8 Cut Video Game Levels You Won’t Believe Exist

WhatCulture

8 months ago

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00:00Cut content will always be a sort of forbidden knowledge when it comes to gaming.

00:04In films, books, or TV, unless a creator directly talks about their initial idea, you rarely

00:09get to learn how they planned the whole thing out, and what got scrapped along the way.

00:14In the world of video games, however, these delicious secrets are usually tucked away

00:18inside the game itself, nestled away in some unused files for a random person or intentional

00:24hacker to stumble upon and then share with the rest of us.

00:27I'm Jess from WhatCulture, and here are 8 Cut Video Game Levels You Won't Believe

00:31Exist.

00:328.

00:33Dust Hill – Sonic The Hedgehog 2

00:35Four levels were scrapped from the final cut of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 that were at varying

00:40stages of completion when they were removed.

00:42Of these, Dust Hill is technically the most complete, as fans have created a version of

00:47it based on the mock-ups shown of the area.

00:50It's not anything you wouldn't have seen somewhere before, as it's just a desert

00:54level occasionally interspersed with ice, but it's still interesting as it's a little

00:58bit of extra insight into one of the most iconic and recognisable games of all time.

01:03Presumably, this zone, much like the other removed parts of the game, was cut due to

01:07time constraints, as nobody was going to lose sleep over there not being a little less time

01:11in the desert than previously expected.

01:14If you're a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the fastest cartoon animal known to man, though,

01:18it's still something that's definitely worth seeing, even if that's just so you

01:21can see the commitment that some others went to in order to see this cut content still

01:26be in some way playable.

01:287.

01:29Hat Trick Manor – Bully As much as the version of Bully we got is

01:32still an undeniably brilliant game, the amount of cut content for it makes it clear that

01:37the original plans for it were far, far grander.

01:41This is clear by the fact that Hat Trick Manor, the home of the school's maths teacher,

01:45was initially explorable, likely for either a side quest or otherwise to just allow you

01:50to terrorize him, which anyone feeling truly in the role of Jimmy Hopkins would likely

01:54jump at the chance to take.

01:56Given there are a fair few missions revolving around either doing teacher's whims or carrying

02:00out pranks against them, it's unclear whether this would have featured in the main storyline,

02:05or rather as an extra side mission for those who were especially angry about being taught

02:09algebra.

02:10Interestingly, you can still access the house in-game, with only a touch of weird shenanigans.

02:15Players are able to travel to the outside of the house, which still exists in-game,

02:19and then ramp off some stairs in order to clip into the house.

02:23While you're obviously not supposed to, getting in requires a method that's so in-fitting

02:27with the rest of the game that it somehow makes perfect sense that you can still get

02:30in.

02:316.

02:32The City of Such, and Much More, Oblivion

02:35Nobody's gonna say for a single minute that Oblivion didn't contain enough content.

02:40Fully completing it takes about 182 hours.

02:43Those who've even attempted to try and finish the game have found that it's like trying

02:47to drink a river, time-consuming, vaguely confusing, and likely to cause an existential

02:52crisis before you're even a hundredth done.

02:55But there could have been much more, as it turns out.

02:57Most interestingly, one entire city was cut out of the game, the City of Such.

03:02This is especially weird because Such was almost totally finished visually, it just

03:07needed quests to make it worth going to.

03:09Since it's practically complete, it's naturally been made into a mod by various

03:13kind souls, so if you're curious, you can still roam its beautiful streets.

03:18Thought Such still exists in Oblivion, though, as a testament to the place that never got

03:22to be.

03:235.

03:24The Top's Casino Sub-Basement, Fallout New Vegas

03:27Fallout is a series that collects cut content like RPG fans collect all the Pokemon currently

03:32in existence.

03:33With such a huge amount of quests, weapons, collectibles, and more, it's inevitable that

03:38plenty of stuff that's initially designed and created has to be cut, for a whole assortment

03:43of reasons.

03:44The most interesting of all this is that of the Top's Casino and its hidden mysteries.

03:49While the sub-basement in this area is supposed to be inaccessible throughout the game, you

03:53can actually reach it by having Benny follow you into the Presidential Suite and then murdering

03:59him in there.

04:00For unexplained reasons, this glitches out the building's elevator, which then allows

04:04you to journey on down.

04:06It's especially interesting because it's clear there was some aspect of the main mission

04:10that was supposed to initially happen around here.

04:12While most wouldn't complain about what we did get in terms of the main storyline, it

04:16still makes you wonder what exactly earlier plans may have looked like.

04:204.

04:21The Mountain Peak, Stardew Valley

04:23Sometimes, in especially unusual circumstances, a level or area from a game will be cut despite

04:29the fact that fans had seen it in previously revealed footage and screenshots of the game.

04:34This was the exact case for the Mountain Peak area in Stardew Valley, as there were both

04:38screenshots of areas that led to the area and the fact that it existed in the game's

04:43files, and yet didn't exist when you actually booted it up.

04:46Speculation for this is that the area had only been designed for special events, since

04:51Santa could be seen up in this mysterious area during Christmas.

04:54The area has since been patched in by several mods developed over the years, as it's a nice

04:59additional area to the game's map.

05:01However, it seems as though the regular version will never make use of it, as if they'd intended

05:06to, it likely would've been in the game proper from the first release.

05:09Even if you don't want to download these modifications, you can still get there, it just takes a fair

05:14bit of time, and a fair bit more fiddling around.

05:173.

05:18Various Bosses, Cuphead

05:20Since boss fights are the vast majority of what makes up Cuphead, it's more than fair

05:24to call these battles levels.

05:26With this in mind, there's very few cut levels from the cheery cartoon game, as many planned

05:31boss fights were ultimately scrapped to give it the more streamlined version we play today.

05:36Firstly, and most preciously, comes Jelly the Octopus, a clown-coloured aquatic friend.

05:42Given the tentacle on his head turns pink, the cue for parrying things in the game, it's

05:46likely safe to believe that this critter was made to show players how to parry, perhaps

05:50before it was implemented in the tutorial itself.

05:53The rest of these bosses, while still interesting, don't serve the same educational purpose

05:58as our dear friend Jelly.

05:59They tend to be extra bosses that would have appeared in levels that have several different

06:03boss enemies for you to take down, such as the King Dice battle or the Devil fight.

06:08However, this isn't a solid rule, as one of the most finished-looking cut bosses is

06:12actually for an airship level, which boasts a spider in a suit and bowtie.

06:17Whether he was cut to evade any player arachnophobia, we can't say for sure.

06:222.

06:23The Emerald Dream, World of Warcraft

06:25The Emerald Dream has been a mystery since before the game even came out, with word on

06:29the development of the game stating that it may be added as an end-game area or extra

06:34bonus content.

06:36While some quests require you to enter the Emerald Green, you never properly see it as

06:40the actual area is never opened up for you to explore, rather letting you have a tiny

06:45taste as a way to spice up some quests a little by reminding you that, at least in lore, this

06:50place is a fully defined thing.

06:52However, players have found the original designs for the Emerald Dream map, which is

06:57apparently the size of Lordarien, which, for anyone who doesn't know what that is, basically

07:02means it's huge, given Lordarien is one of the in-game continents.

07:06You can even visit it, as long as you're willing to get a private server to teleport

07:10to it.

07:11Strangely, the Emerald Dream might not be cut forever.

07:14After all, with the amount of effort that's been put into visualizing this area, it seems

07:18impossible that some eventual future update won't contain it, even if it's only a fraction

07:23of the one we've glimpsed.

07:241.

07:25The Part Where You Kill Cave Johnson – Portal 2

07:29Cutlines from Portal have long been a subject of fan intrigue, ever since the dialogue was

07:33found that covered Aperture Science's best personal assistant, Caroline, being put into

07:38the device that would make her a part of GLaDOS, only to be massively misinterpreted at the

07:43time.

07:44Far more interesting, though, is a few little lines of dialogue that some brave adventurers

07:48found while looking through the game's files.

07:51Against all odds, this cut speech suggests that you find Cave Johnson in Portal 2, or

07:56rather, what remains of him.

07:58As the script tells you, the CEO had his consciousness placed inside a companion cube, leaving his

08:04entire living consciousness for all eternity inside a machine.

08:08Quite fairly, he also states that this has made his life a torture, before begging you

08:13to then kill him.

08:14The script then appears to detail you murdering this former meatbag by unplugging him from

08:19the computer that has sustained him.

08:21It's really, really sad, as much as Johnson sounds his usual level of excited about seeing

08:27the great beyond.

08:28It's profoundly interesting to learn all this, but it's also not entirely a bad thing

08:32that this one area was removed from the final version of the game.

08:36That's the end of our list, but do let me know down in the comments if you can think

08:40of any other cut video game levels that most people don't even know exist.

08:44As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture, thank you so much for hanging out with me.

08:48If you like, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account, where I'm at jessmcdonald,

08:52but make sure you stay tuned with here for plenty more gaming goodness.

8 Cut Video Game Levels You Won’t Believe Exist

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