Games That Never Made

As with any system, a plethora of games designed for the NES, for whatever reason, never saw the light of day in the United States, or were changed a lot from their original forms. This section provides a tirbute for these sad stillborn NES carts. All reasons for no reason are currently all educated speculation on my part, although if anyone who worked on these games knows why they were sacked, I would love to hear from you! Thanks.

Empire City 1931 (Source: Nintendo Power, Issue #1, pg 87)

This was to be a NES port of an arcade game of 1987. If you wish, you can download the ROM for MAME. Empire City 1931 takes place in New York and the player takes the role of a sniper who must search for armed gangsters through his sight scope and eliminate them within a certain time limit, if not, you die.

Why no release? : Designed by Toshiba EMI/ISI and marketed by Acclaim Entertainment Inc, Empire City 1931 had a successful arcade release, so why no port? Well, maybe after seeing Golgo 13: Top Secret Mission Nintendo wasn't very keen on another assassination game where your targets exploded in red after you shot them in the head. Golgo 13 in itself was amazing because it had both brutal violence and heavily implied sexual themes, so in all likelihood, Nintendo refused to grant a license, and Acclaim wasn't going to try and jeopardize its relationship with Nintendo on a not-so-family friendly game that probably wouldn't sell well anyway (I remember playing it back 10 years ago at a galleria and was NOT impressed.  

Chesterfield (Source: Nintendo Power, Issue #1, pg 86)

Plot: On Chesterfield island, the evil general Gemon has kidnapped Princess Karen. You must rescue her by finding a secret treasure map hidden in a huge underground maze.

Why no release: Other than the fact that it sounds like a Japanese version of Deadly Towers, this Vic Tokai produced game sounds a bit too Japanese for American audiences. General Gemon definitely sounds like an import character. But I have no real solid information on this project.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Source: Interview with Nintendo Representative at NOA HQ in 1991)

A much more difficult sequel to the original that used the same graphics, but Mario and Luigi had different abilities.

Why no release? : The real SMB2 was never released by Nintendo of America because NOA thought the game, which was really add-on levels to SMB1, would be too difficult for American children. (Actually, I do agree with this, if you remember the Sega Genesis' Sonic & Knucles, few cusumers realized it was add-on levels to the short Sonic 3 and as a result hated the hard level of challenge.) SMB2 had more castle mazes, poisoned mushrooms that would kill instead of restore life and a tricky warping system 9which included backwards warps). However, Nintendo of America did need a new Mario title back in the late 80's because NES fans were becoming tired of only one Mario game, and Japan's SMB3 was still at least two or three years from completion, so NOA decided to take a Japan-only game about a fantasy quest of four Arabic soldiers and redesigned the graphics of the game to make it look like Mario and company. (BTW, the original game's name was Doki Doki Panic! -translated... Exciting Panic!) Later on teh SNES, NOA did decide to rerelease all 3 Mario games, and also the original SMB2, which was redubbed Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (much like DiC stopped dubbing Sailor Moon in the USA and then two years later dubbed the last 17 episodes of season two as "the lost episodes." The point? "Lost" my ass, but the US companies don't want to declare the absolute truth to the public- um, Americans are too stupid to like this game. But I'm not really complaining, a lot of great junk- oops, I mean merchandise came out because of SMB2 here, including the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and also, SMB2 cemented NES hold over the US video game market in the late 80's. Plus, SMB2 would have never receieved much attention (or for that matter, a release in the first plac probably) if it had remained Doki Doki Panic. Ironically, SMB2, the American version, was back-imported into Japan under the title Super Mario Bros. 2 USA.  

Spy Vs. Spy: The Island Caper (Source: Nintendo Power, Issue #3, pg 81)

A sequel to the original game, but taking place with different weapons on an tropical island (oddly enough, populated by huge Moai statues, which only are found on Easter Island in Southeast Asia.)

Why no release? : No idea, Kemco planned to release this title in late 1988/early 1989, but decided to drop it for some unknown reason. My only guess was that Spy Vs. Spy 2 seemed from the demo to look and play exactly like the original but in a new location. Maybe it was so similar to the first Kemco decided it wouldn't sell because consumers would think it was exactly the same (although that never stopped Mega Man.)

Dragon Quest I, II, III (Source:  imported versions and Nintendo Power Issue #1, pg.  )

The games we know as Dragon Warrior I, II, III were actually called Dragon Quest in Japan and had character designs by the legendary Akira Toriyama of Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball fame. However, Enix thought the Japanese manga/anime style of the characters would not bode well with Americans so Enix changed the designs to a very Middle Ages feel.

BTW, Dragon Quest was MUCH more popular in Japan than in the USA. DQIII was released in February 1988 and many Japanese gamers  cut school and waited hours in long lines to buy the game (which sold over 6 million units.) DQIV and DQV were released on Super Famicom in Japan but had no USA release at all. (RPGs are much more popular in Japan than America, but Final Fantasy VII changed that, yet Dragon Quest now has nine games {that I know of} and VI-IX have never received a USA release). Dragon Quest also spawn an animated movie in Japan and three TV series, Dragon Quest , Dragon Quest: Dai's Adventure, and Dragon Quest II, the last of which had 13 episodes dubbed in English and released in the USA - but DWII anime failed in the USA, as expected.