27 Really Unlucky ‘Wrong Place, Wrong Time’ Situations

Rob McElhenney Posts Touching Tribute to Late ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Costar Lynne Marie Stewart

This Chevy Chase/Michael O’Donoghue Movie Could Have Been Most Offensive of All Time

20 Characters Who Would Make the Best ‘Odd Couple’

Here’s Rob McElhenney's Remarkably Eclectic Mount Rushmore of Sitcoms

16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

"Mrs. Puck-Man" doesn't sound like a game for children.

16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

January 26, 2021

Ah yes, who can forget their favorite childhood games like Puck-Man, Virus, and Race'n'Chase? Most great art goes through many stages between inspiration and final product; in the case of video games, it's usually over whether or not to shove in Mario to move a couple more units.

16

SPLATOON CRACKEDCE Splatoon was going to feature familiar faces from the Mario games before Miyamoto settled on creating new characters, the Inklings, for the company's first foray into the competitive shooter genre. — Source: Gamespot

15

HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED CRACKED Halo: Combat Evolved was almost a top-down, real time strategy game, a la Starcraft. It wasn't until Microsoft bought the developing studio, Bungie, and launched Halo as their flagship XBox title that it became the first person shooter we know. — Source: 6 Baffling Early Prototypes of Your Favorite Video Games

14

MORTAL KOMBAT CHOOSE YOUR FICHTER FREE PLAY CRACKED cO Mortal Kombat was originally supposed to star Jean-Claude Van Damme, who would fight a cadre of digitized enemies. When Midway Games couldn't afford the rights to Van Damme's likeness, his character was renamed Johnny Cage and joined the lineup of other fighters. — Source: 6 Baffling Early Prototypes of Your Favorite Video Games

13

Pac-Man

PAC-MAN D F\B-MAW READY! C CRACKEDo Pac-Man was originally titled Puck-Man, based off of the character's disk-like shape, but the creators feared the impish Americans would turn the P into an F on arcade cabinets. — Source: CNN

12

HALF-LIFE CRACKED c COM The early prototype for Half-Life's protagonist was a burly-bearded, strung out looking mad-man nicknamed by the designers as Ivan the Space Biker. As game production advanced, they changed Ivan into Gordon Freeman, with his iconic goatee and glasses. — Source: 5 Classic Video Games That Were Almost Hilariously Different

11

SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 ORACKED COM Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally more similar to the first game, although much harder. So hard, in fact, that developers didn't think Americans could play it, so they reskinned the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic with familiar Mario characters. — Source: 6 Baffling Early Prototypes of Your Favorite Video Games

10

GOLDENEYE 007 5 I 148 CRACKEDcO COM Since the team working on Goldeneye 007 was inexperienced and stretched thin, the game was initially intended to be a simple rail-shooter, lacking the immensely popular 4-person multiplayer that eventually made the game a bestseller on the Nintendo64. — Source: Nintendo Everything

9

GRAND THEFT AUTO Grand Theft Auto, originally titled Race'n'chase, struggled to find its identity during development. The game first gave players the option to play as law enforcing police, but after realizing playing as a criminal was more fun, they decided to lean into the mayhem the series became — Source: Gamesradar

8

POKEMON CRYSTAL Nintendo Peremoy L 000000 catch emalll Grotta an BOY. Pxh TRAINER RED INEDTS to bAtle CRACKEDCO The AME Pokemon series was planned to end with Pokemon Gold and Silver, fighting your way back through the first game's gyms and using the original protagonist as the final boss was — Source: Nintendo

7

DOOM AIEN S PEARERR 100% 100% SG CRACKED COM AMMD HEAltH ARME AM0r The original Doom game was based off of James Cameron's Aliens, where you would presumably fight waves of dangerous Xenomorphs. When negotiations between the developers and 20th Century Fox deteriorated, the setting of the game was changed from space — Source: Ranker

6

DR. MARIO DR MARIO DrMARIO TOP 0010000 SCORE 0003400 LEVEL 10 SPEED MED CRAGKEDcO Dr. Mario was titled Virus and did not feature the hirsute Italian in its first incarnation. Trying to recreate the success of Tetris, Nintendo needed to use their strongest IP to sell this new puzzle game, — Source: Portable Press

5

DONKEY KONG 1UD HIGH SCORE 2UP 000100 9 L-o ONUS E E Donkey Kong was made to be a Popeye the Sailor game, featuring Bluto, Olive Oil, and the titular Popeye. When Nintendo could not secure the rights, they settled on a King Kong inspired aesthetic with a mustached — Source: Gamasutra

4

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM PERFECT CRACKED Batman: Arkham Asylum was going to turn into a colorful, 2D rhythm game whenever a fight would start. Developers said they wanted the fights to feel choreographed but with the player in complete control, which isn't so different froM how the final game turned out, — Source: 6 Baffling Early Prototypes of Your Favorite Video Games

3

DIDDY KONG RACING PLAYER SELECT CRACKED When game studio Rare needed more time to develop Banjo-Kazooie to compete with Super Mario 64, they pushed the generic title Pro-Am 64 for a Christmas release. There were concerns the IP wasn't strong enough and may hurt sales, sO at the last minute — Source: Nintendo Life

2

SUPER SMASH BROS. LUIGI MARIO DK LINK SAMUS C.FALGON NESS YOSHI KIRBY FOX PIKACHU JIGGLYPUFF 09 HMN 2 HMIN 3 HMN HMN CRACKED Super Smash Bros. was pitched as a 4-player brawler, but Nintendo did not initially want their licensed characters to appear. After the small team of developers — Source: Nintendo

1

PERFECT DARK T 10oo mae Br ightnes K CRACKED cO Perfect Dark was to have a face-mapping feature that enabled players to change the appearance of enemies into that of family and friends using their GameBoy Camera. Insurmountable technical difficulties caused the feature to be scrapped; that, or the eventual lawsuits sure — Source: 5 Classic Video Games That Were Almost Hilariously Different

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Trivia & Jokes

51 of the Funniest Tweets from the Week of February 17, 2025

Movies & TV

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia We’ve Kept Stashed Under Our Mattress Just Like Our Grandpappy

Trivia & Jokes

40 Inspirational Bits of Trivia to Declare Confidently in the Locker Room When You’re Down 34 Points at Half Time and the Cheerleaders Have Started Cheering for the Other Team

Movies & TV

5 Imaginary Books That Became Real

Movies & TV

40 Random Bits of Pop-Culture Trivia That Have Been Up Since Christmas, But We Don’t Have the Heart to Pack Them Away Yet

Trivia & Jokes

26 Wild Sights People Spotted on Google Street View

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

The Filmmakers Who Want You to Remember What Louis C.K. Did

2

13 Godawful Ad Campaigns (That Actually Worked)

3

51 of the Funniest Tweets from the Week of February 17, 2025

4

5 Famous Roles Obviously Written For A Different Actor

5

17 Lies Celebs Told That People Forget