Popular Games


Recently Added


Latest Trivia


Paper Mario: Color Splash
subdirectory_arrow_right Mario (Franchise)
1
Attachment Concept art for Paper Mario: Color Splash shows that the captain of the Violet Passage was at one point going to have a dark skin tone. This would've marked the first instance of a Toad with a distinct skin color (not counting usually-pale Toads under a transformation) in a Mario game, but not the first instance of a non-pale Toad in the Mario franchise as a whole. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show featured a one-off Native American Toad named Pronto, a parody of Tonto from The Lone Ranger, in the episode "The Provolone Ranger".
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month March 18, 2024
Kingdom Hearts III
2
Pixar's higher-ups almost rejected the prospect of including Pixar content in Kingdom Hearts III, as none of them were gamers or knew what Kingdom Hearts is or how popular it was. Theme park creative director Tasha Sounart managed to convince them on how popular Kingdom Hearts is, and pointed out that catering to the series' teen audience lined up with Pixar's desire to be seen as an all-ages film studio instead of simply being perceived as targeting children and their parents alone. Sounart noted that, while the Pixar studio members familiar with Kingdom Hearts did not need to extensively detail the lore to those that weren't except when needed, it was needed to be clarified that the Pixar characters would not be meeting one another, or any other Disney characters aside from Donald and Goofy, as Pixar has an aversion to crossovers and shared universes outside of their signature Easter eggs.
Kingdom Hearts III
2
Tasha Sounart, Pixar's creative director for the Disney Parks and the consultant for Toy Story elements in Kingdom Hearts III, has claimed that she believes the models for the toys in the game were the best they have ever looked in a licensed product that wasn't made in-house at Pixar:

"Really over all, this is probably the best that our characters have looked outside of our movies, because their attention to detail is really, really great."
Paper Mario: The Origami King
1
Attachment After getting the Blue Streamer, a Toad will appear at the entrance to the Shogun Studios, trying to look through a window and complaining about the price of admission, exclaiming "Let me in—LET ME IN!" This is likely a reference to the segment "Eric Near the DNC" from the Adult Swim series "The Eric Andre Show", which features a similar moment that became a popular internet meme.
FIFA Soccer 97
subdirectory_arrow_right FIFA Soccer 97 (Game)
2
Attachment If you insert the PlayStation or PC versions of the game into a CD player, or play the Sega Saturn version's disc in the console's music player, you can access a hidden song on track 6 titled "Motty's Rap". The song consists of humorous phrases recorded by longtime FIFA commentator John Motson that mostly comment on the song's techno/rock instrumental with some mild innuendos, including: "That is the fattest bottom end I've ever heard" and "This reminds me of touring with the Sex Pistols". The song was the work of EA composer/audio designer Robert Bailey, who got Motson to record lines for the song during his time in the recording booth. In a 2024 interview, Bailey stated that the song was one of many obscure Easter eggs involving Motson's dialogue that the developers put together, with "Motty's Rap" being pulled from "just all of the stupidest phrases John said" and were put into the context of the music. The song was approved to be put into the game by its executive producer Bruce McMillan.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month March 17, 2024
Star Fox 64
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox Command (Game)
1
Attachment In Star Fox 64's ancillary material, Planet Aquas is said to be an entirely water planet with its surface 100% covered by oceans. Star Fox Command however, would contradict this by showing there to be islands on Aquas in the Slippy's Resolve ending; Command's official Japanese guidebook even claims that Aquas' surface is now only 80% comprised of oceans.

In a Q&A with Takaya Imamura in 2023 on this subject, he theorized that perhaps, somewhere in-between the events of Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Command, the islands were created by underwater volcanic belts within Aquas' oceans, likening it to the emergence of Nishinoshima, a volcanic island in the Ogasawara Archipelago.
person Dinoman96 calendar_month March 17, 2024
Q&A with Imamura on Aquas' islands in Command:
https://mond.how/ja/topics/cslbgsnp40hhhvr/nc932nhb30zo1js

English Translation of the above:

Q: According to the guidebook for "Star Fox 64," Aquas is said to be made entirely of water. However, in the guidebook for "Star Fox Command," Aquas is described as being 80% water, and one of the endings with Slippy and Amanda depicts the presence of islands. Is it permissible to speculate unofficially about what happened between '64' and 'Command'?

A: It's a recent memory, but the emergence of Nishinoshima, a volcanic island in the Ogasawara Archipelago, happened in the blink of an eye. Perhaps such a natural phenomenon occurred. Their environment is much more volatile than ours. It wouldn't be surprising if there were underwater volcanic belts on Aquas.

User's English translation of official Japanese Star Fox 64 guidebook:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/y8cwc9/finally_got_around_to_doing_translations/

User's English translation of official Japanese Star Fox Command guidebook:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/ysr1ip/behold_translations_of_characters_stages_bosses/
Valhellio
1
In an interview with the game's developer Masaaki Nagaura published in STG Gameside #5 in 2011, Nagaura stated that he ended up working with the game's illustrator Tanaka "Tony Taka" Takayuki, because each of their companies were located close to each other, and they were already on friendly terms. Nagaura wanted Takayuki because shoot 'em up's already have a reputation of only being for hardcore players, and he felt that Takayuki's illustrations could help make it appear inviting to a wider, broader audience.
Pokémon Platinum Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Pearl Version (Game), Pokémon Diamond Version (Game)
1
Within the data for Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum is code to spawn in a Level 40 Darkrai as a roaming Pokémon, tying in with its nature as a malevolent counterpart to Cresselia (which similarly becomes a roaming Pokémon after meeting the player on Fullmoon Island). In the final game, Darkrai is instead encountered as a stationary opponent at Newmoon Island after obtaining the Member Card as a Mystery Gift item at select in-person events.
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 17, 2024
The Cutting Room Floor article for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:
https://tcrf.net/Pokémon_Diamond_and_Pearl#Unused_Roaming_Darkrai

The Cutting Room Floor article for Pokémon Platinum:
https://tcrf.net/Pokémon_Platinum#Unused_Roaming_Darkrai

YouTube video showing the unused roaming Darkrai in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot-u1X8V2Q8
Star Fox 64
subdirectory_arrow_right Star Fox Zero (Game)
1
Attachment According to Takaya Imamura in a Q&A in 2024, James McCloud, Fox's father, seemingly returning from the dead to help Fox escape from the depths of Venom at the end of Star Fox 64's hard route was inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi returning as a ghostly mentor for Luke Skywalker by the end of the 1977 film "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope".

According to Imamura, whether James is actually still alive, or some kind of ghost or vision that Fox saw, is ultimately up to the players to decide. Curiously, while Star Fox Zero (whose story is mostly just a straightforward retelling of Star Fox 64) also contains a sequence at the end where an apparition of James guides Fox through Venom, it appears that Andross can also see him, even shouting:

"Curse you, James McCloud. Why won't you stay dead?!"

Which further adds to the ambiguity on whether James is still alive or not.
person Dinoman96 calendar_month March 17, 2024
Imamura Q&A on James' fate:
https://mond.how/ja/topics/6xv0oiuynu4rry8/tmtoco5v45tp4p1

Star Fox 64 hard route ending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvuJwCA9xas

James and Fox fight off Andross in Star Fox Zero:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTYjy9qB1Q?t=51
Pokémon Gold Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Silver Version (Game)
1
Attachment Early builds of Pokémon Gold and Silver indicate that Celebi was originally designed after Kokopelli, a trickster figure, mythical flautist, and fertility deity worshiped by certain indigenous tribes in the American southwest (most prominently the Hopi and Anasazi). This is most apparent in a leaked build from May 6, 1998, in which Celebi's sprite is nearly identical to modern depictions of Kokopelli, with the only major deviation being the addition of eyes. A later design is present in the data for the Spaceworld 1999 demo, bearing a closer resemblance to Celebi's finalized sprite but retaining the Kokopelli motif.
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 16, 2024
Franchise: Angry Birds
2
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
Shenmue
1
In an interview with the game's composer Yuzo Koshiro published in the Japanese book series Game Maestro in 2001, he clarified that while there were dozens of people on the game's music staff, there were only four main composers actually writing and arranging the music, making them the smallest group within the project (this also included people working on sound effects and voice acting). The main theme of the game was written by composer Mitsuyoshi Takenobu. Koshiro believed Takenobu had "the hardest time of us all" during development as he also helped fine-tune the game's music in line with the programmers and director's requests. Koshiro also mentioned that at the beginning of the project, the offer made to get him on the project was that Takenobu would write songs, and Koshiro would orchestrate and arrange them. However, as the project went on, they both went on the opposite direction.
Monopoly Go!
2
In Febuary 2024, Monopoly Go! achieved a significant milestone by officially surpassing $2 billion USD in lifetime revenue. Remarkably, this achievement occurred just ten months after the game's launch and a mere three months after reaching the $1 billion mark.
Toontown Online
1
Attachment Despite being an online-oriented game, Toontown Online was briefly distributed as a CD-ROM title in 2005, with Sony subsidiary Platform Publishing handling the physical release. The CD-ROM version allowed players to run the game without needing to install it onto their computers and came with a free two-month subscription and an in-game kart that players could drive on Goofy Speedway. Home console ports of Toontown Online were also announced concurrently with the CD-ROM edition, but these never materialized.

According to a 2004 Game Developer article by developer Mike Goslin, the decision to give the game a physical release was due to anxieties from consumers about not being able to physically hold a game that they were spending money on, as online distribution had not yet been fully established as a mainstream distribution model for video games.
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 15, 2024
Company: Cyberdreams
1
"Reverence" was one of the last announced projects by Cyberdreams, but never made it past the Alpha phase before the company's closure. The game saw the player being chosen by the gods themselves to help determine the future of the human race, whom the gods believed to have grown too apathetic and unjust to live. It was intended to be a first-person shooter game, with the player wielding a variety of guns and spells as they traveled through four different realms to decide the fate of humanity. Each realm was modelled after a real life mythological god, those being Osiris (Egyptian god of the underworld), Kokyangwuti (Hopi goddess of life), Freyja (Norse goddess of love), and Manjursi (Tibetan god of wisdom). While the game itself was cancelled, a playable prototype was leaked in 2015.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month March 14, 2024
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
Cyberpunk 2077
1
If the players moves their mouse over to the game's current version number in the top right corner of the main menu and click on it, the numbers begin to shift around until they read "2.0.77", as a nod to the game's title.
Cyberpunk 2077
2
Attachment Located on the rooftop of Tom's Diner (over at Bradbury & Buran) is a pair of binoculars. If the players uses the binoculars to look up to the left, they'll find graffiti of the Northern cardinal bird that's used in CD Projekt RED's logo. After waiting a few moments, the vision in the binoculars will glitch and shift to show a picture of the game's dev team superimposed over the screen. According to global community director Marcin Momot and senior PR manager Marta Piwońska, this picture was taken at an annual company picnic on CD Projekt RED's 20th anniversary in 2022.
person ZpaceJ0ck0 calendar_month March 14, 2024
Pokémon Black Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Black Version 2 (Game), Pokémon White Version (Game), Pokémon White Version 2 (Game)
1
Attachment When Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 first released in Japan, fake leaks were posted on various websites claiming to be ROMs of the game, but in reality contained an FMV of a parody of the theme song to the Disney Channel series Cory in the House. The parody featured several of the games' characters and other memes at the time superimposed over the actors' heads, including talk show host Stephen Colbert, a caricature of the Pokémon fan website Serebii.net with a Trollface superimposed over it, and legacy Pokémon character Gary Oak. Before the title card of the show appears at the end, a barely visible screenshot of a post from the imageboard 4chan can be seen featuring the box art of the Nintendo DS game adaptation of the show, implying that the parody and fake ROMs originated from there. The video also features several scrolling text statements including:

• "Amber killed Gary" - supposedly referring to an incident on 4chan's dedicated Pokémon board /vp/ starting on August 26, 2010 where several posters using Gary Oak and Mewtwo as avatars tried to "revive" or "kill" the anime-only character Amber from The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin by trying to predict their post numbers in advance.
• "SHE IS BLACK ?!?" - referring to Pokémon Black & White Gym Leader Lenora.
• "GIANT HAIR EVERYWHERE" - on the following shot with four Bouffalants superimposed over Mount Rushmore.
• "FINAL GYM LEADER (IT HAS BEEN SEREBII CONFIRMED)" - referring to Iris, the last Gym Leader in Pokémon White and seems to be referring to leaks from the first Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games.
• "THIS FLOATING TEXT IS UP IN YO' SCREEN DAWG"
• "AMERICA" - on a shot of Stephen Colbert.

An upload of the fake ROM's FMV on YouTube dates back to September 16, 2010, two days before Pokemon Black & White's release date in Japan, and features several comments mentioning 4chan and /vp/ on top of the references in the video, suggesting that the hoax actually dates back to the release of the first Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, although discussion of this FMV from that time does not appear to have been preserved. While this ROM is also not known to be preserved (though its contents are), as recently as 2018 there have been reports of ROM dumps of Pokémon White 2 being silently modified to include Cory in the House references, including NPCs with dialogue featuring the lyrics to the show's theme song.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month March 14, 2024
GBATemp forum thread from Pokémon Black & White 2's release discussing the Cory "leaks":
https://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-black-white-2-j-ot.325098/page-59

The Cory in the House FMV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcf2n7WODU

A documented Cory-related mod in Pokémon White 2:
https://www.realmeye.com/forum/t/pokemon-white-2-has-a-cory-in-the-house-reference/29349/6

Bulbapedia user article on /vp/ that seems to be the only archived text online explaining what "Amber killed Gary" even means:
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/User:The_Great_Butler//vp/#Notable_Creations
Sonic Dash
1
Attachment In 2021, as part of a collaboration with the children's yogurt brand Danimals, Sonic Dash added brand mascot Bongo to the game as a playable character, unlocked by scanning a QR code on the back of Sonic Dash-branded Danimals products to download the game. This method could also be used to unlock the "Pirate Sonic" and "Captain Shadow" character variants, which could be earned by collecting all four birthday-themed items on the track, including a Danimals smoothie pack.
View More