We’ve learned (via the Neo-Geo forums) that an unknown, unreleased Neo Geo game has been discovered.
The find was made by Brian Hargrove (who goes by the alias NeoTurfMasta), who purchased an unlabeled ROM from an online auction in Japan. After he did some digging, he found the data for an unfinished 2D fighting game, for the Neo Geo system.
You can view this unnamed, unreleased fighting game’s character select screen featured above. It’s worth mentioning this is an unfinished game, meaning some characters are missing spritework, and the entire game itself appears to be missing its audio, unfortunately.
The key feature of this fighting game was its three stances, each of which affecting the characters’ abilities: lawful, chaotic, and neutral. Boss characters are viewable, however you can’t actually fight them because they’re not in a playable/functional state.
You can find a dump of screenshots from the game below:
The actual name of the game and its developer are currently unknown, as there is no actual title screen for the ROM. Some fans are speculating the developer could actually be Technōs Japan, as the dates on the ROM coincide with the year the developer went bankrupt.
Offendatron_5000
April 10, 2016 at 1:10 pmWow those backgrounds are nice. Hopefully there are enough useable assets that someone can complete this. Maybe pull in sounds from Last Blade and Samurai Shodown to get audio going, they seem like the closest style compliments for it.
deadeye
April 10, 2016 at 1:18 pmCharacter portraits look pretty good, but the designs themselves look super generic. Any one of these characters could be a secondary character in just about any 90’s anime. Sprites look fine, though animation is pretty rough.
Would be cool if anyone could track down who made this. Looks mid-90s to me. The art at least doesn’t really look similar to anything Capcom or SNK was doing at the time.
Pico
April 10, 2016 at 1:28 pmWould had spent quarters on that ass
LaunchShipCaptain
April 10, 2016 at 1:47 pmWould have never been able to afford it anyway. Neo Geo games were like 6 times the price of Sega or Nintendo games, and I’m not exagerating. I did used to be a little envious of the 2D Arcade games Neo Geo had, just a little.
luggage lad
April 10, 2016 at 1:49 pmwell this looks like it was back before fighting game characters started getting crazier and crazier looking. Definitely has that 90’s anime vibe going which I think makes it just unique enough. I like the designs quite abit all things considered.
Swordsman with the hawk and longhaired wizard are pretty cool I think.
InkBrush
April 10, 2016 at 2:04 pmI would’ve expected to see either crap site SRK or Eventhubs post this news, but rather surprised to see this here first.
Yabloko Molloco San
April 10, 2016 at 2:04 pmThose stances sound like the Melty Blood moon system.
deadeye
April 10, 2016 at 2:06 pmDarkstalkers came out in 94, and this looks like it’s around that time period.
Longhaired wizard actually looked the most generic to me. Swordsman with hawk probably has the best design. Also the Warhammer 40k space marine looking thing looks pretty good.
I don’t really think any of the designs are “bad”, I just get a sense that its nothing I haven’t really seen before. I will say I do like the subtle design differences between each characters law, neutral, and chaos forms. That’s really nifty, and I somehow didn’t clue into that when I first went through them.
LaunchShipCaptain
April 10, 2016 at 2:14 pmGarou: Mark of the Wolves looks a tiny bit like it:
vonSanneck
April 10, 2016 at 2:30 pmThis is actually interesting in the Neo-Geo development side of things. An unfinished fighting game is still a treasure trove of information in that regard.
Cael
April 10, 2016 at 2:53 pmI know I’ve seen that artsyle before. Can’t remember what from, though.
2501
April 10, 2016 at 3:12 pml thought it was Masami Ōbari’s work but the lack of female characters leaves me to doubt it.
InkBrush
April 10, 2016 at 4:38 pmI was thinking of someone else, but that could be just me.
Llama Adventure
April 10, 2016 at 5:28 pmGuess it’s time to do my sacred duty as a pornographer and do some Rule34
ProxyDoug
April 10, 2016 at 7:51 pmFascinating.
Since they don’t have any official names or personalities you can the inspirations that went into some of them almost like it some sort of fan game.
Brandon Orselli
April 10, 2016 at 8:10 pmThanks! ;)
Truck
April 10, 2016 at 8:59 pmShame it never finished. I would’ve loved a medieval fighting game.
InkBrush
April 10, 2016 at 11:04 pmAaaaaaannd I was right. http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2016/apr/10/someone-discoverd-long-lost-half-developed-neo-geo-fighting-game-and-it-looks-amazing/
InkBrush
April 10, 2016 at 11:19 pmYour welcome.
-blank-
April 11, 2016 at 3:51 amTime for the M.U.G.E.N community to get to work