Unlicensed SNES game Super 3D Noah's Ark to be reprinted

Christian-themed first-person shooter Super 3D Noah's Ark remains to this day the only SNES game commercially released in the US that wasn't sanctioned by Nintendo. Adding to its already bizarre legend, developer Wisdom Tree - who incidentally made a whole series of awful, unlicensed bible games - is re-releasing Super 3D Noah's Ark on, get this, the actual SNES. No Virtual Console for these folks!

As reported by The Examiner, Wisdom Tree is pricing the peculiar reprint at $65 a pop, with an extra $7 tacked on for shipping and handling. It's not available on the website either, and must be privately ordered via e-mail.

And what do you get for that? One of the strangest games ever devised. An exact replica of Wolfenstein 3D, Super 3D Noah's Ark sees Noah running around the titular ark in first-person, shooting rambunctious animals with drugged food. I only wish I was making that up.

It gets weirder. Legend has it that id Software, unhappy with Nintendo's censored version of Wolfenstein 3D, gave the source code to Wisdom Tree so it could make a really censored version of it, i.e. Super 3D Noah's Ark, as an "eff you" to Nintendo for butchering its shooter.

Since Super 3D Noah's Ark was an unlicensed product, it had to bypass Nintendo's lockout chip. It did so by being rendered on a strange, awkward-shaped cartridge with a slot on top that required an actual licensed SNES game to plug into it ala a Game Genie.

Even more baffling, Super 3D Noah's Ark - along with the rest of Wisdom Tree's catalogue - is available on PC already, for the much lower price of $7.50. Although this version isn't compatible with Windows 7, 8 or Vista. I guess living in the past is just sort of Wisdom Tree's thing.

The Examiner noted that Wisdom Tree teased further re-releases with the ominous words: "Coming soon .... Remake of games for SNES, Bible Buffet Quiz Book and more." Oh boy!

Now watch The Angry Video Game Nerd suffer through Super 3D Noah's Ark at 13:20 in the video below.

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