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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.