Guess the nameholders couldn't spare a Buck

Licensing can be a fickle playground for developers. The rights that were secured for a brand may suddenly change or be revoked entirely, calling for a change in plans at any time. More evidence of this fact has arrived in an alleged ROM of a prototype Buck Rogers SNES game made by French developer Loriciel in 1993.

Nintendo Lifer Shiryu was kind enough to post footage of the game, titled Buck Rogers: The Arcade Game in their write-up on it:

If it looks familiar, your eyes aren't deceiving you. This game emerged into the world as Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, starring Loricel's own flagship character instead of the better known, media-spanning space hero. Although it looks like Loriciel couldn't keep rights to using Buck Rogers, a game such as this was not going to escape production without a macho name, dang it!

Footage of Jim Power's first level is found below, which matches up with that found at the 2:05 mark in Shiryu's video. An immediate difference can be found in the background scrolling, which is likely to heighten the intended stereoscopic 3D effect in Jim Power whereas the Buck Rogers prototype does not seem to be going for any 3D effect at all. You might also notice that both look crazy hard and have some sweet music:

Names aside, which version of this game appeals to you more?

Thanks, Shiryu!

[source tay.kotaku.com]