Famicom: July-Sept. 1990


OK, first off we have the most exciting pictures that I found: Early shots of Rockman 3!

The text below is the standard info about the game, but one very interesting point is that the 3 forms your robotic dog, Rush, could take were 1) a coil 2) a submarine and 3) a drill!!! The last one seems quite unique and different. Someone pointed out that perhaps the points in the stages where Protoman/Blues normally shows up would have been where Rockman would have to drill using Rush.

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I've translated most of the text in the Famitsu article, and while (besides the Rush Drill) it's not the most mindblowing of information, you might find it interesting.

Click below to view an English PDF file.

Ooh... look at those planets! Of course, this is Gemini Man's stage. The planets were taken out of the level design, but their character tiles are still in the CHR ROM of the final release of the game, and the palette still cycles as though they were there, glowing. Some of the planet CHR tiles were taken out as they needed space for the robotic penguins. It's just as well -- these planets don't look up to Capcom's standards anyway.

The robotic snake is more metallic here, as opposed to the scaly one in the final. The floor doesn't seem to move yet.

Now, Top Man's stage looks really interesting! Those look like guard towers and a city in the background. I think it looks much better than just the boring old greenhouse backdrop of the final.

Apparently, this part of Top Man's level is a bit different too, with the ceiling above the cat missing at this stage...

Finally, here are all the robot idea submissions (all 50,000 of them!) from fans:


Aruden Raruden was announced at the same Shoshinkai show, but judging from the identical pictures in several magazines, Taito distributed slides or pamphlets only of the in-game screenshots. This game was never seen again in this form. Rather, it resurfaced in a retooled version a year later, and was released as Robocco Wars by IGS.
Let's Compare the Prototype Pics to the Released Game!
Aruden Raruden
Robocco Wars
Unused Levels! Robocco Wars has two unused levels that can be accessed with the Game Genie codes GLUZOAAE and ILUZOAAE! (More Here) The levels are almost devoid of enemies except for midbosses and an end boss (which is the giant Darius ship from Stage 6.) What I found interesting is that the Ninja Mansion level is labyrinthine with lifts, etc, just like the first few stages in Robocco Wars. This leads me to believe that the on-rails stages of Aruden Raruden were to have more of an exploratory element to them, but this idea got scrapped mid-way when IGS/Taito rushed(?) the game to release in 1991. Fascinating...

 


Here is Legend of Hero Tonma for the Famicom. Irem did a switcheroo with Famicom and PC-Engine releases. Hero Tonma didn't get released on the Famicom, but came out on the PCE instead. And, the PCE version of MeikyuuJima (Kickle Cubicle) wasn't released. Instead, the Famicom version was. Weird.


Jungle Taitei

Here's an unreleased game starring Kimba, the hero of an old (but now famous) Japanese animation.

 


Shoshinkai Show report from Famimaga

Famicom Magazine did a report of Nintendo's 1990 "Space World" show with plenty of pictures. Among them were many beta/unreleased games, like Battle Ball (Bowl?), a football-like game where players literally battled each other to carry the ball across the playing field.  
Irem must have had a disappointing latter half of 1990. Of the 4 games displayed here, only 1 of them (Parman) got released! Legend of Hero Tonma and Geopolitic Island never saw a release on the Famicom, and Metal Storm was released 2 years later in Japan!

Below is a (yawn...) RPG by Software Kougyou that is said to look "exactly like Final Fantasy II": Space Opera. It went unreleased, of course.

To the right is an earlier title screen to Sword Master, which actually did get a release. Dark Sider is a cool name I guess, even if it is confusing in a way only Japanese titles can be.


Here's the great Over Horizon, looking a little different from its release version.  Its prototype name happens to be "Super Horizon", oddly enough.


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