In June of 2020, the game's creative director, Ashraf Ismail, had to step down during development due to accusations that he'd been having extramarital affairs with younger fans of the series.
Ismail made a statement on Twitter saying "I am stepping down from my beloved project to properly deal with the personal issues in my life, [...] The lives of my family and my own are shattered. I am deeply sorry to everyone hurt in this."
Ismail made a statement on Twitter saying "I am stepping down from my beloved project to properly deal with the personal issues in my life, [...] The lives of my family and my own are shattered. I am deeply sorry to everyone hurt in this."
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
Italian model Fabio Lanzoni appears on the game's cover as the protagonist Kuros. Despite this, Kuros appears throughout the game in a full suit or armor.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
The game's cover artwork originally featured the American flag and green gaseous fumes, and on the back the words "WANTED: Deadly Force Authorized", "deadly arsenal" and "terrorists". However, due to the then recent 9/11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax scare, the game had been recalled with these removed and the back text changed to make it more politically correct. This pushed back the game from its original September 25th, 2001 release to early November 2001. Some copies with the original box art had already shipped, making that version a collector's item and dubbed the "9/11 American Flag Cover". It also came in a dual case, despite the game only having a single disc.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
In 2020, a Beijing court ruled that the 2018 Chinese fantasy comedy film Warrior Angels had infringed on SNK's copyright as some of the characters in the film resembled designs from The King of Fighters series. The film's character Qiao Fan transforms into a "red clad woman" which heavily resembles Mai Shirainui in her appearance as well as in her movement. SNK China was awarded in damages the equivalent of $111,500 with the film ordered to be pulled from distribution. However, the ruling is being appealed.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
Trip Hawkins, president of the 3DO Company, sent an angry email to John Rousseau, president of video game review publication GamePro, which was the first publication to review Portal Runner, after it gave the game a low score of 2 out of 5. Hawkins threatened to pull advertising from GamePro and believed that because their review was the first published it would "set the tone by telling the hardcore what to think." Hawkins also described their review staff as "angry young men that are poorly trained and represent a narrow and anarchistic element of the world's population."
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
In Australia & New Zealand, the game was released as Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007 and in India as Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007, with on the covers cricketers Ricky Ponting and Yuvraj Singh; respectively.
Singh was also a brand ambassador for the Xbox 360 in India.
Singh was also a brand ambassador for the Xbox 360 in India.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
In March of 2018, a passive effect called "Sketchek’s Bequest" was added to the Pyro's weapon the Axtinguisher which granted the player a speed boost after killing a burning opponent. This was named in honor of the YouTuber known as Sketchek, a prominent Pyro player in the community, who in 2015 claimed in a video to have a "terminal illness" that was getting worse and had later presumably died. However in 2019, Sketchek returned and stated that he lied about dying because he wanted to retire from the game as it had "ruined his life" and he wanted to "go out with a bang." The effect was subsequently removed in an update.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
Looking for inspiration, Mark Webley, the game's designer, and Gary Carr, the lead artist, spent various hours walking around The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford for ideas, but had no luck. They wrote to the hospital asking for a formal tour, but the hospital wanted a percentage of the game's profits, which they declined as they weren't sure how much the game would make.
The hospital Frimley Park, however, were open to offering them a tour and even allowed them to witness an operation, but the two were kicked out by the surgeon after they had been too noisy. They were even offered after a visit to the morgue, but declined as they already had the ideas they needed.
The hospital Frimley Park, however, were open to offering them a tour and even allowed them to witness an operation, but the two were kicked out by the surgeon after they had been too noisy. They were even offered after a visit to the morgue, but declined as they already had the ideas they needed.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
The game was released in North America as Sim Theme Park, part of Maxis' "Sim" brand of games, whilst in Europe and Asia it retained the "Theme" brand and was released as Theme Park World. The reason for the difference in title was because the "Sim" brand was more recognizable in the United States, as opposed to the "Theme" name which was more popular in the rest of the world.
According to Luc Barthelet, the General Manager of Maxis, he was jealous and wished Maxis had created the game but appreciated the opportunity to have it as part of the Sim franchise.
According to Luc Barthelet, the General Manager of Maxis, he was jealous and wished Maxis had created the game but appreciated the opportunity to have it as part of the Sim franchise.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
The game was first released in 1998 on the PlayStation exclusively in Japan as Theme Aquarium, part of the "Theme" series of games by Bullfrog Productions. However, when it was released in 2000 for the PC exclusively in Europe, it was simply titled Aquarium with the "Theme" name and any mentions of Bullfrog Productions dropped.
The reason for the PlayStation version featuring the "Theme" brand was that the previous Theme games had proved popular in Japan so publisher EA Square wanted to help further generate interest by asking Bullfrog to use it in its marketing. When porting it to the PC for the West, the reason to simply release it as Aquarium was due to the belief that "the game quality wasn't high enough for it it come out in the West as a Theme game, with the Bullfrog brand," according to Shintaro Kanaoya, who provided localization assistance.
The reason for the PlayStation version featuring the "Theme" brand was that the previous Theme games had proved popular in Japan so publisher EA Square wanted to help further generate interest by asking Bullfrog to use it in its marketing. When porting it to the PC for the West, the reason to simply release it as Aquarium was due to the belief that "the game quality wasn't high enough for it it come out in the West as a Theme game, with the Bullfrog brand," according to Shintaro Kanaoya, who provided localization assistance.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
On the level "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Negativatron", inputting the Konami Code on the broken arcade machine (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, X, O) will cause it to explode and reveal the numbers '3733 5683', which on a phone key pad spells out "Free Love"
Contributed by FingerRocks
The inspiration for the series derived from Fatal Fury for its fast gameplay and sexual appeal, and Mortal Kombat for its ability to knock opponents off multi-level landscapes.
Contributed by DrakeVagabond
A finished version of the canceled Star Wars Battlefront 3 developed by Free Radical was to be released onto Steam by developer Frontwire Studios and renamed to Galaxy in Turmoil. The game would've been free to download with publisher Valve agreeing to let it onto the service, however in June of 2016 Lucasfilm sent Frontwire a letter telling to halt production.
Frontwire's president, Tony Romanelli, had met with Lucasfilm who told him that although they would've been open to negotiating a license with them, they wouldn't be able to due to the current license with EA and it would be "taking away attention from their Battlefront franchise." Romanelli suggested putting it behind EA's "paywall" and tried directly contacting the company, but was to no avail.
Frontwire's president, Tony Romanelli, had met with Lucasfilm who told him that although they would've been open to negotiating a license with them, they wouldn't be able to due to the current license with EA and it would be "taking away attention from their Battlefront franchise." Romanelli suggested putting it behind EA's "paywall" and tried directly contacting the company, but was to no avail.
Contributed by KnowledgeBase
In an 'Shining Force Encyclopedia' interview with game's Producer/Designer Hiroyuki Takahashi, he was asked how his team came up with the Japanese title "Shining Force: The Legacy of the Gods". Takahashi stated: "We had a few different candidates for titles. The one we chose was suggested by the scenario writer. Originally, the title was simply 'Kamigami no Isan' ('Legacy of the Gods'). I’m something of a sci-fi diehard, and I read a bunch of sci-fi novels that had similar-sounding titles, like “the ___ of the ___”, so that’s why we settled on this one."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to the SNK team in an Neo Geo Freak Magazine interview, 'Hon Fu' was originally going to be a legendary karate master, but the team wanted him to use nunchuks, so they decided to use Chinese martial arts (Kung-Fu) for him instead.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In a Neo Geo Freak Magazine interview, the SNK team originally wanted to replace 'Mai Shiranui' with a new female character named 'Alice Chrysler', but they gave in to fan demands and brought back Mai.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
According to game's director and chief designer Koichi Ishii in an Hippon Super magazines interview, his team wanted to add traps in the chests to trick the players so they thought twice before opening them. This idea came from Wizardry series.
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In an interview, the game's director and designer Hiroji Kiyotake was asked what the idea behind Wario's creation was. He responded: "We imagined Wario as the Bluto to Mario’s Popeye. The truth is, we kind of came up with the idea of the name first, and everything else came after. Since he was a “warui” (bad) guy, he should be Wario. And we had the idea to flip the M upside down. To our surprise, the idea was a big hit with everyone on the team."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In an interview, the game's director and designer Hiroji Kiyotake was asked about the characters and sprites looking different from other Mario games. He responded: "With Super Mario Land 2, one of our ideas was to not be bound by the conventions of the previous games. However, when we showed our first draft to everyone, they were like, “I don’t know… is this Mario?” We realized we were on the wrong path, so we toned down that idea and made something a little closer to the existing Mario world."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
In an interview with game's design Tetsu Takayashiki, he was asked why the team chose to develop for the Game Boy Color instead of more powerful hardware. He responded: "After Star Ocean and Star Ocean 2nd Story, it was decided that we would make Star Ocean 3 for the PS2. The question then became how to fill in the gap while we waited for that project to begin. From the beginning, our plans were to make a compact game."
Contributed by ProtoSnake
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