Today, March 25th, marks the 30th anniversary of Rockman's Soccer. To commemorate this milestone, a Japanese sample version of the game has been uncovered and dumped by C. Davis on The Cutting Room Floor.
While closely resembling the final retail build, this pre-release version stands out for its inclusion of features that were ultimately removed before launch. Most notably, it supports 4-player Exhibition matches via the SNES Multitap, a feature curiously absent from the final game. Remarkably, all functionalities seem intact in this sample, including the ability to extend match durations to a full 60 minutes, whereas the final game caps at 10. Additionally, this sample contains a partially complete ending cutscene for Story Mode.
There's a handful of other small changes and differences, and even a collection of unused graphics presumably intended for an unknown baseball game. For further details, hit up The Cutting Room Floor!
Wow, if the multitap feature wasn't removed there'd for sure be more copies of the game sold, more multitaps in the wild and probably at least a few more MegaMan fans.
ReplyDeleteRipples make waves, too; who knows what else this could have changed with the franchise.
Thanks for sharing this, loved this game as a small child (despite its flaws), cool to see what could've (or should've) been.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great possibility for some talented mods to get together and make the definitive MegaMan Soccer game from this. An actual ending too?!!
ReplyDeleteI hope that happens, I actually enjoyed Megaman Soccer for what it is but to have a complete playable version with all the cut content would be awesome.
DeleteJust when I thought there wasn't much else to pick apart for this game, some new discoveries are made. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI always knew that there is the sample for this rom. Thanks for sharing. And by the way, maybe Rom Hack team can add the hidden final game to an original version which had no final game (ending). Sorry about my English.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Rockman Wily Tower Sample ? It was available on the article magazine book. Look: https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Mega_Man:_The_Wily_Wars
I mean Rockman Mega World.. Sorry for the typo. Can you fix it ?
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that the Sample Version has Super Multitap compatibility. The Cutting Room Floor reported on some unused strings and graphics in the final game which indicated that Multitap compatibility was a thing at one time. No, what surprises me is that they removed that feature for some unknown reason, along with, like, half the game's other features.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good find. Hopefully, someone can cobble together a ROM hack that re-adds these features to the final game.