Check Out This Unreleased Akira Game For The Sega Mega Drive!

Friends, it appears that in the last days of 2019 – the folks at Hidden Palace delivered an extremely amazing Holiday gift to fans of retrogaming. They uploaded a playthrough of the unreleased Akira game on the Sega Mega Drive or the Sega Genesis as it was known here in the States. This 1994 prototype was apparently developed by Black Pearl Software and was intended to be released in ’95 on multiple popular home consoles of the day – such as the Super Nintendo, GameBoy and Game Gear in addition to the Sega CD. All of the projects ended up being cancelled before the game had a chance to be released and from the information provided by the Hidden Palace video – it is believed that this Akira prototype has not been seen since the ’94 Summer Consumer Electronics Show. It really is rather impressive what was intended with this title – there are a handful of game genres featured in it – racing, beat ’em up, first-person shooter, and even platforming. And while it is sad that this video game version of Akira was never released back in the day, at the very least we can enjoy this video of the playthrough – bear in mind that since it was never finished there are some scenes that are missing audio, etc.

For what it might be worth, I have read online that not only did the Famicom get a game based on that iconic 1988 animated film – which itself was an adaptation of the manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo. But in 1995 the Commodore Amiga and Amiga CD32 were also provided Akira titles – none of which were tied to the cancelled Black Pearl Software versions. Black Pearl Software was founded in 1992 and appears to only have lasted until 1996 – a subsidiary of THQ, although they managed in that time to develop and port arcade titles such as Time Killers and Total Carnage. As well as games based on The Mask, Disney’s Pocahontas, and of course… the one and only Shaq Fu!