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Angry Birds
Angry Birds (2009)
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During development, Rovio got the idea to make the enemies pigs because of the Swine Flu epidemic. The pig's sickly green color is a reference to this.
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Development, Inspiration
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 25, 2013
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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
subdirectory_arrow_right Donkey Kong Country (Game)
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In May 1995, an interview with series creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Rare co-founder Tim Stamper about the development of Donkey Kong Country (DKC) was published in the magazine Electronic Games, conducted by game journalist Steven L. Kent. Kent later claimed on an episode of G4's docuseries "Icons" that Miyamoto was angry during this interview, channelling it into bitter criticisms of DKC's gameplay and the Western market's praise of its pre-rendered graphics, and that Stamper "sat there and took it, even though really the anger wasn't meant to be at Stamper". Miyamoto clarified in a 2010 interview with IGN that he did like the game despite these rumored criticisms, and that he worked closely with Rare and Stamper during development.

Years after the interview's publication, Kent would print an alleged portion of a later interview with Miyamoto in his 2001 book "The Ultimate History of Video Games", claiming that the anger had stemmed from "touchy" internal discussions regarding Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The hand-drawn crayon art style of that game was said to be a result of the alleged anger over DKC's graphics causing him to rebel against Nintendo's internal evaluation committee, who wanted Yoshi's Island to use pre-rendered graphics. Part of the Miyamoto quote reads:

"In comparison with the graphics of [DKC], there was not enough punch to Yoshi's Island. That was what I was told by the marketing people. I intensified my hand-drawn touch on Yoshi's Island from the initial part of the program. Everybody else was saying that they wanted better hardware and more beautiful graphics instead of this art."

Yoshi's Island director Takashi Tezuka would deliver a less angered statement that may be related to these claims in a September 1995 interview with the magazine Dengeki Super Famicom. He claimed that the choice in art style was done for sentimental reasons, as the developers believed that all video games from that point on would likely utilize 3D graphics, and wanted Yoshi's Island to be a bow-out for 2D graphics:

"We deliberately chose not to go for realistic graphics like [DKC]: we wanted take a chance and do the opposite. Probably every game from here on out is going to look more like [DKC]… that being the case, we decided to go against the trend one last time and make something with a heartwarming, handmade visual style."
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Artwork/Illustration, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, Inspiration, Magazine, Rumor, Sprite/Graphical Animation, Suggested, Theory
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 25, 2013
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Electronic Games Issue #32 (Volume 3, Issue #8) - May 1995 (pages 48-52 in the magazine):
https://archive.org/details/electronic-games-1995-05/page/48/mode/1up

G4 "Icons" (Season 3, Episode 8) on Donkey Kong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2EOpDWKOrI#t=819s

"The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon–The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World" by Steven L. Kent (page 518 in the book):
https://retrocdn.net/images/9/9c/UltimateHistoryofVideoGames_Book_US.pdf

Dengeki Super Famicom 09/1995 developer interview [link and info provided by Rocko & Heffer]:
https://shmuplations.com/yoshi/

Original DidYouKnowGaming blog post:
http://didyouknowgaming.com/post/41895525229/yoshis-island-and-donkey-kong-country-source
God of War
God of War (2005)
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During development, the Cyclopes had visible penises. This matched up with other creatures having bare breasts and nipples. The reason behind this was the game's creator, David Jaffe, wanted the creatures to come across as wild animals.
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Development, Early Idea
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 25, 2013
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Pokémon Gold Version
Pokémon Gold Version (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Silver Version (Game)
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The original starting town in Gold and Silver was called "Silent Hills". It's not known why the location changed, but it could have been to avoid comparisons to the horror game Silent Hill, which was released during Gold and Silver's development.
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Development, Early Idea
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 25, 2013
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Mind Quiz
Mind Quiz (2006)
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Attachment Your Brain Coach was voluntarily pulled from stores in the United Kingdom after release due to complaints that the word "spastic" was triggered when a player didn't perform well. The game was never re-released, but is still sold with the European English language in Australia, as it isn't considered particularly offensive there.

A similar incident occurred with Mario Party 8 just one month later.
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Cancelled Release, Development, Regional Difference, Version Difference
person Dazz calendar_month February 25, 2013
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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)
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Attachment Concept Art for A Link to the Past shows Zelda in futuristic attire. The original Legend of Zelda was planned to be set in both the past and the future. This art could be an indication that Nintendo considered reusing the concept for A Link to the Past.
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Development, Early Idea
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 25, 2013
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The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
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According to Shigeru Miyamoto, once Nintendo had finished developing Twilight Princess, the team decided to have fun with the game and put Miis across Hyrule. It was their way of relaxing once the project was done.
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Development, General, Real Life
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Company: Capcom
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The word "Capcom" was created from taking the first 3 letters from each word in "Capsule Computers" (from the subsidiary Japan Capsule Computer Co).
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Development, Inspiration
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Company: Sega
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The word "SEGA" was created by taking the first two letters from each word in "Service Games", SEGA's original name.
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Development, Inspiration
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Franchise: The Legend of Zelda
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Princess Zelda was named after Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

When asked about the name, Miyamoto said, "Zelda was the name of the wife of the famous novelist Francis Scott Fitzgerald. She was a famous and beautiful woman from all accounts, and I liked the sound of her name. So I took the liberty of using her name for the very first Zelda title."
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Development, General, Inspiration, Real Life
person Petie calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
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Throughout Old Snake's character development, Hideo Kojima and his crew did extensive research to find out which mustache would work best for Old Snake. They settled for the mustache of Lee Van Cleef from the 1966 film "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". Additionally, ever since Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the team played around with the idea of Snake's facial hair growing in real time.
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Development, General, Inspiration
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Company: Nintendo
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HAL Laboratory, Inc. (a second-party developer known for creating Nintendo's Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series) named themselves "HAL" because each letter in "HAL" is one place ahead of each letter in "IBM", as if to say HAL were one step ahead of their competition.
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Development, Inspiration
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)
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Attachment In early versions of Majora's Mask, the moon had no face. This could be why some promotional art shows the moon with no face.
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Development, Early Idea
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993)
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Attachment Documents about Link's Awakening in the 2011 book "The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia" show an image with two characters fighting an enemy and a note next to it that reads "What're we gonna do about 1P mode?" suggesting the game was originally multiplayer.
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Development, Early Idea, Removed Feature, Unused Content
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Minecraft: Java Edition
Minecraft: Java Edition (2011)
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Minecraft was originally called "Cave Game".
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Development, Early Idea, Title
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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Super Metroid
Super Metroid (1994)
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Samus Aran's appearance in Super Metroid was based on the actress Kim Basinger.
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Character Design, Development, Inspiration, Real Life
person DidYouKnowGaming calendar_month February 24, 2013
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L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire (2011)
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Many of the cases in the game are inspired by real-life crimes that occurred in L.A. around 1947.
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Development, Inspiration
person Dazz calendar_month February 22, 2013
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L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire (2011)
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Attachment To create a realistic post-war Los Angeles, the developers of the game studied photographs taken from a biplane by Robert Spence in the 1920s.
The developers used the photographs to create traffic patterns and public transport routes in the game, as well as the location and condition of buildings
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Development, General, Inspiration, Real Life
person Dazz calendar_month February 22, 2013
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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)
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Kojima initially wanted Gray Fox to play the main role in the game, but made the decision to have Raiden take the main role instead. This was to allow the younger members of his team to take control of the game.
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Development, Early Idea
person Dazz calendar_month February 22, 2013
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
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Attachment During beta testing for Ocarina of Time, developers added an Arwing from the Star Fox series to the game to test enemy AI and Z-Targeting. While it was never actually used in the game, the code was never removed and can still be accessed via devices like GameShark and Action Replay.
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Development, Easter Egg, Reference, Secret, Unused Code, Unused Content, Unused Graphic
person Petie calendar_month February 16, 2013
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