I just opened my Japanese Starfox cart. It must be a later revision because it's a half height board with the 4 chips covered in black epoxy. It still has that resistor, although I'm not sure if it's connecting the same traces because the board is completely different.
This Reddit thread seems to suggest that it's from an early production run of the game. (though that seems strange to me as normally the glob top chips come as a cost-cutting measure on later revisions of a chip.)
