Yet another massive data leak from Nintendo has revealed the source codes for various SNES games, including Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Kart, and an unreleased Donkey Kong game. This is the latest big leak in a series of Nintendo leaks this year that have detailed source codes for games and given answers to questions Nintendo fans have had on Nintendo's design philosophy.
Earlier this year, a leak of the source code for Pokémon Gold & Silver showed prototype sprites of Pokémon like Pikachu and an uncanny Celebi. Later, the reason for why Nintendo still uses friend codes in their games came out from a similar leak, and another leak released the source code for Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. All of these leaks come from the same source that covers all of them: ResetEra.
This time, ResetEra has covered a leak from an anonymous 4chan user, according to user Lady Bow. This leak shows some bizarre early prototypes of certain games. One of which includes a prototype of Yoshi's Island with different UI and music from Super Mario World as a placeholder. Another shows a broken Super Mario Kart that doesn't have a track or drifting but has a unique title theme. But most intriguingly is footage of a never before seen Donkey Kong game titled "Super Donkey" (the name of Donkey Kong Country in Japan) that stars some sort of human character. For being a prototype, the game is surprisingly well put together mechanically, with the character being able to grab vines, carrying objects or other monkeys, and having a ground pound attack that sends smoke clouds in both directions.
Other interesting things to note include early concepts of Star Fox 2 that show a human character, Super Mario World sprites that include an elderly Yoshi, and yes, a sprite of Luigi looking towards the camera and giving the player the middle finger. There's also a video showcasing a prototype of Super Castlevania 4, and early sprites of Bowser from Super Mario World.
Though some of these screenshots are very weird, these sprites and builds for 90s Nintendo games show some valuable history of the development process for these series. This is also far from the end, as source codes for other SNES games like Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario RPG were also leaked and are currently being uncovered at the time of writing. For those that love to geek out about how games looked in their early days, this Nintendo leak is a treasure trove of history for these iconic SNES games.
Source: ResetEra