The Panda Prince

The Panda Prince
Developer: Ex-Sachen developers Publishers: Taiwan Shin-Shin, Ka Sheng Platform: Unlicensed NES Released in TW: 1996 This game has unused areas. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

A bootleg version of Donkey Kong Country for the NES, but with more pandas! It's also notable for recycling unused levels while reskinning the game.

To do: There's apparently more than what's currently here.

Unused Objects

Army

Appears in the first and third unused level. When they're encountered, they're stationary at first but then they roll after you. Unlike Donkey Kong Country, you can jump on them with either character to defeat him.

Barrels

During the unused "wasp" boss fight, there's barrels you can pick up and throw. Unlike Donkey Kong Country, these do not roll on the ground and simply fall to the bottom of the screen.

Mini-Necky

Only seen in the first unused level. They fly up and down and none of them spit coconuts at you.

Jumping Kremling

Appears in the third unused level. They only jump straight up and come back down.

"Wasp" (Queen B.)

It appears Queen B. was going to be fought. During the battle, it flies back and forth and if it's hit with a barrel, it flashes red and becomes invincible for a while.

Unused Graphics

Appears to be the star barrel from Donkey Kong Country.

A barrel with a panda face that's also tilted. It's unknown what this could've been used for.

The fact these are located in the barrels' graphic banks implying these are parts of a barrel that break off. However, the DK barrel-like powerup that break upon contact don't use these and the unused barrel does not break upon making contact.

These appear to be graphic tiles from a bootleg game known as The Dragon that Ex-Sachen developers have worked on. It's possible this game originally used The Dragon as a base for this game. Strangely, these group of tiles appear twice in the ROM.

To do: Is there more Map leftovers?

This text reads "熊猫王国地图" (Map for Panda Kingdom), probably related to some world map system but was scrapped in development.

Unused Animal Buddy

In Panda Prince, the only animal buddy you encounter is Expresso who only appears in a bonus room once you get three animal icons in the slots mini-game. However, another unused bonus room lets you play as Winky without his stripes and with a party hat. As Winky, you can only jump up or forwards.

Level Select

During the slots mini-game, pressing Start brings you to a blank screen with a number in the center of the screen. This number represents a level in the game. Pressing Up or Down will change the number and pressing Start will bring you to the level. You can also access the bosses and animal buddy rooms by pressing Select and then pressing A or B to change the level. However, after some time has passed, the game will restart.

Strangely enough, between Panda Prince's actual 3rd level and the actual 4th level, there's several unused levels. Some of these would later reappear in the Super Lion King 2 hack and two that don't appear at all.

Values:

• Levels
  1. Level 1
  2. Level 2
  3. Level 3
  4. Unused Level #1 (Level 2 in Super Lion King 2)
  5. Unused Level #2 (Level 1 in Super Lion King 2)
  6. Unused Level #3 (Level 3 in Super Lion King 2)
  7. Unused Level #4
  8. Level 4
• Bosses/Bonus rooms
  1. Very Gnawty
  2. Master Necky
  3. "Wasp" (Queen B.) (Unused)
  4. Expresso bonus room
  5. Winky bonus room (Unused)

Unused Areas

Unused Level #1

Music track:

Seems to be based on Donkey Kong Country's forest levels (such as Vulture Culture). The music appears to be a rendition of Jungle Hijinx but the track cuts short (the full version was used in Super Donkey Kong). This is where Armys and Mini-Neckys appear. The ledge near the end of the level contains a slot mini-game that can lead you to an Expresso bonus room. Beating this level leads to the 2nd unused level.

Unused Level #2

Music track:

A minecart level like Level 4 using different palettes. One thing noticeable here is that the controls are slightly different: holding left or right slowed you down or sped you up but in Level 4, you would also move back or forwards on the screen. In this level, your position stays the same, making it similar to the minecart control scheme in Donkey Kong Country. (However, your horizontal position is at the center of the screen.) The music is the same as Level 4, but played at a slower tempo. Beating this level leads to the 3rd unused level.

Unused Level #3

Music track:

Appears to be based on Donkey Kong Country's cave levels, right down to the music. The ledge before the end of the level leads to a slot mini-game that can lead you to a Winky bonus room. This is the only level in the game with jumping Kremlings. Beating this level leads to the Master Necky boss fight.

Unused Level #4

Music track:

Appears to be an underwater level similar to Level 2 but with different palettes and the music plays at a much faster tempo. One noticeable thing about this level is that whereas the other unused levels have reappeared in Super Lion King 2 if you play through it normally, this one does not appear at all!

To make things weirder, in Panda Prince, beating the level would lead you to Panda Prince's Level 4 but in Super Lion King 2, you go straight to the "wasp" fight.

"Wasp" (Queen B.) fight

Despite the fact the intro shows a wasp being the antagonist of the game, you never fight it during normal gameplay. However, there was a fight that was programmed into the game. It's very similar to the Queen B. fight, and this is the only time you can throw barrels.

In Panda Prince, beating the level leads to a glitched screen while in Super Lion King 2, you're lead to the first level in Panda Prince.

Interestingly, this level was used in the hack "Jungle Adventure" later.

Winky Bonus Room

The room is filled with bananas and as Winky, you must collect as many as you can before the time runs out.

Super Lion King 2

This hack replaces the pandas with Simba (whose sprites appear to be based on Virgin Interactive's The Lion King game), changes the title screen (the game starts up on the title screen instead but if you wait too long on the level select, it'll bring you to the original Panda Prince intro but with almost all the backgrounds gone and Simba replacing the Panda Prince) and alters the level order to include the unused levels as mentioned above. Also, you can still access the original Panda Prince levels using the level select.

Unused Graphics

During normal gameplay, you don't encounter any of the underwater levels. However, visiting one of them through the level select will show Simba swimming in the water.

You never fight the "wasp" here either so during normal gameplay, you'll never see Simba picking up and throwing barrels.

Unused Intro

To do: Try to record a better one.

As mentioned above, the Panda Prince intro is still present in the game, but some backgrounds are removed and Panda Prince was replaced by Simba.

Jungle Adventure

This hack edits the sprite of Panda Prince to resemble a bear, and the gameplay is basically a boss rush of the original game. The music was stolen from Boogerman II. As mentioned above, you can actually fight the wasp in this hack. Because the hack was heavily trimmed down (512kb to 128kb) to include only the boss level, you can never find any original Panda Prince levels here. This hack was hacked into MMC3 and is often included in some Plug-n-Play systems.

Alternate Title Screen

Graphics for this alternate title screen exist between 58000 and 59000 in the ROM. Shown to the left is a recreation of this screen, as a way to access it in-game has yet to be found. No variation of this game has ever been found. Given this and the fact that Super Lion King 2 has the "2" with the same font on the title screen, Super Lion King 2 might be a reskin of The Panda Prince 2.

(Source: Cah4e3)

Chinese Mode

Game Genie code AANGAIPA will enable a Chinese language mode, with much of the text being in traditional Chinese. A title screen with animated pandas scrolling back and forth alternatively can also be seen. No cart has been found using this title screen.

(Source: Cah4e3)

Copyright Screens

Two secret copyright screens can be seen with cheat codes.

For the Shin-Shin Electronics, Ka Sheng, and Family Logos, press Up, Left, Down, Down, Right, Right, Left, Up at the title screen.

For the Ka Sheng screen, press Left, Up, Right, Right, Down, Down, Left, Up at the main menu.

(Source: http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/The_Panda_Prince#Trivia)

Oddities

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.

Both The Panda Prince and Super Lion King 2 has a "Shin-Shin Electronics" screen (the latter being unused), but both of them lacks the copyright text (which was found in Earthworm Jim 2). It's unknown if there's a version with copyright text ever exists.