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10 CANCELLED SUPER NES GAMES THAT YOU MAY BE UNAWARE OF, THOUGH I DON'T CARE IF YOU DID KNOW ABOUT THEM ALREADY

17/7/2018

14 Comments

 
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The most notorious unreleased SNES game was, for a long time, the completed-but-never-released Star Fox 2. Cancelled due to the impending release of the Nintendo 64 - with Nintendo fearing it would compare unfavourably to the better-looking N64 3D games - it went on to achieve legendary status in the intervening years. And then they put it out as part of the Super NES Mini bundle, and everyone realised it hadn't been worth the wait.

But what other SNES games might still languish in an unreleased state? Imagine there was a listicle which revealed some of them... Now imagine no longer, child: for that listicle shall unfurl itself below. 

Oh - and one more thing. Also included in this list are several dogs who appear to be saying "No!". It seemed like a funny idea when I started doing it yesterday, but now that I look again... I'm not entirely sure what I was going for. Enjoy! Very cool.
SUPER MARIO FX
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The Super FX chip - developed by the UK's very own Argonaut Software - was unveiled to the world alongside Star Fox, bringing polygons to the Super NES... like  a party guest rocking up wearing a crazy new hat with the word "SEEDS" written on the front in sequins.

Arguably, Star Fox remained the best use of the in-cartridge chip (though the otherwise 2D Yoshi's Island found some clever ways to utilise it), but that could've been different had Nintendo ever finished Super Mario FX. If, indeed, Super Mario FX ever even existed. And if it did, it might not have been a game at all, but a type of "chimp harness" (the work-in-progress codename for the Super FX chip). 

Alas, it remains the stuff of myth that there was a 3D Super Mario game in the works for the SNES, with the most popular rumours suggesting that development shifted to the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64.

​In an interview with IGN, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto claims he first had the idea for a 3D Mario game while working on Starfox - a full five years or so before Super Mario 64. Even though many see this evidence as circumstantial, it's hard not to imagine that at least some explorative SNES work would've taken place. 
KID KIRBY
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Had it ever been completed, Kid Kirby would've been the only Kirby game at that point not to have been created in-house by Nintendo. DMA Design - later Rockstar North - apparently spent years on the game, which reportedly used the SNES Mouse to stretch Kirby, and "twang" him through the levels. You know: a bit like "twanging" an elastic band at a horse's face. 

Unfortunately, poor sales of the mouse - despite being bundled with Super Mario Paint - appeared to put an end to the game and its novel control method. Observe this image above: one of the level maps.
FINAL FANTASY VII
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Pre-PlayStation, the Final Fantasy series was pretty much synonymous with Nintendo. In fact, the groundbreaking (but actually a bit boring) Final Fantasy VII did indeed begin life as a SNES project.

Reportedly, the SNES incarnation would've been an isometric game, but was redeveloped when its creators' ideas became too swollen for a simple SNES cartridge to handle. 

Development moved briefly to the N64, before a further rethink took place. Additionally, Square felt that releasing games on cartridge - under Nintendo's draconian licensing stipulations - was hurting its bottom (line), and ultimately needed to find a CD-ROM-based system that could do justice to their game. After considering the Sega Saturn, the game eventually ended up on the PlayStation. History, as they say, was "made".
"NO!!"
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GOLDENEYE 007
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James Bond: The Duel for the Mega Drive
Following the success of its Donkey Kong Country, Rare found itself in a position to do pretty much whatever it wanted, and that thing was wanting to do this: develop a game based upon the upcoming movie Goldeneye, featuring James Bond - the famous guy! 

Initially, it was conceived as a side-scrolling shoot 'em up, using similar graphics rendering techniques to Donkey Kong Country. However, when Rare got wind of the specs for the N64, it was suggested that the game could instead be in 3D - finally giving consoles a firm shout in the first-person shoot 'em up stakes.
"NO!!!!!!"
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STAR WARS: DARK FORCES
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After Doom and Wolfenstein 3D had arrived, relatively successfully - if somewhat hobbled - on the SNES, it was revealed that the next big PC shooter to make it over to the Nintendo system would be Star Wars: Dark Forces.

​It isn't recorded why the game was never released, but given an early press report that the graphics were "unimpressive", it's likely that - even if they had wheeled out the Super FX chip - it was simply too much for the SNES to stretch its lips around.
SOUND FANTASY
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Sound Fantasy would've been a collaboration between Nintendo and Japanese installation artist Toshio Iwai. Based around a piece by Iwai entitled "Music Insects" - which ran at the San Francisco Exploratorium in the early-90s - Sound Fantasy was developed with the SNES mouse in mind.

It was a compilation of several different games - loosely resembling early arcade titles such as Breakout and Q*Bert - which featured the player controlling insects to create music. After playing a demo, Electronic Gaming Monthly described it as "essentially, a music-focused version of Mario Paint".
"N-NOOO!!!"
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SUPER KID ICARUS
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Kid Icarus on the NES
Famously derided for being insanely difficult when it was release on the NES In 1986, Kid Icarus nevertheless developed something of a cult following. You know: like Jesus!

Though he got a Game Boy sequel in 1991, and a new 3DS game a few years back, Kid Icarus has only ever made cameo appearances in other Nintendo games across the decades.

There have been rumours that the character was at one point due a bona-fide SNES outing, either called Super Kid Icarus or Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story. There were whispers of Nintendo unveiling the 32-meg game at the 1995 E3 show, but it never materialised. Speculation suggests that Nintendo dropped development of the game to focus on the upcoming Nintendo 64.
"...NOH??"
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FX FIGHTER
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Remember when polygon-based fighting games first happened? That was good wasn't it? It was good. It was smooth.

Due to be published by Nintendo, and developed by Argonaut - yes: the creators of the Super FX chip -  FX Fighter was intended to be the first proper 3D fighting game for the SNES.

Unfortunately, though FX Fighter did eventually get a release on the PC, Nintendo cancelled the game to avoid competition with the SNES release of Killer Instinct. Which is probably for the best. You see, it was well rubbish, brah. FX sake.
RAYMAN
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Rayman - the armless Frenchman - was originally intended to appear in a Super NES game, but after more than a year of development, it was felt that the SNES couldn't do him justice.

​Ubisoft briefly explored moving development to the proposed Super NES CD-ROM - then being developed in conjunction with Sony. When that project fell apart, and Sony reconfigured the PlayStation into a standalone console of its own, Ubisoft and Rayman jumped ship, baguettes and all.
"WHAT? NO!"
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PROJECT DREAM
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Rare's Dream: Land of Giants was originally a SNES platformer featuring a young pirate boy called Edison and his dog Dinger.

It went through several iterations of the basic idea, before the concepts outgrew the capabilities of the SNES. Project Dream - as it was by then known - was reworked as 3D RPG for the Nintendo 64, before being re-envisioned as the Super Mario 64-a-like platformer Banjo-Kazooie.

​Several assets and designs from the previous versions made it into the final game, including a troll model, which was apparently used as a (door)knocker.
"NO!"/"NO!"
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14 Comments
Steve link
17/7/2018 09:06:38 am

The Dogs saying No was more fun than the article.

Reply
Rich burnand
17/7/2018 09:19:12 am

There is a couple i would have like to played, its a shame that some just dissapeered rather that end up n64 games like Goldeneye. I deffinetly would have like a version of Star Wars Dark Shadows on the n64 though if it had 4 played deathmatchs.

Reply
Super Bad Advice
17/7/2018 09:51:35 am

Dog no. 4 has eyes like B. Banner does in the Hulk TV series before he goes all puffy, therefore I suspect he's about to start bustin' out all over the place! Or: he's doing a particularly strenuous 'golden dog egg'.

Reply
DEAN
17/7/2018 11:17:28 am

Like so many it seems, I'm a fan of the barking dogs.

They remind me of another thing I'm a fan of - Mums that have 'had it up to here' with their kids. I like it best when they put too much stress on the tail of the no and end up, as good as, calling their pride and joys NOAH.

But that's got nothing on Angry Dads - angry dads are just the best! I mean, this guy is a breeder, a proud and gorgeous silverback of a man and yet here he is - with all his alpha might - telling off Farquar for getting beans on the table. Or dressing down Jothry for holding the knife wrong or... you get the idea.

Swearing parents are also funny and I witnessed one recently that was just superb -

Picture the scene - a shop full of people in a queue and a kid licking the windows - the mother kept telling her poppet to stop it.... all in vain.... anyway, mum had had quite enough now thank you very much and exclaimed in her best mother voice, 'Will you stop licking the fucking glass!"

It was right at the point when the noise levels in the shop had inexplicably dropped (I'm not making this up) and the room went silent.... barring a giggle here and there.

Crucially though - the kid did stop licking the window... so it's up to you really - you can judge her by her methods or by her results but either way it's best not to judge because that's judgemental and that's bad.... just saying... not judging or anything.



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Mr Biffo
17/7/2018 11:22:26 am

The dogs weren't barking, Dean. They were saying "No". Get with the program!

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DEAN
17/7/2018 11:43:10 am

Oh yeah... bollocks..

Well in that case forget everything I just said and now hear this:

You know that noise that dads make when they're trying to get the attention of their child that... I dunno, is possibly about to push a drinking straw up their nose?

EIGHT

Sort of a strangulated HAY - that's a great primal noise that is...

You hear chaps enjoying a casual drink at the public house make a similar sound but it's a different sound - please: WAYYYY

Erm..... I dunno either. I guess that's as close we get to a dog barking no?

Nikki
17/7/2018 11:26:41 am

I think the dogs were saying "noooo!" because they were disappointed the games weren't released.

Good list, lots of stuff I didn't know.

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Col. Asdasd
17/7/2018 11:48:55 am

If you ask me those last dogs look as though they're refusing to accept that no means no. Jeepers.

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A dog
17/7/2018 12:23:31 pm

No!

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Lummox60N
17/7/2018 12:43:34 pm

It's something of a relief that many of those weren't released...imagine how much damage would've been done by, "BEHOLD! The FUTURE of gaming has arriven, WE GIVE YOU...THE THIRD DIMENSION!" and it was all, well, "a bit shit".

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Paul Jon Milne
17/7/2018 08:17:37 pm

I remember looking forward to FX Fighter. I remember looking forward to a lot of things, like the stupid child I was.

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Mark M
18/7/2018 12:11:49 pm

The graphics remind me a little of, "One Must Fall".

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Nicolás
17/7/2018 10:44:10 pm

God was it awful damned game FX Fighter for god's sake! If it was alreafy unplayable on PC I can't even dare to imagine how would it end on the SNES.

Reply
AcidBeard
26/7/2018 08:22:49 am

The only SNES one I could think of was an Akira game that I read about in Total! magazine once that I don't think ever came out so this list blew my mind.

Reply



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