Gotcha Force is a brawl fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube, developed by Capcom. The game received poor reviews from critics, as well as a lack of advertising but it soon became a cult-hit among fans of fast-paced mech fights. Capcom themselves seem to consider the game as one of their favorites, as the official Japanese site is stocked with concept art, screenshots of the developers messing around, and videos. [Infos from Wikipedia]
The gameplay is a mix between Virtual On, Power Stone and somehow.. Pokemon (for the hundreds of robots that can be unlocked and collected). The niche who have been able to devote the time necessary to appreciate Gotcha Force, were rewarded with a game really hectic and fun in single player. Unfortunately, the lack of more multiplayer modes and a better framerate, spoil the longevity of the title. The design of robots and their customization is still among the best ever seen in its generation.
Talking about the unseen beta elements, we have collected some beta screens and concept arts, in which we can see different arenas, menu, HUB and early design of the characters, with some changes from the final ones. It seems that in the official website there are some interviews with the team that worked on the game, where they explain the development of the project, but we still need to better translate those.
Through an Action Replay, a large, gray stage with the background appearing to be some kind of pub, is accessible. The music is the same as used on Fox and Falco’s stage Corneria. This is assumed to be a test stage because of its name, which on the debug menu is TEST. There are also four stages, named AKANEIA (a possible predecessor to Castle Siege from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a homeworld for Fire Emblem), 10-2, IceTop (a possible precursor to the Summit stage from the sequel, which belongs to the Ice Climbers), and Dummy, a test stage that freezes the game when opened. In addition to this, the entire Debug Menu, which was used in pre-release testing, can be used when the game is hacked, allowing for complete editing of anything in the game. Giga Bowser, both male and female Fighting Wire Frames, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and even Sandbag are all playable (to a limited extent) via the Debug Menu. [Info from Mariowiki]
Some level analyzes was been made, such as:
DUMMY stage can be used, for the Victory Screen, an platform at the middle of nowhere for the players, at the victory screen, can be placed correctly;
TEST stage, of course, an stage for testing stuff, using Develop utility, at Debug Menu main. Can be placed any enemies (well, much of them), test graphics (like any stage on Develop mode) and more. Rumors say that looks Corneria Level, that’s because have the Music;
AKANEIA stage, an Fire Emblem stage what was to be made, only the code rested at the disc, that’s because no one could find any hack for playing it;
ICETOP stage, an end of Ice Mountain, the TOP of Ice Mountain? They say it, it’s possible to be entered by hacks;
TSEAK target smash stage, “T” for targed, “SEAK” is Sheik, Nintendo may was planing to do an target test for Sheik (may change it on the menu or something, just like Brawl), it could be so glitched when changing to Zelda, what they rejected, just one platform with 3 targets;
10-2 adventure stage, just after 10-1 ICEMT, so, it’s the Icetop stage for Adventure.
In some of the old screens, we can see some differences: in the Super Mario Field there is a warp pipe (the one next to donkey kong) which isn’t in the final game. Peach is on a platform that isn’t in the game either (at the Special Video, Nintendo did it with that platform, maybe they made at the VERY END of the game, they removed the platform when releasing and was keep at the Video, EVEN at the manual [At the Camera-Fixed Mode Page]), the fire emblem in the background where mario, kirby, and pikachu are fighting, are different than the final.
In a beta video, we can see that originally it was possible to go inside the laboratory in the Great Bay level.
As we can read from an article on N-Philes, through Melee’s Debug menu, it is possible to have a match with six characters instead of four, somethings about melee, if someone don’t know, it contains an Multiman-Melee, what they have 6 characters at the screen, maybe the config is for this mode, but been used at Melee Mode. Also Ditto was in the game as a Pokeball Pokemon but was pulled for whatever reason. There is some information about Ditto was removed: “At some sites (such as SmashWiki), tells the Ditto was causing much trouble for making it, he special power was to “steal” the move of the other players, but what about on a round of 4 players? Nintendo retired the idea, and stayed at disc, it’s possible to go into Debug Menu, but it only will hit a 12% at the character”
Some other enemies was “unused”, we can say, but they have a difference at the name: They are may beta design of the enemies stayed at the game, but only the code, cause it’s unable to be accessed, take a look at the list:
Old-Kuri, Kuri is the Kuriboh (Goomba);
Old-Lead, Lead is the Leaded (Re-dead);
Old-Octa, Octa is the Octarock (Octarock);
Old-Otto, Otto is the Ottosei (Enemy from IceClimbers).
Those maybe was testing who what “fits” better at the game, like the old texture or the used.
One thing found at the “Test things” on Debug Menu, was an pre-loader loading screen for all-star, showing the next battle, maybe not used cause 3 character or more, could not be appeared at the loading screen
Update:Gabrielwoj found some unused all-star intros into the Debug Menu. They probably got unused cause All-Star uses a system for multiples teams for all-star… Probably the all-star was only Player Vs. Player (without any teams)… See the video below! Update 2: Gabrielwoj recently found that in the Debug Menu is possible to unlock 2 special trophies… Those trophies only appear on the Japanese Version of the game, but it still on the USA/PAL version of the game, and still translated, see video below! Update 3: Just after unlocking those, and reboot the game, there is some special messages (translated too)! See video below!
Thanks to Camdawg, Dark Rayman, Shade3c, Adriel, Abu5ername, Pierre Antonie and gabrielwoj for the contributions!
Super Smash Bros. Brawl was developed by Sora and published by Nintendo for the Wii in 2008. Development of the game began in October 2005, when Nintendo opened a new office in Tokyo just for its production. Nintendo enlisted outside help from various developer studios, including Game Arts, whose developing team spent excessive amounts of time playing Super Smash Bros. Melee. They were also given access to all the original material and tools from the development of Melee, courtesy of HAL Laboratory. In addition, several Smash Bros. staff members that reside in the area of the new office joined the project’s development. [Info from Wikipedia]
The design of the mines that Snake can use was changed in the final version. In the beta, some of the “character emblems” had the original Super Smash Bros. Melee character emblems/icons.
Also, texture hackers who have searched through the disk have reported there being “battle damaged” versions of a bunch of the characters, meaning there was to be a damage system similar to Soul Calibur 4. For example, the Ike damaged model had a cracked sword and for Captain Falcon, an unused exists of a damaged version of his helmet, and if you check the model, you can see his eye in the same side of the damage.
Some unused CD Tropy’s Textures were also found, but we dont know what they were meant for.
On the file called: “training_info_en.msbin” inside, it contains an unused speed: “2x”
Some Masterpieces wasn’t used on the USA/PAL version and on Japanese too, there was to have: -Donkey Kong Country (for all the languages) [Maybe could not use about copyrights] -Fire Emblem USA (even the game title) is translated. -Earthbound (of course english, if it was Japanese, it would be Mother)
I noticed one thing on the original game itself, you know that you can change the music on the menu right? Check this: Gabrielwoj found an file with the stage icons at the left (the game have an configuration to make the effects) and I saw one thing… See again, on the stage icon, it’s written above: “SELECT GAME”, at the Final release, it’s: “SELECT MODE”…
There are a lot of unused things, maybe, from test modes [Info from MarioWiki] Gabriel found a lots of unused stuff on the ISO:
This one just remember a save file image, well, It’s possible to see an Mario coming on the first stage of the Subspace Emissary
Who did played Melee, knows that, it’s the Mario Stock icon from Melee on Brawl! But one thing weird, this sprite is on the results screen PAC (the file with much things of SSBB), maybe for other tests…
Okay, this is weird, it’s an image that says : BOSS 1, and it is Giga Bowser… Some kind of more TESTS? Also, this image is on most files of the ISO, in the stock icons from other characters, better saying.
MENU! But some kind of sprite? Don’t really know about that, but some background changed when in development?
An stage called Select, I think it was to be on the Custom Stages screen…
THIS IS SMALL! Some other stadium event what was removed, only did rested his palette, an purple pixel (also on the movies folder, there is an another what is totally transparent and one what have some misplaced pixels)
Found on the Tournament file, I have no idea what it could’ve been used for. It is a screenshot of an early build of the game, possibly used in some sort of move in-game, or just, was left on the disc, by, accident,,,,,,,. Link have a Ordon Sword unused texture on the fighter folder (from Twilight Princess) [Info from MarioWiki]
Other things that never made the cut were:
Fox’s animation had him holding a gun, instead of moving his hands as if he was drinking something like tea.
Shadow Moses Island had an outside part of it, too- it had a great view of the mountains and some white platforms.
Ridley was an Assist Trophy, not a boss.
Songs such as Sonic- You Can Do Anything and Forest Maze were originally in the game.
The developers intended on making Snake a bit more muscular.
Rosalina was once an AT
Green Hill Zone’s old name was Emerald Hill
Link’s hair was longer in the beta
During Brawl’s development, the graphics were going to be a little better than they are in the final (More polygons)
During the time, Mario used his Super Mario Sunshine voices before the new recordings with Link using voices directly from Twilight Princess (No, SSBB and TP’s Voice Recordings Are Different)
All Characters, Including more, were done by E3 2006 (Said in Iwata Asks)
Blade Knight, Bonkers, and Mech Cannon were found as unused enemies. (Possibly left over from the Kirby game)
38 Extra trophies were found in the disc data. (Example- Dread Kong is one of these)
In Delfino Plaza, it was possible to fight on the beach area beside the lighthouse. (Shown in “Sonic Joins the Brawl!” Promo)
—Some sound effects still exist in the BRSAR (the main file for the voices/sound effects), like the character voice for Mewtwo, a swallowed Giga Bowser (and possibly Wario Man, or like Wario’s Final Smash Thing) with Kirby, narrator saying all the modes (like DATA, WiFI, etc), some unused voice clips/unused sounds from some of the characters (Ex: Ike’s voice thing saying [Voice: Catch’ ya]), all of them have nothing, it just has the name, only the exception with the character voices (i.e. the example of Ike)— BETA ENEMIES
ef_arrians.pac ef_bladeknight.pac (Blade Knight) ef_blossa.pac ef_blowm.pac ef_bonkers.pac (Bonkers) ef_brontoburt.pac (Bronto Burt) ef_byushi.pac ef_dyeburn.pac ef_gunnatter.pac ef_karon.pac (Dry Bones) ef_kyan.pac ef_met.pac (Buzy Beetle) ef_ploum.pac ef_siralamos.pac (Possibly the giant fish at Summit) ef_torista.pac ef_whauel.pac (Could be an unused whale enemy) ef_wiiems.pac
BETA FIGHTERS (To clear it up)
ef_dixie.pac (Dixie Kong) ef_dr_mario.pac (Dr. Mario) ef_mewtwo.pac (Mewtwo) ef_pra_mai.pac (Either Random Box or Plusle and Minun) ef_roy.pac (Roy from Fire Emblem) ef_toon_zelda.pac (Toon Zelda from Wind Waker) ef_toon_sheik.pax (Tetra or Toon Sheik)
Also, gabrielwoj found two messed up THP Videos (from The Subspace Emissary) on the movies folder:
With the first video, it’s the part of Meta Knight/Lucario/Snake’s… But they are glitched, no sound and different size… There are dead pixels at the screen, at the end, it will be correct, but when it rolls, it has the image from before… It was possibly some sort of Test Video Thing Forthegameitself. In the second video, it’s small clip/a very short clip, it’s the first time the “box” appears at the subspace emissary, in this Snake’s part. It is also mostly the same as the original clip in the final product released thing, but the “dead” pixels are with the other pallets, the video itself too.
Some other strange prototypes of Subspace Emissary videos have been found on movie folder of the disc files of the SSBB iso: I want to thank Susumu for translating them: *The ssbb logo at the bottom is written: Super Smash Bros Brawl: The Subspace Emissary
^As on the translation, the Chapter 16-02LZ may is Link and Zelda, which Link found Zelda in Subspace Emissary, which have been turned, at image at the bottom says about link but starts with 16-02MZ (Mario and Zelda)
^SAMPLE, maybe for easier video construction…
Into some of those THPS, they have some images, which they only have 0.1 frame second, which is very hard to see it: ^Maybe for Chapter 03-02 (Notes: No Shadow, strange poses, what happened with Kirby’s mouth?. It looks they are floating and there is an the thing an black circle at the top) [but on the files: 16-02MZ/16-02LZ] ^Maybe for Chapter 20-01 (but on the files: 05-01) (Notes: Looks very close to the original [or is the original, when Peach and Kirby is attacked by Halberd {but it don’t have image from Zelda}]) ^Mirrored version from above (found on 05-00) [The only differences is the Kirby mouth and the shading]
[spoiler /Original Japanese Images/ /hide the Original Japanese Images/]
[/spoiler]
Thanks to Randy355, Shade3c, Adriel, DRMARIOX, Grahamx227,tgarciao, gabrielwoj and Susumu (I made some Grammatical correction here. Hahz lolz. (for the THP’s Translation) for the contributions!
Toon Panic was a multiplayer brawler / arcade fighting game for Nintendo 64, in development at Bottom Up. It was meant to be similar to Power Stone or Rakugaki ShowTime, but it was later cancelled because of bankruptcy of the studio. A proto was sold some years ago on a japanese auction, and finally leaked to the public on the 3 December 2008, thanks to Team Carrot / No-Intro. “Unfortunately the game is far from being complete. There is a nice intro with cool music, no main game, a multiplayer mode but without IA and some debug features.” The Final Fantasy 8 images in the characters select screen were just placeholders.. a weird choice from the developers.
Images:
Videos:
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