It has the title of a B-movie and sounds like a games journalist’s fever dream, but this action platformer is one of the most notorious lost NES games
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...
GAMES THAT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY
IN THE KNOW
» PUBLISHER: SETA
» DEVELOPER: SETA
» SYSTEM: NES
» DUE FOR RELEASE:
1992
Imagine being a young kid in the early Nineties, flicking through Nintendo Power. One preview stands out above all the others – it details a game that offers “the fastest action ever seen on the NES”, and lets you play as a “genetically altered super chimpanzee” who is “practically indestructible” and has “great pro wrestlingstyle moves to use against his bizarre opponents”. You’ve been introduced to Bio Force Ape, which is clearly going to be the most brilliant game ever made.
It sounds like an elaborate joke, but Bio Force Ape was a real game in development by Seta, announced at the 1991 Summer Consumer Electronics Show. It was due to be released in both Japan and North America, and
plenty of kids would have waited patiently for it to arrive, but the game was cancelled shortly before its intended release in April 1992. What could have stopped the most powerful potential protagonist in gaming? No reason for the cancellation was ever given, and that only heightened the intrigue around the game, which became highly sought after by fans.
Prototype hunters were hopeful that the game had been found in 2005 when a user posted about it on the Digital Press forum. However, it turned out to be a hoax, with bizarre supposed characteristics including a fart attack that could corrupt graphics and a butter monster that said, “Ja I am made of dur butter und you are worth 2K monies.” Five years later, an actual prototype was purchased from Japan and a ROM was dumped, finally allowing players to experience the game for themselves, and a second prototype has since been found that doesn’t seem to offer much over the previous one. Still, what exists is just as Nintendo Power described it all those years ago. After a messy title screen that shows your ape’s adopted human family being shoved into a van, you can start a new game.
