If you appreciate the work done within the wiki, please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon. Thanks for all your support!

Ufouria: The Saga

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Other languages:


Title Screen

Ufouria: The Saga

Also known as: Hebereke (JP)
Developer: Sunsoft
Publisher: Sunsoft
Platform: NES
Released in JP: September 20, 1991
Released in US: August 23, 2010 (Virtual Console)
Released in EU: November 19, 1992
Released in AU: 1992


DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
MusicIcon.png This game has unused music.
TextIcon.png This game has unused text.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.


Ufouria is a platformer which features four characters with different abilities, all traversing an open, non-linear world. Sadly, the game seems to have had a rather rough development process, given the sheer amount of unused assets and strange data found within the ROM.

The game was not seen in America until 2010, when it was made available on the Wii's Virtual Console service.

Missing Triangle Channel

Due to a programming error, the triangle channel of the title screen music is silent after a hard or soft reset. It can still be heard by returning to the title screen from within the game (e.g. by getting a game over, or entering and exiting the password screen).

Unused Music

A short, non-looping track, titled "Parallel Hebereke" according to the official soundtrack (Takusan Hebereke).

Unused Text

U-four-ia - The Saga (E) -!--1.png

There are three unused packed tilemaps at 0xC249 in both ROMs: "FLAG CONDITION" and some hex numbers. The font must be loaded into the non-animated background CHR area in order for the strings to display properly. The pointer table indexes for the tilemaps are 0, 1, and 2, respectively. Unfortunately, these indexes are never used by any part of the game code, meaning whatever debugging function they were associated with no longer exists.

Unused Graphics

Both versions of the game contain numerous unused graphics, some of which appear to be from much earlier in the game's development. It seems that the game underwent some rather drastic changes, possibly due to either tight deadlines or limited ROM space.

Many of these graphics also reveal that Ufouria and Hebereke were in development at the same time, and that Ufouria may in fact predate Hebereke.

Found Only In Hebereke

HeberekeTitleUFO.png HeberekeTitleUFO.gif

Several frames of the UFO boss zooming in from the background. As this is stored with the title screen graphics, and the title screen loads several appropriate palettes, it's safe to assume this was meant to be shown there.

Found Only In Ufouria

UfouriaBopLouie.png

Numerous unused animations for Bop-Louie, including what may be a couple of idle animations. Note that these are all blank in Hebereke!

UfouriaFreeon.png

Same as above, but for Freeon-Leeon. Who knew he was a talented singer?

Found In Both

UfouriaShades.png

More animations, this time for Shades/Sukezaemon. Apparently he enjoys a nice cup of tea.

UfouriaGil.png

Unused animations for Gil/Jennifer. Note that he appears to have actual swimming frames here, whereas in the final game he just sort of...walks underwater. He's also the only character to not have some kind of "blowing steam" animation.

HeberekeOChan.png

A single frame of O-Chan posing for the camera. (Yes, this also appears in Ufouria.)

HeberekeHebeSit.png

A really old version of Bop-Louie just sittin'.

HeberekeHanged.png

Graphics that depict an unknown cat character (possibly an early O-Chan?) and early Bop-Louie being...hanged? It's worth noting that the hanged cat graphics are in the same CHR bank as (and line up perfectly with) the large bird that carries you across gaps midway through the game, so the two were likely connected at some point. The hanged Bop-Louie is also stored in a nearby bank, and may be part of the same scenario.

HeberekeCatBoss.png

Animations for a cat boss, which could use some kind of bubble attack. This was very likely a scrapped second form of the armored knight boss, as it appears in an adjacent CHR bank. In the final game, the knight's second form is completely defenseless and doesn't even move.

Interestingly, this cat boss seems to resemble the unknown cat character seen above!

HeberekePenguin.png

Some sort of rock-throwing penguin dude with shades. Was this to be an enemy, or a playable character?

HeberekeNinja.png

A ninja enemy that would hurl shuriken at you from the ceiling.

HeberekeMinion.png

A whole set of animation frames for the little minion dude that the final boss swings around, showing that he was once more than a mere puppet. Apparently they were killable, too, judging by the presence of a life crystal sprite in the same CHR bank.

HeberekePopoon.png

Either an earlier design for Popoons (the little faces that stomped enemies turn into), or just another enemy. Looks like it could have rolled around.

HeberekeBlob.png

An unused frame for this blobby obstacle shows it being hit/pushed from the side. It's possible that it once served as a much tougher roadblock than it does in the final game, where it can be defeated with just a couple of jumps. For some reason, the top-right corner of the graphic is missing in Hebereke.

HeberekeCactus.png

It's a cactus.

HeberekeDrool.png

A drooling block, similar to the one in the very first area of the game, but with "awake" and "asleep" states. It's possible that at one point, waking one of these blocks would have provided a shortcut to an earlier area of the game.

HeberekeSpringboard.png

An older version of the springboard sprite, before it was reshaded and mirrored to save CHR space. (Final springboard on the right for comparison.)

HeberekeMapLabels.png

Apparently, the world map was supposed to have a legend at one point. A rather unfortunate and puzzling omission.

Ufouria cat crying.png

An unused sprite of the unarmored cat knight crying. There is a used sprite of him crying, but in this one he appears sadder.

UfouriaSwimming.gif

An unused frame of O-Chan's swimming sprite and what appear to be swimming frames for Bop-Louie and Shades are all found in Gil's sprites. Bop-Louie and Shades might have been able to swim like Freeon-Leeon/O-Chan at one point in development.

Regional Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Compare Bop-Louie and Freeon-Leeon's overworld sprites with their Japanese counterparts.

Title Screen

Europe Japan
The title Ufouria is the pronunciation of the word euphoria, meaning a state of intense happiness. Hebereke in Japanese means drunk.

The title screen is completely different between releases.

Characters

Europe Japan
Hebereke Bop select.pngHebereke hebe unselect.png Heberke hebe select.pngHebereke Bop unselect.png
Europe Japan
Hebereke Freon select.pngHebereke freon unselect.png Heberke ochan select.pngHebereke ochan unselect.png

The character icons in the sub-menu were changed to match the overworld sprites.

Enemy Graphics

Japan Europe
Ufouria poop.png Ufouria weight.png

The crows attack by dropping poop onto the unsuspecting player in the Japanese version. This was changed to a 16-ton weight in the European release.

Europe Japan
Ufouria-Mouse Enemy.png Hebereke-Mouse Enemy.png

Compared to the Japanese release, the mouse enemy's arms are stubbier in the European version. In the European prototype, the mouse enemy uses the Japanese graphics.

Game Over

Europe Japan
Ufouria-gameover.png Hebereke-gameover.png

The European Game Over screen is rather bland, whereas the Japanese version uses ornate lettering, similar to the "The End" lettering used in the game's ending.

For some strange reason, the European version's tilemap data is present in both versions' CHR ROM, appearing as scrambled tiles in a tile editor.

Ending Sequence

The ending is slightly different between both releases. After the staff credits in the Japanese version, waiting on the Sunsoft logo for a long enough time earns you a bonus message from Hebe, complete with a "The End" graphic afterward.

In the European version, this scene is directly after the epilogue between Bop-Louie and friends and right before the credits, so the game ends on the Sunsoft logo instead.