I keep adding games to our collection of cancelled games. The ones worth playing or, at least, worth checking out. This time it's the Super Nintendo's turn, one of the big N's most powerful workhorses. Because you may have played all the games that came out for a console, but... what about the ones that never did? Here's the solution! A list that lets you pick your favorites and emulate them without any hassle in the blink of an eye.
As promised. After the reports on cancelled NES games and Sega Genesis, it was the Super Nintendo's turn. Nintendo's 16-bit console is, without a doubt, one of the technological marvels of the modern era. It's true that it never matched the Sega Genesis's processing speed, but its graphics were quite a bit better and the factory Sony digital sound was unbeatable. Not all games lived up to its quality, and some fell by the wayside. Here are the ones that, in my opinion, stand out from the rest.
Remember that at NeoTeo we always get everything ready so you don't have to worry about reading, downloading, and playing. So if you want to get the complete package with all the ROMs from the games here, you just have to click here. To play them you need a good emulator; if you don't know any, my recommendation is Snes9X, which is what I used to put this list together. Now! Press Start!
Arcus Spirits (or Arcus Odyssey)
Four classic epic fantasy characters to choose from (warrior, valkyrie, archer, and mage) and a whole adventure to live, in an action RPG for one or two players. The game never went on sale because its development house was bought by Sega months before the official launch. Everything seems to indicate that the company ended up shelving it, either unhappy with its quality or for some legal reason. Who knows! Arcus Spirits is quite good, though it's tricky to shoot because the perspective is isometric, which can lead to unnecessary frustration. Still, its two-player mode makes up for the flaw and makes it a lot of fun.
Targa (Rendering Ranger R2)
Fun shooting game in the style of Contra with enemies everywhere, detailed scenarios, different types of weapons, and all that, but with a much more forgiving difficulty. The only problems you might find are embodied in small holes that mean instant death and are barely visible. The controls are very docile and the character moves agilely from side to side. The novelty is that every two levels we board a ship and the game becomes a shoot 'em up with little ships, in the style of R-Type. Excellent prototype, although you can tell it needs work. Much better than Universal Soldier, another game of the style that was never released and is pretty mediocre.
Bobby's World
The game based on the animated series of the same name. Another one that was well cancelled, because it was pretty bad. It's one of those jumping games with obvious and boring enemies that would have brought nothing to the table. Bobby's character is rather annoying to control, walks very slowly, and jumps very little. He has a booger friend that serves as a shield, but even that doesn't help. Only for curiosity.
Fireteam Rogue
A game that could have been a classic but fell by the wayside. Fireteam Rogue had everything, but the sum of its parts just never came together. This is the second beta of the game, and the last version ever released. It was used as press material to show to specialized publications, which weren't very impressed either. Still, it's a prototype worth trying, if only to imagine what it would have been like if it had been completed and polished. Fireteam Rogue is an RPG with its own personality, with side-scrolling levels and intense exploration. It takes place 70 million years in the past and has several heroes to choose from, all very colorful and tough. Playing it for a while, you'll notice all the improvements it lacks, but it can also hook you enough to keep going.
Batman - Revenge of the Joker
The wasted opportunity of the list. You usually don't expect anything too good from a company called Icom Simulations, but never something as garbage as this. Right off the bat, we're presented with the portrait of an aged Batman, with zero charisma and very down on his luck. What follows is even worse: a bland and generic platformer that does absolutely no honor to the license. And they had good material! In fact, believe it or not, this was supposed to be the remake of the classic game of the same name for the NES. But no such luck. The levels are designed by an amateur, the graphics are mediocre, and the action is boring and frustrating. Even so, it's much better than the Batman from Software Creations, better known as Shitty Batman, which is exactly that. Both games are included in the ROM pack, but I only recommend them to satisfy curiosity.
Metal Jack
Metal Jack is a side-scrolling fighting game in the vein of Shinobi, but it fell light-years away from any hint of quality that could have made it stand out from the crowd. You have three robotic cops to choose from, but they're all more or less the same: hard to move and with terrible response time. The enemies are pretty dumb, but since the controls are so bad, it's hard to get rid of them. A game with nothing worthy to offer, but not as bad as Shitty Batman either.
Mr. Tuff
Unfortunately, one of the best games on the list isn't complete, but it offers a good experience for as long as it lasts. In Mr. Tuff we play as a demolition robot that has to break the foundations of different buildings, fighting against all those who oppose the demolition. The robot has an arm with a giant ball, which serves both to get rid of the bugs and to break the pillars needed to advance through the level. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is fluid, and the controls are perfect. We missed out on one that was going to be good!
Star Fox 2
By far, the best game on the list. Star Fox 2 was cancelled at the end of 1995, with the imminent launch of the Nintendo 64. Nintendo didn't want to confuse things so close to announcing its next console, and feared the comparison the game might have, facing consoles far superior in technical terms like Saturn and PlayStation. It didn't want people to think its 3D technology was done for and that it would hurt N64 sales. And it's a real shame, because Star Fox 2 is a great game. It's like the previous one but with much more power and variety. Nintendo's SUPER FX technology at its maximum potential. The game is so good that it warranted a fan translation from Japanese to English. Since you, on the other side, are more likely to know English than Japanese, that's the version I included in the ROM pack.
Prime
The Malibu Comics comic turned video game. Yes, of course. Almost nobody knows those Malibu ones, so I don't blame you. Prime is the story of a kid who has the power to turn into an adult superhero (Shazam, cough cough). The ROM in the pack is a beta, and it shows. It's a fairly simple beat 'em up with really nice graphics, but repetitive and tiresome action. The lack of imagination in the game's own design, as much as that of its enemies, makes it an option to play for only a few minutes. What a shame!
Iron Commando
Beat 'em up in the style of Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, but not as polished. Iron Commando has two characters to choose from (one with a shotgun and the other kind of a karateka) and levels with nice 16-bit graphics that are very well done. The action, as expected from a prototype, isn't as good as we'd like, but it could be much worse. It has a separate button for picking up things from the ground, and although it's a good idea to avoid grabbing things when you want to punch, it takes a while to get used to. Anyway, a rounded game that, had it been released, wouldn't have caused any embarrassment.
Shadowhawk
More superhero games! And in the 90s, comics had a resurgence and there were superheroes everywhere. This one, unlike the previous ones, is pretty good. We play as a fairly agile hero who, in the style of Batman, has a rope hook for climbing buildings and a boomerang to dispatch enemies. Shadowhawk is also a great fighter and can do all kinds of hits. The final bosses are in the style of Street Fighter 2, in one-on-one side-scrolling fights. A gem, even if it's a beta.
The Shadow
More street fighting games! And a fairly mediocre one, based on The Shadow. That is, a more or less common and ordinary but astute guy who knows how to fight well and hide in the shadows. The game is hyper generic and full of glitches, but fans of the character might find some charm in it. For the rest, Iron Commando is much better.
Steven Seagal is The Final Option
The B-movie moment of the report! Bah, what B-movie? Z-movie! Because thanks to the technology of cutting out photos and the illusion of movement created when they're stacked in the right way, we have this abominable cult work among us, with Steven Seagal throwing his signature punches and totally under our control. You only have to play this pseudo street-fighting game to understand why it never saw the light of day. It's pathetic. The controls are rock hard, the action is extremely sluggish, and the perspective doesn't match the character sprites or the physical laws of the universe. Even so, this is the kind of garbage game that's worth experiencing. It has a much thinner Steven Seagal than the current one, with Mortal Kombat-style graphics and a script that looks like it came from one of his most classic (and bad) movies. Steven Seagal is the final option!
