7 NES Games That Were Reskinned After Their License Expired

There’s an interesting quirk in the Nintendo Entertainment System’s library regarding game reskinning. This happened for various reasons and entailed completely redrawing the sprites for large parts of a game so it could be released in North America or another region. One of the most famous reskinned games is Super Mario Bros. 2, which is known in Japan as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Then there are the games that were developed or were close to completion when the license expired, or another issue arose, requiring several changes, like these seven NES games, presented in no particular order.

1) Journey to Silius

Journey to Silius is a side-scrolling run-and-gun released in 1990 by Sunsoft, but it’s not the game that was originally developed. Initially, Sunsoft acquired the license for The Terminator and began developing the game to align with the film. When the license expired during development, Sunsoft wasn’t about to chuck the project in the bin. Instead, the devs reskinned and retitled the game, but you can still see elements of the original plan in some of the sprites. Case in point: the picture above shows a robot that resembles a familiar T-800.

2) Kid Klown in Night Mayor World

Kemco released the platformer known as Kid Klown in Night Mayor World in North America in 1993. When it was developed in Japan, the game was called Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fuusen (Balloon Dreams). Disney licensed Mickey and company to Kemco, but only in Japan. To get around licensing in the North American market, Kemco reskinned and rebranded the game, then launched a brand-new franchise that went on to see several sequels across multiple platforms over the years. Still, it all started as a Mickey Mouse game before becoming an utterly strange, clown-filled nightmare-fueled title.

3) Werewolf: The Last Warrior

The 1990 platformer Werewolf: The Last Warrior is all about a werewolf named Warwolf. Data East developed it for the NES, and it’s mostly meh according to critics in the ‘90s. While it’s never been confirmed, the standing rumor is that Werewolf: The Last Warrior began its life as an adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Wolverine. The rumor centers around several aspects of the finished game, which align with Wolverine’s mechanics in other titles developed around the same time. The prevailing view is that Data East began development without a license, didn’t obtain one from Marvel, and proceeded with a werewolf game.

4) Contra Force

Contra Force doesn’t exactly fit the “lost its license” mold, but it’s included on the list for how utterly strange its reskin was. Konami developed and released it in 1992 as part of the Contra series, calling it a spinoff, but it shares almost no similarities with the other games in the franchise. The enemies are all human terrorists instead of aliens, and Contra fans didn’t accept it. The reason for this is that it was initially developed as Arc Hound in Japan. Because Contra was such a hit, Konami reskinned the game, slapped on the “Contra” label, and dove in headfirst, hoping to placate Contra fans.

5) Power Punch II

Another game that doesn’t meet the “lost its license” criteria but absolutely has to be included is Power Punch II. Contrary to popular opinion, it was never intended to be a sequel to Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, but it was nonetheless built around Tyson. It was initially titled Mike Tyson’s Intergalactic Power Punch, but after the Champ’s arrest in 1991, Beam Software decided it didn’t want to use its Tyson license anymore. Instead, it did a little reskinning and some retitling and released Power Punch II, starring none other than Mark Tyler (who doesn’t exist). Also, there was never a Power Punch I, and it’s unclear why the game was titled as a sequel to … nothing.

6) Sunman

There is no hidden message in Sunman, and if you look at the sprites for more than a second or two, you might say to yourself, ‘That guy looks a lot like Superman.’ You’d be right because Sunsoft developed the game as a Superman title, which made sense. After all, the company previously developed several games based on DC Comics characters. Regardless, whatever happened to the license didn’t work in Sunman’s favor, as it was never commercially released. Despite this, it was fully developed, and once The Lost Levels obtained the files, it released the ROM, making it playable. There’s even a ROM hack that lets you play it as Superman.

7) The Krion Conquest

The Krion Conquest, known as Magical Kids Doropie in Japan, was originally developed as an adaptation of the 1986 anime The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. You can see elements of this in the final game, which reskinned Dorothy as a little witch. The devs weren’t able to acquire the license from TV Tokyo, so the Oz aspect had to be abandoned, resulting in a similar game that looks a lot like the anime, as well as other adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s fantastical world, without any of the aspects that could have resulted in litigation.

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