Higemaru Makaijima: Nanatsu no Shima Daibouken (NES)

Higemaru Makaijima: Nanatsu no Shima Daibouken
Also known as: Makai Island (US) Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platform: NES Released in JP: May 14, 1987 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused enemies. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article

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Higemaru Makaijima: Nanatsu no Shima Daibouken is the follow-up to Pirate Ship Higemaru, now with a bit of Zelda flavor. At one point, the game was planned for an American release as Makai Island, but only a prototype build remains of that attempt.

Unused Enemies

Inside the game's graphics, an undead Higemaru skeleton is found. They do not show up in-game, but were probably intended to occupy the Ghost Ship seen late in the game, replacing the living Higemarus from previous Pirate ships.

Debug Leftovers

At the title screen, hold B and press Start on Controller I to start a new game and enable some debug leftovers. Basically this disables some collision, so you will be invulnerable at any battle. Unfortunately, this will also lead to garbled game graphics. More disabled functions are available, but due to code changes they crash the game. Additional debug flags were available, but are now inaccessible. The debug mode flag is found at address $5F.

Most of the same code is present in the US prototype, but it can't be accessed via a button code.

To do: More details.

Hidden Text

Present at the end of both the Japanese and US ROMs:

BY MASAMITSU.KOBAYASI 87/3/2

The US prototype also has a more detailed copyright message at the end of the next-to-last bank:

 MSX ....... 1985 , FC COMMANDO 1986FC MAKAI ISLAND 1987 M.KOBAYASI S.40.3.24 BORN,THANK YOU !! NEXT GAME IS   SIDE ARMS !!

More messages from this programmer are present in Commando. The MSX game mentioned is Mr. Do's Wild Ride, which also has a short copyright string.