Super Dog Booby: Akachan Daibouken no Maki (translated by mrdomino as Super Dog Booby: Baby Adventure Volume), is a cancelled platform / action game that was in development in 1990 / 1991 by Jaleco / Taito for the Famicom / NES. Some scans and info were posted in a japanese website, from which it seems that the game was also shown in a playable form at a gaming event in 1991 and it was also offered as a prize in a contest by a japanese magazine. In the end Super Dog Booby was never released for unknown reasons.
Elevator Action, produced by Taito, was an arcade game from the 1980s. While never becoming as famous as other games of the time, such as Pac-Man, Galaga or Space Invaders, it became a cult classic, often remembered for its espionage themes. Unfortunately, the franchise never really went anywhere. In 1994, an arcade sequel, Elevator Action II, was only ever released in Japan on the Sega Saturn, and in the US as a Dexter’s Laboratory game.
In 2008, however, Taito planned to revive the series by bringing out a new game on the Nintendo DS, which would have played more or less the same as the first two instalments. The original illustrator, James Harvey, was set to design all-new characters for the game, while ensuring that the classic feel of the original was upheld. Harvey says that he was asked to redesign the principal characters (three anti-terrorists), but to “keep one eye on the present and one eye on the past”. Soon after he submitted his designs, however, the game was scrapped for an unknown reason. Harvey’s characters have now appeared on the Internet, and an overview is provided below:
Kim Min Ji, a North Korean, is the first member of the team. She is armed with a laser pistol, which is charged from a tea kettle full of battery acid, which she can also hit people with. She wears a North Korean military uniform.
Brussels Tibia, the second member of the group, wears a black outfit, with a human skeleton drawn all over it. Harvey describes him as a “crazy white kid in a Halloween suit”. His special power would have been his lethal flying kick.
And, finally, Rakim Al Taff (whose name is a play on the original Elevator Action II character Jad the Taff) is a tough Muslim radical who dons a pink cap and pants, and would have had a running clothesline special move.
It is very unfortunate that this very promising revival never saw the light of day. We can only hope that Taito will one day re-open the file, and consider bringing this game to the public.
Information, and pictures of characters, were shared on Boing Boing.
Article by Franklint, thanks to Robert Seddon for the contribution!
George S has sent to us these scan from an unknow Taito SNES Game, that could have been unreleased.. we have tried to find more info on it, but no luck yet! If you know something about this, please let us know! “This scan is from an old EGM mag. The page was about upcoming SNES games. Iv tried serching for any info on it but could not fined anything.” – George
Ultraman has translated the japanese text in the first image! It says:
ENG: “Lately, it looks like that the boat that links Hanabii’s Island and Hyuu’s Island has been eaten by a giant shark in this sea”
ITA: “Di recente, sembra che la nave che collega l’isola Hanabii e l’isola Hyuu sia stata inghottita da uno squalo gigante in queste acque”
Update: thanks to Celine, that has sent to us a new scan for this game, we now know that its name was “Don”. With some more researches about Taito and Don through google, we cant still find any information about its existence, so we can speculate that it was really cancelled!
Thanks to Celine and George S for the contribution!
Time Diver: Eon Man is a cancelled beat ’em up developed by A.I for Taito for the NES. The game was finished, receiving a four-page strategy guide and review in issue 45 (February ’93) of Nintendo Power. Despite this, the game eventually disappeared from the Pak Watch section and was silently canceled.
According to game designer Shouichi Yoshikawa, the game was originally being developed as a sequel to Wrath of the Black Manta before being retooled.
Time Diver had 5 levels set at various points in time. These include the opening level Peaceful 1993, the Wild West, 1882, Devastated 2052, Devastated 1993, and a Peaceful Utopia version of 2052. An unusual feature (for the time) was that, with the exception of the first level, the stage order is randomized; allowing for some variation when playing through the game multiple times. [Info from Wikipedia]
A playable ROM of Time Diver was somehow leaked online and you should be able to find it easily with google. You can read more info about the project in this article by Lost Levels’ Frank Cifaldi!
Hit the Ice is a cancelled Taito NES port of the popular 1990 arcade hockey game of the same name. Unlike the completed SNES home console port of Hit the Ice, the cancelled NES version centers around a “Quest Mode” with RPG elements. Much like the Dragon Warrior series, the player walks around an overworld map, exploring houses and stadiums and facing random encounters with rival hockey teams which provide experience and gold.
Shops sell P Drinks, which provide a temporary speed and power boost; hamburgers, which provide experience; and apples, which can be given to an old man somewhere on the world map in exchange for an inner tube, which allows the player to cross bodies of water safely.
Though there is a working prototype with a completable Quest Mode, the game’s RPG elements are very low on content and game balance. As the SNES came out and interest in the NES waned, Taito abandoned this experimental hockey RPG to focus on 16-bit development, without a Quest Mode.
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