Ai Senshi Nicol
Beta
Most Famicom fans by
now know about Konami's Ai Senshi Nicol, an overhead-view action
game set in a sci-fi universe. Well, the game was of course previewed
in Japanese magazines in the first half of 1987, along with reviews, maps
and strategy guides.
These early previews
show a beta version of Nicol -- not altogether looking too different
from the released version, but rearranged nonetheless. The title screen
and status screen (see right) contain the most obvious differences, with
the beta having no(?) continue/progress-saving option, and the items not
having been named yet.
Structurally, the biggest
difference in Ai Senshi Nicol is the level ordering, with the
mountain stage (release stage 2) or sea/ruins (stage 3) coming first,
depending on which magazine reported on the game. The stages that follow
are either the release's stage 1 or stage 4, and so on. So, a bit of level
rejigging was done at Konami to get the difficulty or thematic balance
right.
There may be other
level layout differences, so if you see any in the pics below, let me
know!
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