As you know,every single franchise known to man has some form a trivia related to it. Well,today,The King of Retro will be bringin' you some cool factoids relating to various Video Game franchises. I already did a Mega Man focused one,so today's list will be focused on other games.
Let's begin!
Resident Not-So-Evil
With the aid of Resident Evil 1,Capcom was able to save itself from failure during the PS1/N64/Sega Saturn era. Today,the RE franchise has turned into complete crap [for a number of reasons].
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Lefty Linky
Nintendo made Link left handed.It's in honor of his designer Shigeru Miyamoto[aka mr.nintendo] who is Left-Handed as well.
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The Sony/Nintendo connection
Nintendo themselves were responsible for the creation of the PS1,the N64s arch-rival?
Y'see In 1991,Nintendo made plans with Sony to create a CD add-on for the SNES,called the Play Station [2 words]. However at the eleventh hour,The Big N feared that Sony might have majority control of the content and profits,so they secretly made a deal with Philips.
When Sony found out about this at CES,they were furious and as an act of revenge,created their own stand-alone console: The Sony Playstation.
The CD add-on deal with Philips fell through,but Nintendo allowed them to create games based on Mario and Zelda. Of course,we All know how well those games turned out. Mah Boi!
Anywhay,so remember, if it wasn't for Nintendo's paranoia,The Playstation and it's fandom wouldn't even exist today.
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Super Game Boy = Game Boy Color Prototype
In '93-'94 it was rumored that Nintendo was developing a Color Game Boy, but it turned out to be a GB converter for the SNES, the Super Game Boy. I took a while longer but the Game Boy Color is a reality!
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Centaur Mario?
In the beginning of the development of Super Mario Bros. 3 there were plans for a "Centaur Mario" ability for our favorite plumber!
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The Popularity of Pocket Monsters
Pokemon aka Pocket Monsters, was such a super hit in Japan,that it helped the Game Boy Completely Destroy it's rivals in Handheld market.
Pocket Monsters was so popular that it spawned many game sequels..but that ain't all,there are also Pokemon posters,stickers,trading cards,toys,stuffed dolls,manga,and even an anime series.
The Franchise Mascot is Pikachu.
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Star Fox,The Testing Program
Star Fox was originaly just an testing program to test out the FX-chip's capabilities, but the designers continued working on it and finally Nintendo released it and it became a big success.
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Samus Aran's Popularity
All of the Metroid games has been huge bestsellers in the US,Europe,and even Australia. But for some reason,they weren't in Japan.
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Super Mario 3D
Did you know that Nintendo planned to release a 3D Mario game for the SNES using their S-FX chip? However,it didn't work out due to the lack of buttons on the SNES controller. Because of this,the 3D Mario game had to wait until the creation of the N64.
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The Origin of Jumpman
In 1981 Shigeru Miyamoto,guided by Gunpei Yokoi,made the first mainstream game for Nintendo starring everyones favorite plumber,Mario. It was the arcade game Donkey Kong.
At the time Mario didn't had a proper name! He was just called "Jumpman" and was a carpenter. And when Donkey Kong came to the US,Jumpman was renamed Mario!
Yeah its true, Mario was first a carpenter before he became a plumber! He also starred in the sequel to Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong Jr. In Dk jr.,Mario was officialy given the name Mario. When Mario Bros came out,Mario's brother Luigi was born.
Here's how Mario got his name. When Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America, first saw "Jumpman" he thought that it looked like the building's Landlord,Mario Segale. How Luigi got his name is unknown,though a prevailing theory says that he was named after a local Pizzaria.
Though many other theories say he was named after the Japanese word Ruigi,which means 'Similar' in that language.
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Surname of the Bros.
Mario and Luigi Have no Surname. It was originally thought to be "Mario",but that's never been the case.
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Final Fantasy Fun Fact # 1
The two characters Biggs and Wedge, sometimes known as "Vicks and Wedge",have appeared in many Final Fantasy games (FF VI-VIII to be exact). What few people know is that their names were taken from Star Wars wing men: Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter.
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Final Fantasy Fun Fact # 2
In all Final Fantasy games,except for Final Fantasy 1,the character Cid has appeared as an important character. The Producer of the Final Fantasy games, Hironobu Sakaguchi, once described this character as "the Yoda of the Final Fantasy series". One interesting fact to note is that the Cids are almost always either engineers or mechanics.
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Final Fantasy Fun Fact # 3
In all of the Final Fantasy games the best and the second best swords are named Excalibur and Masamune.
You may recognize the name Excalibur from the classical King Arthur story and the Masamune is named after an ancient Japanese swordsmith.
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Final Fantasy 64?
After Final Fantasy VI for the SNES was complete Square began experimenting with 3D characters. and in 1995 they proudly introduced to the press, a CGI demo featuring: Locke, Terra and Shadow battling some kind of a stone enemy.
This little playable demo was assumed by everyone that Square's next Final Fantasy game would be for the Nintendo 64. Unfortunately,that wasn't the case.
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Nintendo Hates Genies
Nintendo deliberately programmed SNES games to crash when used with a Game Genie! When Nintendo lost their trial against Galoob and Galoob was free to sell their Game Genie freely,Nintendo started implementing a chip within various games,that made those games screw up,if the Game Genie was used.
That's why there is about 3 or 4 versions of Final Fantasy III[VI] and Chrono Trigger.
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Metroid Translation Mistake
On the box and the manual of the Original Metroid, it states that the game takes place on the planet Zebes. However, the text inside the game itself calls the planet *Zebeth*. This is because there is no basic 's' sound in Japanese--words that end in 'th' are sometimes translated as 's'. The 'Zebes' spelling that's used in every Metroid title.
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"Legend" of Zelda
Miyamomto has openly admitted that "The Legend of Zelda" game series was based on fantasy books,his childhood,and the movie "Legend". The movie "Legend" was released just before "The Legend of Zelda" was, back in 1986. "Legend" was directed by Ridley Scott,and starred Tom Cruise.
The story is similar to the Zelda games: Young scrawny elf-like boy is sent out by various dwarves and pixies to delve into the dark dungeons and rescue the princess captured by the evil Gannon like demon. In his way are many smaller demons. It also has the exact same mythological and medival fantasy feel to it.
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Donkey Kong's Name
A rumor says that it was meant that Donkey Kong's name would be Monkey Kong.but due to a bad phone connection, someone heard wrong and thought that it was Donkey Kong.
The more true theory is that Shigeru Miyamoto looked in various dictionaries for a word for "stubbern" because he wanted Donkey Kong to be that way and found the word "Donkey". The other part of the word,"Kong",came from the famous King Kong.
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Biggest. AC Adapter. Ever!:
Colecovision had[has] the biggest AC adapter of any existing game system.
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Gender Confused
For some odd reason NoA changed Birdo,a female enemy,into a guy who thinks he's a girl. Though in some Japanese media,Birdo Is a guy.*shrugs*
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The Lost Zone of Sonic 2
Sonic 2 was originally supposed to have 12 Zones instead of 11. Hidden Palace Zone was cut due to time and money. This Level was mostly deleted from the final version of the game,though you can visit a crapped up version of it via cheat device. The true look of Hidden Palace can bee seen in the Sonic 2 Beta.
The Zone was restored in the iOS port.
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Sonic and Knuckles = Sonic 3 Part 2
Originally,Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles were supposed to be a single game. But due to limited cart space,the game was split in half. To compensate,Sega created Sonic and Knuckles with 'Lock-On' technology,so that you can play Sonic 3 in it's entirety.
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Why The NES Looks How It Does?
Due to the Video Game Crash of '83,the Video Game Industry was looked down upon by both the press and retailers in North America. Because of this,Nintendo America designed the NES to look like a toy and advertised it as such. This helped the NES get into North American stores.
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Sonic 1 Beta Stuff
In Sonic 1 Beta,Spring Yard Zone was called Sparkling Zone and Scrap Brain Zone was called Clock Work Zone. Also in Sonic 1 Beta,there was an enemy that didn't make it into the final game. This enemy was a Rabbit badnik called Splats. Splats was a quick enemy who attacked Sonic by jumping at him.
There was also a goggles Item that supposedly allowed Sonic to breath Underwater and an 'S' Item,which gave Sonic Both Super speed and Invinsibility. These Items were scrapped for the final game,However,if you hit the Sign Post while screwing around with the debug mode,you can see the icons for these items in the sign post.
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Final Fantasy 4 NES
Final Fantasy 4 was originally planned to be an NES game? However,Square decided to make it an SNES title instead. Thank God they did this.
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Tougher Enemies in Zelda 2 Jp?
In the Japanese Zelda 2,the bosses are a bit tougher. In The US version,these bosses have a weaker defense and slightly more predictable patterns.
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Palutina and Princess Lana
Captain N's Princess Lana is loosely based on Goddess Palutina from Kid Icarus. She's also said to be based on a character from an obscure game called "Chesterfield"
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Punch-Out Debacle
Because Mike Tyson's contract with Nintendo expired,Nintendo decided to re-release Mike Tyson's Punch-Out as just Punch-Out. In this Re-release,Mr. Dream replaced Mike Tyson as the final opponent.
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Popeye the Jumpman:
The first Donkey Kong game was originally supposed to be a Popeye game. But before the development of this game,Nintendo lost the rights to the Popeye licence. Because of this,Nintendo changed the Popeye characters to the characters that we all know and love. This is why Paulina looked like Popeye's girlfriend,Olive in the early NES era.
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Castevania 3's 10-Bit Music
The japanese version of Castlevania 3 has slightly superior music than it's US counterpart. That's because the Famicom has slightly better sound and graphics capabilities than the NES.
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Nintendo's Silent Hero
Link never talks in any of the Zelda games. Don't ask me why,he just doesn't. He doesn't talk in the Super Smash Bros. Games either.
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Sega's First Mascot
Alex Kidd,star of the Alex Kidd series of Games,was Sega's first mascot. When they found out that he couldn't compete with Nintendo's Mascot Mario,Sega decided to replace Alex with a new Mascot. Sega chose Sonic The Hedgehog[among a few others] to be their new mascot.
Why,because Yuji Naka wanted a speedy Mascot,and Hedgehogs were known to be fast. Sonic became blue,to match the Sega Logo. Also the Buckles on his sneakers were inspired by the buckles on Michael Jackson's Boots.
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Sonic 3 and Michael Jackson
It was planned for Michael Jackson to do the music of Sonic 3. However this idea was scrapped,due to Jackson's "issues" at the time. Jackson also wasn't a fan of the Genesis' Sound System.
On a related note,The music for Sonic 1 GG's Bridge Zone was sampled by Janet Jackson.
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Adventure Island and Wonderboy
The 1st Adventure Island game is in reality a modified port of Wonder Boy 1.
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Goblin's Goblin's Everywhere
Almost every Final Fantasy game has the Goblin enemy. I think Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 8 are the only 2 games in the Retro Final Fantasy Series that lack this Enemy.
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Toadstool to Peach,Robotnik To Eggman
Princess Peach was called Princess Toadstool throughout the NES and SNES eras. Super Mario 64 for the N64 was the first mainstream game that calls Princess Toadstool,Princess Peach. BTW,Peach is the Princess' Japanese name.
On a similar note,Dr. Eggman was called Dr.Robotnik throughout the Genesis and Saturn era. They started calling him Dr. Eggman in Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast. Eggman is the Mad Scientist's Japanese name.
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Fast Classic Gaming Fact 2
According to Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias,Mortal Kombat wouldn't have done that well if it lacked fatalities.
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Sonic 2 Lost Badniks
The Alpha and Beta versions of Sonic 2 had enemies that were absent in the final game. Those enemies are: A Bat that swooped down at Sonic,a T-Rex enemy,a Triceratops that rushed Sonic when it sees him,a Snail that had the same method of attack as the triceratops,a second Snail that climed up walls,a Fish that jumped up from the water to attack Sonic,a Gator that bites sonic if he came near,and finally a 3-Eyed Fish that dropped bubbles on Sonic.
A Frog enemy was planned,but it never made it past the drawing board.
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Sonic 2 Beta Zones
Sonic 2 had 3 Zones that never made it into the final. The first one was Wood Zone,it was a treetop level that had converyer belts and tunnels.
The next one is Hidden Palace,a rocky cavern with jewels,tubes,and an underwater section. Hidden Palace can be found in the final via cheat device,but it's a glitched up mess.
The final one was Genocide City,It was nothing but a glitched up screen with no floors or anything else for that matter. To my knowlage,Genocide City was supposed to be a clone of Sonic 1's Scrap Brain Zone.
There was also supposed to be a Desert Level,but,like the Frog Badnik,it never made it past the drawing board.
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Dust Hill?
Sonic 2's Mystic Cave Zone was originally (and erroniouslyll called Dust Hill Zone
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Boxer The Goblin
Square,aka Square-Enix,was planning to make a Goblin playable in Final Fantasy 7. This goblin would be a good Goblin called Boxer. However,this idea was scrapped early in the games development.
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Aerith' Original Death Place
Square intended Aerith to be killed in the Northern Crater in Disk 2,instead of the Forgotten Capital in Disc 1. I'll talk more about this another day.
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Fast Classic Gaming Fact 3
The Sega Genesis' original Pack-in game was Altered Beast. But,for the sake of sales,they replaced Altered Beast with Sonic The Hedgehog. Smart move,Sega.
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The Forgotten Consoles
The Atari Jaguar,Panasonic 3DO,and Philips CD-I are the Game Systems that very few people remember.
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Another Final Fantasy Fun Fact
The REAL Final Fantasy 2 was ment to come to America,but Square decided to abandon the translation in favor of translating Final Fantasy 4 instead.
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Fake Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is concidered to be the Fake Final Fantasy by Final Fantasy fans and RPG maniacs. However,the game itself is really good. Short,not very difficult,but Good.
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The Lost Concept Of Sonic 2
Sonic 2 was originally gonna involve Time Travel,with past,present,and future versions of the Zones. However,this idea was instead saved for Sonic CD,which was being worked on during Sonic 2's development. I'll talk more about this another time.
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The Only American Zelda Villian
Zelda 2 Boss,Gooma,is an American creation. Nintendo of America replaced the Japanese version's second Helmethead with Gooma.
On a related note,the Helmethead boss that we know is actually Zelda 2 Jp's second helmethead.
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Roaring Bosses
The Bosses of Japan's Zelda 2 actually roar. This is because the Famicom has better sound capabilities than the NES.
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Fast Classic Gaming Fact 3
The NES was the very Game System that made Video Games popular AND saved the industry after the Video Game Crash. So thank Nintendo for the popularity...and existance of Video Games.
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Fast Classic Gaming Fact 4
Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition was The very first Fighting Game for the Sega Genesis.
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Final Fantasy Number Confusion
Final Fantasy 2 US is really Final Fantasy 4 and Final Fantasy 3 US is really Final Fantasy 6.
On a related note,Final Fantasy 7 was gonna be called Final Fantasy 4 here in the U.S.,but Square decided to just leave the name alone.
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Street Fighter Name Madness
In Japan,Vega the Spanish Ninja is called Balrog,Balrog the American Boxer is called M.Bison,The Evil M.Bison is called Vega,and Akuma the Dark Shoto is called Gouki.
The reason For this is that in America Trademark was a big big deal. Balrog,in SFII,looked a lot like Mike Tyson. So to prevent a lawsuit by the Boxer for using his likeness,as well as using a name similar to his,Capcom USA decided to switch the names of the bosses Around. Vega's Japanese name,Balrog,was given to the Boxer.
They also figured that the name Vega sounded spanish,so they gave it to the clawed fighter. And M.Bison,the remaining name,was given to the Super Villain.
Also,since Capcom USA found the Dark Shoto to be Evil,they decided to change his name from Gouki to Akuma.
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Fast Classic Gaming Fact 5
Tails is based on a Kitsune,a mythical Japanese Fox that has multiple tails.
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Lost Materia of Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 7 has some "disabled" materia that can only be accessed by hacking. These materias are: Housoku,Suichu Kokyu,Booster,MaBarrier,Reflek,and Refaub
The Housoku Materia gave you the ability to throw Gil at your enemy,kinda like the 'Coin' ability gained from the 'throw' materia.
The Suichu Kokyu Materia was disabled in the Japanese version of the game,but Re-enabled in the U.S. version. This materia was turned into the 'Underwater' Materia.
MaBarrier gave you the ability to cast 'M-Barrier'.
Reflek gave you the abillity to cast 'Reflect'.
Refaub gave you the ability to cast 'Wall'.
Booster increased the number of AP you got in battle. Since certain Weapons increase the Number of AP you get in battle,Square felt that this Materia wasn't needed.
A Materia called 'PFD' aka 'Prevent Floor Damage' was planned,but was scrapped because Square didn't want to put any "Damage" floors into Final Fantasy 7.
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Golem Summon in FF7
The 'Golem' summon was planned to be in FF7,but Square scrapped the Idea because they thought that the 'Golem' would make the game to easy.The Golem appears in FF7 as an Enemy.
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Tifa the Sabin?
Tifa was planned have Saban's 'Blitz' technique as her limit breaks. But Square scrapped that idea in favor of the 'Slot' Method.
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Cloud's 4x Materia Growth Weapon
Cloud was planned to have a sword that gave him 4x Materia growth. This sword never made it past the drawing board.
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3 Extra Endings of FF7
In Final Fantasy 7's ending Yuffie and Vincent are 100% absent..even if you had them in your party. Square planned 3 extra endings:one with Vincent,one with Yuffie,and one with both Characters. However,Square scrapped those ideas due to lack of time and money.
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FF7's Weapons
The Ruby and Emerald Weapons were American creations And that the Diamond Weapon was turned into a boss. However,all of this and more,were added to the Japanese re-release,Final Fantasy VII: International.
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Sonic Crackers
Sonic Crackers aka Sonic Stadium was the Alpha version of Knuckles Chaotix. This prototype game starred Sonic and Tails. Sonic Crackers was basically a crapped up version of Knuckles Chaotix.
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Zelda 2's Lost Item
According to a rumor I once heard,The Red Ring is a Hidden Item in Zelda 2. I'll be doing a seperate post for Retro Game Rumors.
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Castlevania 4 = Castlevania 1
In Japan,Super Castlevania 4 isn't a continuation of Simon Belmont's adventures,instead the story is actually a re-telling of Castlevania 1's story.
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Placeholder Kirby
Kirby was originally an unnamed place holder for a game.But Nintendo and HAL liked him so much,they've decided to make him the main character of the game. This decision proved to be an excellent one,as Kirby has become one of Nintendo's most popular characters.
At first the character was named Popopo,but was soon changed to Kirby,after the Vaccume. Though,some say Kirby was named after John Kirby,the lawyer who helped Nintendo against Universal Studios during the whole 'Donkey Kong' copyright debacle.
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Sonic's World
The official name of Sonic the Hedgehog's Planet is still unknown,because Sega of Japan hasn't told us yet. Sega of America used to call Sonic's World,Mobius. But,unfortunately,that's inaccurate.
Some say that Sonic's World is an alternate version of Earth. However,I find this questionable and SoJ has never confirmed this. So Sonic's World will remain nameless,until Sega of Japan reveals it.
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Universal vs Nintendo
Universal Studios sued Nintendo because they stupidly believed that Donkey Kong was a illegal licenced King Kong game. Universal lost the case miserably for 2 reasons: 1,Nintendo didn't rip off the King Kong franchise. And 2, The King Kong franchise itself was Public Domain. So no copyrights were violated and Universal was forced to pay Nintendo millions of dollars in damages.
The day Nintendo one that case,was the day it became a recognizable company.
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Master System = Master Fail
Due to the bad fun factor of most of it's games,weak marketing,and having little to no 3rd party support,the Sega Master System failed in both America and Japan. You see,even with it's superior graphics and sound,the SMS failed to beat the NES.
However in Europe,it had a stronger following. In Brazil,the SMS was extremely popular. In fact,it's popularity among Brazilians is still alive today.
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When the Proto is the Final
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man is actually the Prototype. Ya see,Atari wanted to get this game out early,so instead of finishing the production quickly,they mass produced and released the Prototype instead.
That was really lazy.
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Kongs
Did you know that D.K.,the Donkey Kong that we know of is the Son of Donkey Kong Jr. So that would make D.K.'s Grandpa,Cranky,the original Donkey Kong.
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Worst.Atari Game.Ever!
Did you know that ET was the most hated Atari game ever. The gameplay was very crappy and the graphics(for an atari) were garbage.
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Not A Real Street Fighter
The NES Title,Street Figher 2010 isn't Even part of the Franchise. Despite being called Street Fighter. Ken Masters isn't even in the game,the protagonists name is Kevin and was only renamed Ken in the US version.
Why? Beats tbe hell out of me.
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The FF7 Petiotion of '96
In 1996,Fans of Final Fantasy heard about plans to bring Final Fantasy 7 to America,They were exited..However,they didn't want a repeat of Final Fantasy 2 (4 in jp) and,to some minor extent,Final Fantasy 3 [6 in jp].
So a large group of fans created a single petition (i think it was an online one,though i could be wrong) asking Square USA to be fair with the translation. They wanted the following things:
1 - Keep the Original Name
2 - Keep The Death Scenes and References to Death
3 - Keep the Violence intact..including Blood.
4 - Keep the Disterbing Scenes intact
5 - Don't Sugercoate the Villains..or the Heroes.
6 - Keep All Abillities and Weapons Intact.
7 - Keep The Dialouge close to the Original.
8 - Keep the Difficulty as is.
The Petition was a success and the Fans got most of the stuff they wanted. Interesting huh?
I hope you all enjoyed this long list of interesting facts. I'll make another list once I collected some more factoids.
Until Next Time,
Stay Gold,Space Cowboys.
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