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Franchise: Angry Birds
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During development of "The Angry Birds Movie 2", it was decided to break away from the original source material by having the birds and the pigs end their conflict and team up against a greater threat. This was done both in an effort to surprise audiences with a new experience involving the same characters, and as part of an attempt to outdo what was done in the first film thanks to the unprecedented level of freedom that the change made available to them. According to actor Josh Gad, the production team went forward with it not only because they thought the idea was "ingenious", but also because it would be most appropriate given the increasingly polarized political climate at the time, stating:

"The movie has some amazing messaging in it, not the least of which is overcoming differences with people you disagree with in order to find a common ground, which I think speaks to a lot of issues we’re dealing with right now."

While not explicitly stated, it's speculated that this change in the story may have also been made in response to theories that its preceding film, "The Angry Birds Movie", contained thinly-veiled political and anti-immigration undertones as an allegory on the European refugee crisis, most notably with the portrayal of the pigs being unintentionally similar to Arab and Muslim terrorist stereotypes. However, it is not likely this was intended by the film's producers as the pigs were actually inspired by the 2009 swine flu epidemic during the original game's development, on top of there being antagonistic, invasive, and explosives-based elements in the pigs and their weaponry dating back to the first game that are crucial to the series' gameplay and story concept, albeit in a less developed state than they are shown in the film.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 16, 2024
Stellar Blade
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On March 8, 2024, a demo for the game was mistakenly released on the PlayStation Store in the United States. It was taken down twenty-five minutes later and rendered unplayable on systems where it had been downloaded if they connected to the internet after the takedown. This was the first time Sony had ever done such an act, with many pointing out that they didn't even do it when P.T., the demo for the cancelled Silent Hills, was removed from the PlayStation Store by Konami.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 10, 2024
Fonz
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With a release date of November 1976, Fonz is the first ever video game based on an officially licensed property on record.
Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land
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Attachment The game's main antagonist Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr., and his father of the same name (both originally characters featured in the series' two-part episode "Exit 9B" which the game is based on), are based on Donkey Kong record-holder Billy Mitchell, who has notably gained controversy for cheating on the Donkey Kong arcade game. At one point in 2015, Mitchell sued Cartoon Network over the characters, claiming that the show infringed on his likeness. The case was later dismissed in court by New Jersey Federal District Judge Anne Thompson, who stated in her final ruling that:

"The television character does not match the plaintiff in appearance: GBF appears as a non-human creature, a giant floating head with no body from outer space, while Plaintiff is a human being, […] And when GBF loses his title, the character literally explodes, unlike Plaintiff."
person Tuli0hWut calendar_month March 2, 2024
Final boss fight against Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr. and Sr.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7SxOXzBeY

Garrett Bobby Ferguson Jr. backstory in the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDgl3gjFfBA

Article on Billy Mitchell Cartoon Network lawsuit:
https://www.polygon.com/2015/11/24/9792472/billy-mitchell-regular-show-court-case
Kingdom Hearts III
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Tetsuya Nomura had requested for the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to be used in Kingdom Hearts III, but Disney responded that he would be "too difficult" to use, though they never clarified why. While his plans for Oswald had he been added to the game are unknown, it's worth noting that Nomura has admitted that Oswald is one of his favorite Disney characters.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month February 22, 2024
Crash Bandicoot
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Dan Arey, a former Crystal Dynamics and Naughty Dog developer who worked on the second and third games in the series, praised the first game in a 1996 Retro Gamer magazine interview. Prior to joining Naughty Dog, he talked about how the game maintained its unique identity in the world of 3D platformers, even when faced with the groundbreaking influence of Super Mario 64. Arey emphasized that while Super Mario 64 embraced open-ended levels, programmer Andy Gavin and director Jason Rubin designed Crash Bandicoot to adhere to a more old-school, level-based structure while adding 3D depth to its platforming challenges by "going down 3D roads with occasional 2D side-wave elements, but everything was very focussed in terms of mechanics". Arey also expressed admiration for the game's technical achievements even before he joined Naughty Dog, which likely soon motivated him to do so:

"We saw some early demos when I was at Crystal Dynamics, and we were asking ourselves how they were getting so many polygons on the PlayStation. What they had done was pre-calculate the polygons you couldn't see from a fixed-camera viewpoint, so it looked like there were many more polygons being pushed on the system than ever before."
Goddess of Victory: Nikke
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On January 11, 2023, the game's official Thai Facebook page posted an advertisement that was quickly met with backlash from the Thai player community. The ad depicted a player engaging in the game due to him not enjoying his birthday party. Entranced by the anime characters' buttocks physics in an erratic manner, his behavior gets interrupted and questioned by a partygoer who gives him his birthday cake with candles. He then wishes for the characters Anis, Rapi, and Marian to appear in real life, and in a vision prior to blowing out the candles, the three arrive in his home and proceed to twerk in front of him, simulating the game's attack animations. The advertisement was heavily criticized for depicting the player base as perverts who only play the game for the attractive characters, prompting the developers to issue an official apology in Thai and take down the ad. However, the removal of the ad caused another round of backlash from a different part of the fanbase, one that was already upset with the developers after a new character costume had been released with more clothing than initial leaks for a winter holiday event had suggested, leading to accusations of censorship. Reportedly, some fans even went as far as to say that there was nothing wrong with the ad for "being honest about why some players are attracted to the game."
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month February 17, 2024
Roblox
subdirectory_arrow_right Five Nights at Freddy's (Franchise)
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"Five Nights at Freddy's: Survival Crew" is an upcoming Roblox game made in direct collaboration with Scott Cawthon, himself a fan of Roblox and playing it regularly with his children. However, due to miscommunication between Scott and the game's developer, Metaverse Team Frights, regarding one of the game's skins, a beta version of the game was accidentally released on December 20, 2023. The game was set to private two hours afterwards.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Game)
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On August 18th and 19th, 2014, several weeks before Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS launched in Japan, one of the most influential leaks in the series occurred. Footage of the gameplay and the roster (including fighters who were not announced by Nintendo at the time) were uploaded to 4chan, and then YouTube. The legitimacy of the leaks were brought into question by fans (such as the consistency of the rosters compared to the one that was shown at E3 that year), with some speculating that the leaks originated from an employee connected to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), leading fans to refer to the leak as the ESRB leak. It was not until Nintendo took down the YouTube videos very shortly after they were uploaded when they were confirmed to be legitimate. Days later, Shulk would be revealed for the game in a Japanese Nintendo Direct, confirming the rest of the game's unannounced roster.

In 2023, it was discovered that the leaker was a child of a Nintendo of America employee. According to a DidYouKnowGaming? video researching the history of various video game leaks, the employee recorded footage of the game in action, which would be sent to the ESRB for review. The child gained access to it and shared the footage with his friends, before spreading out of control. Nintendo of America fired the employee shortly after word got out.
Club Penguin
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Several characters originating from books based on Club Penguin (such as the "Pick Your Path" books) were given names with less than four characters, such as "Liz", "Kip", "Deb", and "Roy". According to former artist Chris Hendricks, this was done to prevent the writers from potentially copying a real player's penguin name, which were a minimum of four characters long.
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On September 21, 2020, as part of his podcast BumbleKast, writer Ian Flynn expressed interest in adapting Cosmo and the Metarex from the animated series "Sonic X" into IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, which would effectively incorporate them into the mainline Sonic canon. A year later, he would reveal that said arc would not happen anytime soon, as fellow writer Evan Stanley had more stories that needed to be finished. In January 2024, however, Flynn revealed that most content that comes from the show is off the table, including characters such as Cosmo, the Metarex, Topaz, Mr. Tanaka, and Ella.

However, there may be an exception to this in the form of the "Next Show", a fictional children's show featuring a purple mascot character named Next that Cream and Cheese are shown to be fans of during Sonic X. The show was first referenced in Cream's Sonic Channel profile, where it was listed as one of her likes. Later, 2023 would feature two seperate instances of the show being referenced: first during the "Otherworld Comedy" series of wallpapers posted on Sonic Channel, where it was mentioned in the story for the May 2023 wallpaper ("Story Act 5: My Vector Man"), then later as part of the official Christmas 2023 picture, where a toy based on Next appears amongst the pile of gifts.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month January 16, 2024
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
subdirectory_arrow_right Ace Attorney (Franchise)
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According to series creator Shu Takumi in a 2017 interview, Capcom executives issued two mandates affecting the writing of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The first mandate was that the game had to include Phoenix Wright in the story, which went against Takumi's original idea for a reset of the series. The second mandate was to incorporate the Lay Judge system, a real-life judicial system, into the story, resulting in the creation of Spoiler:the MASON System game program and the trial run of a new Jurist System in the game's last case "Turnabout Succession". The Ace Attorney series began as a critique of how Japan's legal system handles criminal offenses, but around this time, that system was changing. While Japan previously suspended an older jurist system in 1943, their legislative body, the National Diet, gradually implemented a new lay judge system (裁判員, or "Saiban-in") from 2004 to 2009. This system, resembling more democratic systems in North American and European countries, calls upon six random common citizens to serve in serious criminal trials as inquisitorial judges sitting alongside three professional judges. Together they make up the judicial panel and actively analyze and investigate evidence presented to them throughout the trial before ruling on guilt and sentencing. Reflecting this, Spoiler:the Jurist System seen at the end of Turnabout Succession is made up of six random jurors guided by Phoenix Wright, where the player from the sixth juror's perspective has to rule the defendant Guilty or Not Guilty.

Takumi revealed that as part of the game’s promotion, Capcom collaborated with the Japanese Ministry of Justice and even gave a presentation of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney at the ministry's head office, implying that the system's mandated inclusion in the game was political propaganda. Despite Capcom cooperating in the Japanese government's push for this new system and despite participation experiences being reported as positive and easy to understand, the reception to other aspects of the system were largely negative. Complaints included gradually more severe sentencing since its implementation, the risk of criminal penalties for lay judges publicly discussing confidential deliberation room details after trials come to an end, and most starkly, calling upon Japanese citizens to put aside time to participate in the system, who have been increasingly unwilling to do so. This decline in interest has been largely attributed to the length of lay judge trials and even the length of pre-trial proceedings increasing significantly over the next decade, and due to aging populations and people simply not being able to make these commitments, more citizens refused to serve or even show up to be vetted for serving in the first place, making it harder to fill out the jury.

As a result of this reception, the Ace Attorney series has not used Spoiler:the MASON System and the Jurist System since, sticking with the series' traditional Initial Trial system in future games.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month January 9, 2024
Undertale
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Prior to the release of the official Japanese version, Japanese audiences, who previously experienced the game through various fan translations, frequently debated about how Sans would refer to himself in dialogue. In the Japanese language, there are multiple first-person singular pronouns, each with their own distinct connotations. Among Japanese fans, the common consensus was that Sans would either refer to himself with 僕 ("boku") or 俺 ("ore"). While both pronouns are masculine, the former has an informal and "boyish" connotation, while the latter typically indicates brashness.

Once the Japanese localization came out, audiences were surprised to discover that Sans instead refers to himself with オイラ ("oira"), a relatively archaic pronoun which is commonly associated with hillbillies (though milder in connotation than おら, "ora"), only using "ore" during his sterner moments. The atypical choice of pronoun resulted in #オイラショック ("#OiraShock") becoming a trending topic on Twitter in Japan, with many fanartists in the country responding by making tongue-in-cheek drawings riffing on it.
person VinchVolt calendar_month January 7, 2024
Kotaku article about the "Oria Shock" phenomenon:
https://kotaku.com/undertales-japanese-localization-is-causing-a-fan-frenz-1796085385

Legends of Localization article on first-person pronouns in Japanese that uses Sans as an example of "oira":
https://legendsoflocalization.com/personal-pronouns-in-japanese/
Amazing Island
subdirectory_arrow_right Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color (Game)
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"Teddy" is a 3D-modeling software that allows users to create 3D models by simply drawing freeform strokes, created by Takeo Igarashi. Along with being available on the Unity Asset Store and being part of the "Magical Sketch 3D" PC package, there are two video games that notably use the software: the GameCube game Amazing Island (as part of the game's monster creation system), and the PlayStation 2 game Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color (where it's used to create the game's Doodles).
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
subdirectory_arrow_right Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Game)
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Attachment Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe redesigns Wing Kirby's costume, changing the pattern on the headband to a series of straight lines, adding a red jewel on the front (similar to the kind seen on other Copy Ability hats), and replacing the rows of feathers on the back with arrangements that more closely resemble a bird's wings. As the original design was based on a Native American warbonnet, the redesign was likely to avoid cultural appropriation, as real-life warbonnets are regarded as sacred in tribal cultures and consequently can only be worn by those who have earned the right to do so.
person VinchVolt calendar_month December 25, 2023
YouTube video highlighting various changes made in the Nintendo Switch remake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiLRSBsOiFA

Indian Country Today article on cultural appropriation of warbonnets:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170706114746/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/sports/houska-i-didnt-know-doesnt-cut-it-anymore/

Native Appropriations article on why wearing warbonnets as generic headgear is considered offensive among Native Americans:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160513074733/http://nativeappropriations.com/2010/04/but-why-cant-i-wear-a-hipster-headdress.html

Texas Law Review paper on Native American perspectives on cultural appropriation:
https://texaslawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/RileyCarpenter.FinalPDF.pdf
Poptropica
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In December 2023, a Discord user posing as a representative of the developers of Poptropica stated on the server for the fan website Poptropica Help Blog that the game would be shutting down after December 29th. The account first appeared on the server in 2022, and while the blog did not do a complete screening to ensure the account was officially associated with the developers, it was eventually given the role of "Poptropica Creator" after they determined it was official based on its posting history. Many players initially believed the announcement was legitimate after Poptropica suddenly closed membership registrations earlier in the month. Shortly after the shut down announcement, the official Poptropica Twitter and Instagram accounts decried the Discord account as being unofficial, and assured players that the game would still be playable after December 29th, with all memberships up to the end of the year being available for free. The blog posted an apology for perpetuating the rumors the following day, but within the next year, the validity of the rumors being false would come into question.

On January 18, 2024, possibly in response to the rumors the prior month, Coolmath Games revealed that they had been in talks with the team behind Poptropica to host the game on their site exclusively, with the game remaining playable on Steam and mobile devices. This would later be confirmed by Poptropica themselves through a pop-up message on their website shortly afterwards. Notably, in a blog post expanding upon the news, Coolmath Games revealed that "the original Poptropica decided to wind down", something that had never been officially stated by Poptropica themselves. This would suggest that there was some degree of truth to the initial hoax as well as various rumors.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 19, 2023
Poptropica Help Blog post about the shutdown claims:
https://poptropi.ca/2023/12/16/is-poptropica-shutting-down/

Official Poptropica statement regarding December shutdown rumors:
https://twitter.com/Poptropica/status/1735509964381372710

Coolmath Games announcement:
https://twitter.com/TheRealCoolmath/status/1748068741743555024

Poptropica Help Blog about the news:
https://poptropi.ca/2024/01/19/moving-coolmath/

Coolmath Games blog announcement:
https://www.coolmathgames.com/blog/poptropica-migration
Sonic & Knuckles
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic The Hedgehog (Franchise)
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Attachment Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, a character introduced in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, is based on a purple sprite that is created for several milliseconds on the game's title screen if the player quickly switches between Sonic and Knuckles' sprites. Notably, Ian Flynn stated in the graphic novel "Sonic Universe 3: Knuckles Returns" that Thrash was meant to be another rogue of Knuckles who could "throw down with Knuckles and have it mean something", which did not line up with his role in his debut during "Sonic Universe" Issue #11. However, this would later be conveyed during the "Endangered Species" story arc of the main comic, where it's revealed that he has a strong hatred towards the Echidna species due to their actions against his ancestors. When asked about the possibility of bringing Thrash back in the comic's reboot, Ian Flynn said he would love to bring him back, but "it comes with all that baggage... We can't really bring him back without people going 'Oh boy! And here we go!'"
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 17, 2023
Company: Nintendo
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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
God of War Ragnarök
subdirectory_arrow_right Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (Game)
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During The Game Awards 2022, Christopher Judge's acceptance speech for the "Best Performance" award (given to him for his performance as Kratos in God of War Ragnarök) ran for 7 minutes and 59 seconds. This speech has been noted for surpassing the Guinness World Record for the "Longest speech accepting an Oscar award", which is currently held by actress Greer Garson for her speech at the 15th Academy Awards in 1943, which lasted for 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The length of Judge's speech was referenced during his appearance at The Game Awards 2023, where he presented that year's award for "Best Performance". Prior to announcing the nominees, he took the opportunity to poke fun at the length of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's campaign, claiming "my speech last year was longer than this year's Call of Duty campaign". Following the ceremony, several developers who currently and formerly worked on the Call of Duty series responded negatively to the roast, with Sledgehammer Games engineer Darcy Sandall saying:

"Honestly, as COD developers, we've heard way worse. But we don't expect it from a peer, at an event that supposed to be celebrating this years achievements in gaming. Especially with all the information that was leaked about it's development."

It's worth noting that both before and after release, Modern Warfare III's campaign mode was heavily criticized, with many describing it as shallow, short, rushed, and disappointing in spite of its technical aspects.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 9, 2023
Dave the Diver
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During the lead-up to The Game Awards 2023, several people became confused by Dave the Diver's nomination for "Best Independent Game" since Mintrocket, the game's developer, is a subsidiary of the much larger Nexon, who had previously claimed that the game was not necessarily an indie. This sparked debates as to what exactly counts as an "indie" video game, as another game that had received nominations, Baldur's Gate 3, was also technically independent, but was likely not counted due to both Larian Studio's employee count and the use of an existing IP. The Game Awards' host Geoff Keighley would later respond that "independent can mean different things to different people", and that it was up to a jury to decide the final decisions. During this, a similar debate arose in regards to the "Games for Impact" nomination: described as "a locker to stuff all the diverse games into", it was noted that five of the six nominees had not received any other nominations, and seemed limited to independent games despite there being other games that fit the criteria.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 8, 2023
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