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31 Surprising Facts About Iconic Video Game Franchises

By:: Timon DJ Spajic; Cracked Writers

December 08, 2023

31 Surprising Facts About Iconic Video Game Franchises

Have you ever wondered how the Final Fantasy franchise got its name and what it means? Turns out, it’s mainly called that because the creator thought it would be the studio’s final game. More on that and 30 other bonkers facts about iconic video games below…

31

DIDDY KONG RACING PLAYER SELECT 1 CRACKED.COM 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 assets were changed to the more familiar Diddy Kong. — Nintendo Life

30

REVEAL OF A CLOSE RELATION IS FORESHADOWED IN FINAL FANTASY V. Greetings, am Siren. I'm afraid your companions' souls now belong to me. CRACKED.COM When the Siren uses visions of loved ones to trick her victims, both Lenna and Faris see King Tycoon, foreshadowing the reveal that they are in fact sisters. — The Female Gaze

29

CRACKED COM EVER WONDERED HOW THE PIZZA IZZA •Hello! Mach Pizza delivery! DELIVERY MAN IN EARTHBOUND Here is your pizza pie, sir. ALWAYS MANAGES TO GET TO YOU? Не has his own BUS STOP pathfinding algorithm. Не moves like a real character, with the ability to solve almost any maze to get to the player without running into dead ends. This type of programming was pretty incredible in 1994 and yet it wasn't used for any enemies, only one NPC: the pizza man. — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

28

The brown-on-blue color scheme in the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was a result of the company having a rule against black backgrounds for non-space games. 396 SHARP KAD-M may CONDETTE - Programmer Tod Frye later said if CRACKED.COM he had known how important a blue maze on a black background was to Pac-Man's iconicity, he would have broken that rule. — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

27

CRACKED.COM BLANKA TOOK A WHILE TO BE GREEN. STREET FIGHTER The electric Brazilian was more naturally colored at first, which looked weird. With each iteration, each character got more and more vivid colors - with Blanka finally becoming the green beast we all know and love. — Capcom

26

Princess Zelda was named after a wealthy Alabamian. CRACKED.COM Miyamoto named her after Zelda Fitzgerald -- novelist, daughter of a state Supreme Court Justice, and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. — 14 Behind-The-Scenes Zelda Facts

25

Doom's music was inspired by metal groups of the time. Such a metal game concept needed an appropriately metal soundtrack. Developer John Romero gave composer Robert Prince some Black Sabbath tapes to take inspiration from, and Prince also took cues from Alice in Chains, Slayer, Soundgarden, and others. DOOM CRACKED.COM — Doom Wiki & DoomWiki.org

24

Atari made a dump in the desert because their games sucked so hard. ATARI 2600 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL CRACKED.COM The three-decade gaming rumor was confirmed in 2014: unsold copies of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial were jammed into a hole in the middle of a New Mexico desert. — CNET

23

... TELL US NOW. Alan Wake B Pick up batteries A Energizer CRACKED Graham J. says they made the notoriously unreliable flashlight run on Energizer batteries, which was pretty blatant if also mildly confusing. — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

22

BEHIND-THE-SCENESPACTS THE SERIES WAS INSPIRED BY BUG COLLECTING. GRACKED.COM As a child, Pokémon's creator Satoshi Tajiri was so enamored by bug collecting he wanted to become an entomologist, before ultimately finding his love of video games. The idea behind the Pokémon games is a marriage of these two loves. — VOX

21

Mega Man CRACKED.COM Because the Japanese-to-English translation of his name doesn't distinguish between an L or R sound, Dr. Thomas Light is alternately known as Dr. Right and Dr. Wright in various games and manuals. — 15 Video Games That Had To Change Bizarre Details (In Different Countries)

20

CRACKED.COM RETIVISION Start O Select Interact LE Previeus Géme et Next Eams Exit IN BLACK OPS II, NUKETOWN MAP, IF YOU SHOOT DOWN ALL THE MANNEQUINS® HEAD IN UNDER 1 MINUTE AND 30 SECONDS, WALK OVER TO THE LARGE TV IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAP. FROM THERE, YOU CAN PLAY ACTIVISION'S CLASSICS LIKE PITFALL, H.E.R.O,, RIVER RAID AND KABOOM! — 21 Easter Eggs In Classic Video Games

19

KIRBY Kirby was a placeholder for a to-be-designed + character. Game designer Masahiro Sakurai dropped a circle into his game as he was designing it, figuring he'd flesh out the character later. Eventually he decided he liked the little sphere as-is, and added a few little details to give it personality. CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

18

The Getaway gives you a minute to chill. CRACKED.COM This open world action-adventure game inspired by British gangster films is fairly grounded, allowing your character to heal by doing something we're all familiar with: leaning up against a wall until you can catch your breath. Sure, gunshot wounds miraculously closing up because you're taking a 5 second breather aren't super realistic, but we can forgive that. — IGN

17

SUPER SMASH BROS. LUIGI MARIO DK LINK SAMUS C.FALCON NESS YOSHI KIRBY FOX PIKACHU JIGGLYPUFF 1PHMT 2PHN 3PHMN 4 HMN CRACKED COM 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 added Mario, Link and Samus anyway, Nintendo liked the demo so much they granted them permission to use the characters. — Nintendo

16

A PAINTING GIVES AWAY THE FATE OF THE JOKER IN BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY. JOKER THE CRACKED.COM Playing as Catwoman, you crack a safe that sits behind a painting titled Cain and Abel: The Duality of Man. Later in the game, Batman carries the Joker in the same manner, punctuating the twisted, good and evil, brotherly relationship between them. — 6 Brilliant Clues Hidden in the Background of Video Games

15

31 Surprising Facts About Iconic Video Game Franchises — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

14

L M Originally, Mario and Luigi were identical twins When Luigi was introduced in Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. his character was just the same as Mario, but green. L The Luigi we all love exists only because of the Super Mario Bros. 2 U.S. release, which was actually a reskin of an Arabian-inspired game called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Luigi was redesigned to replace the tall, lightfooted Mama character from the original Japanese title. GRACKED.COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

13

ZANGIEF WAS AT FIRST CALLED VODKA GOBALSKY. ещается смотрет STREET ВНИМ. FRIGHTER ННЕ! According to Akira Nishitani, that was only a placeholder name, and wasn't intended to make it to the finished game. We don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. CRACKED.COM — Insert Credit (via archive.org)

12

Doom exists partly thanks to the U.S. Air Force. DOOM If Doom can run on anything today, it's because it was optimized for PCs not really intended for anything more graphics-intensive than a spreadsheet. To achieve this, John Carmack used software techniques developed by the USAF in the '60s for flight simulators. CRACKED.COM — Ars Technica

11

A World of Warcraft disease helped map real-world pandemics. Warrior Hurtz Olive Stop dow in igon Elit Volt 29 m 76% 90% 77% 60 adidas - - FLUP - Numsia yekeeper Corrupted Blood Happy ded Mind Via startie a GAL Cooper Deals 263 to 337 damage every 2 sec. Spreads to nearby allies. rohmyn on Kings Shekels Emmetjmcfly <Dark Honor <Tirass CRACKED.COM Corrupted Blood became an epidemic within World of Warcraft. Scientists were able to study the behaviors of affected players, and used the data during COVID quarantine. — Washington Post

10

... TELL US NOW. Burnout Paradise EARLY HAS BEGUN VOTEFORCHANGE.COM CRACKED ATL Andrew В. recalls the controversy that erupted when they actually sold ad space to a political campaign. I think it was Obama-Biden 2012? — Tell Us Now: 20 Blatant Examples Of Product Placement In Video Games

9

BEHIND-THE-SCENESFACTS THE DRAGON TYPE WAS SEVERELY UNDERPOWERED. CRACKED.COM Despite characters remarking on their fearsome strength, the Dragon type was only given one offensive move, Dragon Rage, which could only do a set amount of damage-a paltry 40 HP. — Bulbapedia

8

Starfox CRACKED.COM Quick: say Starfox in a German accent. You just said the name of German company StarVox. Instead of delaying launch trying to get legal permission, they just called Starfox and Starfox 64 Starwing and The Lylat Wars in Europe. — 15 Video Games That Had To Change Bizarre Details (In Different Countries)

7

CRACKED.COM Jason - Lvl 47 Jason Voorhees, of Friday the 13th, can be found in the jungle of Dead Island. — 21 Easter Eggs In Classic Video Games

6

FINAL FANTASY Final Fantasy got its name because its creator + figured he was done. Square was out of money after a + string of unsuccessful games. Hironobu Sakaguchi chose the name Final Fantasy because he thought it would be his last game. CRACKED.COM — 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

5

Rock Paper Shotgun

4

PERFECT DARK Position Image er ightness OK CRACKED.COM 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 to follow. — 5 Classic Video Games That Were Almost Hilariously Different

3

A TRANSLATION IN GOLDEN SUN: THE LOST AGE HINTS AT FUTURE EVENTS. Listen, this is Felix's quest now... We're just doing what we can to help out FF CRACKED.COM Towards the late game, the player's party is joined by the characters from the original Golden Sun. This joining-of-forces happens in the town of Contigo, which is Spanish for with you. — YouTube

2

CRACKED COM GOOMBAS IN SUPER MARIO BROS. WERE A LAST MINUTE ADDITION TO THE GAME... MEANING THEY had BARELY ANY STORAGE LEFT TO INCLUDE THEM To RESOLVE THIS, DEVELOPERS USED A SINGLE IMAGE THAT IS FLIPPED BACK AND FORTH HORIZONTALLY TO CREATE THE ILLUSION THAT THE GOOMBA IS WALKING. — 31 Design Tricks Behind Famous Video Games (You Can't Unsee)

1

Sonic the Hedgehog can't swim because Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic, assumed that hedgehogs can't swim. TIME 2:15 RINGS 1 He's wrong. CRACKED.COM — 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

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