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Ascii

Yoshitsune Densetsu (義経伝説, Legend of Yoshitsune) is a cancelled action RPG that was in development around 1993, planned to be published by ASCII on the Super Famicom / SNES. The game told the fictionalized story of Minamoto no Yoshitsune a “military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan, that after evading death made his way past Hokkaido and sailed to the mainland of Asia, re-surfacing as Genghis Khan“.

It seems Yoshitsune Densetsu would have been supervised by popular mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Skull Man), possibly for character design and story concept. The protagonists were four men and women who have slipped back in time from the present age to the Kamakura period. Although the story would differ depending on the selected character, the main plot would always lead Yoshitsune to become Genghis Khan.

Some images and previews for the game we published in old japanese magazine, shared on Twitter by gt198x.

Images:

Nes / Famicom, Nintendo

Dungeon Hourouki [NES – Cancelled]

monokoma

09-02-2013

1 Comment

Dungeon Hourouki (aka Dungeon Wandering Chronicle) is a cancelled RPG that was in development by ASCII for the Famicom / NES. It seems that in the game players were lost in a dungeon of some sort (a prison?) and they had to find a way to escape. An interesting feature of Dungeon Hourouki was its random generated dungeon system, that would have let to explore more than a million different combinations of levels. It’s currently unknown why the game was canned and only few screens were found in a japanese magazine.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution!

Images:

Playstation, Sony

Aqua Prophecy [Playstation – Cancelled]

monokoma

12-12-2010

1 Comment

Aqua Prophecy is a cancelled action adventure game that was in development by ASCII for the Playstation. The project was shown at E3 1997, but sadly it was never finished for some reasons. More info about this game can be found on IGN in an old interview / chat with Rob Fleischer from Ascii:

Adam@PSXPower: Tell us about Aqua Prophecy.
Rob@ASCII: Aqua Prophecy is an underwater adventure where you are out to save the world. You must save the world from the prophecy of Nostradamus and you travel to various different underwater locals.
Dinosaur: “Like Tomb Raider, only all under water?”
Rob@ASCII: Kind of, Dino.
Spelunx: “Is it like Ecco for Genesis?”
Rob@ASCII: There is a lot of puzzle solving and not a lot of killing. You explore sunken pyramids, ships, planes.
Bizarro: “Have you been researching the Nostradamus prophecies for the game?”
Rob@ASCII: Yes, it is true to form.

As with another cancelled aquatic game, Aqua by Scavenger, Aqua Prophecy’s gameplay could have been similar to Everblue (PS2) / Endless Ocean (Wii) by Arika or the Aquanaut’s Holiday series by Artdink.

Thanks to Celine for the contribution! Scan from GameFan magazine #5-8 and EGM ’97 Show Guide To E3

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Video (E3 1997):

Nintendo, Nintendo 64 & 64DD

Aerogauge [N64 – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

11-11-2010

No Comments

Marcel sent us a couple of screens from an early version of Aerogauge, an F-Zero clone that was released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64. It seems that the HUD was different, but as we never played the final game, we dont know if there are other interesting beta differences. Maybe someone else will be able to notice more differences!

A video from the retail version, the same stage: we can notice the hud changes and different textures. The “car” seems almost the same as the beta version

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Ardy Lightfoot [SNES – Beta]

monokoma

21-09-2010

2 Comments

Ardy Lightfoot is a platform game developed by ASCII that was released in 1993 for the Super Famicom (Japan) and in 1996 for the Super Nintendo (USA and Europe). It seems that a beta version of the game was somehow leaked online, as we can see many videos from this early version on Youtube. More info on the differences in this beta are available at Flying Omelette!

Ardy’s speech bubbles are differently coloured, and Nina looks different.
The prologue stage is completely empty of stars
The push block gets a new graphic in the final, presumably to indicate it can be pushed and isn’t just scenery.
The beta presents a chest with a bomb, while the final does merely places it next to the wall and requires being moved closer.
The tunnel you fall into requires awkward walking to venture through, while the final makes a little more sense by having you slide through it.
The beta version of Scene 2 is very unfinished and different
Catry has all new sprites, but they’re pretty bad in comparison to the final ones

Images:

Videos (Scene 2 beta):

Videos (Scene 2 Final):

Videos (more beta):