Obscure Game Trivia

[Nitro Indigo]

I'm pretty sure this is correct, but you know the original Spyro? Frodo Baggins voiced him. Pretty weird, right?

He was only voiced by Elijah Wood in the Legend trilogy.

Not trivia, but something that's always confused me: Sierra's logo is at the start of every Legend of Spyro game, and the small print on the discs say that they held the rights to the IP at the time, but they're known for point-and-click adventure games, and I've heard some people say that Activision bought Spyro in 2006.

Actual trivia: Quickie from Tales of Eternia makes a cameo in the Jungle Slider stage in Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

Natsume's localization quality check is so awful, they once misspelled their own name on the Harvest Moon 64 title screen. Things weren't even that bad then.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

The second Break the Targets level in Super Smash Brothers Brawl actually uses part of the level geometry for one of the Subspace Emissary levels. You can tell because one of the passageways for the level can be seen off to the side if you move the camera beyond normal boundaries.

In Sonic Adventure 2 (and perhaps other games, but SA2's the only one I've seen proof of), in game cutscenes are rendered in a fully 3D space. This means that, if you have some way to manipulate the camera, then you can move it around the area the cutscene takes place in, and view it from different angles. Pre-rendered cutscenes however, are shown on a 2D plane... That is rendered in a fully 3D space. This means that if you have some way to manipulate the camera, you can move around in the black, 3D void it takes place in, while the 2D plane with the cutscene on it plays out in its original location and orientation.

Speaking of Brawl, it turns out it also plays cutscenes in this manner

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

The late actor Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda, after the iconic video game character.

Richard Garriott, creator of the legendary Ultima series, designed his first game, Akalabeth: World of Doom, starting when he was still in high school for the Apple II computer, and was officially completed when Garriott graduated HS in the summer of 1979. Akalabeth would become one of the first computer role-playing video games ever made.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Bowser is based on Kuzenbo, the king kappa in Japanese mythology.

In SMITE, Kuzenbo's voice actor is Mike Pollock, the current voice of Eggman in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

In the original Crash Bandicoot game (maybe others, I'm not terribly certain), Crash has a unique model for use while he's spinning. Even today, most games would save time and effort by simply spinning the character's standard model at high speeds, but Naughty Dog actually took the time to create a fully unique model that you'd probably never get a good look at for how fast the spin is.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

In Smite, Zhong Kui has not received any new skins since summer 2015.

 

[winstein]

I found it interesting that the artist of the art direction for Super Bomberman R, which is radically different from the past installments, is provided by the same person who did Puyo Puyo Fever.


View: https://twitter.com/GoldMetalSonic/status/856193979632758784

It should be noted that Puyo Puyo Fever's art style evolves over time, but the foundation is set in this game. If Bomberman gets a sequel, hopefully the style could evolve similarly.

Thank you for reading.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

Cut Man was supposed to be the actual protagonist to the Rockman franchise and he was the first robot created for the game, even before Rock and Roll. The game was supposed to involve getting through levels using the scissors on his head. For some reason they changed the format and he ended up being a boss character.

 

[Blockhead Pippi]

Banjo-Kazooie was originally conceived as a RPG called Dream: Land of Giants, which instead of starring a bear and a bird, featured a human protagonist named Edison. The game's antagonist was supposed to be a pirate named Captain Blackeye. Although nearly everything about Dream was scrapped, Captain Blackeye makes a cameo in a portrait in Banjo-Kazooie's Mad Monster Mansion, and as a NPC in Banjo-Tooie's Jolly Rodgers Lagoon. He's quoted as saying "Once, I had a dream..."

Also as a side observation, Edison looks like Crono from Chrono Trigger... Wonder if that was intentional. Hmm.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Most people already know that Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were originally supposed to be one game, but split into 2 due to time constraints, but this decision also caused a change in stage order. Originally, Flying Battery was intended to come after Carnival Night, with the cannon shooting you to the airship, and the door you blow off at the end used as the snowboard at the beginning of Ice Cap. Splitting the game forced them to change the order though, to make the games more even in size with Launch Base as the final Zone of Sonic 3 (it would have been Zone 7 in the original order), it also got them out of having to think up a Mushroom Hill -> Sandopolis stage transition.

Another little Sonic 3 trivia: if you transform into Super Sonic while underwater in Launch Base, Sonic's palette will briefly flash to resemble Shadow. It was probably a huge coincidence, but it's fun little tidbit.

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