Kikou Keisatsu Metal Jack / Metal Jack: Armored Police

This is an incomplete localization prototype of the unreleased Metal Jack: Armored Police. By: Evan G Last updated: May 22, 2021

This prototype is part of a collection of loose EPROMs recovered by the Video Game History Foundation on behalf of an anonymous collector. This lot contained prototypes from various systems including Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, Game Gear, 32X, NES, Turbo-Grafx 16, Atari XE and Master System. The prototypes for other systems will be released on other sites, such as Hidden Palace and SMS Power.

Metal Jack was intended for release in North America, but it never came out. Several years ago, a prototype of what appears to be the final version of the game was dumped, which I detailed in a previous article. In some ways, I am glad that version was found first, because if we had got this incomplete localization, we might have concluded that the crudeness of the localization prototype was partially at fault for the cancellation.

First thing to note, the title screen in this prototype is nearly the same as the final, but the "Licensed by Nintendo" has not been added.

Early localization prototype	Final localization prototype

Japanese version

The intro graphics in this localization prototype are unchanged from the Japanese version, and thus still shows Tokyo. The text is translated, but it is maybe a bit unpolished.

Early localization prototype	Final localization prototype

Japanese version

The localization prototype still has the same character select screen as the Japanese version. The character names are the same, there is no conversion to imperial units, and the "Jack On" text is still there.

Early localization prototype	Final localization prototype

Japanese version

The early localization prototype still says "Player Dead"

Early localization prototype	Final localization prototype

Japanese version

Download here