendo games like Mario Paint and EarthBound. It is speculated that Nintendo chose to use Mario Paint to launch its mouse peripheral in 1992 instead, as that game was endorsed by Mario, one of gaming’s most recognizable mascots.
Toshio Iwai eventually went on to convert his work into the PC game SimTunes in 1996, and many of Sound Fantasy’s unreleased gameplay elements can be found there.
In April 2005, to celebrate the Japanese launch of Toshio Iwai’s latest work, Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo opened an exhibit at Tokyo’s Harajuku Station to focus on the new game and on Iwai himself. Nintendo made available for perusal the box art and manual for Sound Fantasy, but the “lost game” was not made playable there. – [info from Wikipedia]
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