The character of Penny Crygor was almost completely absent from pre-release material for WarioWare: Get It Together! - with the only instance of her that managed to slip through the cracks being a silhouetted version of her on the title for the Frenemy Frenzy mode - leading some Wario fans to believe she would be absent, much like Dribble & Spitz were in WarioWare: Touched!. When the game released, she would appear in a major role: as a deus-ex machina character in the penultimate level, complete with her own theme song.
Since the game is set between 1930 and 1938, the game features advertisements for alcohol, but only at points in the story where the United States was no longer under prohibition.
Despite Haruka Sawamura being the only Yakuza playable protagonist who never fights (with her fight sections being replaced by dance battles) and showing no prowess in martial arts, a trailer for Yakuza Online shows her beating generic enemies on a street alongside the other protagonists of the series.
In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
Simon Belmont was originally slated to be revealed for Super Smash Flash 2 on August 10th, 2018 during that year's Super Smash Con event. Coincidentially, Simon would be announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate two days later in an August 8th Nintendo Direct. The trailer for Super Smash Flash 2 would poke fun at the timing of the two announcements.
Joker from Persona 5 was announced as the first Fighter's Pass DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at The Game Awards 2018 on December 6th, 2018. This means that while he was technically the only Fighter's Pass DLC character to be announced before the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it was only a few hours before December 7th when the game was released.
The Japanese release of Yakuza 0 had a purchasable DLC pack that would give both Kiryu and Majima access to Walkmans that could play classic songs from Japan associated with the 1980s, or songs from past entries in the series.
In 2023, the Japanese noodle brand Cup Noodle used footage from the beginning of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain with Konami's permission to advertise their premium seafood cup noodles. The commercial features a scene where Big Boss Spoiler:(actually Venom Snake in disguise) wakes up from a coma and a doctor tells him how long he was out, with the dialogue changed to have the doctor inform Big Boss that while the seafood flavored cup noodles feature no shrimp, the new premium sea food flavor does have shrimp. This scene in general is a meme in the Japanese-speaking Internet, hence why it was used.
On December 23, 2022, Cam Clarke, the voice actor for Liquid Snake in the English language version of Metal Gear Solid, uploaded a video entitled “Cam Clarke & David Hayter "Liquid Grinch" Parody - Metal Gear Solid”. In the video, he and David Hayter, the English language voice of Solid Snake, sing a parody of the Christmas song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Thurl Ravenscroft in the personas of their respective characters from the Metal Gear series.
Prior to a 2020 Nintendo Treehouse presentation, primarily intended to show off Paper Mario: The Origami King, it was announced that a new game from developer WayForward would be shown off in the presentation. Due to WayForward's reputation for platformer titles such as the Shantae series and the recent release of Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda seemingly signifying an interest from Nintendo in indie collaborations, many fans expected the showcase to present a revival of a dormant Nintendo platforming IP such as Kid Icarus or Wario Land. In a futile attempt to temper expectations, Nintendo would vaguely clarify that the game was based on a "third party IP", redirecting speculation towards other companies' gaming IPs. When the presentation came, the game was revealed to be Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia, one of the licensed children's games that make up the vast majority of WayForward's gamography, which disappointed many, causing the Bakugan toyline to trend on Twitter and gaining the reveal trailer 3,500 dislikes against 1,500 likes on YouTube.
In 1982, 7 Up licensed out Pac-Man for a commercial, depicting the game's yellow hero turning red like the 7 Up spot and consuming both 7 Up and its lemon and lime ingredients after being made thirsty by pizza. Mistakenly, the opening of the commercial depicts Pinky (or Speedy) as being orange and, as a result, identical to Clyde, as well as Pac-Man being misnamed "Pacman"; while the ending of the commercial shows Inky, two Blinkies, and a green ghost resembling Funky from Pac-Mania, which would not be released for another 5 years.
When Pokémon Sword and Shield were announced, they inspired a slew of memes from British internet users who found humor in the influences their culture provided towards the games. One meme, made by Twitter user Callum O'Dwyer, depicts a PokéMart from Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! edited to show the logo of Greggs, a UK bakery chain. After the tweet proved viral, O'Dwyer reached out to Greggs to ask if the tweet was "worth a couple of [steak] bakes" as compensation for the free advertising. In response, Greggs gave him a £10 coupon and told him to "have a steak bake or three on us".
In 2001, Infogrames Entertainment SA produced a corporate anthem entitled "Infogrames Rocks My World", which was used at industry events starting with E3 2001 as part of a heavy marketing push to promote their slate of IPs after a series of acquisitions throughout the 1990s. According to YouTuber Larry Bundy Jr. during a video researching the development and release controversies surrounding the game Driv3r, Infogrames' public relations division reportedly spent $50,000 creating the song, but due to the song being relentlessly mocked following its reveal, everyone involved with the song's production was reportedly fired. While Bundy also claimed that the song was first leaked to the Internet by a disgruntled Driv3r developer in 2004, the song was actually distributed by Infogrames to other gaming news outlets as part of digital press kits. The earliest known upload of the song appears to be by software developer Phil Bak to his personal website sometime during or immediately after E3 2001 in May, and the earliest known surviving upload is through a 2001 IGN article covering Infogrames' Gamers' Day press event in August. The song was later uploaded to ZDNET in 2002 on a special article ranking it at #9 on a list of their Top 20 Corporate IT Anthems.
Death Stalker contains a long hidden message in its code, which includes calls for hires, promotions for other games by the same developer and publisher, and perhaps most interestingly, a message from the writer about how he had been locked out of his car:
Hello, good evening & wellcome to Qualtan, or Death Stalker in official form! Brought to you & (c) of course, by TAG computer games. We at TAG have always wondered why you hackers don't do something contructive like writing games! If you wan't to talk to us about this subject then ring HULL (0482) 215320 & have a chat. ( do this anyway if you like! we're also after graphic artists , games testers & designers. ) Watch out for 'Ninja Massacre' its beaut!! Hope you liked '19 boot camp' we did! Coming soon, Touchlight from Palace. Hello to Rogue who are writing the CBM version , featuring the first ever 16 colour HW scroll! More games from Codemasters later in the year! I am currently stranded in the TAG office because my car is locked in the multi story car park ! , just thought you might be interested. Thanks to PDS for the wonderfull Pd system, its wonderfull! TAG - the worlds first vegetarian computer company. We love Codemasters! Especially Mark, Tim, Richard & David! but is it TRUE or FALSE we ask? Fact is often stranger than fiction! more so where computers are concerned! Who was Paragon? Who are Tiertex? What is Artic ? South Hunsley , Britains crappist school! I know! theres loads more buffer left, but I've 20 miles to walk home!
[The original message contains no line breaks; they were added by The Cutting Room Floor for readability.]
When Contact released its first teaser materials in Japan, some EarthBound fans believed the teasers to be for Mother 3, due to the presence of a doctor who strongly resembles Dr. Andonuts from EarthBound, drawn in a similar artstyle.
At some point in the 2000s, a promo video was made by THQ and Toys R Us to encourage Toys R Us store owners to stock THQ video games. This tape opens with a strange, off-model rendition of SpongeBob not resembling any of his video game models and with notable details such as his pore locations, finger shape, and amount of fingers being completely off from Nickelodeon's style guide. The video also has imitation music not taken from either the SpongeBob SquarePants TV show nor any of its video games. Despite this, the video does use legitimate background art from the cartoon, and has voice work seemingly done by SpongeBob's voice actor Tom Kenny. While SpongeBob's model seems to be original, Patrick's model is taken from Nicktoons Unite!, sporting the distinctive face-long mouth and half-shut eyelids of his model used throughout the Nicktoons platformer game series. The complete promo video is not known to have been preserved.
The NES Punch-Out!! theme was plagiarized from the Gillette razors "Look Sharp, Be Sharp" jingle, which was used as the opening theme song for the American sports program Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, best known for its boxing programming, in the 1950s.
One commercial for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer line of systems shows a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System being thrown into a child's toy box, as to refer to the consoles as "baby toys". Ironically, the end of the B-roll in the commercial shows footage from Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, a game intended for a demographic of ages 3 to 8.
In four separate 1989 issues of Video Games & Computer Entertainment, the mail-in game order service Play It Again put up an advertisement featuring a list of games customers could order. Among these is a mysterious title, Yeah Yeah Beebiss 1, which is not the name of any one game - this title would reappear in a separate advert for FuncoLand, under the name "Yeah Beebiss 1". To add further mystery to this game, it was placed between W and X games alphabetically instead of with Y games. There are multiple theories on the status of Beebiss:
•Some believe that Beebiss is a baby-themed game like Baby Boomer, Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi no Amida Daibouken, or Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, given that "baby" sounds like "Beebiss" - with Rai Rai Kyonshis being considered the most likely candidate of the 3 for "Rai Rai"'s (A Japanese onomatopoeia associated with China) similarity to "Yeah Yeah", the game's release in 1989, and the presence of other import games on the listing. Rai Rai Kyonshis is generally the most accepted identity of the game. •One theory proposes that the game was made as a copyright trap to catch which retailers are stealing game lists, something one of the founders of Play It Again confessed to doing, albeit without confirming if Beebiss was among those games. •A rather strange theory proposes that the game was somehow related to exploring, possibly being Atlantis no Nazo's cancelled US release Super Pitfall II, named for Charles William Beebe, a famous explorer and naturalist •Another theory suggests that the title was simply a bizarre, elaborate in-joke that both Play It Again and FuncoLand employees were in on.
The myth of Beebiss would inspire the game Yeah Yeah Beebiss II, developed by popular retro gaming YouTuber John Riggs and based on the aesthetic of Rai Rai Kyonshis.
When Sonic Classic Collection was rated by the British Board of Film Classification, they rated three pieces of content not present in the final game: •A trailer for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood •A "history of Sonic" documentary video •An unknown item titled "GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE", which was most likely a video. However, all other non-interactive elements in the game such as the credits and aforementioned videos have a runtime, which GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE does not.
In 2019, UK bargain store Aldi attempted a publicity stunt known as the "Teatime Takedown", where parents would send Aldi their childrens' usernames on gaming platforms (with the service being provided for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, and unusually the streaming platform Twitch) and the supermarket would send professional gamers to defeat the child in-game so they would eat their food, though Aldi claimed that the effectiveness of the program may vary. Despite a released commercial for the campaign showing children "rage quitting" FPS games, the hired eSports teams, originating from Veloce, specialized in racing games. This sparked massive backlash within the UK eSports community, to the point where Resolve eSports offered to send its players to help kids fight back against the bullies. Aldi would eventually cancel the campaign and send coupons to those who complained as a form of apology. Print adverts were made, but are not known to have been printed in any magazines or catalogues, and radio and till reciept ads were planned.
In 1982, 7 Up licensed out Pac-Man for a commercial, depicting the game's yellow hero turning red like the 7 Up spot and consuming both 7 Up and its lemon and lime ingredients after being made thirsty by pizza. Mistakenly, the opening of the commercial depicts Pinky (or Speedy) as being orange and, as a result, identical to Clyde, as well as Pac-Man being misnamed "Pacman"; while the ending of the commercial shows Inky, two Blinkies, and a green ghost resembling Funky from Pac-Mania, which would not be released for another 5 years.
When Pokémon Sword and Shield were announced, they inspired a slew of memes from British internet users who found humor in the influences their culture provided towards the games. One meme, made by Twitter user Callum O'Dwyer, depicts a PokéMart from Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! edited to show the logo of Greggs, a UK bakery chain. After the tweet proved viral, O'Dwyer reached out to Greggs to ask if the tweet was "worth a couple of [steak] bakes" as compensation for the free advertising. In response, Greggs gave him a £10 coupon and told him to "have a steak bake or three on us".
In 2001, Infogrames Entertainment SA produced a corporate anthem entitled "Infogrames Rocks My World", which was used at industry events starting with E3 2001 as part of a heavy marketing push to promote their slate of IPs after a series of acquisitions throughout the 1990s. According to YouTuber Larry Bundy Jr. during a video researching the development and release controversies surrounding the game Driv3r, Infogrames' public relations division reportedly spent $50,000 creating the song, but due to the song being relentlessly mocked following its reveal, everyone involved with the song's production was reportedly fired. While Bundy also claimed that the song was first leaked to the Internet by a disgruntled Driv3r developer in 2004, the song was actually distributed by Infogrames to other gaming news outlets as part of digital press kits. The earliest known upload of the song appears to be by software developer Phil Bak to his personal website sometime during or immediately after E3 2001 in May, and the earliest known surviving upload is through a 2001 IGN article covering Infogrames' Gamers' Day press event in August. The song was later uploaded to ZDNET in 2002 on a special article ranking it at #9 on a list of their Top 20 Corporate IT Anthems.
At some point in the 2000s, a promo video was made by THQ and Toys R Us to encourage Toys R Us store owners to stock THQ video games. This tape opens with a strange, off-model rendition of SpongeBob not resembling any of his video game models and with notable details such as his pore locations, finger shape, and amount of fingers being completely off from Nickelodeon's style guide. The video also has imitation music not taken from either the SpongeBob SquarePants TV show nor any of its video games. Despite this, the video does use legitimate background art from the cartoon, and has voice work seemingly done by SpongeBob's voice actor Tom Kenny. While SpongeBob's model seems to be original, Patrick's model is taken from Nicktoons Unite!, sporting the distinctive face-long mouth and half-shut eyelids of his model used throughout the Nicktoons platformer game series. The complete promo video is not known to have been preserved.
In four separate 1989 issues of Video Games & Computer Entertainment, the mail-in game order service Play It Again put up an advertisement featuring a list of games customers could order. Among these is a mysterious title, Yeah Yeah Beebiss 1, which is not the name of any one game - this title would reappear in a separate advert for FuncoLand, under the name "Yeah Beebiss 1". To add further mystery to this game, it was placed between W and X games alphabetically instead of with Y games. There are multiple theories on the status of Beebiss: