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City Life DS
3
In 2022, the English rock band Arctic Monkeys released a song titled "Sculptures of Anything Goes", featuring the following lyric in the last verse of the song:

"The simulation cartridge for City Life '09 is pretty tricky to come by."

This lyric became the subject of news articles when fans on the music lyrics website Genius initially determined that it was referencing the obscure Nintendo DS game City Life DS, which only released in France in 2008 and the United Kingdom in 2009, and did not sell as well as previous games in the City Life series. Fans theorized that the difficulty in finding a copy of the game referenced in the lyric stemmed from Nintendo eventually discontinuing the DS family of systems to support future consoles. They also cited the closure of the Nintendo 3DS/Wii U versions of the Nintendo eShop as another possibility, but this was unfounded as City Life DS was only officially released as a physical cartridge and not part of the Wii U Virtual Console's Nintendo DS library.

However, it was confirmed in an interview with the band's frontman Alex Turner by Rolling Stone Germany on the day the song released that the lyric was not about City Life DS. He attributed the lyric to the works of author David Foster Wallace, most likely as a reference to his book "Infinite Jest" where the characters consume entertainment in the form of cartridges, which could also be referring to Turner's growing struggle to appeal and relate to Arctic Monkeys' audience from their earlier years as their sound and image changed later on.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month May 6, 2024
3
Attachment 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.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month April 6, 2024
Star Fox Adventures
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
3
Contrary to popular belief, Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo did not singlehandedly force Rare (who was never even fully owned by Nintendo) to convert Dinosaur Planet into Star Fox Adventures. It was merely an offer and suggestion Miyamoto gave to Rare, and at the very least, the higher ups such as the Stamper Bros. and Kevin Bayliss were on board with it. An October 2004 edition of Rare's Scribes says as such:

Q: First of all, what’s the true story here, did Rare approach Microsoft because Nintendo raped Dinosaur Planet, or did Microsoft approach you guys because of your talent?

A: None of it had anything to do with Dinosaur Planet. That was way before the negotiations started, and besides, the Rare-Nintendo relationship didn’t work in such a way that they’d just force the SFA switch on us.
person Dinoman96 calendar_month December 19, 2023
Dinosaur Planet/Star Fox Adventures Development Explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-bPiQr9AoE

Rare Scribes – October 19th 2004:
http://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-october-19th-2004/
Company: Nintendo
3
Nintendo's development philosophy is often described with the quote "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad," which is generally attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto. However, there is no evidence that he actually said the quote: a 2022 investigation by video game researcher Ethan Johnson revealed that it was first documented as "an industry catchphrase" in a November 1997 issue of Gamepro magazine. The quote was first tied to Nintendo in the June 1998 issue of Edge, in which an article about the protracted development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time alleges that Nintendo saw it on a poster in a developer's office and took it to heart.

Over the next three years, the quote circulated among Usenet forum members when describing a variety of game developers, Nintendo included, and in 2003 it started being attributed to Miyamoto specifically. Johnson speculates that this came from people conflating it with comments Miyamoto made in a 2001 interview looking back on the making of Ocarina of Time, where he stated that "the entire staff starts to feel like 'if I let the game be released in this state, I will be ashamed.' Because if the development team doesn't end up feeling like craftsmen, artisans... then it won't be a good game." Johnson attributed the quote's longevity to the emergence of modern hype culture and growing public awareness about the significantly longer development periods needed for 3D games.
person VinchVolt calendar_month December 13, 2023
Article about Johnson's findings:
https://gamerant.com/miyamoto-famous-quote-delayed-games-good-misattributed/

Johnson's original Twitter thread, including a correction about his statement regarding the poster Nintendo allegedly saw:
https://twitter.com/GameResearch_E/status/1504850248107188234
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
3
Three of the character origin tips for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ignore lesser known Nintendo-branded games released by third parties in the 1990s. Two of these tips outright lie - one related to Mario's first utterance of the phrase "Mamma Mia!" (which it falsely attributes to Super Mario 64 and not Mario's Game Gallery) and another claiming that there are only 5 Zelda series games with Link's name in the title (ignoring Link: The Faces of Evil). The third one on the other hand is worded in an awkward manner - a tip relating to Luigi's first starring role referring to Luigi's Mansion as "Luigi's first big break as a main protagonist" - as to ignore the true holder of the title, Mario is Missing! without technically lying.

It's not known if those first two instances were an honest error, or an intentional attempt to hide the games given that they are generally seen as low quality and are considered to have negatively affected Nintendo's reputation at their time of release.
Pepper Grinder
2
Upon its reveal, Pepper Grinder was compared by some gaming outlets to Game Freak's Drill Dozer, owing to a shared theme of drilling, some similar gameplay mechanics, and a ponytailed main character design very loosely resembling Drill Dozer's Jill. The game's solo developer Riv Hester did say that Drill Dozer was an influence on the game, but it was not intended as an outright spiritual successor, as he did not play it until after work had begun on Pepper Grinder.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
2
The vehicle-building gameplay of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has been claimed by many Banjo-Kazooie fans, often with an underlying anti-Microsoft or pro-Nintendo console war motive, to have been a corporate mandate from Microsoft to Rare, who supposedly wanted to make another 3D platformer like the previous games in the series. However, this is a complete lie as the only known influence on Nuts & Bolts from Microsoft was that they wanted Rare to make games aimed toward a younger demographic. Otherwise, the creative decisions made with Nuts & Bolts were entirely on Rare's development team, which was burned out by 3D platformers and genuinely believed that vehicle-building was a natural evolution of the genre.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month March 14, 2024
Reddit posts collecting all of the below sources and specific quotes from them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BanjoKazooie/comments/grmk7k/comprehensive_list_as_to_reasons_why_nuts_bolts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BanjoKazooie/comments/gro2kc/child_post_list_of_comprehensive_quotes_from_rare/

GamesRadar 2008 interview revealing Nuts & Bolts has nothing to do with Microsoft's buyout:
https://www.gamesradar.com/banjo-kazooie-nuts-bolts-interview/

IGN 2012 interview revealing demographics mandate:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/22/ex-rare-member-shares-info-on-cancelled-game

Gregg Mayles 2018 interview revealing Rare wanted a different approach to platformers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9Y55vpHZo

VideoGamer 2008 interview revealing that they thought a platform-centric game would be boring to work on, and was not inspired by user-generated games like LittleBigPlanet:
https://www.videogamer.com/previews/banjo-kazooie-nuts-and-bolts-interview/

Wired 2008 interview revealing Rare thought platforming games stopped being innovative after the Nintendo 64, and the team expanded from 13 to 71 people so they could not make projects like they used to:
https://www.wired.com/2008/05/qa-banjo-kazooi/

Xbox Achievements 2008 interview revealing Rare thought the old movement system was stale, that they wanted players to come up with different solutions to problems, and assumed fans would be mad if they remade a game instead of a making a sequel:
https://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-1567-x360a-Meets--Rare-and-Talks-Banjo-Kazooie--Nuts---Bolts.html

Gamereactor 2008 interview revealing Rare thought the blockier character designs felt more BK than the smooth versions of N64 models:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9Il7IKgEI

The Rare Witch Project 2008 interview revealing Rare believed vehicle-building was the next evolution of platforming games, and that Nuts & Bolts was the third attempt at a third Banjo-Kazooie game:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081223105418/http://www.rarewitchproject.com/?id=1655

Kikizo 2008 interview revealing Rare wanted to test the power of the new Xbox 360 hardware:
http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/banjo-kazooie-nuts-and-bolts-rare-interview-p1.asp

Edge Magazine 2010 interview revealing Conker Live & Reloaded's negative fan reception caused Rare to rethink a remake:
https://web.archive.org/web/20101015012359/http://www.next-gen.biz/features/rare-vintage-part-two

Rare 2018 interview revealing Gregg Mayles was bored with the formula and did not know where to take it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QVnSJDAl4?t=3556

Steve Mayles 2020 interview stating Banjo-Threeie is Nuts & Bolts, putting work into reimagined worlds from Banjo-Kazooie is the same amount of work as new worlds, at one point Rare's management moved all but two people from the Banjo-Kazooie project, Xbox Market was different than the Nintendo market so they weren't sure it'd sell, and Rare was burnt out from making 3D platformers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp8n7QKJZHs
Alan Wake II
subdirectory_arrow_right Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (Game), Sweet Baby Inc. (Company)
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person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 8, 2024
"Sweet Baby Inc detected" Steam Curator list:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44858017-Sweet-Baby-Inc-detected/?appid=1934570

Sweet Baby Inc. front page:
https://sweetbabyinc.com/

General info:
https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428

Article about the group (note the article is in German):
https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/sweet-baby-inc-detected-steam-kurator-hasskampagne,3409770.html

Accusation of "woke agenda":
https://www.eurogamer.net/spider-man-alan-wake-ridiculous-fishing-devs-speak-up-in-support-of-consultancy-studio-sweet-baby-inc

Employee statement:
https://dotesports.com/general/news/sweet-baby-inc-detected-drama-explained

Steam follower number:
https://www.themarysue.com/sweet-baby-inc-controversy-explained/

Kyle Rowley statement:
https://www.thegamer.com/going-after-alan-wake-2-for-being-woke-really-gives-the-game-away/

Kyle Rowley tweet:
https://twitter.com/TimePirateNinja/status/1764697135344202183

Stacey Henley quote:
https://www.thegamer.com/diversity-consultants-sweet-baby-inc-gaming-worse-live-service/

Curator statement about list purpose:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sweetbabyinc-detected/discussions/0/4302697419069965949/

Employee complaints:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-employee-begs-followers-to-report-steam-curator-that-tracks-sweet-baby-inc-s-involvement-in-video-games/

Zoë Quinn and Maya Felix Kramer DDoS tweets that were mentioned in the above article but not actually linked:
https://twitter.com/legobutts/status/439565200576892928
https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/439565409780383744
https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/439565723996655616

Steam Curator About page:
https://store.steampowered.com/about/curators/

Chris Kindred account limit and archived reaction:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-employee-who-tried-to-cancel-gamer-over-boycott-list-gets-x-account-limited/

Curator Steam Support tweet:
https://twitter.com/kabrutusrambo/status/1765907696887173127

Curator Steam Support community post:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/sweetbabyinc-detected/announcements/detail/4128183566040620693

Article about claims of Sweet Baby's extent of their involvement:
https://thatparkplace.com/sweet-baby-inc-misinformation-campaign-about-how-much-influence-the-company-has-quickly-gets-exposed/

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League end credits with Sweet Baby section:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxWTfD9CHtQ#t=4475

Alan Wake II Game Developer article:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/why-remedy-entertainment-went-all-in-on-saga-anderson-in-i-alan-wake-2-i-
Epic Mickey
subdirectory_arrow_right Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau (Game)
2
Despite popular belief, Epic Mickey is not the first video game to include the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The actual first game to feature him was Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau (also known as "Woody Woodpecker's Frustrated Vacations"), where Oswald (based on his "Oswald Rabbit" iteration owned by Universal at the time) was one of Woody's friends that had been kidnapped by Buzz Buzzard.
CrazyBus
2
Although CrazyBus is often discussed or reviewed as if it were a real video game sold for money, and included in ROM sets and pirated cartridges with authentic games, it was actually intended as a simple tech demo by a beginning developer posted on a Sega Genesis modding forum in 2004.
Star Fox 2
2
Contary to popular belief and Nintendo's own statements, Star Fox 2 does not require the use of the Super FX Chip 2 to run, as the Super FX Chip 2 only increases game size capacity support and not graphical support, and Star Fox 2 is small enough to fit on a regular Super FX Chip. Star Fox 2, however, cannot run on a MARIO chip, the first revision of the first Super FX Chip which was succeeded by the more graphically powerful GSU-1 and GSU-2 versions of the Super FX Chip.
Palworld
2
Contrary to popular belief, the Pokémon franchise was not the main inspiration for Palworld. According to Pocket Pair CEO Takuro Mizobe, the game was actually based on Ark: Survival Evolved, which also had monster companions in the form of dinosaurs. Similarly, the survival mechanics and in-game tasks were inspired by Rust, and the creature designs were inspired by the Dragon Quest series.
Scratchin' Melodii
2
Attachment Melodii from Scratchin' Melodii is referred to with "they" pronouns throughout the game, and a gag in the Grase Poppin' stage shows them exiting a restroom with a quaver as a symbol. The game's creator LephemStar91 noted that, unlike characters such as Frisk from Undertale or Niko from OneShot, Melodii's gender is not up to the player's interpretation or a mystery, but rather explicitly non-binary:

"Apparently Melodii's gender/lack-thereof has been a bit of a topic again. So just to publicly squash any and all misconceptions, Melodii is non-binary. It's not meant to be an "up to interpretation" sort of thing, Melodii's a character with their own identity."
Zoo Tycoon
2
Attachment The adoption icon and information plaque for the mythological Yeti lists them to be from the Arctic instead of the Himalayas.
person CuriousUserX90 calendar_month December 21, 2023
War Thunder
2
Starting in 2021, War Thunder's official forums became notorious for being the center point of multiple leaks of export-restricted or regionally classified military documents from around the world detailing how various weapons and transportation equipment like tanks and fighter jets are built. The leaks are attributed to the fact that the game strives to depict the minutiae of warfare as realistically as possible, leading to players with military connections, or access to resources that are publicly available in other regions, sharing the documents on the forums in order to prove points regarding what would or would not be accurate in-game. Despite the forum moderators quickly removing these posts and issuing multiple warnings about them breaching international law, the issue became so prominent and recurring that laypeople began spreading rumors that the United States military had to start filtering out War Thunder players during the recruitment process, which American weapons contractor RTX Corporation denied.
person VinchVolt calendar_month December 13, 2023
2
In the aftermath of Ken Penders' lawsuit against Archie Comics that lead to their Sonic the Hedgehog comics getting rebooted, a common misconception among fans is that one of the characters he acquired the rights to as a result was Fiona Fox. This is not actually true: while Penders did help "recreate" the character, the initial character (an Auto-Automaton dubbed "Auto-Fiona"), was created by another former writer, Michael Gallagher. While it's uncertain if that he means he owns the character, Penders has stated that he did not want to claim a character that he did not create.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 3, 2023
Sonic the Hedgehog Issue #28 where Michael Gallagher created the character:
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Sonic-The-Hedgehog/Issue-28?id=20261

Knuckles the Echidna Issue #26 where Ken Penders redesigned the character:
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Knuckles-the-Echidna/Issue-26?id=50225

Ken Penders tweet:
https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/428688547114004481
Cuphead
2
On August 24, 2017, a video was uploaded by gaming news outlet VentureBeat where lead writer Dean Takahashi, who specializes in general industry articles, strategy games and first/third person shooters and normally does not cover platformers or sidescrolling action games because by the outlet's own admission he was extremely bad at them, recorded a gameplay demonstration of him playing the Gamescom 2017 demo for Cuphead due to him being the only one on staff at Gamescom. This footage is notorious for the first two and a half minutes where he struggles to complete the game's tutorial, before struggling to play for another 23 minutes under conditions that were made intentionally easier for the game's demo such as increased health and instant access to some stronger unlockable charms like Spread. VentureBeat knew the footage was bad, but uploaded it anyways and drew attention to Takahashi's poor gameplay in the video title, calling it "shameful". However, VentureBeat initially did not explain the full context of the footage in the video description, and due to Gamescom being held one month prior to Cuphead's release, the clip was passed around out of context leading people to believe he was doing a full review of the game and trying to make a point of it being too difficult. In reality, the video was posted alongside an article about the demo by Takahashi to VentureBeat that regularly acknowledges his poor skill at the game; he also called Cuphead a fun game that showed "why making hard games that depend on skill is like a lost art". Regardless, the footage still drew extreme negative backlash and harassment towards him and claims that he was unfit to be a game journalist. Takahashi's response to the controversy spurred more controversy after he accused people attacking the footage of being connected to the 2014 #Gamergate movement, when one week prior to responding, he published an article promoting the idea of a "leisure economy" that stems from game journalists among others being paid to play games, and promoting the fact that he had been reviewing games for 21 years up to that point.
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month November 23, 2023
Power Punch II
subdirectory_arrow_right Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch (Game), Mike Tyson (Franchise), Punch-Out!! (Franchise)
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Peter Pan
subdirectory_arrow_right Snow White and the 7 Clever Boys (Game), Cinderella (Game), Adventures of Pinocchio (Game), Hansel & Gretel (Game), Dingo Pictures (Company), Phoenix Games (Company), Longsoft Multimedia (Company)
2
Contrary to popular belief, and unlike the other fairy tale mockbusters released on game consoles by Phoenix Games, the animated cartoons included in Peter Pan, Adventures of Pinocchio, Snow White and the 7 Clever Boys, Cinderella, and Hansel & Gretel were not made by Dingo Pictures, but rather Longsoft Multimedia.
Epic Mickey
2
According to Warren Spector. He considers Epic Mickey (and Deus Ex) as the high point of his career for bringing back the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and getting fan mail regarding his work on Epic Mickey from fans.

"I suspect no one at Disney realizes that we made Ortensia up for our game. I'm sure people at Disney think Ortensia is a part of Disney's history. We made her up. So the fact that Oswald is back, and the fact that Ortensia is now a part of Disney's history, is because of a video game. That's very cool.

I got more fan mail about Epic Mickey than any game I've ever worked on. It was more heartfelt fan mail than any game I've ever worked on. We touched people in a way that games just never touch people.

Screw Metacritic. Screw the gamers who didn't like our camera. Screw everybody. I am really proud of that game, and I am really proud of the team that made it, and nothing is going to ever sway me from feeling like that was one of the high points of my career."

It should be noted that Ortensia was not technically an original creation for Epic Mickey, as she already existed in the Oswald cartoons under the name Sadie. However, Ortensia would become Sadie's official name in the Disney Parks and merchandise following the game.
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