''Sunman'' is an unreleased action

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by EIM and planned to be published by

Sunsoft , is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, video game developer and publisher. They are known for their video games under the brand name Sunsoft. History In April 1971, Sun Electronics Corporation (alternatively called Sun Denshi) was founded i ...

for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

in 1992. Despite being mostly complete, it was never commercially released.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to Sunsoft's

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

games, '' Batman: The Video Game'' and '' Batman: Return of the Joker'', in that the character can run, jump, punch, and duck, although in this game the player can also fly simply by pushing up. There are also some side scrolling flying levels where the player can shoot laser/heat vision from Sunman's eyes. The game is divided into five stages, each made up of one to four areas, with a boss at the end of each stage.

History

The game features a superhero, named ''Sunman''. He is reminiscent of

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

with his cape, and flying abilities - furthermore, the game's title screen is similar to the Superman logo. Sunsoft's involvement with other

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

character licenses lead some to speculate that ''Sunman'' was intended to be a Superman game, but DC for whatever reason decided not to go along and the game had some changes made to lose the likeness. In an interview with planner/director Kenji Eno, it was confirmed that this was originally intended to be a Superman game. The game was obtained by The Lost Levels, a website that specializes in unreleased and prototype video games, from a European collector without any information on what it was. It was to much surprise that the game could be functionally played through from start to finish. The game was made available for play as a

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

for use with an NES

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...

. The early, rough prototype of the ROM was also made for release on The Lost Levels, and it indeed had sprites of Superman as the original sprites for the main character, and the background music played in-game replaced with John Williams's Superman Theme. Another unreleased Sunsoft cart in the US can be made to confirm that this was indeed ''Superman'' originally, as the levels are identical to ''Sunman'', but they are in a less finished form, and the player is able to skip levels by pausing and pressing the select button. In February 2014, a ROM hack was released by a user with the pseudonym Pacnsacdave of a full ''Sunman'' to ''Superman'' NES conversion. The hack changes the title screen, cutscenes, and sprites to those of the actual Superman prototype ROM. It is unlicensed by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

despite being marked as "Licensed by Nintendo" on the title screen.

References

External links

''Sunman''
at The Lost Levels {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunman (video game) 1992 video games Cancelled Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Nintendo Entertainment System games Sunsoft games Superman video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Hirohiko Takayama EIM (video game developer) games

Gameplay

History

See also

References

External links