If an enemy attempts to rob Yagami while he has no money in his inventory, the enemy will pat him on the back to comfort him as Yagami collapses on the ground, presumably having a breakdown.
The ZX Spectrum Popeye game contains exceptionally large and detailed character sprites, a first for the ZX Spectrum. After being requested by copyright holder King Features for the game's graphics to resemble Thimble Theatre comics as closely as possible, programmer Don Priestley designed these graphics by making sets of square sprites and attaching them together. This technique would be reused for other games by the same programmer, including Benny Hill's Madcap Chase and The Trap Door, both based on British TV IPs that may have had similar stipulations.
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.
Patrick's Super move was originally going to feature a unique squashed model for each character. These were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons, with Patrick simply slamming down his rock on the opponent without any transformations or unique animations attached.
The Captain Goblin on the Crust Cove level originally was called Captain Bomb and had a more humanoid design. The only animations made for him are simply the same image rotated and modified.
In support of the New Game+ dungeon and Sindar Ruin connection, Suikosource user and dataminer JiN88 explored the Japanese demo to support the idea that Sindar Ruin underwent some major changes during development:
• In the entrance between White Deer Inn and Sindar Ruin, there are 2 statues that are generic. In the demo, those statues are gendered with pronounced breasts, and appear snake-like, resembling the Greek mythical monster Lamia. The generic statues exist in the demo, so there is no reason the developers would go out their way to make a different pair.
• At the last puzzle where you put the plate in, the plaque that you would normally read is there instead of in the room next ahead.
• The two statues of the Double Head are absent.
• In the boss room of Sindar Ruin, there is a weird sprite that isn't seen anywhere else (it's a bit grainy so to see it you will need to zoom in). The position looks like it's supposed to be for an arch, but notably it has three heads. Double Head is the boss you would normally meet here only with two heads, suggesting there was originally a boss here with three heads.
At E3 2015, Nintendo unveiled a new game as an event played during the Nintendo World Championships competition entitled "Blast Ball", with many in attendance noting the game's resemblance to Metroid Prime Hunters. Days later, during the 2015 Nintendo Digital Event, Blast Ball was announced to be part of a full-fledged Metroid Prime spin-off game entitled "Metroid Prime: Federation Force". The game received heavy critical and fan backlash upon its reveal, with common complaints including the choice to reveal a Metroid Prime spin-off title almost ten years after the last traditional Metroid Prime game and after a six-year gap from the similarly polarizing Metroid: Other M, the utilization of a chibi art style, and a seeming lack of Samus Aran or a single-player mode (Samus would later be revealed to be in the game as a side-character and single-player functionality was later confirmed during E3). The reveal trailer received a heavy dislike-to-like ratio on YouTube, having at least 87,000 dislikes and only 10,000 likes as of this writing. Furthermore, a Change.org petition to cancel the game received 7,500 signatures 24 hours after its creation, and received 24,108 signatures prior to its closure.
Nintendo acknowledged the negative pre-release reception of the game several times, but still defended the game overall, with Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie giving similar statements about trying to propel the Metroid series by challenging the traditional gameplay formats that came before it and made up the essence of the franchise. Fils-Amie also compared the fan reaction to the game's reveal to that of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which also received heavy criticism for its art style and gameplay compared to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The game's co-producer and Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe on the other hand had much more conflicting reactions, initially stating that he had expected the negative reception, but later remarking that he was quite surprised by the negative reception and criticized the heavy criticism against the game's graphics, but in both cases he still asked players to reserve their judgements until they played the game.
During the March 3, 2016 Nintendo Direct five months prior to the game's release, an entire segment of the Direct dedicated to the game was hosted by Tanabe, where he addressed fan criticism, explained the development history of the game, showed a more in-depth view of the story mode, and offered a glimpse of Samus' role in the game. Some people believed this segment of the Direct showed that Nintendo was doing "damage control" for the game after the criticism it received at its reveal. Fan reception did not improve, as shortly after the release of the Direct and a subsequent trailer, it started to receive thousands of dislikes like the reveal trailer, prompting Nintendo to disable the like/dislike ratio. Metroid Prime: Federation Force was noticeably absent during E3 2016, but would receive more coverage and trailers from Nintendo in the immediate weeks leading up to its release, where it ultimately received a mixed to average reception from critics and fans.
According to Dylan Cuthbert in an Reddit AMA back in 2018, the in-game sprites used for the characters in Star Fox Command were all originally created as 3D models that were then rendered to create the sprites. Cuthbert has implied that these 3D models still exist somewhere in Q-Games' archives.
In a 2013 interview with Polygon, director Bryce Holliday revealed that Luigi's portrayal in the game was influenced by the 1990 British comedy series Mr. Bean. The show served as reference material for Luigi's animations and characterization, with Holliday noting parallels between Luigi and the show's title character as a "hapless fool and reluctant hero." Holliday also felt that these similarities would help audiences sympathize with Luigi, which in turn would supplement the comic relief that his reactions and mishaps provide.
In the Japanese version of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Alex eats a rice ball at the end of each stage. The 1990 US revision of the game changes this to a hamburger.
In Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, a Spanish omelette and fish & chips are added as options, possibly in tribute to the Master System's popularity in Spain and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Starline the Platypus from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series is inspired by a glitch character from Knuckles' Chaotix - a silver, red and charcoal Knuckles recolor, known by fans as "Wechnia", but by the game itself as "**********", seemingly based on unused data for Tails. Starline's color scheme is taken directly from Wechnia, his name is a literal take on the name "**********", (or "star-line") the black streak in his fur resembles the red streaks all over Wechnia's fur, and the choice of a platypus seems to be inspired by how certain Wechnia sprites would make the bottom of his muzzle yellow and loosely resemble shading for the underside of a flat bill, alongside platypi being Australian like echidnas.
The "Flower Garden" mode of Minesweeper was created to be more sensitive towards users in countries, such as Italy, where landmines are a common cause of death rather than seen as a war movie trope. It was originally only available to Italian players, but became a customization option in 2007's remake of Minesweeper, with Flower Garden being the only option for Italian players. in 2012's Microsoft Minesweeper, the Flower Garden mode would also be the only aesthetic option on Siberian and Chinese players.
In a 1995 developer interview, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Super Star was originally going to briefly transform Baby Mario into his adult self. However, the idea was discarded after one of the developers pointed out that it would clash with the game's premise of being an origin story for the Mario brothers. Instead, Super Star Mario was redesigned to simply be Baby Mario in a yellow cape.
In 2020, sprites for Mario's adult form were uncovered as part of a massive leak of data from Nintendo's internal servers. These sprites indicate that Super Star Mario was not originally able to float in the air and that he was able to ride Yoshi to some extent (in the final game, Yoshi reverts to an egg until the Super Star wears off).
Several of the tiles in Rocko's Modern Life: Match-Master are based on different cropped areas of promotional images used on other tiles. There are two tile sets based on a promotional image showing Rocko and his friends on a couch watching TV - one that shows the entire image, while the other is zoomed in on Ed and Bev Bighead. The tile that shows the entire image does not crop out Ed and Bev, leading to what could be considered, by technicality, partially duplicate tile sets.
Owing to its elusive rarity, obscurity, and existence within the very small collector niche of pre-school entertainment, Berenstain Bears in Big Paw's Cave has not been properly archived for emulators. Every piece of video footage of the game online shows the game as taking place on a black background, giving it a resemblance to games from much earlier points in arcade history, while the flyer for the game shows a much more colorful backdrop with more details.
Unusually, the Noid's sprites in Stage 13 of Yo! Noid are marginally different from the sprites used in the rest of the game. The graphics of the Noid are stored multiple times in game's code, and the Stage 13 sprites are the first stored, meaning that this could be an early revision of the Noid's sprite that was not removed.
If the player tries to overwrite a different save file from the one they're currently using, the phrase "Not your last save. Save here anyway?" will pop up on the screen. If the player says no to this question 10 times and then say yes on the 11th attempt, Mario will hunch over on the save screen looking sad. Curiously if the player says no 11 times and says yes on the 12th attempt, Mario will instead have an angry appearance. Reportedly, whichever face is chosen based on if the number of times the player say no is even or odd before eventually saying yes.
After the Alignment Lock happens near the end of the game, if you return to Club Milton in Shibuya, you can view a hidden scene showing the accented club manager busily attending to a surge of demon customers. If you listen closely, the music that plays in the background is a remix of the Normal Battle theme from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. During the same scene, one of the sprites shown bears a striking resemblance to actor Heath Ledger, based on his appearance as the Joker wearing a nurse's outfit in the 2008 film "The Dark Knight".
100% completion in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures doesn't relate to how much of the game the player has completed, but rather how many of Pac-Man's animations they have seen.
Contrary to popular belief, the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Super Smash Bros. does not use sprites or music from Super Mario Bros.. This can be seen in obvious ways, such as enemy sprites having complex shading that would be impossible in any NES game, let alone a title as early in the hardware's lifespan as Super Mario Bros., and multiple sprites being miscolored. It can also be seen in more subtle ways, such as the ground blocks being one pixel too tall on the bottom, and the outlines on the goal stair blocks being too thick. The background music, while an impressively close replica, uses subtly different instruments and is slightly slower in tempo.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the stage's graphics would be revised to more closely resemble Super Mario Bros., using graphics from Super Mario Maker, and the faux-8-bit Super Smash Bros. rendition of the overworld theme would be the sole battle song from that game to be absent, in favor of the original NES rendition of the song.
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.
Patrick's Super move was originally going to feature a unique squashed model for each character. These were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons, with Patrick simply slamming down his rock on the opponent without any transformations or unique animations attached.
The Captain Goblin on the Crust Cove level originally was called Captain Bomb and had a more humanoid design. The only animations made for him are simply the same image rotated and modified.
In support of the New Game+ dungeon and Sindar Ruin connection, Suikosource user and dataminer JiN88 explored the Japanese demo to support the idea that Sindar Ruin underwent some major changes during development:
According to Dylan Cuthbert in an Reddit AMA back in 2018, the in-game sprites used for the characters in Star Fox Command were all originally created as 3D models that were then rendered to create the sprites. Cuthbert has implied that these 3D models still exist somewhere in Q-Games' archives.
Dr. Starline the Platypus from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series is inspired by a glitch character from Knuckles' Chaotix - a silver, red and charcoal Knuckles recolor, known by fans as "Wechnia", but by the game itself as "**********", seemingly based on unused data for Tails. Starline's color scheme is taken directly from Wechnia, his name is a literal take on the name "**********", (or "star-line") the black streak in his fur resembles the red streaks all over Wechnia's fur, and the choice of a platypus seems to be inspired by how certain Wechnia sprites would make the bottom of his muzzle yellow and loosely resemble shading for the underside of a flat bill, alongside platypi being Australian like echidnas.
The "Flower Garden" mode of Minesweeper was created to be more sensitive towards users in countries, such as Italy, where landmines are a common cause of death rather than seen as a war movie trope. It was originally only available to Italian players, but became a customization option in 2007's remake of Minesweeper, with Flower Garden being the only option for Italian players. in 2012's Microsoft Minesweeper, the Flower Garden mode would also be the only aesthetic option on Siberian and Chinese players.
In a 1995 developer interview, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Super Star was originally going to briefly transform Baby Mario into his adult self. However, the idea was discarded after one of the developers pointed out that it would clash with the game's premise of being an origin story for the Mario brothers. Instead, Super Star Mario was redesigned to simply be Baby Mario in a yellow cape.
Several of the tiles in Rocko's Modern Life: Match-Master are based on different cropped areas of promotional images used on other tiles. There are two tile sets based on a promotional image showing Rocko and his friends on a couch watching TV - one that shows the entire image, while the other is zoomed in on Ed and Bev Bighead. The tile that shows the entire image does not crop out Ed and Bev, leading to what could be considered, by technicality, partially duplicate tile sets.
Owing to its elusive rarity, obscurity, and existence within the very small collector niche of pre-school entertainment, Berenstain Bears in Big Paw's Cave has not been properly archived for emulators. Every piece of video footage of the game online shows the game as taking place on a black background, giving it a resemblance to games from much earlier points in arcade history, while the flyer for the game shows a much more colorful backdrop with more details.
Unusually, the Noid's sprites in Stage 13 of Yo! Noid are marginally different from the sprites used in the rest of the game. The graphics of the Noid are stored multiple times in game's code, and the Stage 13 sprites are the first stored, meaning that this could be an early revision of the Noid's sprite that was not removed.
If the player tries to overwrite a different save file from the one they're currently using, the phrase "Not your last save. Save here anyway?" will pop up on the screen. If the player says no to this question 10 times and then say yes on the 11th attempt, Mario will hunch over on the save screen looking sad. Curiously if the player says no 11 times and says yes on the 12th attempt, Mario will instead have an angry appearance. Reportedly, whichever face is chosen based on if the number of times the player say no is even or odd before eventually saying yes.
After the Alignment Lock happens near the end of the game, if you return to Club Milton in Shibuya, you can view a hidden scene showing the accented club manager busily attending to a surge of demon customers. If you listen closely, the music that plays in the background is a remix of the Normal Battle theme from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. During the same scene, one of the sprites shown bears a striking resemblance to actor Heath Ledger, based on his appearance as the Joker wearing a nurse's outfit in the 2008 film "The Dark Knight".
Contrary to popular belief, the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Super Smash Bros. does not use sprites or music from Super Mario Bros.. This can be seen in obvious ways, such as enemy sprites having complex shading that would be impossible in any NES game, let alone a title as early in the hardware's lifespan as Super Mario Bros., and multiple sprites being miscolored. It can also be seen in more subtle ways, such as the ground blocks being one pixel too tall on the bottom, and the outlines on the goal stair blocks being too thick. The background music, while an impressively close replica, uses subtly different instruments and is slightly slower in tempo.