Shobon no Action

Shobon no Action
Also known as: Cat Mario, Neko Mario, Syobon Action (historical English spelling) Developer: Chiku Publisher: Chiku Platform: Windows Released in JP: February 2007 This game has unused objects. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has hidden bonus content. This game has a bugs page

In Shobon no Action, you play as the Japanese emoticon Shobon, who must traverse numerous levels that bear more than a passing resemblance to a certain NES game. Out to get you are various other Japanese emoticons and... pretty much everything else, from blocks disappearing out of nowhere to powerups randomly killing you, and that's only a fraction of what Chiku's sadistic mind managed to dream up for one of the first and most popular "rage" games.

Sub-Pages

Bugs

Special Edition Supposed unused sprites from a cancelled special edition of the game.

Unused Graphics

Inside the res folder are several unused variants of used graphics.

A third frame of the flying enemies seen in 1-3, with a different cape. Oddly, on the same file there is a duplicate of the used capeless frame.

An unused enemy that resembles Domo-kun, the mascot of NHK (who was extremely popular around this time).

A faceless enemy that heavily resembles the player in shape.

A single darkened frame of the enemy found in 1-4.

Brown and green mushrooms, presumably analogues of the Poison and 1-Up Mushrooms from Super Mario Bros. (and its Japanese sequel, in the former's case), and two alternate frames of the star. There is also a duplicate of the used mushroom graphic in the same file.

An open-eyed version of the clouds found in 1-3's "bonus" room.

A version of 1-4's castle bricks that more closely resembles the ones from Super Mario Bros. The in-game ones aren't shaded, like the rest of the game's tiles.

Unused Tiles

A white tile that can only be encountered with the random level generator. It acts solid.

Same thing as the white one, but black.

A second row block similar to the ones in the overworld and underground levels, intended for the castle stage.

Unused Game Over Theme

Inside the SE folder is an audio file of the game over theme from Super Mario Bros. under the filename "gameover". While you do have a lives counter, it's impossible to get a game over as it goes into the negatives if you die while having zero lives.

Interestingly, there is a duplicate audio file for it under the filename of "gameoveｒ" in the same folder, with the "r" being formatted in Shift-JIS' fullwidth character set for... whatever reason. Upon closer inspection, the only difference of this duplicate is that it's very slightly modified to reduce popping in the audio, but it's still not used.

Hidden Level

There is a 9th level which would be 3-1. This level doesn't show up after beating Level 8 but can be accessed by pressing 9 on the title screen.

This level features a unique music track, a mashup of the Cheetahmen theme and "Pursuit ~ Cornered" from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Hidden Game Mode

Pressing 0 enables a hidden random level generator that generates levels from completely random objects and blocks.

This is still present in OpenSyobonAction, an open-source analogue of the game. It also works in any game that uses the game's engine (OpenSyobonAction), such as Memes Mario, etc.