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Many fans today recognize Star Fox Adventure's Shopkeeper's name as "Shabunga". However, the game's development team never intended the Shopkeeper character to have a name, even as far back when it was still Dinosaur Planet.
"Shabunga" was initially the name of a cut NPC character from Dinosaur Planet, a mutant creature that Sabre/Fox and Tricky would come across in an area known as Willow Grove, the bridge between SwapStone Hollow (ThornTail Hollow in SFA) and Dragon Rock, which was becoming a strange and mutated land as a result of General Scales' and Drakor's actions within the latter area, which was also mutating its inhabitants. As such, Shabunga, and supposedly other mutants according to the Dinosaur Planet condensed story (though none appear in the leaked December 2000 build) were cast off and sealed away within Willow Grove by the ThornTails that lived in SwapStone Hollow, frightened by their now warped appearances.
This mutant character was said to be an alchemist and also one of the SpellStone guardians, and thus was required to revitalize General Scales' Kamerian Belt (or "Krazoa Star" as Shabunga puts it), to allow Sabre and Tricky to enter the mutated wasteland Dragon Rock unharmed, and would later be required activate the SpellStone acquired from defeating Dragon Rock's boss, the Kamerian Heart.
With Willow Grove removed in the final game, Shabunga would appear in SFA as an enemy type known as the "FireCrawler" that appears in Moon Mountain Pass and also all over Dragon Rock. His role as the SpellStone GateKeeper of Dragon Rock would then be given to a generic quiet ThornTail that resides in ThornTail Hollow.
Curiously, SFA's Nintendo Power guidebook and also official English website would both re-appropriate the mutant's name to the Shopkeeper, claiming his name to be "Shabunga", despite the actual game just merely referring to him as the Shopkeeper. It turns out there's a reason for this: looking at the Japanese localization for Star Fox Adventures, it appears that NCL did indeed repurpose the "Shabunga" name behind Rare's back for the Shopkeeper as he's called that both in-game and also all over its ancillary material. For example, in the Japanese version of SFA, the ThornTail Store is renamed to シャブンガの店 (Shabunga no mise), which translates to Shabunga's Shop in English.
Another notable example is when Fox is talking to the Blue SnowHorn in SnowHorn Wastes; in the English version, the latter has this to say:
Retranslating the Japanese subtitles in the Japanese version of the game, however, reveals:
It would seem that whoever wrote the Nintendo Power SFA guide was given the memo about this.
"Shabunga" was initially the name of a cut NPC character from Dinosaur Planet, a mutant creature that Sabre/Fox and Tricky would come across in an area known as Willow Grove, the bridge between SwapStone Hollow (ThornTail Hollow in SFA) and Dragon Rock, which was becoming a strange and mutated land as a result of General Scales' and Drakor's actions within the latter area, which was also mutating its inhabitants. As such, Shabunga, and supposedly other mutants according to the Dinosaur Planet condensed story (though none appear in the leaked December 2000 build) were cast off and sealed away within Willow Grove by the ThornTails that lived in SwapStone Hollow, frightened by their now warped appearances.
This mutant character was said to be an alchemist and also one of the SpellStone guardians, and thus was required to revitalize General Scales' Kamerian Belt (or "Krazoa Star" as Shabunga puts it), to allow Sabre and Tricky to enter the mutated wasteland Dragon Rock unharmed, and would later be required activate the SpellStone acquired from defeating Dragon Rock's boss, the Kamerian Heart.
With Willow Grove removed in the final game, Shabunga would appear in SFA as an enemy type known as the "FireCrawler" that appears in Moon Mountain Pass and also all over Dragon Rock. His role as the SpellStone GateKeeper of Dragon Rock would then be given to a generic quiet ThornTail that resides in ThornTail Hollow.
Curiously, SFA's Nintendo Power guidebook and also official English website would both re-appropriate the mutant's name to the Shopkeeper, claiming his name to be "Shabunga", despite the actual game just merely referring to him as the Shopkeeper. It turns out there's a reason for this: looking at the Japanese localization for Star Fox Adventures, it appears that NCL did indeed repurpose the "Shabunga" name behind Rare's back for the Shopkeeper as he's called that both in-game and also all over its ancillary material. For example, in the Japanese version of SFA, the ThornTail Store is renamed to シャブンガの店 (Shabunga no mise), which translates to Shabunga's Shop in English.
Another notable example is when Fox is talking to the Blue SnowHorn in SnowHorn Wastes; in the English version, the latter has this to say:
This item was stolen from me many years ago. I believe it was around the same time that a strange floating dinosaur visited the Wastes.
Retranslating the Japanese subtitles in the Japanese version of the game, however, reveals:
何と・・・ これは昔ワシが盗まれた宝じゃ。シャブンガとかいうヤツが ここに来たのと同じころだったか・・・ (This is the treasure that was stolen from me so long ago. It was around the same time that Shabunga or whatever his name was came here...)
It would seem that whoever wrote the Nintendo Power SFA guide was given the memo about this.
Hyle Russell of DKVine said that the SFA dev team members he talked to never intended for the Shopkeeper to be called "Shabunga":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQVY7FFJSyY&t=3170s
Dinosaur Planet condensed story:
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
Shabunga the Mutant from Dinosaur Planet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctbH8x8j1k
Star Fox Adventures - The Quiet ThornTail:
https://youtu.be/EUVWSIcUMcg?t=134
Western SFA website calling the Shopkeeper "Shabunga":
https://archive.org/details/starfoxflash/shabunga.jpg
JP SFA website calling the Shopkeeper "Shabunga":
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/gsaj/sshot/ss08.html
Examples of in-game JP text referring to the the Shopkeeper and his store as "Shabunga":
https://youtu.be/XkpsayvEINU?list=PLNQca9Z15B3Cwq7rwz2GeE0Bkvcu546e8&t=988
https://youtu.be/nEDCKqE5VC4?list=PLNQca9Z15B3Cwq7rwz2GeE0Bkvcu546e8&t=573
Entire Reddit thread of this just for good measure:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/zrzun8/the_curious_case_of_shabunga_the_shopkeeper/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQVY7FFJSyY&t=3170s
Dinosaur Planet condensed story:
https://rarethief.com/dinosaur-planet/
Shabunga the Mutant from Dinosaur Planet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctbH8x8j1k
Star Fox Adventures - The Quiet ThornTail:
https://youtu.be/EUVWSIcUMcg?t=134
Western SFA website calling the Shopkeeper "Shabunga":
https://archive.org/details/starfoxflash/shabunga.jpg
JP SFA website calling the Shopkeeper "Shabunga":
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ngc/gsaj/sshot/ss08.html
Examples of in-game JP text referring to the the Shopkeeper and his store as "Shabunga":
https://youtu.be/XkpsayvEINU?list=PLNQca9Z15B3Cwq7rwz2GeE0Bkvcu546e8&t=988
https://youtu.be/nEDCKqE5VC4?list=PLNQca9Z15B3Cwq7rwz2GeE0Bkvcu546e8&t=573
Entire Reddit thread of this just for good measure:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starfox/comments/zrzun8/the_curious_case_of_shabunga_the_shopkeeper/
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