Within the Nintendo Switch firmware prior to Version 4.0.0 (for Japanese, US and European systems only), there is a hidden NES emulator stub called "flog" that can be unlocked under very specific conditions. flog can only be unlocked on the Home Screen and when the console's internal clock is set to July 11th (if the date is changed in System Settings, but the console is connected to the internet and can see the actual date, this method will not work). The method to unlock it involves detaching the Joy-Cons from the console, holding them pointing forwards/downwards, then moving them to a vertical position and holding it for a few seconds. This gesture may take some time to hone due to it being a specific movement tracked by the Joy-Cons, but when it is matched, the system will check to see if flog is installed. When checked, an audio clip of a man saying "chokusetsu" ("直接"), the Japanese word for "direct", will play and the screen will cut to black and launch the 1984 NES title Golf. This emulator is unique in that it includes specific instructions in English and Japanese on how to play depending on how the Joy-Cons are held, and has a more stripped-down and simplistic appearance than the emulators that would be used for NES games on Nintendo Switch Online. Pressing the Home button while playing Golf will return you to the Home Screen without any visible software running there.
With Version 4.0.0, Nintendo removed all of the code required to launch flog and play Golf, but Nintendo seemed unusually hesitant to even acknowledge its existence when asked by news outlets. One month before its removal, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie released two statements regarding it when asked by Kotaku:
"So, two comments on this. It was identified by folks playing around in the firmware. We've got nothing officially to announce for that content or what the plans are for that content. So that's that. Certainly anything that pays respect to my friend Mr. Iwata is something that is near and dear to me personally, but in terms of that execution and what it was meant to do or what the plans are, we've got nothing to announce."
"I'm struck whenever I go back to Kyoto and spend time in our headquarters and spend time in the offices where Mr. Iwata, myself and others would be meeting. It's always personally touching. And so, again, no comment on that particular execution."
While this seems to allude that the secret emulator and Golf's inclusion were not authorized within Nintendo, this all but confirms that their purpose was to act as a tribute to Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata. Iwata, who programmed Golf and previously hosted the company's Nintendo Direct showcase series, passed away on July 11th, 2015, with the method to unlock the emulator mimicking a gesture he used during Nintendo Directs. Japanese fans on social media referred to the Easter egg as an "omamori", an amulet purchased at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan that if kept close are said to protect the bearer and bring good luck, speculating that Golf was included by Iwata as a secret charm to watch over every Nintendo Switch unit after his death.
Mecarobot Golf is a partial reskin of Birdie Try, a generic, non-robot-themed golf game starring Japanese professional golfer Nobuo Serizawa. Only the characters were changed, and the only sci-fi element in the US version is Eagle, the titular Mecarobot. Otherwise, the game remains a generic golf game, and the other three introduced characters are two white women and one white man, replacing the Japanese version's three Asian men.
During the final battle in the Japanese version, Spoiler:a voiceover from Zelda states that the monstrous form that Calamity Ganon assumes is due to his obsession with maintaining his longevity. However, in the English localization, Spoiler:Zelda claims that this form is the result of him abandoning his ambitions for reincarnation and giving into his primal rage, which directly contrasts the Japanese script.
This also opens up a plot hole with Spoiler:Zelda's dialogue in the game's ending, where she says that "Ganon is gone for now" (emphasis added), implying that he will reincarnate anyway (as is the case in other entries, including the game's sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom); in the Japanese version, she simply says that "the threat of calamity has passed."
X was originally pitched under the name Eclipse and was developed under the title Lunar Chase. The single-letter rename came at the request of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who contacted director Yoshio Sakamoto early in the morning after playing the game.
The Lunar Chase name was retained for a planned English localization of the game, which was ultimately scrapped due to fears from Nintendo of America that international players would find the game's presentation and design too complex for a handheld title. Creator and programmer Dylan Cuthbert additionally blamed the cancellation on a presumed lack of interest from retailers in the United States. A prototype of the English version would eventually surface in 2020 as part of the Gigaleak, a massive leak of internal server data from Nintendo. The Eclipse pitch, meanwhile, was released to the public by the Video Game History foundation three years later.
The Brazilian release of the Nintendo GameCube has special code that patches a crash glitch that can only be found in NBA Courtside 2002. This patch does not exist in any other version of the hardware.
In the Japanese version's commentary with the game's composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, he stated that the original name for the song "Remnants" was "zun zurizuri zunzun" in reference to the rhythm of the opening motif. However, this name was too long, and it was shortened to "zun zun".
When the game's logo is shown in the intro of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the word "BATTLE" has a shining effect, which is another video file overlaid over the 3D logo. There are two versions of this video, one with Japanese kanji and another with Latin script, however due to an oversight, the shining effect will only show Japanese kanji overlaid upon the English text. This would be fixed in the 2012 rerelease, but only for the English language, so other languages with an English logo still experience the error.
Adventures of Tron was released in Europe as Adventures on GX-12 without the Tron license. The only difference between the two versions is that the title screen was removed.
According to the Scandinavian manual for Mr. Gimmick, the girl Yumetaro must rescue is named Mary. In all other releases of the game, she is unnamed. During development, she was planned to be named either "Kasumi" or "Ayaka".
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According to a BBC News article from January 2003, Sony agreed to edit The Getaway after they received complaints from British Telecommunications (BT). BT was concerned about the misuse of a transit van bearing its logo and asked the developers to edit the game to remove BT's appearance entirely. The section of the game that BT objected to was the "Filthy Business" mission, where the main character Mark Hammond must attack and steal a BT van and then raid a police station to rescue another character. BT did not want attacks on its engineers to be portrayed in the game, and they were also worried that the game might incite real-life attacks on them. The section was removed from future releases of the game 12 days after its release, and all following versions of the game have a plain light-blueish van in the mission, with the dialogue also being altered to refer to it as just "a van" rather than a "BT van".
Originally, the game was passed with an MA 15+ rating on November 22, 2002. However, it was resubmitted and banned just five days later due to a cutscene showing the character Johnny Chai being tortured in detail. Another version of the game which censored version of this scene was released weeks later on December 13 with the identical rating.
These censorship changes are documented by the different releases of the game, starting with the 1.03 European version. This version included the Johnny Chai torture scene and the Ford Transit van with full BT livery and Ford badge in the cutscene model. After the game was initially banned in Australia, the developers altered the camera angles of the scene, focusing more on the characters' facial expressions rather than the violence. The cutscene model of the BT van was also re-textured, and the Ford badges were removed. This version is known as the 1.1 European version of the game, which was followed by the dispute from BT, resulting in their removal from future releases of the game.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, there is an unused "PRESS START BUTTON" graphic. This would eventually be used in an exclusive revision of the game included in the Sega Top Ten compilation cartridge for Brazil and Asia. This version of the game is otherwise identical to the original release.
The Japanese and Korean releases radically alter the final boss theme, adding a second movement and raising the pitch of the French horn soundfont. This version of the music also changes the loop to start at the added portion rather than going back to the beginning of the song. The extent of these changes implies that the music was unfinished when the original international release came out.
In 1993, an enhanced version of the NES Mario Bros. was released exclusively in Italy and Germany, under the "Classic Serie" label, which reimplements the enemy introduction cutscenes and icicle hazard from the arcade version, and allows Mario to turn in the middle of jumping.
The cutscene for the final stage in Um Jammer Lammy has Lammy, Ma-San, and Katy Kat all rush to the same door and apologize for being late as they got in a "lot of mess", implying that Katy and Ma-San had similar adventures to Lammy. In the American version of the game, Lammy gets to the door in her camouflage outfit from the censored island stage, and to adjust for this, Ma-San gains a Middle Eastern turban and camel, while Katy gains a military helmet and bullet strap, giving a further clue as to what adventures they could've gone on.
•The original version with Budweiser branding •The censored "Root Beer Tapper" version, which swaps beer for root beer and changes Tapper from a bartender to a soda jerk •The Japanese release that replaces Budweiser with Japanese alcohol brand Suntory
The Suntory version of the game also carries over minor graphical improvements from the Root Beer version of the game.
Multiple early "black box" NES releases' cartridges produced during the console's US launch in Winter 1985 didn't use NES ROM chips, but rather Famicom ROM chips with a built-in converter. The 15 NES launch titles, and the only games known to have these chips, are:
In the original Japanese and European versions, Paul Chuck's song had a line about "chopping trees down for fun". In the US, this was changed to "Knowing that we're here for the fun" in Lammy's song, and changed two times due to being repeated in PaRappa's version: "Rockin' to the beat just for fun" and "Rollin' up high in the sun". The censored version is used in Um Jammer Lammy NOW.
In the US PSP and PS4 versions of PaRappa the Rapper, PJ Berri and Katy Kat's Chunky Burger orders in the intro are censored - in the PS1 version they ask for a "giant vanilla frosty" and a "large chocolate frosty" respectively, but in the remastered version they instead ask for a "giant vanilla" and "large chocolate". The subtitles for PJ's order completely omit any drink from his order. This is due to "Frosty" (in the context of a drink) being trademarked by Wendy's. Despite this copyright issue, the claim from Katy Kat that Jet Baby could defeat Superman goes uncensored.
In the Japanese version of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Alex eats a rice ball at the end of each stage. The 1990 US revision of the game changes this to a hamburger.
In Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, a Spanish omelette and fish & chips are added as options, possibly in tribute to the Master System's popularity in Spain and the United Kingdom.
X was originally pitched under the name Eclipse and was developed under the title Lunar Chase. The single-letter rename came at the request of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who contacted director Yoshio Sakamoto early in the morning after playing the game.
When the game's logo is shown in the intro of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the word "BATTLE" has a shining effect, which is another video file overlaid over the 3D logo. There are two versions of this video, one with Japanese kanji and another with Latin script, however due to an oversight, the shining effect will only show Japanese kanji overlaid upon the English text. This would be fixed in the 2012 rerelease, but only for the English language, so other languages with an English logo still experience the error.
In Sonic the Hedgehog, there is an unused "PRESS START BUTTON" graphic. This would eventually be used in an exclusive revision of the game included in the Sega Top Ten compilation cartridge for Brazil and Asia. This version of the game is otherwise identical to the original release.
The Japanese and Korean releases radically alter the final boss theme, adding a second movement and raising the pitch of the French horn soundfont. This version of the music also changes the loop to start at the added portion rather than going back to the beginning of the song. The extent of these changes implies that the music was unfinished when the original international release came out.
The cutscene for the final stage in Um Jammer Lammy has Lammy, Ma-San, and Katy Kat all rush to the same door and apologize for being late as they got in a "lot of mess", implying that Katy and Ma-San had similar adventures to Lammy. In the American version of the game, Lammy gets to the door in her camouflage outfit from the censored island stage, and to adjust for this, Ma-San gains a Middle Eastern turban and camel, while Katy gains a military helmet and bullet strap, giving a further clue as to what adventures they could've gone on.
There exists 3 versions of Tapper
In the Chinese port for the iQue Player, the 'Special Cup' has been renamed 'iQue Cup', though the courses appear to the same.