Super NES game released 30 years after it's announced

[Rando1975]

I've been editing the indexes of some of the early EGM's lately, going through the previews sections. And in EGM 59 in the International Outlook section there is a game called Mr. Tuff for the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis. It ended up not being released until February 2024! In a legit release.

I know there have been various protoypes that have been found over the years that have been dumped, never released in a certain region till years later on a newer generation of hardware or kept by private collectors, but this is certainly the longest amount of time that I've found between an title is announced and is eventually given a legit release.

Edit: Issue 61 of EGM has a similar situation. Again under International Outlook, again for the Super Famicom. This time the title is Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman Zero (shown as Shubibinman in the issue). It wouldn't get a Super Famicom release until June 2017. About 23 years later. It also appeared on modern platforms in 2024 and is set for a North American Super NES release in Q4 2024. 

[kitsunebi]

I assume part (most?) of the appeal of releasing these things in a physical format is as collectibles.  It probably just feels "neat" to open a box and find a brand new cartridge game waiting for you, seeing as it's been so long since that was something you could find on store shelves.  I don't suppose that disc based systems will get quite the same treatment, as there isn't much collectible appeal to an unreleased game coming on a CD in a jewel case/DVD box that isn't far removed from how modern games are marketed. 

[Rando1975]

2 hours ago, kitsunebi said:

I assume part (most?) of the appeal of releasing these things in a physical format is as collectibles.  It probably just feels "neat" to open a box and find a brand new cartridge game waiting for you, seeing as it's been so long since that was something you could find on store shelves. 

Very true. I think they are neat, but I don't have any of the old systems, except for some of the mini/classic versions.

Although I'm curious if these "new" cartridges work on clone systems like the Polymega?   

[Areala]

1 hour ago, Rando1975 said:

Very true. I think they are neat, but I don't have any of the old systems, except for some of the mini/classic versions.

Although I'm curious if these "new" cartridges work on clone systems like the Polymega?   

They should as long as the clone systems have a dedicated cartridge connector. The internals of a Super Nintendo are well-known and documented, so engineering something that reads SNES cart data isn't difficult.

[kitsunebi]

5 hours ago, Rando1975 said:

Very true. I think they are neat, but I don't have any of the old systems, except for some of the mini/classic versions.

I've still got an NES and SNES, but to be honest, hooking them up would be more trouble than it's worth.  If I ever got a nostalgia itch to play those games, I'd save a ton of time and just do it on my computer.  So even for someone like me who owns the systems, buying a new cartridge game is probably more about the collectability than anything else.

[jjehrnwa]

On 9/26/2024 at 5:05 PM, kitsunebi said:

I've still got an NES and SNES, but to be honest, hooking them up would be more trouble than it's worth.  If I ever got a nostalgia itch to play those games, I'd save a ton of time and just do it on my computer.  So even for someone like me who owns the systems, buying a new cartridge game is probably more about the collectability than anything else.

Same here. I'm still a retrogaming collector of physical cartridges, but like you, hooking most of those systems up is simply unfeasible at the moment. It's far more convenient to play via emulation.