Super 3D Noah’s Ark is an unlicensed Christian-themed video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and DOS. It was released by the biblical video game producer Wisdom Tree in 1994, and was the only commercially released SNES game in the U.S. that was not officially sanctioned by Nintendo. In order to bypass the Super Nintendo’s lockout chip, Wisdom Tree devised a pass-through system similar to the Game Genie, where the player had to insert an officially licensed SNES game into the cartridge slot on top of the Super 3D Noah’s Ark cartridge. Despite its name, it is unrelated to Konami’s official Noah’s Ark game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In January 2014, the game was re-released for the SNES, initially available only by private email orders, but later through Piko Interactive’s website. The game was also updated for the 20th Anniversary Edition and released at itch.io on May 26, 2014 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
The game plays similarly to Wolfenstein 3D, but the graphics were changed to reflect a non-violent theme. Instead of killing Nazi soldiers in a castle, the player takes the part of Noah, wandering the Ark, using a slingshot to shoot sleep-inducing food at angry attacking animals, mostly goats, in order to render them unconscious. The animals behave differently: goats, the most common enemy, will only kick Noah, while the other animals such as sheep, ostriches, antelopes and oxen will shoot spittle at him from a distance. Goats are also unable to open doors, which the other animals can do.
The gameplay is aimed at younger children. Noah’s Ark includes secret passages, food, weapons and extra lives. There are secret levels, and shortcut levels as well. The player eventually comes across larger and more powerful slingshots, and flings coconuts and watermelon at the larger boss-like animals, such as Ernie the Elephant and Carl the Camel.
