Trivia Browser

Tagsarrow_right
Filter:
Platformsarrow_right
Filter:
Yearsarrow_right
Filter:
Genresarrow_right
Filter:
Collectionsarrow_right
Filter:
Franchisesarrow_right
Filter:
Companiesarrow_right
Filter:
Spot: The Video Game
Spot: The Video Game (1990)
▲
1
▼
Attachment The Japanese localisation of Spot: The Video Game changes sprites of the NES and its controller into a Famicom - unusually, the Famicom has a golden color palette as if it had yellowed from overuse. Due to the image of a circuit board on the settings screen sharing a palette, this results in the circuit board also appearing yellowed. This also gives it an unintentional resemblance to the Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary Famicom Mini, released 26 years after Spot released in Japan.
sell
Coincidence, Mistake, Regional Difference, Sprite/Graphical Animation
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 22, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Madden NFL 15
Madden NFL 15 (2014)
subdirectory_arrow_right Madden NFL 99 (Game), Madden NFL 15 (Game), Madden (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
The Madden curse was an urban legend which claimed that athletes who appeared on the box of Madden games would either under-perform or sustain an injury in the season following their game's release. After a 16-year streak of "bad luck" starting from Garrison Hearst's appearance on the box of Madden NFL 99 in 1998, the first Madden game to feature a cover athlete and not John Madden himself, the "curse" would finally be broken in 2014, when Calvin Johnson managed to have one of the best seasons in his career following his appearance on the box of Madden NFL 15. Although the streak ended, the curse would strike sporadically over the continuning years, but so far has not begun another continuing streak of bad luck.

In 2010, a film adaptation of the Madden curse was announced by EA, but no news has surfaced on it since and it can be assumed cancelled.
sell
Cancelled Release, Coincidence, Creepypasta, First, Meme, Multimedia Adaptation, Theory, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 21, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Franchise: God of War
▲
1
▼
Kratos appears in actual Greek mythology as a Daimon or lesser god of strength. He is most notable for being the brother of Nike. Besides the coincidence of their name, this character bears no actual resemblance to the protagonist of the God of War series.
sell
Adaptation, Coincidence, Etymology, Inspiration, Real Life, Religion
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month November 21, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Franchise: Mario
subdirectory_arrow_right Nintendo (Company)
▲
1
▼
In the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation, the new CEO of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser, was introduced with a joke comparing his last name to the antagonist of the Mario series, Bowser. However, in Japanese, the character’s name is “Koopa”, so in the Japanese broadcast of the Nintendo Direct, they clarified the joke with subtitles explaining that his name is Bowser in English-language releases.
sell
Coincidence, Etymology, In-Joke, Regional Difference, Release Difference
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month November 21, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Super Mario 64 DS
Super Mario 64 DS (2004)
▲
1
▼
Attachment During the height of Super Mario 64 DS' popularity, a popular rumor was that Waluigi was hidden as an unlockable character - this rumor was inspired both by the presence of Wario and Luigi without their combined counterpart, and a set of coincidences within the game and its supplementary material:

• The character switching room having 4 doors, one for Mario; one for Luigi; and one for Wario, along with a final, empty room (this room actually contained a Power Star).
• 4 bunnies existing in the game: a yellow bunny who appears when playing as Yoshi, a pink bunny who appears when playing as Mario, a green bunny who appears when playing as Luigi, and an orange bunny who appears when playing as Wario. The manual's page on the mini-games that bunnies are used to unlock shows a purple bunny that doesn't appear in the game.
• The title screen and floor of the Rec Room having a colour scheme based on yellow (Wario's color), green (Luigi and Yoshi's color), red (Mario's color), and purple (Waluigi's color).
• The image of Peach's Castle on the file select screen having what appears to be an open window that does not exist in the game, which many assume is where Waluigi would be hiding.

The popularity of these theories would birth an infamous hoax known as "Purple Prizes", a graphic created by Andrew Brown of Nintendo World Report in an attempt to rebirth the mystery he felt as a child from trying to find Luigi in the original Super Mario 64 for the younger Nintendo DS generation, and posted it to DeviantArt and a set of gaming forums under the false pretense of being a scan from an unnamed magazine. Although he clarified that the picture was fake a mere 2 days later, the image still spread online like wildfire, and was misreported as originating from Nintendo Power or IGN. Brown noted that some attempts to debunk flaws in the image were not based on the actual and plentiful flaws he acknowledged the image as having, but rather misconceptions such as Waluigi's yellow gamma being a C or accusing certain images of being based on the original Nintendo 64 game instead of the DS remake.
sell
Coincidence, Hoax, Misconception, Rumor, Theory, Unused Character, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 18, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Super Mario 3D All-Stars (2020)
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Mario Bros. 35 (Game), Mario (Franchise)
▲
3
▼
Attachment When Super Mario Bros. 35 and Super Mario 3D All-Stars were released, they were criticized for being preemptively planned to be pulled from digital storefronts on March 31, 2021. This, along with the DIC Mario cartoons coincidentally being moved from Netflix to Paramount+ on the same day, spawned an internet meme depicting Mario as receiving a medieval public execution by Nintendo on that date.
sell
Coincidence, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Meme, Multimedia Adaptation
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 17, 2023
comment Comment (2) | Source
arrow_right
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
subdirectory_arrow_right Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (Game)
▲
2
▼
Pit was first depicted with blue eyes and a laurel crown in promotional artwork for Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, which was not released in Japan until 2012. If the eye color and crown of Pit's design in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl was influenced by Of Myths and Monsters and wasn't simply a coincidence, that would make it the first and so far only instance of Super Smash Bros. referencing content from a game without any kind of Japanese release at the time within gameplay, and shared with a sticker originating from Of Myths and Monsters as the first representation of a game without a Japanese release whatsoever outside of the Chronicle (which is also technically tied with trophies in the same game from Elite Beat Agents, a heavily modified localization of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan).
sell
Character Design, Coincidence, Inspiration, Regional Difference, Similarities, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 15, 2023
comment Comment (2) | Source
arrow_right
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Pit render:
https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/d/d0/Pit_SSBB.jpg

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Kid Icarus stickers:
https://www.ssbwiki.com/List_of_stickers_(Kid_Icarus_series)
Super Mario World
Super Mario World (1990)
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (Game)
▲
4
▼
Attachment Whether intentional or coincidental, Luigi’s updated sprites in the Super Mario All-Stars re-release of Super Mario World reference two common misconceptions about Mario’s sprites from the original Super Mario Bros.: spitting fireballs from his mouth and hitting blocks with his head.
sell
Coincidence, Easter Egg, Similarities, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Suggested
person NintendOtaku calendar_month November 12, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (2023)
▲
1
▼
Attachment Prior to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2's announcement, a convincing image "leaked" showing El Tigre in the game, which would be shared by a variety of sources including Jorge R. Gutierrez, the creator of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. It would later be confirmed by a moderator on the official NASB Discord (who has no involvement in the game's development) that the image was actually an art test from another Discord server and not intended to be spread as a leak. Despite this, El Tigre would still appear as playable character in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, a rather lucky coincidence given the cartoon's obscurity.
sell
Artwork/Illustration, Coincidence, Development, Fan Works, Hoax, Real Life, Roster Speculation
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 11, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
subdirectory_arrow_right Yakuza (Game), Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
Attachment The antagonist of the original Yakuza was voiced by Kazuhiro Nakaya, who later went on to voice Ichiban Kasuga, the protagonist of Yakuza: Like A Dragon. The two characters also have the same koi tattoo, leading fans to speculate on the parallels between both characters, but aside from their voice actors and tattoos, there are only surface-level parallels.
sell
Character Design, Coincidence, Development, Meme, Similarities, Theory, Voice Acting
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month November 5, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
M.C Kids
M.C Kids (1992)
▲
1
▼
Attachment In a prototype version of M.C. Kids, an unused sprite can be found of the Hamburglar where he appears to have a beard. At that point, the Hamburglar had never been portrayed with a beard - though, in 2015, a new iteration of the Hamburglar, portrayed without a mascot head and aimed at an older demographic, would be introduced, and he would have a beard.
sell
Character Design, Coincidence, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 (1996)
▲
4
▼
Attachment In the castle courtyard in Super Mario 64, there is a plaque to a power star with an illegible name written below, often interpreted as either "Eternal Star" or "L is Real 2401" - with the latter being more popular for how it could be seen as a cryptic hint towards unlocking Luigi.

In a poetic coincidence, the source code leak that revealed Luigi's scrapped model would be found 24 years and 1 month after Super Mario 64's release.
sell
Coincidence, Meme, Source Code, Theory, Unused Character, Unused Content, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 31, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Star Fox 64
Star Fox 64 (1997)
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox: Assault (Game), Star Fox (Franchise)
▲
2
▼
Attachment In Japan, Slippy Toad's father, Beltino, is called ベルツィーノ(Berutsīno) which comes from ベルツノガエル (Berutsunogaeru), meaning Bert's frog or Belted frog. This is also the Japanese name for the Argentine horned frog, better known as a Pacman frog. Funny enough, after being alluded to on the Japanese Star Fox 64 website, Beltino would go on to have a major role in Star Fox: Assault, which was developed by Namco, the creators of Pac-Man.
sell
Coincidence, Etymology, Real Life, Regional Difference
person Dinoman96 calendar_month October 30, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Final Fantasy XIV Online
Final Fantasy XIV Online (2013)
▲
2
▼
Attachment In July 1999, the industrial metal band Powerman 5000 wrote and released the single "When Worlds Collide", which would become one of their signature songs.

On February 23, 2016, patch version 3.2 of the "Heavensward" expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Online would be released, entitled "The Gears of Change". During the Containment Bay S1T7 trial, there is a boss fight against Sephirot, the Fiend, in two phases. The first phase's music is a rearranged version of "Battle to the Death", a boss theme originating from Final Fantasy VI where Fiend first appeared, while the second phase's music was an original song entitled "Fiend", composed and arranged by Masayoshi Soken with lyrics written by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. The same day, a thread was made on Square Enix's forums noting the similarities between "Fiend" and "When Worlds Collide".

Presumably, Powerman 5000 were informed of this and took to Facebook on February 24 to accuse the game's developers of ripping off "When Worlds Collide" while writing "Fiend", commenting:

"Really? Got to say that the level of unimaginative theft that was used in creating this music for #finalfantasyXIV is mind blowing! I mean, this is When Worlds Collide! Using something as inspiration is one thing but a straight up rip off is another! Did they really think no one would notice? […] To clarify, this is music from the game. If it was a song made by a fan, we wouldn't care."

After the story gained traction and several mixed responses were put against Square Enix and Powerman 5000, the band's frontman Spider One made another Facebook post on February 25 revealing that the band would not be taking legal action against Square Enix, while emphasizing that their original post was "Just an observation" about "a piece of music that was way too similar to be coincidence" and there was "no cry for attention or publicity", before briefly advertising their upcoming tour dates in March and April.

In response to the controversy, the game's producer/director Naoki Yoshida released a statement in the original forum thread that spurred the controversy explaining how they created "Fiend":

"Building upon the motif of Sephirot as a representation of the World Tree, to create this FINAL FANTASY XIV original track, we further incorporated story-driven themes of death and a warped obsession with life, all while utilizing a musical genre─industrial rock─which we believed would provide substantial emphasis to the message.

Industrial rock is a popular genre that can be further divided into numerous sub-genres. Countless songs from these genres have been released worldwide, and I have been made aware of an allegation regarding similarities between an existing track and the track created for the 2nd phase of Containment Bay S1T7. However, track composer Masayoshi Soken, has also stated to me that he was unaware of the track in question while working on this FINAL FANTASY track."
sell
Advertisement/Commercial, Bonus Content, Coincidence, Complaint, Development, Inspiration, Music, Plagiarism, Real Life, Similarities, Social Media
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month October 29, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Powerman 5000 - When Worlds Collide (1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU

Final Fantasy XIV Online - Fiend (2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9f44iJftVM

Final Fantasy XIV Online - Battle to the Death Rearrangement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNiVOpsZ0c

Final Fantasy XIV Online - The Gears of Change announcement trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yw4shsQsYk

First Powerman 5000 Facebook post (February 24):
https://web.archive.org/web/20170316063418/https://www.facebook.com/officialpowerman5000/posts/1163822686963071

Second Powerman 5000 Facebook post (February 25):
https://web.archive.org/web/20171006141827/https://www.facebook.com/officialpowerman5000/posts/1164522363559770

Naoki Yoshida Square Enix forum response (original thread post noting song similarities can be found by going to page 1 in this thread):
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/283311-Sephirot-Theme-%28-Phase-2-%29-sound-familiar?p=3589465&viewfull=1#post3589465

News coverage of the controversy:
https://www.polygon.com/2016/2/25/11114168/final-fantasy-14-powerman-5000-song-ripoff
https://kotaku.com/band-says-new-final-fantasy-xiv-boss-battle-music-is-ri-1761120297
Sonic Forces
Sonic Forces (2017)
subdirectory_arrow_right Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back (Game)
▲
1
▼
Attachment When the silhouette of the Avatar in Sonic Forces was first revealed in a Nintendo Direct, many Sonic fans joked that the silhouette belonged to Bubsy, an infamous Sonic-inspired character from the 1990s. Almost a month after the Avatar was confirmed as the identity of the mystery character, Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back would be officially announced.
sell
Cameo, Coincidence, Meme, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 28, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Franchise: Donkey Kong
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Smash Bros. (Franchise)
▲
2
▼
Attachment Though Donkey Kong's neutral special Giant Punch has no specific origin, Donkey Kong performs a similar wind-up punch in "Bad Hair Day", the first episode of the 1997 animated series "Donkey Kong Country", which first aired 17 months prior to the Japanese release of Super Smash Bros.
sell
Coincidence, Multimedia Adaptation, Similarities, Theory
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 22, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Mother
Mother (1989)
▲
1
▼
Attachment Contrary to popular belief, The Legend of Zelda franchise is not the first appearance of the ocarina instrument in a Nintendo franchise. The ocarina first appeared in Mother as the Ocarina of Hope. It’s appearance in the official Mother strategy guide resembles a transverse ocarina, similar to their appearance in the Zelda games.
sell
Coincidence, General, Similarities
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 21, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Franchise: Mario
▲
1
▼
As of 2023, Mario has prominently appeared in at least one theatrical film per decade since he was created in 1981:
•1986’s Super Mario Bros: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, which is one of the first film adaptations of a video game.
•1993’s Super Mario Bros, the first live-action film adaptation of a video game.
•2007’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary that revolves around Steve Wiebe attempting to usurp Billy Mitchell’s high score on Donkey Kong.
•2015’s Pixels, which incorporates Donkey Kong as the final boss of the film’s climax (alongside Mario making a brief cameo).
•2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is the first video game film to make $1 billion dollars at the box office.

Interestingly, the two films that weren’t direct adaptations of the games, The King of Kong and Pixels, were directed and produced respectively by Seth Gordon, who considered making a 3D film adaptation of Super Paper Mario back in 2008.
sell
Adaptation, Coincidence, Record
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 19, 2023
comment Comment (2) | link Source
Franchise: Spyro the Dragon
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon have both shared two voice actors. Carlos Alazraqui voiced Crash in a promotional trailer for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Spyro in the original Spyro the Dragon. Jess Harnell voiced Spyro in Spryo: A Hero's Tail and Crash since Crash Tag Team Racing.
sell
Coincidence, Voice Acting
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 19, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Pac-Man World
Pac-Man World (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right South Park (Franchise)
▲
1
▼
In preview builds of Pac-Man World, H.M.S. Windbag was called "H.M.S. Hanky". The name was changed due to South Park starting around the game's development, and the developers of Pac-Man World wanting to avoid association with the character of Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.
sell
Character Design, Coincidence, Early Idea
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 15, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Article about Pac-Man World:
http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2022/10/07/my-pac-man-world-experience/

The Cutting Room Floor pre-release footage of HMS Hanky:
https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Pac-Man_World_(PlayStation)/E3_1998
keyboard_double_arrow_leftFirst keyboard_arrow_leftPrev Page 2 of 3 Nextkeyboard_arrow_right Lastkeyboard_double_arrow_right