Lemmings (SNES)

Lemmings
Developer: Sunsoft Publisher: Sunsoft Platform: SNES Released in JP: December 18, 1991 Released in US: March 1992 Released in EU: October 22, 1992 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences.

The SNES version of Lemmings is surprisingly faithful to the Amiga original, given the constraints of the SNES hardware. Too bad it predated the release of the SNES Mouse by about 7 months.

To do: Lots of differences in the spelling structures of two-player level 17 between US and Japanese versions of the game.

Unused Graphics

An unused exclamation mark can be found in the title screen graphics.

Hidden within the Sunsoft logo. the mascot from some earlier Sunsoft commercials was supposed to appear but was left unused in the final game. This graphic is also present (but still unused) in Hebereke's Popoon, Hebereke no Oishii Puzzle wa Irimasenka and the SNES port of Xak: The Art of Visual Stage.

Several unused characters from the internal game font.

Partially Unused Music

This song is used during the rating completed cutscenes, these cutscenes usually last around 19 seconds. If you play this song in the game's sound test, you will notice there is more to hear than what is played in the cutscenes: 41 seconds of this song is cut during these cutscenes!

Unused Passwords

Starting at offset 0x7749 in the US version, 0x7738 in the Japanese version and 0x7742 in the European version (right after the SUNSOFT SPECIAL 5 password) there is a set of 25 unused passwords, suggesting that the Sunsoft rating was originally planned to encompass 30 levels, as seen in the later Genesis port. The final game has only 5 levels.

US	Japan	Europe
NJHPBZW TNRNCHN TBGNQTC PXCTWGT GMFDCNG NHDMKLB ZMPLFBN BZRBQXW CZNXDHT FLXLDTR SXTTNWH BNQBSZJ DTGGWBJ HQWWKWK NTGVPQN DDWVJKC MVRWNKN LSKZMBQ FQRGLNG RMRVNLQ GJBSDKF NWNJRQD VSDTMWZ GDGHFMF PNJNDBB	NOKAHER OSOMETT OMOOTAD NEZIASA GAMIATT ADNATTA NINISOY AKANOME TTOTAWN INOYUKA KINOTAT IETISIA OWIRUGO MAWAFIN EJATTAA GNISIJI NUPNAYJ AHNOMEA ZEKUSAT TADIUKO TAGIGOY OAWNAHC OATEDIN IBATURE AKEIAKE	KXBZZRH JPLJFLK JPXJQXR NGJWFVH QQTKWVB VJPTTKL KZTNNFF QPVZNXB KMPQSLQ WTJBGFV MFRPQZW DKMSBCM SJSBDGQ RNXXPPB QWLJHQS PRHGCLK JMQSRWG XZMPQFP TBPBPLH RXLCPZR SRVSMSW SPWDXCQ KRXMDGM JLVWZWS DMKHZBC

(Source: Doggycharly)

Debugging Text

Starting at offset 0x00ED93 in the US version, 0x00ED9D in the European version and 0x00ECF8 in the Japanese version, there are are remnants of a debug menu, likely used to quickly access various events from the game.

DEMO1
DEMO2
DEMO3
ENDING DEMO
ENDING DEMO2
NEW LEVEL
    OPENNING DEMO

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

Leftover Levels

As mentioned here, a few levels had to be slightly modified and/or replaced in the international versions to meet Nintendo's copyright/censorship policies. What is interesting about this is that the modified/replaced levels were actually given their own level IDs, leaving the original levels untouched and unused in the international versions.

Edit offset x8C58F with one of the following values to replace the first level:

Hex Value	Level
05	Tricky 21
14	Fun 16/Taxing 3
28	Taxing 24
5E	Two-Player 17

(Source: Doggycharly)

Sound Test

Hold Select and press Start at the title screen to be taken to a hidden menu that contains a sound test.

Regional Differences

An odd melange of classic Nintendo censorship, reference loss, and copyright censorship.

Passwords

Japan	US/Europe

The Japanese version uses a full alphabet for its password system, whereas the US and European versions do not use vowels.

Level Name Changes

Level Name	Japanese	US
Tricky Level 16	Luvly Jubly	Lovely Jubilee
Tricky Level 21	All the 6's ........	Ohayo Lemming san!
Tricky Level 28	Lost something?	Exit in the ground
Taxing Level 3	Heaven can wait (we hope!!!!)	Paradise can wait (we hope!!!)
Taxing Level 16	Mary Poppins' land	Umbrella land
Mayhem Level 12	The Far Side	The Other Side
Mayhem Level 20	No added colours or Lemmings	No added colors or Lemmings
2P Level 11	Just for fun or to the death?	Just for fun or to your doom?

Level Differences

Tricky 21

Tricky 21 is the infamous "All the 6's" level, which originally featured the number "666" made out of rocks. Along with the name change, the level itself was changed to spell out "ohayou" in hiragana in the English versions, and all of the 6-based level statistics (time, number of abilities, etc.) were changed to twos instead.

Taxing 3

The level structure spelling out the word "heaven" was changed to "paradise", predictably.

Taxing 24

The level structure spelling out the word "death" was changed to... "terminate"? Oddly, the "MAD DAM DMA" graffiti was left untouched.

Terrain Differences

Japan	US/Europe

The crosses in the dirt tileset were changed to signs in the US and European versions.

Japan	US/Europe

The Christian cross in the beginning of the level A Beast II of a level was changed to generic pieces of wood.

Controller Configuration

Europe/Japan	US

As usual, the Japanese and European versions uses the colored buttons while the US version uses the purple buttons.

End of Taxing Cutscene

Japan	US/Europe

The cutscene after completing the Taxing rating was changed. In the Japanese version, the last Lemming down the slide has the seat of its tunic thing chafed off, exposing its bottom and causing it to blush when it notices. In the international versions, it keeps sliding after it hits the ground.