Gather 'round for another tale of Mega Man history, folks.  It's time to break out the bag of prototype game paks once again, and reaching inside and digging around reveals a still-in-development version of Mega Man 7 for the Super NES.  SNES Central has dissected the Mega Man 7 prototype experience and outlined some of the changes between the beta version and the final version of the game.

As you can see, most of the ideas for the game were in the beta version. The level layouts were changed slightly to add or remove challenge to areas. The graphics were improved as well, most noticeably in the backgrounds. The gameplay remains the same, so hardcore Mega Man fans may want to give this a shot.

Hmm, so I guess too much didn't change between versions after all.  But still, hey, rare prototype and all.

(via Lost Levels)