Trivia Browser
Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog
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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.
Attempted pitch:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111200242/http://www.sonicsatam.com/information/the-lost-3rd-season/
Hurst's dismissal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113070038/https://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/ben_hurst/
Penders on Sonic Armageddon:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201213205554/https://twitter.com/kenpenders/status/1105647131438673920
Penders on the attempted pitch controversy:
https://kenpenders.com/sonic-armageddon-or-what-a-long-strange-journey-its-been/
Pitch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNteN_qlHp0
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111200242/http://www.sonicsatam.com/information/the-lost-3rd-season/
Hurst's dismissal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201113070038/https://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/ben_hurst/
Penders on Sonic Armageddon:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201213205554/https://twitter.com/kenpenders/status/1105647131438673920
Penders on the attempted pitch controversy:
https://kenpenders.com/sonic-armageddon-or-what-a-long-strange-journey-its-been/
Pitch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNteN_qlHp0
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Two of the game's core themes are eyes and different types and expressions of love. This is reflected in the game's title, AI: the word itself is pronounced "eye", and is derived from "ai" (愛), the Japanese word for love. The title also has additional meanings, namely how it's pronounced similar to the English word "I", and how the title is short for "artificial intelligence". Additionally, the word "somnium" in the game's subtitle is taken from the Latin word for "dream", in reference to how the game's plot involves entering dreams in order to solve cases.
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The player has a chance to randomly encounter an unnamed clown during their playthrough, who only appears once in the entire game to hand them a slip of paper. The note in question reads as follows:"Ever Dream This Clown?
Every night, all over the world, hundreds of people see this clown in their dreams. If this clown appears in your dreams don't play any game with him. If you want more information go to:
nachogames.itch.io/unlikely"
Every night, all over the world, hundreds of people see this clown in their dreams. If this clown appears in your dreams don't play any game with him. If you want more information go to:
nachogames.itch.io/unlikely"
The link in question leads to the Itch.io page for the game Unlikely, another game made by Nacho Sama. Additionally, the note itself appears to be a reference to "This Man", an urban legend created by Italian sociologist Andrea Natella about a mysterious individual who has appeared in the dreams of people all over the world since 2006.
Clown encounter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKotst05HXM?t=317
Unlikely Itch.io page:
https://nachogames.itch.io/unlikely
"This Man" website:
https://www.thisman.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKotst05HXM?t=317
Unlikely Itch.io page:
https://nachogames.itch.io/unlikely
"This Man" website:
https://www.thisman.org/
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The North American arcade release of Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone is believed to be the first game to incorporate microtransactions, allowing players to purchase extra lives, characters, energy and moves by putting more quarters into the arcade cabinet. This would be removed for the Japanese release, and replaced with a conventional character select screen that lets you play as the previously paywalled extra characters, and the game's difficulty was rebalanced to be easier to adjust.
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Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga has an anti-piracy feature activated if the game detects the PlayStation Portable's system firmware is illegitimate. During a match, the collisions for walls and some floors will be turned off at random points, occasionally causing players to clip through walls or fall out of bounds before respawning back at the starting location. Additionally, some bosses and enemies will not respawn if they fall off the map, making fights with them unwinnable.
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For the game's English dub, Spike Chunsoft requested that NIS America keep Monokuma's name intact. He would end up becoming the team's favorite character to localize, working to keep him both funny and threatening like in the Japanese version. This, however, led to difficulties finding a suitable voice actor for the character, as they wanted somebody that could embody Monokuma's "hyperactive psychopathic nature", not helped by how beloved the original Japanese voice actress was. When asked what Monokuma was like in the English version, script editor Phoenix Spaulding stated:
"We like to think he’s not all that different from the Japanese version – which is to say, kind of all over the place. He’s bossy, condescending, smarmy, goofy, quick to anger, quick to forgive, quick to anger again, devious, and totally lovable."
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Anton was originally created as series creator Tony Grayson's profile picture for a forum when he was 9 years old in 2007, under the name "Red Guy". Because the first Antonball was black and white, Red Guy was renamed to Anton. One of the Anton variant characters in Antonball Deluxe is named after Red Guy.
subdirectory_arrow_right Onimusha (Franchise)
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Akio Otsuka voiced the series main antagonist, Nobunaga Oda, in the Japanese dub of Onimusha: Warlords, and would reprise the role for three more games in the series until 2004. He would also later go on to voice and lend his likeness to Miyamoto Musashi, the protagonist of the 2024 "Onimusha" ONA series.
Onimusha: Warlords credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDlK3J6kF0#t=188
https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/Onimusha-Warlords/Nobunaga-Oda/
Onimusha anime cast article:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-09-20/onimusha-anime-unveils-trailer-cast-more-staff-theme-song-november-2-netflix-series-debut/.202557
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDlK3J6kF0#t=188
https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/Onimusha-Warlords/Nobunaga-Oda/
Onimusha anime cast article:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-09-20/onimusha-anime-unveils-trailer-cast-more-staff-theme-song-november-2-netflix-series-debut/.202557
subdirectory_arrow_right Shady Lewd Kart (Game)
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Wild Woody DLC Trailer and Relevant Comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rt4euYklQ&lc=UgyOefebHRpsBZIVxgp4AaABAg.A1glMtsdAWZA1gm16bux7r
DLC Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2900500/Shady_Lewd_Kart__Wild_Woody_Character_Pack/
Developer tweet denying April Fools association:
https://twitter.com/datshadycorner/status/1774788107986162017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rt4euYklQ&lc=UgyOefebHRpsBZIVxgp4AaABAg.A1glMtsdAWZA1gm16bux7r
DLC Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2900500/Shady_Lewd_Kart__Wild_Woody_Character_Pack/
Developer tweet denying April Fools association:
https://twitter.com/datshadycorner/status/1774788107986162017
subdirectory_arrow_right Fruit Ninja (Collection)
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According to Fruit Ninja creator Luke Muscat in a comment on a YouTube video comparing the 1993 and 2023 Super Mario Bros. movies, there was a massive push following Fruit Ninja's success to have it be adapted for TV or cinema, something he attributed to other members of the studio feeling that the other 2 mediums were more "legitimate" in the face of an era where games were not taken as seriously. All of the characters and stories added to Fruit Ninja were made for the purpose of facilitating these unmade adaptations, something Muscat described as "divisive" and compared to having to try and adapt a film that does not exist into a game rather than the other way around.
Video comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3Yo5ea5L8&lc=UgxhZPo859-w_okK-3B4AaABAg
Comment archived in case it gets deleted (YouTube link contains a comment hyperlink tag):
"Great video Patrick and team. I was the designer / creator of Fruit Ninja, which obviously had absolutely ZERO story or character development. After the huge success of the game, (and as I was leaving the project), a push started to get film and TV adaptions made. For some at the studio, getting an adaptation made the whole thing more legitimate, like the property had "made it". Games were still struggling to be taken seriously despite being such a huge global business, but film and TV didn't have that problem.
But given how narratively thin the source material was, new characters and story started getting added into the game specifically to support those future jumps to film and TV (and merch I guess). This was very... divisive. It was like having to adapt a film into an existing game... except the film didn't exist yet. It was a time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3Yo5ea5L8&lc=UgxhZPo859-w_okK-3B4AaABAg
Comment archived in case it gets deleted (YouTube link contains a comment hyperlink tag):
"Great video Patrick and team. I was the designer / creator of Fruit Ninja, which obviously had absolutely ZERO story or character development. After the huge success of the game, (and as I was leaving the project), a push started to get film and TV adaptions made. For some at the studio, getting an adaptation made the whole thing more legitimate, like the property had "made it". Games were still struggling to be taken seriously despite being such a huge global business, but film and TV didn't have that problem.
But given how narratively thin the source material was, new characters and story started getting added into the game specifically to support those future jumps to film and TV (and merch I guess). This was very... divisive. It was like having to adapt a film into an existing game... except the film didn't exist yet. It was a time."
Company: BMB
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Every BMB game over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFPlyjTqZlM
Angry Birds Star Wars ending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eich0IN3Zf0#t=1336
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFPlyjTqZlM
Angry Birds Star Wars ending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eich0IN3Zf0#t=1336
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The "Woohoo!" sound effect played when rescuing a Bikini Bottomite in Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition appears to be a plagiarized, sped-up sound effect of Homer Simpson from The Simpsons.
subdirectory_arrow_right Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Game)
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During a Q&A with Kotaku in 2015, it was noted that both Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair had a female character that appeared to have been designed to be the player/main character's favorite, the former game having Kyoko Kirigiri and the latter game having Chiaki Nanami. When asked if this was intentional, series creator Kazutaka Kodaka stated:
"For number one, I didn't really specifically think of any female characters as the heroine. In regards to Kyoko Kirigiri specifically, it was just the idea that she was a detective and she had a good thought process that drove her to be perceived in that role for the player. On the other hand, wanting to specifically create a heroine is what drove Chiaki's creation."
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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.
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The final twist in the game, where it's revealed that Spoiler:the entire Danganronpa franchise was actually a reality television show spanning fifty-three seasons, was made with the intention to "bring a more interesting idea to the fans". As noted by Kazutaka Kodaka:
"We put what we felt would be fun and interesting into a game and this goes for Danganronpa V3 too. We don’t think about making a game that would fit what fans would expect. We are proud of the ending because lately there aren’t many games that have fans debate over the ending.
The Western culture really likes Spoiler:reality TV and it’s really popular there. Because of that, I feel the Western culture will have different views on the ending and I’m excited to see if the Western gamers would be able to accept the ending more compared to Japan who is focused on the characters and character popularity. If you are focused on the characters you might find the ending strange or very sad."
The Western culture really likes Spoiler:reality TV and it’s really popular there. Because of that, I feel the Western culture will have different views on the ending and I’m excited to see if the Western gamers would be able to accept the ending more compared to Japan who is focused on the characters and character popularity. If you are focused on the characters you might find the ending strange or very sad."
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As a pre-order bonus, Bandai sent Japanese players who ordered the game via the official PlayStation website with a memory card holder shaped like the golden box of the Sagittarius Cloth, which was described in the game as the "most powerful item in the universe".
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In an attempt to surprise players, Kazutaka Kodaka decided to have Sayaka Maizono, who was promoted as the game's heroine, Spoiler:be killed off in the first chapter. Afterwards, it would then be revealed that she had planned to Spoiler:frame Makoto Naegi for a murder she had attempted to commit. This was intended to have a major impact on not just the player, but also the character Makoto, as it would result in him developing bad feelings about how he would be treated.
subdirectory_arrow_right Battle for Dream Island (Collection)
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BFDIA 5b marks the second time in the Battle for Dream Island series where a copyrighted character is used in a way beyond simply being a recommended character (fan characters that are submitted to the production team by fans of the series to potentially appear in official content). Specifically, the 31st level in the game "Encounter" features Lego Brick, who first appeared as a recommended character in the Battle for Dream Island episode "Vomitaco" and is a reference to the LEGO toy brand. The first instance was in the episode "Reveal Novum", where Dora (a stick figure based on the titular character from the animated series "Dora the Explorer" who also first appeared in the episode "Vomitaco") was one of the recommended characters who had a chance to join the competition, but failed due to only having nine votes: she would, however, compete in the show's second season "Battle for Dream Island Again". Additionally, a copyrighted character appearing in a major role would not happen again until years after BFDIA 5b's release, with the release of the spinoff series "BFDI Mini Replicas". In that series, one of the contestants is Ender Rocky, a variant of the main series contestant Rocky who first appeared as a recommended character in the season one finale "Return of the Hang Glider" and is based on the Endermen from Minecraft.
BFDIA 5b Level 31:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAXojdBrAl4
Battle for Dream Island - "Vomitaco" (first appearance of Dora and Lego Brick):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf9FHBM0SLQ
Battle for Dream Island - "Reveal Novum" (first major appearance of Dora):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4K1xKHwp0E
Battle for Dream Island - "Return of the Hang Glider" (first appearance of Ender Rocky):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye_HKD_C5o0
BFDI Mini Replicas - "Cross the Gorge" (first major appearance of Ender Rocky):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRylw-JJqlo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAXojdBrAl4
Battle for Dream Island - "Vomitaco" (first appearance of Dora and Lego Brick):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf9FHBM0SLQ
Battle for Dream Island - "Reveal Novum" (first major appearance of Dora):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4K1xKHwp0E
Battle for Dream Island - "Return of the Hang Glider" (first appearance of Ender Rocky):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye_HKD_C5o0
BFDI Mini Replicas - "Cross the Gorge" (first major appearance of Ender Rocky):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRylw-JJqlo
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Baldur's Gate 3 was originally revealed with a CGI trailer at a conference for the Google Stadia cloud gaming service in June 2019 as part of an Early Access exclusivity deal that would ultimately be cancelled when Stadia was shut down in 2023. The game's director Swen Vincke touted the service at the time for its purported accessibility, and the potential for in-game community feedback to directly affect the game's development and playthroughs via Stadia's Crowd Choice feature. However, Vincke later expressed regret over having the game be revealed this way, calling it "a really stupid deal" due to the challenges of releasing an Early Access build to a second platform, but that "it allowed me to pay for the CGI."
Baldur's Gate 3 Stadia Announcement:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/06/baldurs-gate-3-officially-announced-for-pc-and-google-stadia
Stadia-Exclusive Features:
https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-stadia-exclusive-features-early-access-contents-release
Stadia Reveal Regret:
https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-founder-on-working-with-google-stadia-for-baldurs-gate-3-it-was-a-really-stupid-deal
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/06/baldurs-gate-3-officially-announced-for-pc-and-google-stadia
Stadia-Exclusive Features:
https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-stadia-exclusive-features-early-access-contents-release
Stadia Reveal Regret:
https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-founder-on-working-with-google-stadia-for-baldurs-gate-3-it-was-a-really-stupid-deal
subdirectory_arrow_right Moon (Game)
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The 2019 release of Moon: Remix RPG Adventure for modern consoles marks the first time the game received an official English translation, being released almost a year after the Japanese release. Notably, the English translation was written by Tim Rogers, a video game journalist who used to work for the site Kotaku before resigning and becoming independent.
Localization confirmation:
https://twitter.com/oniongames/status/1169393628520861701
Tim Rogers' involvement:
https://kotaku.com/22-years-later-a-major-milestone-for-rpgs-is-finally-c-1838156407
https://twitter.com/oniongames/status/1169393628520861701
Tim Rogers' involvement:
https://kotaku.com/22-years-later-a-major-milestone-for-rpgs-is-finally-c-1838156407