- The Mii concept actually stretches back to an aborted Famicon Disk System game concept from the late 1980s. Unable to figure out how to make a game around the concept, the idea sat idle until work began on Stage Debut for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, and later on the GameCube. The project was eventually cancelled, but the character creation idea was retained and eventually built into the Mii system.
- Many believe that the title of the game Beyond Good & Evil is a reference to the Nietzsche book of the same name, but that was not the developer’s intention. The original title designer Michel Ancel wanted was Between Good & Evil, due to the heavy investigative nature of the game, but it was rejected by Ubisoft’s marketing department.
- Six different versions of Dead or Alive 2 were released for home consoles. The first release for the Dreamcast was a straight port of the arcade game. It was followed by the Japanese PS2 release, which added some extra content and fixed some bugs. That version then made its way back to the Dreamcast for the first Japanese release on the system. The second Dreamcast version was released as DOA2: Hardcore for the PS2 in the North American and PAL markets, which added a ton of extra material and fixed many bugs. The Japanese release of Hardcore added more bonus materials. The final version of the game was released as part of Dead or Alive Ultimate for the Xbox, which was a remake of Dead or Alive 2 on the Xtreme Beach Volleyball engine. It featured much better visuals, and a host of gameplay improvements (many inspired by Dead or Alive 3) and online play. Talk about milking.
- Controversial FMV game Night Trap was originally conceived as an interactive Nightmare on Elm Street game, but Hasbro (who was creating the game for ill-fated VHS game machine 'Nemo') was unable to secure the rights from New Line, so they wrote their own story.
- Kurtis Stryker, perhaps the least favourite character from the Mortal Kombat series, was originally planned to be in the first game. Focus testing indicated that players wanted a female combatant, so Stryker was dropped and replaced with Sonya Blade. The character was intended to be in Mortal Kombat II, but was redesigned into Jax. He eventually appeared in Mortal Kombat 3.
- Sewer Shark and Night Trap, shelved after the Nemo project was cancelled, were originally going to be released on the ill-fated Nintendo PlayStation (Tom Zito, the man behind the Nemo, had purchased the rights to the two games). When it became clear that the machine wasn't going to happen, the projects were redirected to the Sega CD.
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night already has five endings based on how you play through the game, but a sixth one was planned. Alucard would face off against Richter, but his magical gal pal Maria would also step in and transform into a giant demon. The ending was cut, but the voice files still exist on the disc.
- Nintendo flirted with motion control while designing the N64 controller. One particular design of the machine’s controller was a wrist-watch like device that reacted to player movement; however, it failed to catch on in focus groups.
- Leon S. Kennedy was originally planned to play the same role as Steve Burnside in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. However, due to the former’s popularity and the planned fate for the role, Capcom whipped up the character of Steve Burnside, who still looks a heck of a lot like Leon.
- Sony was originally planning to use a mascot character named "Polygonman" to promote the PlayStation at their first E3. The clear polygon character was dropped and Sony denies that the idea ever existed.
- Grand Theft Auto IV contains several references to fellow Rockstar Games title Bully. When Niko hands his resume to the lawyers (in the mission ‘Final Interview’) during his job interview, you’ll see that it says that Niko attended Bullworth University in England (Bully was set in Bullworth Academy, New England). The more direct reference is that players can find Jimmy Hopkins roaming around the Hove Beach Railway Station at certain times during the day. Jimmy’s appearance marks the only time you can kill a child in the series.
- Ms. Pac-Man was made in America, not in Japan by Namco or Toru Iwatani. Two MIT students, Doug McCrae and Kevin Curran had been making enhancement kits (think mods or romhacks) for arcade games. Their work got them in a bit of legal trouble with Atari, but after the lawsuit was settled, they took some of their work to Midway. The publishers, impatient with the wait for the Pac-Man sequel from Namco, bought the rights to McCrae and Curran’s Crazy Otto mod for Pac-Man and changed some of the sprites, creating Ms. Pac-Man in the process. Ms. Pac-Man’s existence is very rarely acknowledged by Namco, even though the rights were eventually transferred to the company after a legal dispute between McCrae/Curran and Midway.
- As part of their settlement with Atari, McCrae and Curran could pitch any game they wanted to the publisher for two years. Although Atari never actually expected them to submit anything, the pair's company General Computer Corporation ended up producing half the Atari 5200's library, and were responsible for the design of the Atari 7800 hardware. They now make laser printers.
- The director of the original Street Fighter, Takashi Nishiyama left Capcom after the completion of the game, and went to work for SNK, producing many of their fighting games in the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series. He left SNK in 2000 to form Dimps Corporation, who coincidentally handled development of Street Fighter IV.
- In 2001, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons for the Game Boy Color, two games which featured interconnected plots and interacted with each other. Originally, it was intended that there would be three games, collectively referred to as the Triforce series. The three games were to be The Legend of Zelda: Mysterious Seed of Power, Mysterious Seed of Wisdom, and Mysterious Seed of Courage. It became too difficult to get the three titles to interact, so they reduced the number to two. Mysterious Seed of Power became Oracle of Ages and Mysterious Seed of Wisdom became Oracle of Seasons, and the Mysterious Seed of Courage was cancelled.
- The NES appeared at the 1985 Consumer Electronics Show as the Advanced Video System (AVS). The design was a lot closer to a home computer than the final console, but kept a similar colour scheme. The response was negative.
- Hideo Kojima likes to treat his fans with little tidbits that connect many of his games together. For example, Dr. Madnar, the creator of the TX-55 Metal Gear and Metal Gear D is also, according to the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, the creator of the Snatchers, cyborg replicants from the game of the same name. Furthermore, Big Boss, whose body had to be rebuilt after the encounter with Snake at Outer Heaven, was fitted with prototype Snatcher parts.
- ToeJam and Earl are commonly thought of as being Sega characters, but the rights reverted to the ToeJam and Earl Productions, run by creators Greg Johnson and Mark Voorsanger, in 1995. At one stage, ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth was actually in development for the Nintendo 64, with GT Interactive publishing.
- Midway’s over the top FMV fighting game WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game was actually intended to have Mortal Kombat-style fatalities. Vince McMahon and company objected, and the idea was dropped, except for The Undertaker who still has one (and it kind of fits his old gimmick).
- Back in 1990, Sega of America spent millions of dollars getting star quarterback Joe Montana to endorse their football game. They ran into a major hurdle – the developer they contracted (Mediagenic, aka the original Activision) to produce the game wasn’t going to have it ready in time for the holiday season. The solution? They approached Electronic Arts to help them salvage the project. The game missed its Christmas deadline, and launched shortly after the first console-based Madden game.
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Miis had been in Nintendo’s boiling pot for nearly two decades
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