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In Mrs. Puff's sprite sheet for SpongeBob Saves the Day!, an image can be found of an unnerving semi-realistic CGI character, internally called "Yummer". The character's unsettling design, combined with an image present in the code of Sandy's torn-up scuba suit, caused a lot of speculation about the image's potentially macabre origin. The original creator of the graphic eventually came forward and revealed that the character was simply a developer in-joke from the late 2000s used as a placeholder for a scrapped feature where an undecided character would peek from the back of one of the Krusty Krab's poles. The character's name is also not "Yummer", but rather simply "Yum", named as such because "that's the opposite of what you'd use to describe him". The torn Sandy suit was part of a puzzle where SpongeBob would need to wear one of the treedome's helmets.
Franchise: Super Smash Bros.
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When Tsuyoshi Tozak, director of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, was asked about if Bub and Bob would appear in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, they simply responded "let's skip that question". The interviewer theorized that they may have been under a non-disclosure agreement, citing a similar response when asking the developers of Cuphead about if they wanted to make a TV cartoon, which would eventually happen, but come the end of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's DLC cycle, Bubble Bobble content did not appear in any form, meaning that Tozak was likely indifferent on Smash rather than under NDA.
Also Appears On: Bubble Bobble (Franchise)
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Many fans and critics have noted similarities between the aesthetic of Pizza Tower and "off-model" 1990s cartoons such as Ed, Edd, n' Eddy and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Game creator McPig has claimed not to be a fan of those series and to have not been influenced by them, although he did still take influence from the more cleanly-drawn SpongeBob SquarePants, and an unclear inspiration from 1990s cartoons would still be cited on the game's Steam store page description.
Company: Coolmath Games
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The Coolmath Games website has often been noted for a severe lack in mathematics-related content. The title of the website has often been theorized to have been chosen in order to bypass school browser filters - however that is not the case, instead it was named that as a spin-off of the Coolmath website, which was math-themed.
Also Appears On: Coolmath.com, LLC (Company)
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There has been a trend of retrospective reviews and historical content relating to the North American video game crash of 1983 mentioning Chase the Chuck Wagon as a contributing game to the crash, despite the fact that it only had a limited mail-order release and was not the first product-placement-based video game. This is theorized by Cassidy of the "Bad Game Hall of Fame" to be the result of a quote from the G4 documentary series Icons that was taken out of context, referring to a proliferation of companies trying to branch into video games as opposed to any specific games or the use of product placement, with the mistaken belief that Chase the Chuck Wagon was published or developed by Purina itself like with Quaker Oats' "U.S. Games" brand. The quote in question reads:
"Toy companies like Parker Brothers and Hasbro form video game divisions. But when unrelated companies like Chuck Wagon dog food and Quaker Oats jump on-board, the market begins to turn."
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Infamously, the ending cutscene of Banjo-Tooie has series antagonist Gruntilda threaten "Just you wait until Banjo-Threeie!". Contrary to popular belief, the lead designer for the Banjo series, Gregg Mayles has stated on Twitter that a direct sequel to Tooie was never planned for development, and that the supposed "tease" was merely a joke, playing on how the world "Threeie" would be unpronounceable in British English.
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In the first, second and sixth SoulCalibur games, the classic numeric input for Ivy's notoriously difficult Summon Suffering throw is 376231A+G (Attack + Guard). This number combination actually holds significance as it appears to be a reference to the phone number for Namco's headquarters from before they were acquired by Bandai, being 03-3756-2311.
Allegedly, the developers used the phone number as the basis for the input as a reaction to an in-joke among Tekken and Soul Edge arcade communities, who would react to degenerate or weird stuff in the games with "gonna call Namco about this". The joke being: "If you can't do the throw, go call Namco about it." However, since this input was brought back in SoulCalibur VI long after the phone number stopped being used by Bandai Namco, this adds an additional (albeit probably unintended) layer to the joke: "Go call Namco about it. Oh wait, you can't."
Allegedly, the developers used the phone number as the basis for the input as a reaction to an in-joke among Tekken and Soul Edge arcade communities, who would react to degenerate or weird stuff in the games with "gonna call Namco about this". The joke being: "If you can't do the throw, go call Namco about it." However, since this input was brought back in SoulCalibur VI long after the phone number stopped being used by Bandai Namco, this adds an additional (albeit probably unintended) layer to the joke: "Go call Namco about it. Oh wait, you can't."
Franchise: Mario
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In the 2023 film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", the Japanese name for the character Spike (the foreman from Wrecking Crew) was changed in the corresponding dub. Although no specific reason was given as to why the change was made, it can be assumed it was done to avoid controversy as the character's original Japanese name is "Blackie", which is also a derogatory racial slur in English-speaking countries used to refer to dark-skinned people of African descent.
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On September 8, 2022, the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II died, starting a national mourning period of ten days. Rumors began to circulate that Nintendo had postponed a planned Nintendo Direct in response to the news. On September 12, the Direct was formally revealed to air worldwide the next day, although it was not livestreamed in the UK. Instead, it was published as an on-demand video on Nintendo UK's YouTube channel at a later time. This Direct featured the full title reveal for the then-untitled Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, revealing the game's subtitle to be "Tears of the Kingdom". This lead to even more speculation that the poor timing of this subtitle being the name of one of Nintendo's most anticipated games at the time coinciding with the Queen's death was what resulted in the Direct being delayed, rather than doing so purely out of respect. It wouldn't be until October 3 for Nintendo UK to begin their own promotion of the game, long after the mourning period ended.
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Nightmare in Dream Land was the last game to credit Shinichi Shimomura, who co-directed the game with series creator Masahiro Sakurai, as a staff member. Shimomura previously served as a regular map designer for the Kirby series and directed Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Exactly what became of Shimomura after Nightmare in Dream Land is unknown, with many fans speculating that he retired from the video game industry and/or passed away.
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A secret message can be found on the title screen of the NES version of the game with the use of two controllers. At the title screen, select "CONSTRUCTION" on the menu. Press Start on Controller 1 to enter the mode, then press it again to return back to the title screen. Repeat this seven times. After the seventh enter-and-exit, hold Down on Controller 1 and press A eight times on Controller 2. Then, hold Right on Controller 1 and press B twelve times on Controller 2. Finally, press Start on Controller 1 to activate the message featuring an animation of a green droplet falling. "THIS PROGRAM WAS
WRITTEN BY
OPEN-REACH
WHO LOVES NORIKO
....."
WRITTEN BY
OPEN-REACH
WHO LOVES NORIKO
....."
The most likely person as to the identity of "Open-Reach" is Tomcat System's founder and programmer Ryoichi Ookubo because of the similarities between "Reach" and "Ryoichi". It should be also noted that his name is hidden twice in the game's ROM, and from one fact pointed out by a Russian LiveJournal user, that the name Open-Reach appears as "OPR" on the title screen of another game Tomcat System developed, the 1991 Famicom game Castle Quest published by Hudson Soft.
As for Noriko, her identity remains unknown. In the comments section of the sourced video, one commenter claimed that Noriko was Ookubo's daughter who was three years old at the time of the game's development, while the aforementioned LiveJournal user claimed that Noriko was a romantic partner, claiming her to be a former Namco graphic designer named Noriko Ikegawa (whose name would later appear in the credits for the Nintendo game Animal Crossing as a model designer), but there is no substantial evidence to support either of these claims.
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A prototype version of this game contained an item, called "Flametrail", which is not present in the final release of the game. It is theorised this item would use the jet engines of the ship as a means of damaging other ships.
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In the January 1993 interview with game's programmer Yuji Naka published in the Beep! magazine, he stated that the rumors about Tails being a girl or Sonic's girlfriend wasn't true, he was always intended to be a boy from the very beginning. He also stated that Tails' name was originally Miles for most of the game's development. His nickname first came up from during a meeting with a producer from ABC.
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Although announced, the game was never released in Europe. The release date had been constantly pushed back from its original June 24th, 2005 date before being cancelled altogether with no official explanation.
One rumor that circulated about why the European release was cancelled were false claims that the game's unique gyroscope cartridge required mercury, which the European Union had banned from use in certain electrical and electronic products, to help the gyroscope function.
One rumor that circulated about why the European release was cancelled were false claims that the game's unique gyroscope cartridge required mercury, which the European Union had banned from use in certain electrical and electronic products, to help the gyroscope function.
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It is possible to unlock an alternate ending sequence featuring Yogurt. The requirements to unlock this ending are unknown, but an unsubstantiated claim on a fan forum suggests it could be tied to unlocking the alternate bikini outfits which are only in the Japanese version of the game.
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A game with the same title was originally planned to release on the DS. In 2005, IGN got hold of an official internal Nintendo software list that revealed a number of key DS games set to be announced in the future. All of the games on the list were eventually announced and released except for one project simply titled "Metroid Dread". However, the title quickly disappeared from Nintendo's title plan lists and in magazine articles before that year's E3.
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Contrary to popular belief that Vile's character design was inspired by bounty hunter Boba Fett from the Star Wars franchise, and that his Japanese name VAVA (ヴァヴァ) was changed to Vile for the international release out of fear of a lawsuit from Lucasfilm due to the letters "B" and "V" sometimes being used interchangeably in Japanese causing the name to appear too similar to "Boba", Capcom character designer TOM-PON stated in a 2012 interview that VAVA's design was actually inspired by the character Bubba Zanetti (ババ・ザネッティ, transliterated as Baba Zanetti) from the 1979 film "Mad Max".In Mega Man X8, Vile's primary color scheme was intentionally changed from purple to green to more closely resemble Boba Fett in reference to their similarities.
Franchise: Bomberman
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A game tentatively titled "Bomberman" was originally planned for release on the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. From what little footage and screenshots exist of the game, it appeared to have similar gameplay to Bomberman 64, while also being one of the only games in the series to have Bomberman use a health bar instead of health stock. The game would have centered around Bomberman as he tries to save Central City from a robotics corporation, while possibly getting turned into a robot himself as implied by the game's tentative box art. It would have also had a Battle Mode similar to previous entries in the series that was rumored to be compatible with future Bomberman games for the 3DS should those have been made.The game was announced in an overview trailer released in February of 2011 showcasing games for the 3DS that would release later that year, but was cancelled the following month due to the closure and acquisition of Hudson Soft by Konami.
Franchise: Doctor Who
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According to the August 1994 issue of magazine Mean Machines Sega, a Doctor Who game for the Mega Drive / Genesis was in development by SEGA around the time Steven Spielberg was involved in working on the show, but nothing else was known about this.
Company: Nintendo
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Revealed in concept art by former Retro Studios employee Sammy Hall, Retro Studios actually worked on two major projects for Nintendo using two of their biggest IPs before Nintendo cancelled them for unknown reasons.One of them was a project in the Mario series centered around the supporting character Boo. Little is known about the project outside of the Concept art, but hints released with the concept art tease that it would have been released for one of Nintendo's handhelds (such as the DS) as well as there being things in the game referred to as "possession powers" and "Broomies".
The other game, rumored to be centered around the character of Sheik from The Legend of Zelda series, was more elaborate. Hints leaked by Hall and released with the concept art suggest that it would of been about, and centered around, the origin of the Master Sword in the Bad Timeline and would feature "the last Sheik" as it's main character. The game would have also seen the Dark Gerudo tribe engaging in their decade-long birth to Ganon. The project was describe as an "Action/RPG".