Coliseum

The 1990s were a fertile time for fighting games, and almost every developer out there was scrambling to make what they hoped would be the next big title in the budding genre. As such, it’s no surprise that unfinished games from the period surface from time to time.

One such prototype was recently unearthed by Neo-Geo.com forum regular Brian Hargrove, aka NeoTurfMasta. First shown at the Midwest Gaming Classic, the prototype in question has no known name or even developer, as that information was lost due to data corruption on the board. However, signs point to it being developed by Technos Japan, and it may, in fact, be Death Match, a game scheduled for 1994 that never quite saw the light of day. The fact that the board carries the label of another Technos game, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, only strengthens this argument.

The game itself features a fantasy aesthetic that seems to be heavily influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, with the character falling into tropes from the tabletop RPG. As an extension of this, each character can switch between Lawful, Neutral and Evil stances in the game. Each stance comes with its own set of (incomplete) sprites, at least for the characters that have sprites.

Hargrove is hard at work at creating a playable ROM dump of the game for MAME, hoping to eventually be able to release it to the public. You can see the results of his efforts in the videos below.

Source: USGamers, tip from Glottis