When Donkey Kong Country was first revealed many thought it was for the then upcoming Ultra 64 console. The twist was that it was actually for the SNES. But what if it was made for the NES instead, complete with rendered visuals? Impossible, right?
Well, talented Chinese pirates ‘Hummer Team’ have had a go and managed to get the 8-bit system doing stuff it really shouldn’t be doing. Of course, it’s an illegal bootleg that has nothing to do with Nintendo, but it’s impressive stuff. They’ve had to leave out the animal helpers and bonus rounds, but the level design is intact and the visual style has been retained. There’s a video and more screenshots over on TechEBlog.
Pirated NES (or Famicom) games are still common in the Far East – recently a Harry Potter has been doing the rounds, as well as a 2D version of Final Fantasy VII.