Burning Fist (also known as Force Striker in its early alpha build) is a cancelled fighting game that was in development in 1994 by Sega of Japan for the Mega CD. As we can read at Sega Base, both the Force Striker alpha and the Burning Fists beta were leaked rom a former SoJ employee and sold on eBay some years ago. Burning Fist was never officially released, but in 2006 those alpha / beta builds were re-sold to Good Deal Games.
GDG worked in collaboration with J2 Games to finish Burning Fist and published it in their online shop. In an interview that Sega 16 had with GDG’s Michael Thomasson we read that
The game was about 80% complete. It was missing the final boss, the full-motion video was running at about four frames per second, had several bugs, the menu system was corrupt, and the one-player computer artificial intelligence was quite, well, stupid. We were able to get the FMV running at a respectable rate […]. We also completely reworked the menu system. We made the artificial intelligence on the one-player game a decent opponent.
In the gallery below you can check some screenshots from the game and a scan that Celine found in EGM #49.
Mega Man 8, known as Rockman 8: Metal Heroes in Japan, is the eighth installment in original Capcom’s Mega Man series, and was originally released in Japan on the Sony PlayStation on December 1996. The following year, Mega Man 8 saw a release on the Sega Saturn and was localized for both consoles in North America and the PlayStation in PAL regions. Director Hayato Kaji revealed that he initially designed Duo as robot created by the Mega Man 4 character Dr. Cossack. When it was decided that Duo would instead come from outerspace, his appearance changed but still retained remnants of Russian traits, such as his headware. [Info from Wikipedia]
Thanks to Proto1, we found out that MegaphilX uploaded an interesting video from a Mega Man 8 beta in his Youtube Channel.
Everything is practically unused in the footage. The background, the effects, no bolt item, Mega Man’s got a strange running animation and towards the end of the video, you can see early footage of the stage select screen. The bosses have not been made yet, so their Metools act as their temporary icons. Also, a sprite of Duo appears here as well, something that isn’t in the final at all.
– Completely unused BGM – The background for the stage is unused and unfinished. – Mega Man has an odd running animation. He’s very stiff in comparison to his final running animation – His color when using the MegaBall is Green and Yellow instead of Pink and purple. – Enemies appear at places they don’t usually in the final. – Big yellow blocks have a blue streak through them. In final, they’re solid yellow. – at one point in these videos, there’s an elevator lift moving downwards. In the final, elevators never go down, only up. – No enemies in elevator portions. – No hit detection with Whale Airship enemies. – Bolt items weren’t implemented yet – Beginning at 5:04 in this video, you can catch a quick glimpse at a work-in-progress stage select. Mettools represent stages under construction, and the Duo character is shown as the boss for the Island stage. Duo isn’t a boss in the Island stage, so perhaps he was in this particular build. – Also at the stage select, Tengu Man’s mugshot appears on the top right column where Frost Man should be. In the final, he’s on the top left.
Thanks to Proto1 for the contribution!
Videos:
For comparision, here’s the final frost man stage:
Here’s an update showing the beta in more detail by DeGamer (aka Henger83)
Two more additional stages in this version seen above are covered here by JosephCollins
An even later beta build with many more differences can be seen in action here:
A platform game based on the Popeye character was in development by Technos Japan for the Genesis / Mega Drive, but in the end this project was cancelled. A Super Nintendo Popeye game was also developed and released in 1994 by Technos, but the sprite of the main character is much different from the one seen in the few Genesis / MD screens, so we can assume that these are 2 different games. As far as we know, Popeye for the Genesis / MD was never released in any territory.
Thanks to Celine and John Doom for the contribution! Scans from Console Mania #28, Game Fun #94 and Mean Machine #17
Update: thanks to GalacticeMage, we found out that Opposite Lock was an early beta version of Wreckin Crew! The graphic style remained the same, but the screenshot in the gallery below is probably from a target render (also the HUD is different). Check the video from the final game for a comparison.
Opposite Lock is a cancelled racing game that was in development by QUICKDRAW DEVELOPMENT / Telstar for the Playstation, Saturn and PC. Celine found a screenshot of this project in PlayMag magazine issue #4: it seems that Opposite Lock was going to be an arcade with colorful graphic and stylized vehicles based on real-life cars (as Chevrolet and Ford). It’s currently unkown why the game was canned.
Here’s the original press release:
Based around a blisteringly fast game engine, Opposite Lock is an arcade style, 3D hot rod racing game that also includes combat and stunt driving aspects. With most driving games nowadays concentrating on showing off the polygon engine rather than presenting a fast and furious racing game, Opposite Lock sets out to redress this balance by putting the FUN back into the genre. Modern racing games tend towards the simulation end of the driving spectrum and ignore the qualities that made Hard Driving, Power Drift and Mario Kart so popular. Opposite Lock offers you the chance to drive a whole host of stylised and customised vehicles from 1957 Chevrolets to Ford pickups, each with their own individual attack moves. There are stunt tracks, cup competitions and head to head modes, not to mention a demolition derby competition and a complete action replay and video editing suite to play back and save your favourite moments.
– Multi-player option that allows up to 32 players on a network. In-game pickups and upgrades, including weapons, nitros and repair kits.
– Over 100 different road side objects which interact with the players car. Hit a tyre stack and the tyres bounce all over the track!
– Full screen VGA and SVGA modes ensure that you are in the thick of the action at all times.
Halloween Capsule is a cancelled side-scrolling brawler / beat ’em up with animals for characters, that was in development in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis (or Samsung Super Aladdin Boy, how the system was named in Korea) by the Korean company Softmax, best known for their War of Genesis and Magna Carta series. Halloween Capsule was one of their first projects, but it was never released for unknown reasons and only few screenshots were found in an old korean magazine.
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