El Viento

El Viento
Developer: Wolf Team Publishers: Wolf Team (JP), Renovation Products (US) Platform: Genesis Released in JP: September 20, 1991 Released in US: 1991 This game has unused areas. This game has regional differences.

To do: document the prototype version. source

El Viento is a fast-paced, sidescrolling action game from Wolf Team. It involves a lot of boomerang throwing and giant, pixelated explosions.

It is the first in a trilogy of games, which include Earnest Evans and Annet Futatabi.

Testing / Challenge Stage

Using M.I.J.E.T.'s enhancement patch, this normally inaccessible stage can be accessed by holding A + B + C and pressing Start at the title screen. To quote the readme:

Stage 0, as I refer to it, appears to have been initially designed as a testing ground for many of the game's features. It contains "programmer art" and lacks any enemies. Apparently, it evolved during game development and ended up becoming a challenge stage for the developers at Wolfteam to play.

The stage appears to be partially based on Stage 4, or vice versa. The big word at the top-left of the stage has been translated to "PERIL" and the one at the top-right corner has been translated to "GOAL". The red text on the tombstone-like objects translates to "Hiroshi", most likely in reference to assistant programmer Hiroshi Izumino.

Features of this stage include:

• Floor tiles with left and right pointing arrows that move you in that direction.
• Bricks that can be destroyed with your boomerangs.
• Bricks with red cracks that explode when hit, causing a chain reaction with adjacent cracked bricks.
• Pipes that act like a fuse when their connected cracked brick is hit. They tend to block your path until you clear them away.
• Gray, prickly blocks that act like enemies in that they explode when hit and cause harm when touched, but don't move unless they're falling from the air.
• Green water that propels you upwards.
• Floor tiles with downward pointing triangles that you fall through.
• Floor tiles with squares in them that act similarly to the pipes.
• Adorable green and yellow sea creatures that act like the cracked bricks, just more cuddly. (These guys are likely based on the "Kakins" characters from FromA magazine, the commercials for which became very popular in 1991.)

Alternately, the test level can be accessed using Game Genie code AB9A-AAH6.

Regional Differences

A couple of the cutscenes were altered to remove Vincente/Al's cigar, specifically the ones that play before Levels 2 and 5.

Japan	U.S.

(Source: Rage Quitter 87)