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October 13, 2023

One of the most tragic video game characters of all time is… a Pokemon? While it might seem unbelievable, it’s 100 percent true. More on that and 29 other little-known facts about legendary video games below…

30

Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64 was bundled with the N64 expansion pak because of a single bug. NINTENDO EXPANSION PAK DONKEY N OnlyFor INCLUDED! KONG64 - - - the Deeogram de - - Para E - .. DOLBY AVENUE G COLLECTOR'S EDITION YELLOW GAME PAK SURROUND PAL VERSION DONKEY NINTENDO IKONIC The mystery bug caused the game to crash randomly unless the pak was inserted. The game didn't really need the pak, but Rare convinced Nintendo to include it at great expense to fix that one stubborn bug. CRACKED.COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

29

CHUN-LI ALMOST WORE PANTS. 2012 2018 GOOD STREET FROMER Chun-Li was drawn with pants through most of her development process. Only at the last possible minute did artist Akira Yasuda change them to tights. (Не also gave her thick thighs because, well, he liked her that way and he could not lie.) CRACKED.COM — Capcom & Polygon

28

Hell is in... New Mexico? DOOK The game's first episode canonically happens in a moon of Mars, but the sky is a stock photo taken in Yangshuo, China. The sky graphics for episodes 2 and 3 come from Utah and the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, respectively. CRACKED.COM — decino on YouTube

27

... TELL US NOW. Chex Quest GRACKED Thomas C. says that, despite its humble origins as a prize that came in cereal boxes, it still ranks as a legendary early fps game. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

26

BEHIND-THE-SCENES SFACTS CUBONE'S FIRST INTRODUCTION WAS EVEN SADDER. CRACKED.COM Cubone has one of the more depressing backstories, often depicted wailing and alone, with the skull of its dead mother worn like a mask. This was more apparent with its original name Orphon, basically leaving nothing to the imagination. — Go Nintendo

25

GRACKED.COM The End COBRA UNIT DURING THE BOSS FIGHT WITH 'THE END' IN METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER, PLAYERS HAVE TWO OPTIONS IN DEFEATING HIM: 1. FIGHT HIM LIKE A MAN 2. SAVE THE GAME, STOP PLAYING FOR TWO WEEKS AND WATCH HIM DIE OF OLD AGE — 21 Easter Eggs In Classic Video Games

24

SUPER MARIO The Chain Chomp monsters in Mario games + are based on a dog. When Shigeru Miyamoto was a child, his neighbor had a chained dog who constantly barked. + CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

23

Dwarf Fortress and its ridiculously detailed combat system. Notable KEEPS Ubest U.S. anowl the + 179 de the GPP at he more HD Musc Rathe epe 179 11 et 179 un COUE Then DP de 79 77 an 179 - ... ava до eacho 179 - 172 DOG 2 179 anec dorn 179 79 evo Pr LAST nou 179 1 79 Carac da o 173 - FC hem US D 179 da 179 Re 21 11 179 Ret ПЕР 17 D ru dereo the ног Der aned the goblin DINE ... LVI 179 . 179 be de 179 smot abli — Dwarf Fortress Wiki

22

30 Facts About Famous Video Games — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

21

Sonic the Hedgehog was initially a rabbit. Developer Yuji Naka wanted to give the character a somersault attack, but later figured that it'd make zero sense for a rabbit to do so with its long ears, because it'd hurt itself while doing the attack. CRACKED.COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

20

RYU AND KEN ARE EXACTLY THE SAME ... BUT KEN IS STRONGER. 22501 NIN 50000 2P 1670 KO KEN RYU 91 STREET FIGHTER While making Street Fighter II, developers kept going back and forth about increasing the characters' vulnerability after doing a Shoryuken. They ended up deciding against it - except that they forgot to change Ryu's code. CRACKED.COM — Polygon

19

Doom was originally more ambitious than the game we got. DOOM The initial Doom Bible (written by developer Tom Hall) describes a game with several named characters, an elaborate gameplay, and an ongoing storyline told with cinematics. Most of the features were never implemented, basically because they had to release the game at some point. CRACKED.COM — Doomworld & The Doom Bible (via Doomworld)

18

... TELL US NOW. Those 7 Up games GRACKED A lot of people brought up that 7 Up game, but only Joseph N. knew about Spot, (an Othello-style game) and Cool Spot, (a beach-like adventure). Sadly, no one mentioned Spot Goes to Hollywood. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

17

ASTEROIDS Spacewar is just like Asteroids, only better- + and it came first. Spacewar was a two-player game where you could shoot the other player, there was a black hole in the middle of the screen, and the star field was based on actual star fields. Asteroids: 1979. Spacewar: 1962. CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

16

THE TREES IN DIABLO 3 ARE MADE OF FLAT PLANES. Front View Side View Each section is painted with great detail, assembled and strategically placed to give the illusion of the real thing when viewed from the right angle. This trick made the trees look incredibly realistic without being very technically demanding. CRACKED.COM — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

15

Stardew Valley

CRACKED COM STARDEW VALLEY began as a C# exercise. Computer science graduate Eric ConcernedApe Barone wanted to improve his coding skill after his job applications got turned down. So he decided to create a Harvest Moon clone as a coding exercise, and ended up creating a hit indie game. — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

14

MAKING STREET FIGHTER II COST ABOUT $2.45 MILLION. 3701 1P Zamolas 99 It was the most expensive game Сарсот had made up to that point, with about 35 people (half of them artists) working on it for nearly a year. It paid off, though, as the game was a huge hit, both in Japan and overseas. CRACKED.COM — Polygon

13

... TELL US NOW. Final Fantasy XV u know something? Going through all that trouble to ade me appreciate Cup Noodles even more GRACKED Lex т. says the whole Cup Noodle side saga sticks out in randomness that completely derails the tone of the rest of the game. In my household we still quote the characters talking about the benefits of Cup Noodles. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

12

SUPER MARIO (ETC.) Mario's mushrooms look like hallucinatory Amanita + Muscaria mushrooms. Developers needed a way to make Mario fit into the game environment properly, so they picked mushrooms. They claim the resemblance to the psychedelic shrooms is coincidental. CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

11

30 Facts About Famous Video Games — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

10

Scott Cawthon created Five Nights at Freddy's animatronic mascots after his previous game was mocked for being inadvertently terrifying. LB PN Cawthon developed a kid's video game called Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. that featured a beaver that many critics labeled: a scary animatronic. This got him to question his career path before ultimately saying, you want something scary? I'll give you scary. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

THEY WOULD JUST THROW IN WHATEVER WILD THING THEY COULD THINK OF. The creators competed to come up with outlandish ideas, and lead designer Akira Nishitani would just OK everything. I didn't want to discourage their creativity, he said in 2014. These days, as the president of a company, I can't be as irresponsible as I was back then. STREET FRIGHTER CRACKED.COM — Polygon

8

... TELL US NOW. Yakuza Possession Quit AXE Fragrance BOSS RAINBOW MOUNTAIN BLEND BOSS ZEITAKUBITO BLACK BOSS SUNTORY OOLONG TEA CRACKED ONO TEA Liam R. says this entire franchise takes the cake: It literally has dozens of actual stores and items. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

7

GRAND THEFT AUTO Grand Theft Auto was inspired by a bug in + another game. Race'n'Chase Game Design Version 1.05 March 22. 1995 с 1995 DMA Design Ltd Rockstar released a driving game called Race'n'Chase, and early testers panned it until they found a glitch. It + was a bug that caused the police to try to run players off the road. So instead of running missions, players screwed around while the police tried to run them off the road. And GTA was born. CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

6

Iracing(not an Apple product) is an online auto-racing simulator. The racetracks were recreated for the game by using a 3D laser scanner on the actual tracks. So, the game experience replicates all the cracks, rough spots and undulations of the real world counterpart. 14 CRACKED.COM — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

5

STARCRAFT During development Blizzard had trouble keeping the harvesting units from bunching up together like L.A. traffic because of their pathfinding. 0 of 100 Oas 22/26 counter Decivated Terran Refinery NU Veapene der 4992 700/750 Their good enough fix was to make harvesters the only units in the game that can walk through other units. CRACKED COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

4

... TELL US NOW. Lego Island MAND FREE Comic 2374 ook Inside GRACKED Timm C. says Big Brick is shoving Legos down our throats: Feel like Lego Island was really pushing Legos. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

3

CRACKED.COM WORLD WARCRAFT WORLD OF WARCRAFT DEVELOPERS USED INVISIBLE, UN-TARGETABLE BUNNY RABBITS AS TARGETS FOR BOSS ONYXIA TO ATTACK DURING FIGHTS AGAINST HER. Think ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND... WHILE YOU WERE BUSY TRYING TO DEFEAT THIS INSANE BOSS, SHE WAS PROGRAMMED TO NOT EVEN ATTACK YOU; JUST LITTLE BUNNIES YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WERE THERE... BUT YOU STILL MANAGED TO DIE — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

2

Axton from Borderlands 2 is bisexual thanks to a code screw up. When playing as Axton and reviving another player, there's a chance a flirtatious dialogue will trigger. This was only supposed to happen when reviving female characters, however, a coding mistake resulted in him flirting with male ones as well. After people voiced their disappointment that it was just a mistake, the writers officially made Axton bisexual in the DLC. GRACKED COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

1

Released in 1984, the original Elite game boasted 2048 unique planetary systems; an incredible feat in itself. Front View When you consider that the game only required 20kb of disk space, it becomes downright unbelievable. So how was it done? The only data stored were the three base numbers from which each system was generated. The individual characteristics were created on the fly each time, but consistently, SO the universe would always be the same for every player. CRACKED.COM — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

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