Trivia Browser
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
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The floating planetoid representing CloudRunner Fortress on the world map screen in Star Fox Adventures very clearly resembles its original, rockier iteration from the Nintendo 64 version of Dinosaur Planet, as opposed to its remodeled look in the final Star Fox Adventures.
CloudRunner Fortress in the leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEWGNBGf6CI?t=239
CloudRunner Fortress in Star Fox Adventures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi1iQh_nwIQ?t=28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEWGNBGf6CI?t=239
CloudRunner Fortress in Star Fox Adventures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi1iQh_nwIQ?t=28
Company: Kane Carter
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Kane Carter is known for being the creator of the Five Nights at Freddy's fangame series "POPGOES", and all the titles that he has made or conceptualized since 2015 have has been part of that series. However, in August 2023, Carter revealed that he, his girlfriend (known as "Turntail" online), and fellow developer Emil Macko worked on a scrapped concept for an original Unreal Engine horror game around 2017-2018, named "Floodbound." Carter described the basic story as:"You play as a murderer, trapped in a rainy purgatory parallel world, after almost dying in a car crash that happened while you were fleeing the scene of your third victim. [...] It's home to a single, bizarre villain named Drain Face - a creature who was once human, turned into a mutated monster that survives only off of the rainwater that falls in the rainy parallel world. [...]"
Carter also stated that the goal of the game was to travel through three large areas while dodging Drain Face.
The original programmer was going to be Nikson, known for his work on The Joy of Creation fangame series and Glowstick Entertainment games. Nikson replied to the post offering to continue work on the game if Carter ever decided to go back to it, saying that he loved the idea and the enemy design proposed for it.
Floodbound reveal:
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1689427287425302530
Full Floodbound development summary:
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1690527136119984129
Nikson programmer reveal:
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1689450445519941634
Nikson reply:
https://twitter.com/nikson_dev/status/1690635505363296257
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1689427287425302530
Full Floodbound development summary:
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1690527136119984129
Nikson programmer reveal:
https://twitter.com/kanethecarter/status/1689450445519941634
Nikson reply:
https://twitter.com/nikson_dev/status/1690635505363296257
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Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance was originally considered to have a multi-platform release, including a release on the PlayStation 3. According to Nippon Ichi Software president Sohei Niikawa, this was scrapped as this would have made the PS3 version the standard version of the game, whereas the development team wanted to "offer something that could only be done with the PlayStation 4.”
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Originally, Nippon Ichi Software considered making The Witch and the Hundred Knight an open-world game, but this was ultimately scrapped in favor of focusing on the game's 3D graphics technology.
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In an interview with TechRaptor, lead developer Ryan Koons stated that the decision to make HuniePop a gameplay-centric title instead of a story-centric one like other dating sims didn't happen until months into development. The original intention was to make a traditional dating sim, only for Koons – who already had little interest in storytelling in video games – to overhaul the concept due to his growing ennui.
In the same interview, Koons stated that he deliberately sought to avoid many of the cliches associated with dating sims, particularly "the usual innocent waifu style character types." Consequently, the game's cast are based on people from his own life, and the writing is much more irreverent than other dating sims. In particular, Koons described deuteragonist Kyu Sugardust as a raunchy fictionalization of her voice actress, Jaclyn Aimee.
In the same interview, Koons stated that he deliberately sought to avoid many of the cliches associated with dating sims, particularly "the usual innocent waifu style character types." Consequently, the game's cast are based on people from his own life, and the writing is much more irreverent than other dating sims. In particular, Koons described deuteragonist Kyu Sugardust as a raunchy fictionalization of her voice actress, Jaclyn Aimee.
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According to a tweet by dj TAKA, the song "ABSOLUTE" was originally called "Special Thanks". The name was changed after CG Designer VJ GYO and illustrator GOLI thought the name was "lame".
RemyWiki page on ABSOLUTE:
https://remywiki.com/ABSOLUTE
Tweet from dj taka:
https://twitter.com/iam_nota_djtaka/status/173088204960956417
https://remywiki.com/ABSOLUTE
Tweet from dj taka:
https://twitter.com/iam_nota_djtaka/status/173088204960956417
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Certain in-game enemies are only able to be fought by Mario & Luigi or Bowser. Despite this, a few Bowser-oriented enemies have unique behaviors for Mario & Luigi, which can only be seen through hacking the game:• All of Naplock's attacks can be dodged or countered by jumping, with its snot bubble attack also missing Mario & Luigi entirely even if nothing is done.
• Dark Mechawful's punch attack can be countered with Mario & Luigi's hammers, while its countdown attack is replaced by the same star attack used by the Dark Mechawful head, which can fight Mario & Luigi in normal gameplay if Bowser inhales it. However, in a hacked Dark Mechawful fight, this attack progresses extremely slowly.
• The smoke signals at the start of Choomba's charge attack are changed from fist and shell icons to "M" and "L" ones, indicating which brothers it will charge at and in which order; the attack can also be countered by hammering.
• Dark Trashure's thrown items can be avoided or countered by jumping, similarly to its standard counterpart. However, the items move far faster than those thrown by a regular Trashure or a Dark Trashure fought by Bowser.
While most of these behaviors appear to be failsafes, Choomba is unique in that the "M" and "L" smoke signals are not present anywhere else in the game, indicating that at one point in development, Mario & Luigi would've been able to explore the Tunnel, where Choombas are fought.
Meanwhile, when hacking the game to allow Bowser to fight enemies that can only be encountered by Mario & Luigi, most of them will either crash the game, flee immediately, or display glitchy behavior. One unique case is Magifoofas, which can be inhaled by Bowser (despite the Vacuum Block not indicating this), indicating that the developers considered letting him encounter them in some form.
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Mario_%26_Luigi:_Bowser%27s_Inside_Story#Unused_Enemy_Behaviors
YouTube video showcasing the unused enemy behaviors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3DTjRZvhOM
https://tcrf.net/Mario_%26_Luigi:_Bowser%27s_Inside_Story#Unused_Enemy_Behaviors
YouTube video showcasing the unused enemy behaviors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3DTjRZvhOM
subdirectory_arrow_right Yakuza Online (Game)
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In a 2020 interview with the YouTube channel Archipel, series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi claimed that the decision to change Yakuza: Like a Dragon from an action game to a turn-based RPG came from a 2019 April Fools' Day video for Yakuza Online showing turn-based combat which was received positively by fans. However, fans and news outlets seemed to take this statement seriously, and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's head Masayoshi Yokoyama later had to clarify that it was a joke. The decision to shift to turn-based combat was made before production on the game even began due to it being too drastic of a change to make late into development.
Yakuza Online April Fools' Day 2019 video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noioqCv92hM
IGN video believing the April Fools' video was real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsNFsPf8ts
Nagoshi April Fool's claims:
https://www.destructoid.com/yakuza-like-a-dragon-became-an-rpg-after-the-april-fools-day-reaction-says-nagoshi/
Clarification from Nagoshi:
https://www.fanbyte.com/legacy/no-like-a-dragon-was-not-an-rpg-because-of-an-april-fools-joke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noioqCv92hM
IGN video believing the April Fools' video was real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsNFsPf8ts
Nagoshi April Fool's claims:
https://www.destructoid.com/yakuza-like-a-dragon-became-an-rpg-after-the-april-fools-day-reaction-says-nagoshi/
Clarification from Nagoshi:
https://www.fanbyte.com/legacy/no-like-a-dragon-was-not-an-rpg-because-of-an-april-fools-joke
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Girls' Frontline started out as an inspiration work based on Kantai Collection, but with a premise revolving around anthropomorphized firearms instead of anthropomorphized warships. This was in part due to Mica Team anticipating that similar games using "moe anthropomorphism" would become popular in China.
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In an early demo build of the game from E3 2014, Luigi was able to perform a wall-jump (possibly as a leftover from Mario's moveset), but for unknown reasons, this was removed in the final version of the game.
Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog
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Ben Hurst, one of the writers for the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" animated series, attempted to pitch a continuation of the show to Sega in 2002 as either a third season or a movie. He consulted DiC Entertainment, who produced the show (as well as two other Sonic cartoons, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic Underground"), and was given the name of a Sega executive who wanted to talk with him more about the idea. Hurst then received a call from Ken Penders, at the time the head writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, who had been made aware of Hurst's interest in making a movie based on the series. Hurst offered to include Penders in the project, and told him his strategy for the pitch was to develop a satisfying storyline to conclude the show, and simultaneously giving Sega ideas for new games. This resulted in a long-standing controversy where Hurst claimed that Penders sabotaged his plan by telling Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise, resulting in Hurst's dismissal from the project. Over 13 years after Hurst's death, Penders would give his side of the story in a 2023 blog post, claiming that Hurst's joint proposal between the two would involve asking Sega to pay them to produce the series, and doubted that Sega would even schedule a meeting to let them pitch it if Sega funding the pitch was the premise, stating that "the owner of any IP is looking for a payday when it comes to using the rights for their properties."In September 2003, Penders pitched his own concept for a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, titled "Sonic Armageddon". Four pieces of concept art were produced, and even a homemade pitch video was made to show to Sega executives. From what is known about the pitch (which seemed to borrow elements from both the 1993 series and the Archie comics), it would have involved the planet Mobius being destroyed and changed the depiction of the roboticization procedure to something much more gruesome than what had been previously seen. Notably, several major characters (such as the Freedom Fighters sans Sonic, Tails and Sally) are not shown in either the pitch video or the concept art, and the characters that are shown are given major redesigns. A common belief is that DreamWorks Animation was Penders' choice to produce the film, but Penders would later state in 2019 that he had pitched the idea to Sega only, and that DreamWorks had no involvement. The film never materialized; Penders would later claim on separate occasions that the idea was dropped because of "massive corporate upheaval", as well as the development of the animated series "Sonic X" affecting talks regarding the film.
Attempted pitch:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111200242/http://www.sonicsatam.com/information/the-lost-3rd-season/
Hurst's dismissal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113070038/https://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/ben_hurst/
Penders on Sonic Armageddon:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201213205554/https://twitter.com/kenpenders/status/1105647131438673920
Penders on the attempted pitch controversy:
https://kenpenders.com/sonic-armageddon-or-what-a-long-strange-journey-its-been/
Pitch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNteN_qlHp0
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111200242/http://www.sonicsatam.com/information/the-lost-3rd-season/
Hurst's dismissal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113070038/https://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/ben_hurst/
Penders on Sonic Armageddon:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201213205554/https://twitter.com/kenpenders/status/1105647131438673920
Penders on the attempted pitch controversy:
https://kenpenders.com/sonic-armageddon-or-what-a-long-strange-journey-its-been/
Pitch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNteN_qlHp0
subdirectory_arrow_right Antonblast (Game)
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Anton was originally supposed to be an alcoholic in Antonball Deluxe, but the publisher forced the developers to remove that element, and he would drink sodas and floats instead. Anton would be made a drunkard in Antonblast, and the plot of the new game would revolve around rescuing his collection of "spirits".
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Anton was originally created as series creator Tony Grayson's profile picture for a forum when he was 9 years old in 2007, under the name "Red Guy". Because the first Antonball was black and white, Red Guy was renamed to Anton. One of the Anton variant characters in Antonball Deluxe is named after Red Guy.
subdirectory_arrow_right Fruit Ninja (Collection)
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According to Fruit Ninja creator Luke Muscat in a comment on a YouTube video comparing the 1993 and 2023 Super Mario Bros. movies, there was a massive push following Fruit Ninja's success to have it be adapted for TV or cinema, something he attributed to other members of the studio feeling that the other 2 mediums were more "legitimate" in the face of an era where games were not taken as seriously. All of the characters and stories added to Fruit Ninja were made for the purpose of facilitating these unmade adaptations, something Muscat described as "divisive" and compared to having to try and adapt a film that does not exist into a game rather than the other way around.
Video comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3Yo5ea5L8&lc=UgxhZPo859-w_okK-3B4AaABAg
Comment archived in case it gets deleted (YouTube link contains a comment hyperlink tag):
"Great video Patrick and team. I was the designer / creator of Fruit Ninja, which obviously had absolutely ZERO story or character development. After the huge success of the game, (and as I was leaving the project), a push started to get film and TV adaptions made. For some at the studio, getting an adaptation made the whole thing more legitimate, like the property had "made it". Games were still struggling to be taken seriously despite being such a huge global business, but film and TV didn't have that problem.
But given how narratively thin the source material was, new characters and story started getting added into the game specifically to support those future jumps to film and TV (and merch I guess). This was very... divisive. It was like having to adapt a film into an existing game... except the film didn't exist yet. It was a time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3Yo5ea5L8&lc=UgxhZPo859-w_okK-3B4AaABAg
Comment archived in case it gets deleted (YouTube link contains a comment hyperlink tag):
"Great video Patrick and team. I was the designer / creator of Fruit Ninja, which obviously had absolutely ZERO story or character development. After the huge success of the game, (and as I was leaving the project), a push started to get film and TV adaptions made. For some at the studio, getting an adaptation made the whole thing more legitimate, like the property had "made it". Games were still struggling to be taken seriously despite being such a huge global business, but film and TV didn't have that problem.
But given how narratively thin the source material was, new characters and story started getting added into the game specifically to support those future jumps to film and TV (and merch I guess). This was very... divisive. It was like having to adapt a film into an existing game... except the film didn't exist yet. It was a time."
subdirectory_arrow_right Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Game)
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During a Q&A with Kotaku in 2015, it was noted that both Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair had a female character that appeared to have been designed to be the player/main character's favorite, the former game having Kyoko Kirigiri and the latter game having Chiaki Nanami. When asked if this was intentional, series creator Kazutaka Kodaka stated:
"For number one, I didn't really specifically think of any female characters as the heroine. In regards to Kyoko Kirigiri specifically, it was just the idea that she was a detective and she had a good thought process that drove her to be perceived in that role for the player. On the other hand, wanting to specifically create a heroine is what drove Chiaki's creation."
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Wuhu Island was originally created for Wii Sports before its debut appearance in Wii Fit. An early version of the island can be seen in a leaked development image for Wii Sports, and in footage of the unused Airplane sport in the E3 2006 demo for the game. The leaked image also indicates that the Airplane sport would have also given you the option to fly around the island with a Rocket Belt, an idea that would later be reused in Pilotwings Resort.
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Development:Wii_Sports
Wii Sports E3 2006 Airplane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0MtVyuIsKI#t=191
https://tcrf.net/Development:Wii_Sports
Wii Sports E3 2006 Airplane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0MtVyuIsKI#t=191
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Baldur's Gate 3 was originally revealed with a CGI trailer at a conference for the Google Stadia cloud gaming service in June 2019 as part of an Early Access exclusivity deal that would ultimately be cancelled when Stadia was shut down in 2023. The game's director Swen Vincke touted the service at the time for its purported accessibility, and the potential for in-game community feedback to directly affect the game's development and playthroughs via Stadia's Crowd Choice feature. However, Vincke later expressed regret over having the game be revealed this way, calling it "a really stupid deal" due to the challenges of releasing an Early Access build to a second platform, but that "it allowed me to pay for the CGI."
Baldur's Gate 3 Stadia Announcement:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/06/baldurs-gate-3-officially-announced-for-pc-and-google-stadia
Stadia-Exclusive Features:
https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-stadia-exclusive-features-early-access-contents-release
Stadia Reveal Regret:
https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-founder-on-working-with-google-stadia-for-baldurs-gate-3-it-was-a-really-stupid-deal
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/06/baldurs-gate-3-officially-announced-for-pc-and-google-stadia
Stadia-Exclusive Features:
https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-stadia-exclusive-features-early-access-contents-release
Stadia Reveal Regret:
https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-founder-on-working-with-google-stadia-for-baldurs-gate-3-it-was-a-really-stupid-deal
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The uDraw was conceived after THQ employees noticed how difficult drawing was with the Wii Remote in the Wii version of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter, and was originally called the Drawn to Life Pal. Multiple pitches for other licensed Drawn to Life titles in the same vein as Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition were made, with Marvel Comics, Pixar, Star Wars, and Conan the Barbarian being pitched as examples. However, no Drawn to Life game with uDraw compatibility would ever release, though one uDraw launch title, Dood's Big Adventure, bears a fair resemblance to the series. No reason has been given for the series' absence or why a new IP was made with Dood's Big Adventure instead of using the brand recognition of Drawn to Life, but it may be connected to the controversial ending of the DS version of The Next Chapter and its finality for the core Drawn to Life Raposa universe.
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Normally, when the player decides to build a public works project, Isabelle will prevent the player from going to the beach while scouting out a potential site due to the instability of the sand there. However, if the player uses cheats or glitches to bring Isabelle to the beach and then talks to her, she will give them the option to state whether or not they want to start construction. Despite this, she will deny the request anyway if the player answers yes; however, she will not cite the quality of the ground, but rather will state that there is no available space. Depending on where they are standing, she will state that the proposed site is either too close to the ocean or too close to the cliff, statements which do not otherwise come up in normal gameplay. This dialogue implies that building public works projects on the beach was considered at one point in development.
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Animal_Crossing:_New_Leaf#Public_Works_Project_on_the_Beach
YouTube video showing the glitch and unused dialogue in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cid3YLAnFk
https://tcrf.net/Animal_Crossing:_New_Leaf#Public_Works_Project_on_the_Beach
YouTube video showing the glitch and unused dialogue in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cid3YLAnFk
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Within the game's data are sprites for Glad and Calm Goombas; the final game only features regular, Mad, and Sad varieties. Of note is that the Calm Goombas' sprites depict them with a pastel green palette, whereas the final game only differentiates Calm enemies from regular ones by having them stay asleep until provoked. Both unused Goomba types also feature a considerably different art style compared to the final game, indicating that the removal of color coordination for the Calm vibe occurred at around the same time as the overhaul in the game's aesthetics.