Zanex: The Revolution (SNES)

[gbpxl]

Game Informer reviewed a video game for the SNES called "Zanex: The Revolution," in their August 1996 issue on page 55. This game didn't show up in my "master list." It also didn't come up in Google search results, Youtube, Wikipedia, eBay, or DigitPress. They gave it a 4.25/10. It was created by Advanced Productions.

It seems this is a canceled game but I find it strange that there would be absolutely no information on this game whatsoever.

[goldenband]

I initially wondered if this might be a prank -- or a trap to catch other magazines' plagiarism -- but it's also mentioned as an upcoming release on p. 32 of the July 1996 issue of Gamefan (Volume 4, Issue 07).

Maybe it was a canceled localization of a Japanese release? I can't find a scan of Game Informer's August 1996 issue, sadly.

EDIT: Aha, got it! An old forum thread (http://archive.li/yALGl) reveals that it was a provisional title for War 3010.

[jb143]

The name shows up as having the trademark registration initialized but later abandoned.

https://trademark.trademarkia.com/zanexthe-revolution-75027096.html

[gbpxl]

Im guessing the name change had something to do with not wanting children to become hooked on Xanex pills.

[jb143]

Im guessing the name change had something to do with not wanting children to become hooked on Xanex pills.

It does seem odd that they would have wanted to give it name that sounds like a well known drug, but even odder considering that the game was a sequel to War 2410. They did keep the "The Revolution" part though.




or a trap to catch other magazines' plagiarism

I was wondering if that might have been the case at first. I have heard of other publications doing it before, especially with fake towns on maps. I wonder if there have been video game related instances though?

[Tupin]

It does seem odd that they would have wanted to give it name that sounds like a well known drug, but even odder considering that the game was a sequel to War 2410. They did keep the "The Revolution" part though.





I was wondering if that might have been the case at first. I have heard of other publications doing it before, especially with fake towns on maps. I wonder if there have been video game related instances though?
I thought that this may have been the first, because Yeah Yeah Beebis I was shown to be a poor translation of a Famicom game. But this was solved somewhat easier.

[Natty Bumppo]

It is actually an ok game. Somewhat clunky by today's standards, it was better than War 2410 in that it had smaller battlefields (2410's were too big for the slow units (in comparison to the battlefield) and the clumsy mechanics. Since it was all air (well space) units it didn't suffer from the imbalance of air power strength that most strategy games suffer from - once you take out the enemy air units it is just a matter of mopping up the enemy ground forces.

(The SNES had surprisingly few strategy games (either regular or RPG). The best was probably Super Famicom Wars - which of course wasn't available on SNES.)