I'm fairly certain that Dr. Chaos started as a tie-in for the campy 1986 comedy-horror House (not to be confused with the bizarre 1977 Japanese film Hausu which now has a big cult following). In the movie a man inherits a weird and creepy large house that seems to have portals letting in monsters, while he simultaneously deals with his ptsd from fighting in vietnam, and his missing presumed dead son, both of which have connections to the house, where he has to fight a zombie version of a former fellow soldier and rescue his young son from a jungle world akin to his war past. The game has you exploring a mansion filled with strange rooms and seemingly random portals to a jungle world in an effort to rescue your inventor brother, all while fighting monsters, and the monsters that appear inside the house look strikingly similar to monsters that appear in the movie.
Actually, slight misconception about Doki Doki Panic: it was actually originally envisioned as a Mario title with more vertical than horizontal exploration. So they didn't "just" reskin a completely different game, they more so brought it back to its roots. Also, something I noticed about your video: the live action segments have a really weirdly squished aspect ratio. Just looks a bit off to me.
Kinda, it was a prototype made by Tezuka but Miyamoto shot it down because they had other stuff to make, they then revived the prototype to be used as basis for their Yume Kojo collab game, which then became SMB2 (USA). And even then, SMB2 is way more than a simple resking, they changed a lot of things on the gameplay side.
The weird aspect ratio and squished effect is probably a nod to the original aspect ratio of the NES/SNES which wasn't 4:3 but 8:7 actually, playing some games on an emulator at the original aspect ratio might make them look a little weird.
The US version of Silius changed Jay's sprite drastically. He appears to wear a helmet in the Japanese and EU versions, and his proportions seem more realistic. The American Jay looks like some rockabilly pompadour guy, and he's short like Megaman. I feel like this alteration tones down the game's dark atmosphere,, which was unusually heavy by NES standards. I have to credit Sunsoft for the harrowing intro, and the most intense boss music on the system.
The Crazy Castle series is by far the craziest scenario of this in the gaming world. Accounting for Europe, Japan and the U.S regions they alternated between 7-8 IPs. They went from Roger Rabbit to Bugs Bunny to Mickey to Hugo to Ghostbusters and Garfield and even spawned its own unique IPs “Kid Klown” and later “Charlie Blast’s Territory” all because of licensing issues. It’s insane.
I read once that Mega Man 1 was intended to be an Astro Boy game but Capcom couldn't get the rights so instead designed an original character, and the same thing with Mario in the first Donkey Kong being made because Nintendo couldn't get (at that time) the Popeye license. I have no idea if this is true but sometimes I wonder what if our favorite franchises were actually made by accident, like what if George Lucas could have gotten the license to Flash Gordon and never made Star Wars at all.
it's more of trying to change mid into astro boy game due to they thought it's hard to sell a new ip but konami released astro boy famicom game so changed back into mega man
I saw a video that Batman, also from Sunsoft, was almost completed before the license was fully secured. Apparently they would jump the gun and make the games before the license was secured, hoping that it would be. This way they could put out a quality game that wasn't rushed. If they weren't able to secure the license, they could reskin it like Journey to Silius. It's smart, though I wonder how close we came to Gothic Man for the NES from Sunsoft.
FUN FACT: Werewolf The Last Warrior actually came with a comic, thus making its origins as a wolverine game even ore apparent I actually own it, along with Journey Silius. My copy of Werewolf: The Last Warrior is actually a complete boxed copy, with said comic. And I use to play the SHIT out of Krion Conquest as a kid. LOVED that game! DAMN GOOD Mega Man clone.
I always felt like Fester's Quest was something else to begin with, with the whole Addams family thing being slapped onto it for whatever reason. Suspiciously, still by Sunsoft. A more obscure game, James Bond Jr, was developed as an independent game with a different title but Eurocom had trouble finding a publisher until THQ showed up with their license for James Bond Jr, so they reskinned some sprites, changed some more stuff and there you go. Something along those lines. This game could actually feature in the games no one played... Thanks for the video!
I can see what you are saying about Fester's Quest but I think it is most likely because it came out before the movies so it doesn't have the obvious references and was just a bit looser with the licence.
@@BigOleWords you're welcome to exploit my untapped reserve of genius! I had a few more games loosely fitting this theme coming to mind, but nothing too big. Mostly reskins for PAL market that made little sense. Til next, take care!
@@goatbone yeah it's more a vague sense of "what's this main character doing here". The other Addams family NES games have a better fitting environment, but they suck gloriously.
So, believe it or not, the history behind Fester's Quest is far more bizarre. It was not an unrelated game reskinned at the eleventh hour, but rather the brainchild of one of the bosses at Sunsoft's US division, RR Robbins, who literally had a dream about a NES game based on the Addams Family and convinced both the rightholders and Sunsoft to produce it. Sunsoft Japan thought it was a strange and poor idea but they did have the code/engine for Blaster Master lying around so they made it. It went on to sell like a million copies. The development history behind JtS is equally fascinating, the initial Terminator game Sunsoft were developing, the one shown off in that one commercial, was a cinematic adventure game along the lines of the arcade Dragon's Lair, but that didn't pan out because recreating the entire movie cutscene by cutscene using NES cartridges obviously turned out not to be a feasible idea, and that's why they reworked it into a run-and-gun action platformer, which the license holders didn't like because their requirements were that Sunsoft strictly follow the movie's storyline and not have any enemy characters aside from the T-800. Neither requirement was really able to be fulfilled and the license was revoked and that's how the game became Journey to Silius. Also the US version is apparently an earlier build judging by Jay's design being different and more detailed in the JP/PAL versions.
0:25 - To be clear. Miyamoto was more involved in Dokey-Dokey Panic than he ever was involved in The Lost Levels. Making Mario 2 USA probably a more authentic sequel
I remember reading somewhere that they thought it was too different from the original and went with lost levels. Then in the us they thought that smb2j was too similar and too hard so they reworked dokidoki
Krion conquest is even more interesting being based off the wizard of oz considering the Japanese version (magical dorope)has full ninja gaiden style cutscenes between levels the us version never got.
Another interesting thing about Journey to Silius is that after the game was designed in Japan as the title rʌf World, the main protagonist sprite was changed from a solider to some kid for the North American version, Journey to Silius. Personally I've always been more fond of the Japanese sprite and the title rʌf World, even though I have absolutely no idea what a rʌf is.
@@BigOleWords Well, the text of the story cutscenes too. The US version of the game has some kid looking to avenge his father or something like that. The Japanese version has you playing as a solider in a future war against machines.
The thing that's weird about Sunman is that Sunsoft did release a Superman game for Genesis that looks incredibly similar in gameplay. So either they didn't like how the Genesis version turned out and pulled the NES license (if the Genesis version came out first) or they somehow changed their minds and granted them the same kind of game for a different system (if the NES one came first). Either way, a very confusing decision.
According to an interview with Kenji Eno, who worked on the Famicom/NES game, on 1up (which I found linked via a website called Retrovolve), DC Comics didn't like that Superman could die or be damaged in the game so they pulled the license. Yes, I don't know why DC didn't approve of Superman being able to be killed in that game when they approved of the Genesis game, where Superman is likewise not invincible, and they approved of the arcade game, where Superman also could die, and there have been many games with Superman as the main or ensemble Justice League character in the three decades since where Superman is far from invincible, so why they didn't approve of that one game is a mystery for the ages.
@@SteveBrandon That's the problem with invincible/invulnerable/nigh-invulnerable characters, isn't it? But it's just a mystery why THAT was the one game they refused to approve. The Genesis game is balls to the wall hard (similar to the Batman games), so you're definitely going to die a LOT before you get the hang of it. The again, years later, DC's the reason why the infamous N64 game is just flying through rings until the time runs out, so what do they know?
Sunsoft shoulda kept Sunman as a mascot. And you know what, I woulda played a game about an invincible hero when I was a kid. We already used game genie to do that regar'less.
@@SwiftJustice It's not so much a character is or isn't invincible/invulnerable, so much is that they have to make a character like Superman vulnerable to attacks to make that sort of gameplay work. Especially since that Warioland game (I forget if it was 2 or 3) didn't come out until after. A game that proved you can have a character that can't die, but still poses enough of a challenge for the game to be engaging.
I heard the issue with Contra Force is that too many items on screen have hit boxes, hence the slow down. If that issue was fixed, I think slapping Contra on the title would be forgiven.
It's sad too, because it wouldn't be a bad game at all if not for the unrelenting performance issues. It's not really "Contra" but it could have been a decent stand-alone title.
I don't know about hit boxes, but one of the killer features of this game is almost complete destructibility (albeit very sketchy). And if it had to be removed (I don’t know how else it could be fixed), then the game would lose some of its charm. Playing it on the original console just hurts. It loads the hardware of the console so much that even when playing on an emulator with the function of emulating the double speed of the NES processor, it periodically slowed down. Only by maximizing the processor speed multiplier to the Maximum (x5? x10?), it can be played comfortably. And it turns into a completely different game. A very good game, I must say!
Regading the Sunsoft games, I remember hearing that they made their licensed games with that intention before actually securing the licenses. As in, Batman (NES) was being developed as a Batman game before they got the OK from DC to make a Batman game. Don't think it counts as "losing" their licenses, but certainly fits the spirit of this list I think.
Not an NES game but I am reminded of RARE's reskin of "Dinosaur Planet" that turned into Star Fox Adventures. I like the gameplay and story but what is kind of disappointing is that in most RARE games there are all sorts of secrets and collectible goodies. There are collectibles in the game but everything "secret" winds up being a placeholder for some main quest event, and the mystery is taken away.
To anyone who is interested in Krion Conquest, the NTSC US version is the worst version of the game. The Japanese version, Magical Doropie, actually does have continues AND cutscenes. Best bet is to find a translated rom hack of that version of the game.
I had Werewolf: The Last Warrior. There was something off about the game, they featured the Werewolf so strongly, as though it was a marketable brand, so it makes sense that it was originally Wolverine.
I had heard about the Terminator thing regarding Journey to Silius. man Sunsoft could've been up there with Capcom and Konami doing excellent licensed tie-ins! also Krion Conquest's Japanese name was i believe 'Magical Dorothy'? So the Wizard of Oz stuff makes a lot of sense.
1:05 forgot to mention the "link" between the story of Zelda and the film Legend... Which funny enough was named Legend of Zelda... Hmmm coincidence? I think not... 😅
Konami made this arcade game called "MX5000", which is also known as "Flak Attack". The font in the game looks similar to the one they used in Top Gun for the NES, since you play as a fighter jet in MX5000/Flak Attack, it makes me wonder if that game was originally going to use the Top Gun license as well before they changed their minds and decided to make it an original production of theirs.
Journey to Silius in it's Terminator phase was also a completely different game, I'm not really sure about when it became a run n gun in relation to the loss of the licence.
Hmmm, nothing else really comes to mind, but I'm sure there's a few. You always have interesting takes on the Ol' NES. I wonder if the muppets was something else snd they just branded it chaos.... can't wait for Thursday
I'm glad Kenji Eno eventually got to make the original games he always wanted to make, even if his early years were pretty rough. Real industry icon right there
This channel actually made me want to try The Krion Conquest 🤣 It's kinda interesting to see how either Konami or Sunsoft consistently appear on such different lists, good, bad and licensed games. I wonder if Sunman would be better tailored for the American audiences, considering there was already a (very weird) Superman game by Kemco.
Probably someone else already said it but not only Sunman is actually Superman but you can see how the Genesis and Master System games look like sequels to this.
@@BigOleWords i wrote this before seeing the part where he spins to dig the ground. We can do the same thing on the genesis and sms games down to the last pixel.
I guess technically not an NES game, wasn't donkey Kong originally meant to be a Popeye game? Mario was created because they couldn't get the rights to Popeye.
Donkey Kong was originally suppose to be a Popeye game but they couldn't get the license. Obviously, this worked out for the best because as they say "Necessity is the mother of invention", and we got the birth of Mario and Donkey Kong (even though Mario was called Jump Man at that point). They later bought the rights to Popeye due to DK's success and made another classic Nintendo game.
I can only think of Track & Field which was originally a licensed Olympics game but by the time of the NES port it went by that title, but that probably doesn't qualify for this list.
Contra Force just came out at a bad time, people were moving on to new systems. It would've been remembered as a great game if it had come out a little bit earlier. It's a great game.
First of all, I know why this video popped up on my algorithm and I’m glad it did. My comment is on Werewolf, which for whatever reason was known as Warwolf as I was growing up. Just last night, I found it after not seeing it for 30 years or so. I didn’t quite remember the bad guys. But as I was watching it, I thought to myself, “that guy looks like Juggernaut, and that one looks like Spider-Man/magneto” etc. I was thinking that it was heavily inspired by comics. But wow- my mind is blown to find out it was supposed to be a Wolverine game. I never made the connection in 30 years. I remember watching the Fire boss that runs real fast. I was thinking that he was supposed to be Renegade. Or Pyro.
It kinda looks like NES Batman might have originally been intended for something else. I mean it has Bats fighting, mechanical monsters, thugs who look more like army commandos, and mutants. It's either that or it was all based on super secret deleted scenes from the Tim Burton blockbuster.
I am completely drawing a blank, but I remember reading that Batman was developed as a different game, but Sunsoft got the Batman license and quickly reskinned the game.
It may also be true for the second Batman game on NES - Return of the Joker - I mean... Not only do we have some not exactly fitting locations, but also the fact that Batman exclusively uses ranged attacks.
2:15, I feel the 3D sections in the prototype were then used for Fester's Quest. 0_- 2:30, part of me feels had they lost the Terminator license, they coulda just gone over to Gary Goddard and make a Captain Power video game to even the odds. 3:04, wait..Wolverine? 4:34, even till now DC still doesn't even KNOW who their characters are! 8:34, looks like a geisha to me. 9:07, babeh~
Contra force was my 3rd game for the NES and its one of the best games ive ever played. The multiplayer is amazing and i genuinely have had nothing but fun times with it. While i understand its not a contra stylized game the overall story and gameplay is some of the best i've ever seen. Its one of my prized NES games and when youre playing with someone who cares enough to learn the enemy patterns and locations its a breeze to run through. I truly think the biggest flaw of this game are the people who refuse to give it the time of day out of anger for it "nOt BeiNg a reAl CoNtrA GamE"
@@BigOleWords I was shocked to see it wasn't included in the contra anniversary collection but not too surprising given it's behind the scenes history, makes me even happier to still have it. I can totally see why it's the black sheep it is today. Also I love the work you do here on the channel I tell everyone you're The NES Guy😊
I remember getting that werewolf game after seeing JD Roth discuss it on Gamepro TV. It was so hard I don’t think I ever played it more that 3 or 4 times. Probably $60 spent in what should’ve been a rental
My family got Werewolf when i was a kid.. I'm guessing it ended up in the "$19.99 club" at TRU.. There was always that one block of games that'd get marked down to $19.99 and those were predominantly the games my dad would buy for us... Anyway, Werewolf was soo difficult.. i think there was a level with lightning bolts you had to dodge, or something that constantly needed to be dodged?? My dad even bought us a 3rd party controller that would make games play in 'slow motion' by continuously pausing and unpausing the games, hoping it'd help me progress further in the game... i don't think it helped though.. I was never able to make it to the end of the game. :(
Honorable mention should go to Monster Party. It never had official licenses, but the original plan was for each boss to be a parody of classic horror movie monsters.
@@BigOleWords not THAT far back classic. They had lots of 70s/80s references. Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, a Xenomorph from Aliens, Gremlins, Planet of the Apes, etc. Modern classics, lol.
I actually owned Werewolf the Last Warrior as a kid, always been a fan of werewolf monsters so it caught my attention. The comic that was included in the box was pretty neat and you could tell it was meant for a slightly older audience than my little 6 year old self..saw cool wolfman monster on cover, instant attention grabber lol. I do wish it got a modern redo like some older games get...it'd be cool to see what they could do with it. Not a 3D remake though...something like River City Girls or Blaster Master Zero..ya know something retro inspired but with modern controls so it's not so rage inducing. Data East certainly had an...type when it came to game characters when you look back on it...lot of caveman or buff warrior characters...then again that archtype WAS the trend of the late 80's and into the 90's still.
@@BigOleWords I wonder who would be up for it though and how to bring it to their attention? I'd love to see something done with it...might even start a new niche franchise, it'd be cool if one of the things you could unlock is a gallery with the old comic in it.
The Krion Conquest was known as Magical Kids Doropie in Japan, and while it didn't retain the Wizard of Oz license, "Doropie" is basically the Japanese transliteration for Dorothy, which makes it less distanced from Wizard of Oz than the western version, which called the protagonist Francesca instead. There were also cutscenes and level intros they cut from the western release, and more importantly, THE JAPANESE VERSION HAD UNLIMITED CONTINUES! It also would respawn you in the boss room if you died there, rather than forcing you back to a checkpoint further back. Werewolf: The Last Warrior was also made easier in the Japanese version, known as Chō Jinrō Senki: Warwolf, though not by much. But unlike Krion Conquest, the Japanese version actually came later. The cutscenes and other graphical assets got changed as well, including the ending screen, which had War Wolf glaring at the moon rather than holding an American flag.
Didn't Monster Party for the NES have a bunch of boss sprites that needed to be altered because they were originally copyrighted characters? Not so much a case of losing the license, but of the creators not having permission to begin with.
Yeah that game did have some censorship for sure as did some other titles. I still haven’t found much rhyme or reason to why certain games were censored and others weren’t.
I had Journey to Silius and Werewolf. Two of my favorite Nintendo games. Bonus points for mentioning The Guardian Legend too! I played that game to death. Memories….now just say Metal Storm and we are in nostalgia nirvana!
I had a sneaking suspicion Werewolf was gonna be a Wolverine game when I started this video. The blade arms and mutant enemies were a decent giveaway, another was that this werewolf for some reason couldn't swim and the game even warns the player of that fact.
"Wizard of Oz meets Star Wars." The madmen at Yu-Gi-Oh actually did this. Dorothy is Luke, the scarecrow is C-3P0, the tinman is R2 D2, the lion is Chewbacca, the witch Dorothy lands on is Darth Maul, the good witch is Obi-Wan, the evil witch is Vader, flying monkeys are stormtroopers. There's a lightsaber card and spaceships too but I don't think they equate except for the Death Star being the Emerald City.
I'm almost positive some reproduction people had "finished" Sunman and sold a reproduction of this at some point. I was really into creating reproductions myself and had been making my own for private use. I remember there being a discussion about this somewhere.
Honestly what Sunsoft was doing was brilliant. It's not hard to perceive from many of their other licensed titles that they always kept things as something they could turn into an original IP. Fester's Quest comes to mind. With barely any altered content, you'd never even guess that it was an Adam's Family tie-in.
Yeah it’s not a bad formula, make a rad game based on something and if you can’t get the license it can still stand on its own or be altered for another license.
It was developed as a Ninja Turtles game but the developers had very little to go by. So they had to make stuff up and used Getsu Fuma Den as a reference. That's why it feels "off"
The only one I can think of that’s a sort of similar thing is Dragon power which lost its dragon ball license but Im not sure if that was because of an actual license issue or just because Dragon Ball wasn’t really a thing in the USA
You can't convince me that Fester's Quest didn't start development as something original and then Sunsoft slapped the Addams Family license over the top of it.
U Can Beat Video Games goes into a bit about, "what's the deal with SunSoft?" question. SunSoft wanted to make a good product and game development took a lot of time SunSoft would simply start making a licensed game _then_ go after the license after the fact. Sometimes it worked (Batman) other times it didn't (Silius).
03:13 my boy wolverine scaling that building looking for Megaman
Hahahaha
There's also the big one.... Dragon Power was Dragon Ball in Japan!!! And Yo Noid! was a completely different ninja game in Japan.
I'm fairly certain that Dr. Chaos started as a tie-in for the campy 1986 comedy-horror House (not to be confused with the bizarre 1977 Japanese film Hausu which now has a big cult following). In the movie a man inherits a weird and creepy large house that seems to have portals letting in monsters, while he simultaneously deals with his ptsd from fighting in vietnam, and his missing presumed dead son, both of which have connections to the house, where he has to fight a zombie version of a former fellow soldier and rescue his young son from a jungle world akin to his war past. The game has you exploring a mansion filled with strange rooms and seemingly random portals to a jungle world in an effort to rescue your inventor brother, all while fighting monsters, and the monsters that appear inside the house look strikingly similar to monsters that appear in the movie.
Loved House. Watched that movie 3 or 4 times growing up.
4:41 They even used the Superman font for the pause screen!
Yeah they did!
Actually, slight misconception about Doki Doki Panic: it was actually originally envisioned as a Mario title with more vertical than horizontal exploration. So they didn't "just" reskin a completely different game, they more so brought it back to its roots.
Also, something I noticed about your video: the live action segments have a really weirdly squished aspect ratio. Just looks a bit off to me.
Yeah I realized too late that I could’ve edited that differently. Still working out some stuff with the 4:3 conversion.
Exactly
Kinda, it was a prototype made by Tezuka but Miyamoto shot it down because they had other stuff to make, they then revived the prototype to be used as basis for their Yume Kojo collab game, which then became SMB2 (USA).
And even then, SMB2 is way more than a simple resking, they changed a lot of things on the gameplay side.
The weird aspect ratio and squished effect is probably a nod to the original aspect ratio of the NES/SNES which wasn't 4:3 but 8:7 actually, playing some games on an emulator at the original aspect ratio might make them look a little weird.
The US version of Silius changed Jay's sprite drastically. He appears to wear a helmet in the Japanese and EU versions, and his proportions seem more realistic. The American Jay looks like some rockabilly pompadour guy, and he's short like Megaman. I feel like this alteration tones down the game's dark atmosphere,, which was unusually heavy by NES standards. I have to credit Sunsoft for the harrowing intro, and the most intense boss music on the system.
Hmmm interesting! Yeah I agree his appearance makes the game seem less apocalyptic.
a teen vs the robotic apocalypse is still kinda unrealisitic to me😂 at least make it more mature like Kyle
Little known fact. Uncanny Xmen was meant to be a game at one point. But they lost their minds.
Oh yeah? Any idea what?
@@BigOleWords Sorry, I think my crap joke bombed. There is an NES game called Uncanny Xmen and it's atrocious.
@@novelezra Hahaha ok sorry i see i see. I honestly was thinking it could've been another game!
I got the joke (hilarious), as I have played that awful game.
See AVGN. it's a well known case of LJN-itis.
The Crazy Castle series is by far the craziest scenario of this in the gaming world. Accounting for Europe, Japan and the U.S regions they alternated between 7-8 IPs. They went from Roger Rabbit to Bugs Bunny to Mickey to Hugo to Ghostbusters and Garfield and even spawned its own unique IPs “Kid Klown” and later “Charlie Blast’s Territory” all because of licensing issues. It’s insane.
It really is wild stuff
Ah yes, I remember the time Mark Tyler bit off Evan Hollywood's nose.
Hahahaha
I read once that Mega Man 1 was intended to be an Astro Boy game but Capcom couldn't get the rights so instead designed an original character, and the same thing with Mario in the first Donkey Kong being made because Nintendo couldn't get (at that time) the Popeye license. I have no idea if this is true but sometimes I wonder what if our favorite franchises were actually made by accident, like what if George Lucas could have gotten the license to Flash Gordon and never made Star Wars at all.
I had heard that about DK/Popeye, that probably fits the bill. If the Mega Man/Astro Boy connection is true, that’s wild!
I always thought Mega Man looks like Astro Boy. They're both robot kids with cannons for hands.
it's more of trying to change mid into astro boy game due to they thought it's hard to sell a new ip but konami released astro boy famicom game so changed back into mega man
@@BigOleWords Yeah looking back, i could totally see DK with Bluto as DK and popeye as mario
I saw a video that Batman, also from Sunsoft, was almost completed before the license was fully secured.
Apparently they would jump the gun and make the games before the license was secured, hoping that it would be.
This way they could put out a quality game that wasn't rushed. If they weren't able to secure the license, they could reskin it like Journey to Silius.
It's smart, though I wonder how close we came to Gothic Man for the NES from Sunsoft.
Gothic Man would've been just as dope!
FUN FACT: Werewolf The Last Warrior actually came with a comic, thus making its origins as a wolverine game even ore apparent
I actually own it, along with Journey Silius. My copy of Werewolf: The Last Warrior is actually a complete boxed copy, with said comic. And I use to play the SHIT out of Krion Conquest as a kid. LOVED that game! DAMN GOOD Mega Man clone.
I always felt like Fester's Quest was something else to begin with, with the whole Addams family thing being slapped onto it for whatever reason. Suspiciously, still by Sunsoft.
A more obscure game, James Bond Jr, was developed as an independent game with a different title but Eurocom had trouble finding a publisher until THQ showed up with their license for James Bond Jr, so they reskinned some sprites, changed some more stuff and there you go. Something along those lines. This game could actually feature in the games no one played...
Thanks for the video!
I think you’re the first one to bring me a game that fits this mold! I will definitely cover JBJ at some point so I’ll look into it. Thanks!
I can see what you are saying about Fester's Quest but I think it is most likely because it came out before the movies so it doesn't have the obvious references and was just a bit looser with the licence.
@@BigOleWords you're welcome to exploit my untapped reserve of genius! I had a few more games loosely fitting this theme coming to mind, but nothing too big. Mostly reskins for PAL market that made little sense. Til next, take care!
@@goatbone yeah it's more a vague sense of "what's this main character doing here". The other Addams family NES games have a better fitting environment, but they suck gloriously.
So, believe it or not, the history behind Fester's Quest is far more bizarre. It was not an unrelated game reskinned at the eleventh hour, but rather the brainchild of one of the bosses at Sunsoft's US division, RR Robbins, who literally had a dream about a NES game based on the Addams Family and convinced both the rightholders and Sunsoft to produce it. Sunsoft Japan thought it was a strange and poor idea but they did have the code/engine for Blaster Master lying around so they made it. It went on to sell like a million copies.
The development history behind JtS is equally fascinating, the initial Terminator game Sunsoft were developing, the one shown off in that one commercial, was a cinematic adventure game along the lines of the arcade Dragon's Lair, but that didn't pan out because recreating the entire movie cutscene by cutscene using NES cartridges obviously turned out not to be a feasible idea, and that's why they reworked it into a run-and-gun action platformer, which the license holders didn't like because their requirements were that Sunsoft strictly follow the movie's storyline and not have any enemy characters aside from the T-800. Neither requirement was really able to be fulfilled and the license was revoked and that's how the game became Journey to Silius. Also the US version is apparently an earlier build judging by Jay's design being different and more detailed in the JP/PAL versions.
0:25 - To be clear. Miyamoto was more involved in Dokey-Dokey Panic than he ever was involved in The Lost Levels. Making Mario 2 USA probably a more authentic sequel
Interesting…
The whole engine was created as a 2 player vertical scrolling mario game that was scrapped.
I remember reading somewhere that they thought it was too different from the original and went with lost levels.
Then in the us they thought that smb2j was too similar and too hard so they reworked dokidoki
Krion conquest is even more interesting being based off the wizard of oz considering the Japanese version (magical dorope)has full ninja gaiden style cutscenes between levels the us version never got.
Those cut-scenes are super rad.
Plus, the Japanese name "Doropie" is an obvious play on "Dorothy".
Another interesting thing about Journey to Silius is that after the game was designed in Japan as the title rʌf World, the main protagonist sprite was changed from a solider to some kid for the North American version, Journey to Silius. Personally I've always been more fond of the Japanese sprite and the title rʌf World, even though I have absolutely no idea what a rʌf is.
"rʌf" is the stylized phonetic spelling of the english word "rough", thus rʌf World is supposed to be pronounced as "Rough World".
Is that the only real difference? The main character sprite?
@@BigOleWords Well, the text of the story cutscenes too. The US version of the game has some kid looking to avenge his father or something like that. The Japanese version has you playing as a solider in a future war against machines.
The thing that's weird about Sunman is that Sunsoft did release a Superman game for Genesis that looks incredibly similar in gameplay. So either they didn't like how the Genesis version turned out and pulled the NES license (if the Genesis version came out first) or they somehow changed their minds and granted them the same kind of game for a different system (if the NES one came first). Either way, a very confusing decision.
Yeah you’re right, and I have no idea what made the difference there.
According to an interview with Kenji Eno, who worked on the Famicom/NES game, on 1up (which I found linked via a website called Retrovolve), DC Comics didn't like that Superman could die or be damaged in the game so they pulled the license.
Yes, I don't know why DC didn't approve of Superman being able to be killed in that game when they approved of the Genesis game, where Superman is likewise not invincible, and they approved of the arcade game, where Superman also could die, and there have been many games with Superman as the main or ensemble Justice League character in the three decades since where Superman is far from invincible, so why they didn't approve of that one game is a mystery for the ages.
@@SteveBrandon That's the problem with invincible/invulnerable/nigh-invulnerable characters, isn't it? But it's just a mystery why THAT was the one game they refused to approve. The Genesis game is balls to the wall hard (similar to the Batman games), so you're definitely going to die a LOT before you get the hang of it. The again, years later, DC's the reason why the infamous N64 game is just flying through rings until the time runs out, so what do they know?
Sunsoft shoulda kept Sunman as a mascot. And you know what, I woulda played a game about an invincible hero when I was a kid. We already used game genie to do that regar'less.
@@SwiftJustice It's not so much a character is or isn't invincible/invulnerable, so much is that they have to make a character like Superman vulnerable to attacks to make that sort of gameplay work. Especially since that Warioland game (I forget if it was 2 or 3) didn't come out until after. A game that proved you can have a character that can't die, but still poses enough of a challenge for the game to be engaging.
7:40 Thats the tarot card from the Popess (high priestess) from Rider Waite's deck.
It does have a certain tarot quality to it for sure.
Did you also know
Bugs bunny's crazy castle 1 was a reskin of
Who framed Roger rabbit on the Famicom disk system.
I heard the issue with Contra Force is that too many items on screen have hit boxes, hence the slow down. If that issue was fixed, I think slapping Contra on the title would be forgiven.
That would make sense!
It's sad too, because it wouldn't be a bad game at all if not for the unrelenting performance issues. It's not really "Contra" but it could have been a decent stand-alone title.
I don't know about hit boxes, but one of the killer features of this game is almost complete destructibility (albeit very sketchy). And if it had to be removed (I don’t know how else it could be fixed), then the game would lose some of its charm.
Playing it on the original console just hurts. It loads the hardware of the console so much that even when playing on an emulator with the function of emulating the double speed of the NES processor, it periodically slowed down. Only by maximizing the processor speed multiplier to the Maximum (x5? x10?), it can be played comfortably. And it turns into a completely different game. A very good game, I must say!
I'm glad to see someone shine a light on Werewolf: The Last Warrior. It's an often overlooked game in the NES library that has a banging soundtrack.
It’s got a lot of positive things going for it!
Man, I can't get over how happy I am to see you grow. Great content, great production. Not to mention informative. Never stop.
Very kind of you to say, thanks bud :)
I often wonder if Astyanax on NES was intended to be a He-Man game. The character looks like Ram man, and even a Skelator looking character appears.
Haha this is my new favorite fan theory. I hope it’s true!
4:41 Love that the pause is styled like the Superman logo.
@5:33 "They tried to kill him with a forklift"🎶🎶
Hahaha
What's your source on the Wizard of Oz Krion Conquest connection? I've heard that mentioned but nobody ever gives a source.
Whats funny about the Oz and Star Wars is that Yugioh has a series of cards called Kozmo that mixes these two ideas
That sounds pretty dope honestly!
You drew that?? Bro you are an awesome artist. I watch your videos all the time and love your stuff, but now I love em just that little bit more....👍
“Drew” is a loose term I’d use for that one but I did design and marker it up ;). Way to hard for me to freehand pixel stuff
Regading the Sunsoft games, I remember hearing that they made their licensed games with that intention before actually securing the licenses. As in, Batman (NES) was being developed as a Batman game before they got the OK from DC to make a Batman game. Don't think it counts as "losing" their licenses, but certainly fits the spirit of this list I think.
More like losing or gaining licenses before they ever had them.
Not an NES game but I am reminded of RARE's reskin of "Dinosaur Planet" that turned into Star Fox Adventures. I like the gameplay and story but what is kind of disappointing is that in most RARE games there are all sorts of secrets and collectible goodies. There are collectibles in the game but everything "secret" winds up being a placeholder for some main quest event, and the mystery is taken away.
To anyone who is interested in Krion Conquest, the NTSC US version is the worst version of the game. The Japanese version, Magical Doropie, actually does have continues AND cutscenes. Best bet is to find a translated rom hack of that version of the game.
Agreed. I still hate it, but it is way better.
I remember beating Krion Conquest and Being confused that they had No explanation for anything I just did
I had Werewolf: The Last Warrior. There was something off about the game, they featured the Werewolf so strongly, as though it was a marketable brand, so it makes sense that it was originally Wolverine.
I had heard about the Terminator thing regarding Journey to Silius. man Sunsoft could've been up there with Capcom and Konami doing excellent licensed tie-ins! also Krion Conquest's Japanese name was i believe 'Magical Dorothy'? So the Wizard of Oz stuff makes a lot of sense.
“Doropie”, I assume so they wouldn’t get sued ;)
@@BigOleWords great point! you're probably right.
1:05 forgot to mention the "link" between the story of Zelda and the film Legend... Which funny enough was named Legend of Zelda... Hmmm coincidence? I think not... 😅
Werewolf was fucking awesome, I remember getting it for $20 at a store and being surprised at how good it was
Nice!
Man, some of the assets from Warewolf look like they are ripped from Wrath of the Black Manta
Now that you mention it…
Konami made this arcade game called "MX5000", which is also known as "Flak Attack". The font in the game looks similar to the one they used in Top Gun for the NES, since you play as a fighter jet in MX5000/Flak Attack, it makes me wonder if that game was originally going to use the Top Gun license as well before they changed their minds and decided to make it an original production of theirs.
The design of the Wicked Witch is actually pretty rad. Is a mix of a Geisha with Alita 1 from transformers.
Yeah it is!
Journey to Silius in it's Terminator phase was also a completely different game, I'm not really sure about when it became a run n gun in relation to the loss of the licence.
It looks more like an adventure game
I didn't know Werewolf The Last Warrior was supposed to be a Wolverine game. It was one of my favorite games in the NES era.
I know right?! I had no idea
Hmmm, nothing else really comes to mind, but I'm sure there's a few. You always have interesting takes on the Ol' NES. I wonder if the muppets was something else snd they just branded it chaos.... can't wait for Thursday
Haha you wish Muppets had that excuse!
Kermit deserves better
I had never realized that Contra Force is for one has little to do with Contra series and that it is a bootleggiest bootleg possible
It’s a shame as it’s really cool on the surface but completely broken beyond any other NES game.
I'm glad Kenji Eno eventually got to make the original games he always wanted to make, even if his early years were pretty rough. Real industry icon right there
Definitely remembered his Sunman issues from your video :)
This channel actually made me want to try The Krion Conquest 🤣
It's kinda interesting to see how either Konami or Sunsoft consistently appear on such different lists, good, bad and licensed games. I wonder if Sunman would be better tailored for the American audiences, considering there was already a (very weird) Superman game by Kemco.
They really do cover all the bases and their games are always really interesting if nothing else!
The chick on the Krion cart should of been holding a cigarette
That would’ve taken that cover over the edge!
Probably someone else already said it but not only Sunman is actually Superman but you can see how the Genesis and Master System games look like sequels to this.
They do look awfully similar
@@BigOleWords i wrote this before seeing the part where he spins to dig the ground. We can do the same thing on the genesis and sms games down to the last pixel.
This is fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Dang, we almost had a decent Superman game.
So close!
I guess technically not an NES game, wasn't donkey Kong originally meant to be a Popeye game? Mario was created because they couldn't get the rights to Popeye.
Yep that’s a big one I missed!
Donkey Kong was originally suppose to be a Popeye game but they couldn't get the license. Obviously, this worked out for the best because as they say "Necessity is the mother of invention", and we got the birth of Mario and Donkey Kong (even though Mario was called Jump Man at that point). They later bought the rights to Popeye due to DK's success and made another classic Nintendo game.
Ooohh that's a good call!
Cool and entertaining. Thanks!
"Happy elf boy"? ... it isn't mentioned anywhere. Not even on Wikipedia. Where can you find clips from that series?
It’s only on the dark web Wikipedia ;)
I can only think of Track & Field which was originally a licensed Olympics game but by the time of the NES port it went by that title, but that probably doesn't qualify for this list.
Now that’s interesting, I did not know that! Awesome
great stuff as always. The only two that I knew were Journey to Silius and Contra Force....which by the way...isn't a real Contra game lol.
You just had to say it! I cast thee out!!
Contra Force just came out at a bad time, people were moving on to new systems. It would've been remembered as a great game if it had come out a little bit earlier. It's a great game.
Compared to earlier titles yeah it was pretty neat, but that slowdown is soooo rough.
First of all, I know why this video popped up on my algorithm and I’m glad it did.
My comment is on Werewolf, which for whatever reason was known as Warwolf as I was growing up. Just last night, I found it after not seeing it for 30 years or so. I didn’t quite remember the bad guys. But as I was watching it, I thought to myself, “that guy looks like Juggernaut, and that one looks like Spider-Man/magneto” etc. I was thinking that it was heavily inspired by comics. But wow- my mind is blown to find out it was supposed to be a Wolverine game. I never made the connection in 30 years.
I remember watching the Fire boss that runs real fast. I was thinking that he was supposed to be Renegade. Or Pyro.
I was thinking the fire guy was Quicksilver because of the speed, but he looks more like Pyro for sure.
Arc Hound. Sounds like a Metal Gear spinoff.
Haha yes it does!
very cool video, something completely fresh!!
Haha I try my best!
Contra Force was the very last NES game I ever rented from Blockbuster back in late 1992 as I'd gotten an SNES for Christmas that year.
It kinda looks like NES Batman might have originally been intended for something else. I mean it has Bats fighting, mechanical monsters, thugs who look more like army commandos, and mutants. It's either that or it was all based on super secret deleted scenes from the Tim Burton blockbuster.
I am completely drawing a blank, but I remember reading that Batman was developed as a different game, but Sunsoft got the Batman license and quickly reskinned the game.
It may also be true for the second Batman game on NES - Return of the Joker - I mean... Not only do we have some not exactly fitting locations, but also the fact that Batman exclusively uses ranged attacks.
Interesting! You may be right but I had not heard that about Batman.
0:34 what's that game
Trolls in Crazyland
1999 is the second most futuristic year imaginable. Trailing only 199X. Obviously!
199x is the best!
Weird they thought they couldn't have used Wizard of Oz characters, it's been in the public domain since the 50s.
Hmmm good point I have no idea!
Heh heh, I wonder if Bayou Billy was suppose to be a Crocodile Dundae game as well?
That would make a lot of sense!
😂
Werewolf the last warrior claimed two controllers is fits of rage and retired my Nintendo to the closest until my college years.
It's got a gift!
This was pretty good, subscribed
Hooray!
2:15, I feel the 3D sections in the prototype were then used for Fester's Quest. 0_-
2:30, part of me feels had they lost the Terminator license, they coulda just gone over to Gary Goddard and make a Captain Power video game to even the odds.
3:04, wait..Wolverine?
4:34, even till now DC still doesn't even KNOW who their characters are!
8:34, looks like a geisha to me.
9:07, babeh~
I could definitely see those in Fester
7:05 Hitler is in the crowd. 😱
Leave some content for the rest of us 😂 seriously good job Man U unrcover recover things in awesome way
Hey thanks so much!
Contra force was my 3rd game for the NES and its one of the best games ive ever played. The multiplayer is amazing and i genuinely have had nothing but fun times with it. While i understand its not a contra stylized game the overall story and gameplay is some of the best i've ever seen. Its one of my prized NES games and when youre playing with someone who cares enough to learn the enemy patterns and locations its a breeze to run through. I truly think the biggest flaw of this game are the people who refuse to give it the time of day out of anger for it "nOt BeiNg a reAl CoNtrA GamE"
Nice. I think if I’d grown up with it I could see how it’d be really fun, but playing it now it tough.
@@BigOleWords I was shocked to see it wasn't included in the contra anniversary collection but not too surprising given it's behind the scenes history, makes me even happier to still have it. I can totally see why it's the black sheep it is today. Also I love the work you do here on the channel I tell everyone you're The NES Guy😊
If you licked this video, what flavor would it be?
You are officially the best NES games review person on UA-cam my friend.
Haha I don't know about that, but I certainly appreciate the compliment my friend!
Great spin on this topic!
Thanks bud!
I knew about some of these but had no idea about games like Werewolf.
Yeah I had no clue at first
I remember getting that werewolf game after seeing JD Roth discuss it on Gamepro TV. It was so hard I don’t think I ever played it more that 3 or 4 times. Probably $60 spent in what should’ve been a rental
Ooof yeah that’s a rental for sure
My family got Werewolf when i was a kid.. I'm guessing it ended up in the "$19.99 club" at TRU.. There was always that one block of games that'd get marked down to $19.99 and those were predominantly the games my dad would buy for us... Anyway, Werewolf was soo difficult.. i think there was a level with lightning bolts you had to dodge, or something that constantly needed to be dodged?? My dad even bought us a 3rd party controller that would make games play in 'slow motion' by continuously pausing and unpausing the games, hoping it'd help me progress further in the game... i don't think it helped though.. I was never able to make it to the end of the game. :(
Don't Knock...
Honorable mention should go to Monster Party. It never had official licenses, but the original plan was for each boss to be a parody of classic horror movie monsters.
Hmmm that’s interesting! Aren’t most of those characters public domain?
@@BigOleWords not THAT far back classic. They had lots of 70s/80s references. Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, a Xenomorph from Aliens, Gremlins, Planet of the Apes, etc. Modern classics, lol.
Some of these I knew about. The Power Punch II is super obvious what it was intended to be
I actually owned Werewolf the Last Warrior as a kid, always been a fan of werewolf monsters so it caught my attention. The comic that was included in the box was pretty neat and you could tell it was meant for a slightly older audience than my little 6 year old self..saw cool wolfman monster on cover, instant attention grabber lol. I do wish it got a modern redo like some older games get...it'd be cool to see what they could do with it. Not a 3D remake though...something like River City Girls or Blaster Master Zero..ya know something retro inspired but with modern controls so it's not so rage inducing. Data East certainly had an...type when it came to game characters when you look back on it...lot of caveman or buff warrior characters...then again that archtype WAS the trend of the late 80's and into the 90's still.
I feel like it's got enough juice for one of those modern retro sequels.
@@BigOleWords I wonder who would be up for it though and how to bring it to their attention? I'd love to see something done with it...might even start a new niche franchise, it'd be cool if one of the things you could unlock is a gallery with the old comic in it.
I feel like I simply knew Werewolf was a Wolverine game. I played the hell out of it, and knew it was Juggernaut I was battling.
It definitely seems pretty obvious but I didn’t notice the first few times I played!
Should have gone with "Tyke Myson."
Or M. Bison!
The Krion Conquest was known as Magical Kids Doropie in Japan, and while it didn't retain the Wizard of Oz license, "Doropie" is basically the Japanese transliteration for Dorothy, which makes it less distanced from Wizard of Oz than the western version, which called the protagonist Francesca instead. There were also cutscenes and level intros they cut from the western release, and more importantly, THE JAPANESE VERSION HAD UNLIMITED CONTINUES! It also would respawn you in the boss room if you died there, rather than forcing you back to a checkpoint further back. Werewolf: The Last Warrior was also made easier in the Japanese version, known as Chō Jinrō Senki: Warwolf, though not by much. But unlike Krion Conquest, the Japanese version actually came later. The cutscenes and other graphical assets got changed as well, including the ending screen, which had War Wolf glaring at the moon rather than holding an American flag.
A werewolf glaring at the moon makes for sense but is way less awesome!
@@BigOleWords Yeah but I can understand why they'd give it a less G.I. Joe vibe if it's for a Japanese localization
The deputy in the picture with Mike Tyson was Robert Johnson. My ninja teacher
Didn't Monster Party for the NES have a bunch of boss sprites that needed to be altered because they were originally copyrighted characters? Not so much a case of losing the license, but of the creators not having permission to begin with.
Yeah that game did have some censorship for sure as did some other titles. I still haven’t found much rhyme or reason to why certain games were censored and others weren’t.
it's one of those tone down the parody elements for foreign release. except japanese version was canceled
Wow, it looks like Krion Conquest inspired an indie game named Cat Maze based on that main character's design.
Cool!
I had Journey to Silius and Werewolf. Two of my favorite Nintendo games. Bonus points for mentioning The Guardian Legend too! I played that game to death. Memories….now just say Metal Storm and we are in nostalgia nirvana!
Metal Storm rules!
@Big Ole Words Nostalgia Nirvana has been achieved. All is temporarily right with the world. Thank you, good sir.
I had a sneaking suspicion Werewolf was gonna be a Wolverine game when I started this video. The blade arms and mutant enemies were a decent giveaway, another was that this werewolf for some reason couldn't swim and the game even warns the player of that fact.
Can Wolverine not swim?!
@@BigOleWords Adamantium bones, remember?
"Wizard of Oz meets Star Wars."
The madmen at Yu-Gi-Oh actually did this. Dorothy is Luke, the scarecrow is C-3P0, the tinman is R2 D2, the lion is Chewbacca, the witch Dorothy lands on is Darth Maul, the good witch is Obi-Wan, the evil witch is Vader, flying monkeys are stormtroopers. There's a lightsaber card and spaceships too but I don't think they equate except for the Death Star being the Emerald City.
Haha was this in the show or just in the cards?
@@BigOleWords Just the cards afaik
Werewolf was so crazy! Love that game.
I know one title. Yo! Noid and its Japanese original game: Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru
I think that’s be more of a reskin like Mario 2?
I'm almost positive some reproduction people had "finished" Sunman and sold a reproduction of this at some point. I was really into creating reproductions myself and had been making my own for private use. I remember there being a discussion about this somewhere.
Honestly what Sunsoft was doing was brilliant.
It's not hard to perceive from many of their other licensed titles that they always kept things as something they could turn into an original IP. Fester's Quest comes to mind. With barely any altered content, you'd never even guess that it was an Adam's Family tie-in.
Yeah it’s not a bad formula, make a rad game based on something and if you can’t get the license it can still stand on its own or be altered for another license.
Great vid! Thanks!
Don't know if there's any proof, but I have my suspicions about the first TMNT game on the NES.
I can see it
It was developed as a Ninja Turtles game but the developers had very little to go by. So they had to make stuff up and used Getsu Fuma Den as a reference. That's why it feels "off"
The only one I can think of that’s a sort of similar thing is Dragon power which lost its dragon ball license but Im not sure if that was because of an actual license issue or just because Dragon Ball wasn’t really a thing in the USA
Yeah I’m not sure why they made that call, I just assumed it was because Dragonball wasn’t yet known here.
@@BigOleWords that has always been my assumption as well
You can't convince me that Fester's Quest didn't start development as something original and then Sunsoft slapped the Addams Family license over the top of it.
Need evidence...
@Iohannis42 Turns out that it really was one guy's idea to make a game about uncle fester. Check out Jeremy Parish's Nes Works video about it.
There was also a donald duck game in japan wich changed into something else for the west.
Snoopy’s Silly Sports Spectacular!
I may have know that Mario 2 is a reskined of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic for years
Doki doki panic😱
Never knew it was a SMB2 copy!
Thanks guys👍🏾
U Can Beat Video Games goes into a bit about, "what's the deal with SunSoft?" question.
SunSoft wanted to make a good product and game development took a lot of time SunSoft would simply start making a licensed game _then_ go after the license after the fact.
Sometimes it worked (Batman) other times it didn't (Silius).
Huh that’s really interesting and makes a lot sense!
0:34 anyone know this game’s title? 🥹🙏🏻
Krion’s Japanese name hints at the Oz connection. The main character’s name is Doropie.