Trivia Browser
Franchise: Super Smash Bros.
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Although naturally each and every Special Move in the series mirrors itself and its hitboxes, an odd exception is made for Cloud's Cross Slash. When Cloud does the move, he draws the Kanji "凶" ("Kyo"), which means misfortune, bad luck, evil, and other negative things, and because this is a kanji it must be written a certain way regardless of orientation. It cannot simply be flipped like other moves, meaning that the move's hitboxes change depending on where Cloud is facing. From the right side and facing left, Cross Slash will actually hit lower, making it better at hitting smaller characters. However, from the left side facing right, Cross Slash will hit higher up, making it a better anti-air attack. This also occurs with the Limit Break version of the move. These differences makes Cloud mirror matches uniquely imbalanced and not as 50/50 as they would be for other fighters.
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In order to hide the twist of Spoiler:Snake being a decoy protagonist and Raiden being the true main character, director Hideo Kojima personally put together the game's trailers himself. The footage for the E3 2000 trailer was recorded from Spoiler:the Tanker segment at the start of the game, when Snake is the playable character, and in the E3 2001 trailer, Spoiler:several scenes that focus on Raiden in the actual game were edited to swap him out with Snake.
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In a 2011 interview with the game's composer Harumi Fujita published in issue #2 of STG Gameside magazine, she stated that at the time when she heard about Tokuro Fujiwara starting his own company named Whoopee Camp, she went to him and asked him to “Please use me somehow!”. Both of them had been working together on Famicom games since they worked at Capcom.
Collection: Tomba!
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In a March 2000 interview with the game's art director Tokuro Fujiwara published in the Tomba! The Wild Adventure manga, he was asked how the original Tomba!'s development began. Fujiwara stated that when he was making the characters, the first picture that came to his head was of an "energetic, spirited guy." Powerful, mischievous, and full of pep, all put into one character. When he looked back to his first rough sketches, he was struck by Tomba's half-human and half-animal appearance, and that creating him as a half-naked feral child was a very smooth, natural process.
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On May 23, 1999, wrestler Owen Hart passed away due to an equipment malfunction during his entrance into the wrestling ring, dropping him to his death. In light of this, the game was delayed from its original June 3, 1999 release date to August 5th that year, and they dedicated it to Hart in the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation versions.
The Dreamcast version, however, completely omits the dedication due to a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the WWE (then known as the WWF) from the Hart family. However, he is still a playable character in the game.
The Dreamcast version, however, completely omits the dedication due to a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the WWE (then known as the WWF) from the Hart family. However, he is still a playable character in the game.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Shield (Game)
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In early 2021, a man from Nagoya, Japan was arrested after hacking and modifying Pokémon in his copy of the game and selling them to people. The Japanese police and The Pokémon Company felt this was in violation of the country's "Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA)" and therefore illegal. The man was first brought to the police's attention after selling a modified Sobble for ¥4,400 (US$42), but he was eventually able to make ¥1.15 million (US$11,000) from various transactions before being arrested. It's suspected that the reason for trading these hacked Pokémon was due to the potential ability changes that hacking allowed which could provide easy advantages in the competitive scene without going through the time to catch them in-game.
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In a 2003 interview with the game's producer Noritaka Funamizu published in the 15th Anniversary Street Fighter limited edition DVD set, Funamizu stated that at the time he had been pushing Yoshiki Okamoto to include Chun-Li in the game, and Okamoto agreed to it, if 3rd Strike were to be developed. At the time, the team thought of making a big roster for 3rd Strike, and Okamoto was more insistent. He also stated that if Chun-Li wasn't included in the game, she wouldn't have gained the same impact as before. Okamoto thought of Chun-Li as the mascot of Capcom.
Funamizu also stated that Chun-Li's absence was the team's number one complaint they received from players for not including her in the previous Street Fighter III games. However, he stated that the team did wanted to include her in the games.
Funamizu also stated that Chun-Li's absence was the team's number one complaint they received from players for not including her in the previous Street Fighter III games. However, he stated that the team did wanted to include her in the games.
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Hardware limitations of the original PlayStation caused the development team to cut the frame rate in half and have only a handful of enemies appear on the screen at a time, among other technical restraints.
Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
subdirectory_arrow_right Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (Platform)
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"Blast processing" is a marketing term coined by Sega of America to promote the Sega Genesis as the cooler and more powerful console compared to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was such an effective campaign that it caused Nintendo to spend millions of dollars to ramp up their own smear campaign to rebut the claims, helping to create the textbook example of a "console war" between two rivaling video game companies through aggressive marketing and advertising. It is true that Blast processing as presented in advertisements at the time does not exist in any released Genesis game, but its creation was based on a real, low-level progressive processing method that ultimately went unused by developers.
The basic idea is that the hardware's video processor is "blasted" continuously, with the Genesis' 68000 processor working flat-out to change the color of every individual pixel during an active scan, a process where the "guns" on a CRT screen move from left to right and then down to the next line and so on. It was believed at the time that this function could be used to increase the Genesis' somewhat constrained color palette to showcase 256 color static images if timed right (this number would be exceeded by other developers like Jon Burton from Traveller's Tales who later discovered the trick).
Sega of America Senior Producer Scott Bayless claimed that Sega technical director Marty Franz first discovered the trick by "hooking the scan line interrupt and firing off a DMA [direct memory access] at just the right time", as firing it off at the wrong time would result in the scan lines appearing out of phase. This timing/synchronization issue, on top of the more pressing issue of the feature using all of the 68000's CPU time (meaning that while you could run the feature, you couldn't actually play the games that use it), effectively made it useless for cartridge games, and no shipped Genesis games ever used the feature. It’s speculated that it could have been used for Sega CD games, as the add-on had its own CPU that could run the feature, but this also did not come to pass.
The people responsible for the name "Blast processing" are Bayless and Sega of America's PR team. They interviewed him about the specs of the console, and he described to them how the feature could "blast data into the DAC's [digital-to-audio converters]". When talking about how the name came about, he assumed the PR team just liked the word "blast" without understanding what Bayless was explaining, and Blast processing was invented by them to more easily and vaguely sum up the technical capabilities of the Genesis when marketing it. Bayless later expressed reservations about the phrase, calling it "ghastly".
It should also be noted that this feature was not exclusive to the Genesis. In 2020, former Sculptured Software programmer Jeff Peters claimed that they discovered a similar technical trick on the SNES before Sega started using the phrase, but it was focused on audio rather than graphics. He claims that when porting Mortal Kombat to the SNES, Sculptured Software encountered an issue where the amount of graphics data being put onto the cartridge meant that sound had to be cut back drastically. To overcome this problem, Peters and his team used a homegrown system which allowed them to read sounds from the cartridge one at a time and blast them directly to a buffer in the sound memory. While the two tricks were achieving different things, it's interesting to note that both were possible on either console, despite Sega's insistence that only the Genesis could achieve Blast processing.
The basic idea is that the hardware's video processor is "blasted" continuously, with the Genesis' 68000 processor working flat-out to change the color of every individual pixel during an active scan, a process where the "guns" on a CRT screen move from left to right and then down to the next line and so on. It was believed at the time that this function could be used to increase the Genesis' somewhat constrained color palette to showcase 256 color static images if timed right (this number would be exceeded by other developers like Jon Burton from Traveller's Tales who later discovered the trick).
Sega of America Senior Producer Scott Bayless claimed that Sega technical director Marty Franz first discovered the trick by "hooking the scan line interrupt and firing off a DMA [direct memory access] at just the right time", as firing it off at the wrong time would result in the scan lines appearing out of phase. This timing/synchronization issue, on top of the more pressing issue of the feature using all of the 68000's CPU time (meaning that while you could run the feature, you couldn't actually play the games that use it), effectively made it useless for cartridge games, and no shipped Genesis games ever used the feature. It’s speculated that it could have been used for Sega CD games, as the add-on had its own CPU that could run the feature, but this also did not come to pass.
The people responsible for the name "Blast processing" are Bayless and Sega of America's PR team. They interviewed him about the specs of the console, and he described to them how the feature could "blast data into the DAC's [digital-to-audio converters]". When talking about how the name came about, he assumed the PR team just liked the word "blast" without understanding what Bayless was explaining, and Blast processing was invented by them to more easily and vaguely sum up the technical capabilities of the Genesis when marketing it. Bayless later expressed reservations about the phrase, calling it "ghastly".
It should also be noted that this feature was not exclusive to the Genesis. In 2020, former Sculptured Software programmer Jeff Peters claimed that they discovered a similar technical trick on the SNES before Sega started using the phrase, but it was focused on audio rather than graphics. He claims that when porting Mortal Kombat to the SNES, Sculptured Software encountered an issue where the amount of graphics data being put onto the cartridge meant that sound had to be cut back drastically. To overcome this problem, Peters and his team used a homegrown system which allowed them to read sounds from the cartridge one at a time and blast them directly to a buffer in the sound memory. While the two tricks were achieving different things, it's interesting to note that both were possible on either console, despite Sega's insistence that only the Genesis could achieve Blast processing.
Eurogamer article:
https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2019-blast-processing-retro-analysis
Jon Burton video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qgArSqMsc
Scott Bayless interview:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/09/the-man-behind-segas-blast-processing-gimmick-is-sorry-for-creating-that-ghastly-phrase
Jeff Peters claims:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/05/segas_blast_processing_we_did_it_on_the_snes_first_says_former_sculptured_software_dev
https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2019-blast-processing-retro-analysis
Jon Burton video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8qgArSqMsc
Scott Bayless interview:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/09/the-man-behind-segas-blast-processing-gimmick-is-sorry-for-creating-that-ghastly-phrase
Jeff Peters claims:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/05/segas_blast_processing_we_did_it_on_the_snes_first_says_former_sculptured_software_dev
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In a 2022 interview with the game's director and writer Goichi “Suda 51” Suda published on the Gematsu website, he talked about the long wait time between numbered entries in the series being broken with No More Heroes III and how they tried to cater to their audience after years of fan demand:
“Yeah, 11 years is a long time; like longer than the usual lifespan of a platform itself. The game we had developed on the Wii ended up jumping generations and landing on the Switch, and it was, hm, how do I put it… It actually felt like we were able to come back to the world of No More Heroes pretty smoothly. But even within our studio, first, we needed to ensure that people knew about No More Heroes 1 and 2. What sort of games they are, and how much the fans loved them… I feel like that was our actual starting point.”
“So obviously, we had our own image of what kind of III we wanted to create, but there’s also the III that the fans wanted to see; the III they were imagining. So in development we tried to make sure that those visions of III overlapped as much as possible.”
“So obviously, we had our own image of what kind of III we wanted to create, but there’s also the III that the fans wanted to see; the III they were imagining. So in development we tried to make sure that those visions of III overlapped as much as possible.”
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Fans believe Suguru Kamoshida is based off of former judo gold medalist Masato Uchishiba who spent 5 years in prison for rape and had all his medals and honors revoked.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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Although the Paldea region is based on Iberia, its starters may take inspiration from the modern culture and fauna of New World places that Spain and Portugal colonized and influenced. Specifically:
•The Skeledirge line may represent Mexico. Its name, secondary ghost-typing, and skeletal imagery evokes Mexico's Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a celebration of the former lives of deceased loved ones where, among other things, celebrators may dress in flamboyantly colored costumes and paint skulls on their faces. Crocalor also has a head growth resembling a Sombrero. This and the line's theme of singing to attack may also be a reference to Mariachi folk music. In a fauna sense, Crocodiles are also endemic to Mexico.
•Quaquaval's influence may derive from Brazil's culture. This can be seen in the name which has elements of Carnival, a Catholic festive season popularly celebrated in Brazil with lavish parades. In addition, it being part fighting-type and being dance-themed may be based on the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, a fighting style that heavily resembles dancing in many of its moves. Quaquaval is also based upon the South American Crested Duck.
•Meowscarada, while possibly taking inspiration from Iberia itself with its resemblance to the Iberian Lynx, could also take cues from the Southern United States, specifically the State of Louisiana. This is because New Orleans, in Louisiana, is known for its Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) celebrations as part of Carnival, which iconically feature performers in elaborate masks, hence Meowscarada's name evoking the word Mascarade. Although Louisiana was influenced by France, it was also conquered by Spain later, along with a lot of the Southern U.S. It may also be based on Louisiana's prominent diasporic religion surrounding Voodoo. Meowscarada's species may furthermore be based off of the Bobcat/Red Lynx, a relative of the Iberian Lynx.
•The Skeledirge line may represent Mexico. Its name, secondary ghost-typing, and skeletal imagery evokes Mexico's Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a celebration of the former lives of deceased loved ones where, among other things, celebrators may dress in flamboyantly colored costumes and paint skulls on their faces. Crocalor also has a head growth resembling a Sombrero. This and the line's theme of singing to attack may also be a reference to Mariachi folk music. In a fauna sense, Crocodiles are also endemic to Mexico.
•Quaquaval's influence may derive from Brazil's culture. This can be seen in the name which has elements of Carnival, a Catholic festive season popularly celebrated in Brazil with lavish parades. In addition, it being part fighting-type and being dance-themed may be based on the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, a fighting style that heavily resembles dancing in many of its moves. Quaquaval is also based upon the South American Crested Duck.
•Meowscarada, while possibly taking inspiration from Iberia itself with its resemblance to the Iberian Lynx, could also take cues from the Southern United States, specifically the State of Louisiana. This is because New Orleans, in Louisiana, is known for its Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) celebrations as part of Carnival, which iconically feature performers in elaborate masks, hence Meowscarada's name evoking the word Mascarade. Although Louisiana was influenced by France, it was also conquered by Spain later, along with a lot of the Southern U.S. It may also be based on Louisiana's prominent diasporic religion surrounding Voodoo. Meowscarada's species may furthermore be based off of the Bobcat/Red Lynx, a relative of the Iberian Lynx.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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Tandemaus and Maushold may have dark origins as they may be based on the concept of a "Rat King", where several rats' tails are tied together or tangled by a person (although there have been reported cases of this happening without human interference). Explaining the German-sounding name of the Pokémon, the Rat King concept is named after the German term "Rattenkonig" which, in turn, is based on the villain of the same name from the short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" who is sometimes depicted as being comprised of several mice or rats.
Also the Pokémon themselves may be aesthetically based on toy-like dioramic objects called "Sylvian Families" in Japan (or "Calico Critters" in English countries) which are essentially dressed-up mouse dolls in different whimsical small settings that make the mice look more like a human family. These Sylvian Families started in Japan in the 1980s, which is when many of the veteran developers at Game Freak would have grown up.
Also the Pokémon themselves may be aesthetically based on toy-like dioramic objects called "Sylvian Families" in Japan (or "Calico Critters" in English countries) which are essentially dressed-up mouse dolls in different whimsical small settings that make the mice look more like a human family. These Sylvian Families started in Japan in the 1980s, which is when many of the veteran developers at Game Freak would have grown up.
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Franchise: Pokémon
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In a Q&A with Game Informer in 2019, producer Junichi Masuda revealed that programmer Koji Nishino was given the nickname "Kabi" after Nintendo's Kirby ("カービィ" or "Kabi" in Japanese) because of his big appetite. Nishino's behavior and appetite would serve as a direct inspiration for the design of the Pokémon Snorlax, including Snorlax's habit of constantly eating and sleeping, as well as its Japanese name "Kabigon", which was derived from Nishino's nickname. This means that by association, Snorlax's name is technically derived from Kirby.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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In the mission Starfall Street, at the request of the enigmatic Cassiopeia, the player must face off against Team Star and their five leaders who command five sects of the group. Spoiler:Eventually, It's revealed that Cassiopeia is actually their leader manipulating the player to take down her peons. This is forehadowed through references in both Cassiopeia and the Team Star sects' names. Cassiopeia is the name of an M-shaped constellation in the night sky, and the names of the leaders' different sects are all the names of the five main stars of the constellation itself: Segin, Ruchbah, Navi, Schedar, and Caph. In addition, the geological positions of the Team Star leaders' bases on the map of Paldea reflects the appearance of the Cassiopeia constellation as well.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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Professor Sada and Professor Turo's names possibly come from the Spanish words for "past" and "future" respectively: "pasada" and "futuro". Spoiler:This is expanded upon by the fact that Sada plays an important role in Scarlet (which is past themed) and Turo plays an important part of Violet (which deals with the future).
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In a 1995 interview with the game's designer and illustrator Akihiro Kimura published in Dengeki Super Famicom magazine, he stated that with Emerald Dragon, he consciously tried to change up his art style up for its different incarnations. This was partly due to him thinking his drawing improved somewhat, but also that the amount of time it was taking him and his team to make the game naturally made him want to try different things out to keep himself from getting bored. The illustrations he did for the game's 1994 light novel were especially different, but for the Super Famicom version, he made sure the overall game's image remained unified, and ultimately didn't change too many things from the PC version.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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The games' Paldea region is inspired by the real-life Iberian Peninsula in Europe where countries like Spain and Portugal are. In a lot of areas of Paldea, this can be seen: •The Glaseado Mountains are based on the Pyrenees Mountains that separate Spain and France
•The large amount of caves in the region are possibly based on Spain's own large amount of caves, such as the Malaga Province's Caves of Nerja
•The real life Andalusia Region, known for its olive fields and sunflowers, is the inspiration for the Paldean cities of Cortondo and its similar olive fields, and Artazon and its sunflora connection
•Naranja/Uva Academy is architecturally based on La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family) in Barcelona, an old landmark church that is still in an unfinished state to this day, among other inspirations.
•The regional variants on old Pokémon also reflect this; for instance, Paldea's black-furred Fighting-type variant of Taurus represents a Spanish Fighting Bull.
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
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Nacli, Naclstack, and Garganacl's English names all feature the shared letter sequence "NACL". This is referencing the scientific designation for the elemental compound of salt: NaCl (Sodium Chloride).