10 Crazy Unlicensed Video Games You’ve Never Heard Of

5. Somari (Nintendo Entertainment System)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwBKW0kDHIQ When it comes to the more legally questionable side of the unlicensed game market, there are few games more well-known than Somari. Cobbled together from various versions of Sonic The Hedgehog with Mario dropped in his place, it's the closest you can get to playing a Sonic game on older Nintendo hardware from the era where they were warring with Sega. As glitchy as it is, it's an incredible accomplishment on the part of the developers at Hummer Team, referred to as "Somari Team" here as a play on Sega's "Sonic Team." Even though Sonic games were released for Sega's 8-bit Master System console and Game Gear handheld, most of the game is based on the 16-bit Genesis/Mega Drive version of Sonic The Hedgehog. It's much more difficult because of how often the glitches cause enemies to spawn as well as the problematic physics and lack of checkpoints or a save function. While a number of otherwise identical NES titles were released later with Sonic back where he "should" be, Somari came first and those versions were hacks of it. To show just how different intellectual property law is in that part of the world, Ge De Industry Inc. successfully applied for trademarks for both "Somari" and "Sonimari," which is believed to be an earlier title for the game. In Russia, gamers knew Mario as the mascot of Dendy, an unauthorized NES clone, and Somari was featured on Dendy: The New Reality, a TV show sponsored by Dendy's manufacturer to help keep players up to date on upcoming games.