In the city set of Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker, a fried chicken store titled "Chick N' Chunks" can be seen. This is not the name of any one location from any Nickelodeon series, but its branding is reminiscent of the Chokey Chicken restaurant from Rocko's Modern Life, a connection further supported by Filburt and Dr. Hutchison's trailer home appearing on the same map.
In Season 4 of Rocko's Modern Life, released the same year as Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker, the Chokey Chicken was renamed "Chewy Chicken" due to the original name's sexual slang meaning, meaning that Chick N' Chunks may have been an alternate censorship of the "Chokey Chicken" name.
Rocko's Modern Life Season 1 Episode 10B "Trash-O-Madness". Pilot version featured on the Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 DVD. The punching clip is featured in the pilot version of the intro, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsQxnOMGZFg
In the Limited Edition ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Box Set for PS3, an art book titled 'Shinwa wo Tsumugu' is included. It features some interviews with members of Team ICO and among them is Junichi Hosono, who claims Ueda derived Yorda's name from the character of Hilda in the Toei film, "Horus: Prince of the Sun".
This is somewhat corroborated by the movie's presence on Ueda's shelf, which is shown in this same art book.
Hilda's character traits and arc are very different from that of Yorda, but her dynamic between the valiant Horus and the ice devil Grunwald seemed to serve as a heavy inspiration for ICO's narrative.
In a Japan-exclusive Shogakukan Wonder Life Special guidebook authored by Nintendo and Ape Inc., there is artwork depicting Link praying before a Crucifix, contrasting the game's origin story of the three Golden Goddesses, but also fitting with the Japanese version of the game calling the Sanctuary a Church. The Church's name was changed to the Sanctuary outside of Japan, presumably due to Nintendo's international policy on religious imagery, although this artwork and the rest featured in this guidebook were never republished internationally as other publishers released their own guides instead.
Many locations in Isle Delfino feature a series of swirl-shaped glyphs. While seemingly unreadable to the average player, these symbols are actually a cipher for the Latin alphabet. Consequently, most instances of them can be decoded to generate coherent messages:
• The sign on the Sand Cabana in Gelato Beach reads "BAR GELATO". • The sign above the entrance to Pinna Park reads "PARCO", the Italian word for "park." • The sign on Pinna Park's pendulum ships ride reads "VIKING". • The Isle Delfino guide book's preview image for Noki Bay features symbols in the corners that read "NOKI" when read in the following order: top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right. • The flag atop the orange dome in Noki Bay reads "MARE VILLAGE", the location's Japanese name.
In some instances, however, the translation does not produce actual words or sentences:
• The wall paintings throughout Noki Bay feature various nonsense combinations of letters, with some featuring just one. • The stone trimmings in various parts of Noki Bay simply repeat the alphabet from A to Z. • In the international release, the game's signboards read "RZTU BOD TVR". Of note is that this is a replacement for English placeholder text that was featured in the Japanese version. The placeholder text is taken from a dictionary, with some portions inexplicably removed. The unaltered text reads "This isn't gonna hurt a bit. Just a little stick. Ready? 1...2...3. There you go. All done," while the text that appears in-game reads "This isn't gonna Just a little stick. Ready? 1...2...3. There you All do."
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On Tuesdays, Jelfonzo will wear a shirt that has a lip design with a message in the Inklings' language on it. It would take 5 years after the game's release for this message to be translated into English from the Round script variant of the Inklings' language, revealing that it reads "FUCK YOU". The game's art book "The Art of Splatoon 2" features early concept art for the shirt where it was originally titled the "Rounded You Suck Shirt", which translated to English through the Bubble script variant reveals that it does indeed say "YOU SUCK".
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The game uses mist overlays during the "Man's Nut" shower scene to cover up Mahiru and Hiyoko, but the base image is more revealing, including drawn nipples for Mahiru.
The Sega Saturn version of the game contains hidden files that can only be accessed when loading the game disc on a PC. 15 pieces of character artwork and a text document containing messages from 13 of the Saturn version's developers including graphic artists, members of the sound team, and programmers can be found. The messages contain insights about their duties, goals and struggles in porting the game from the PlayStation to the inferior Saturn, with several members of the staff having just entered the video game industry and joined Konami prior to work starting on the port. Collectively, they had mixed to positive feelings about the final result, with most being happy with their work, while others feeling they had failed to live up to the PlayStation version. Regardless, much of the staff thanked players for playing the game and encouraged them to mail feedback to them at Konami.
Two notable details from these messages include:
•A story/rant shared by programmer Hideto Imai in the last and longest message about his experience in violating Japan's Motor Vehicle Storage Act by parking his car curbside while staying at his in-laws during development.
•A scrapped character idea shared by graphic designer Yoshinori Suzuki:
"There's actually another version of Maria with a full set of graphics different from the one the player meets in the actual game. It ended up going unused. It might've been neat if she had been used, though. Because she was a dark version of Maria, the opposite to the light version of Maria, her attacks and such would have been entirely different. Go ahead and imagine for yourselves what she might have been like. (Perhaps, if she'd appeared in the game, she'd have been called Black Maria?)"
In an interview with the game's producer/writer Hiroyuki Takahashi and director/programmer Shugo Takahashi published in the 6/93 Famicom Tsuushin magazine, they stated that they asked Fumio Iida a.k.a. Suezen, the character designer for NHK’s anime "Yadamon", to be the character designer for the game. When Suezen finished his work on Shining Force II, Takahashi felt Suezen’s designs were better than he expected and almost felt embarrassed, because he felt the designs made the story and writing look weak by comparison.
A game based on the critically reviled, but at the time still in production, animated film "Foodfight!" got far enough into development that it received a playable demo at Take Two Interactive's booth at E3 2006. According to the marquee above the demo booth, it was scheduled to be released in Spring 2007 to coincide with the film's planned release at the time. Due to numerous production issues and distribution setbacks, the film would not see a release until 2012, but the game would never be seen again. The only known evidence of its existence is a short 8-second piece of B-roll footage captured on the E3 show floor, and saved by the now-defunct Quake fan website PlanetQuake4.net.
The game was initially developed by Midway Games West in 2001, when the film was in an earlier iteration, but aside from some released concept art, this version of the game was abandoned. The game shown at E3 2006 would have been a 3D platformer starring Dex Dogtective, and possibly would have featured voice work from at least some of the film's cast including Charlie Sheen (the voice of Dex), Eva Longoria, Hillary Duff and Wayne Brady. At this stage, it was expected to be published by Global Star Software (which would later be absorbed into 2K Games in late 2007) and released for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, and PlayStation 2. It's not known who would have developed it. While the marquee showcases the logo for the development company Vicious Cycle, reported correspondence with a developer from the company claimed Vicious Cycle never had any involvement with the game.
Throughout the game, Theo frequently takes pictures of his trek for his "Instapix" (in-game replacement for Instagram) account called "TheoUnderStars". Ten months prior to the game's release, an actual Instagram account under this handle was created that posted pictures between April 4, 2017, and September 9, 2019, the release date of the Farewell DLC chapter. The account features artwork by concept artist Amora Bettany that took place before, during, and after the events of the game.
In the end credits of the Japanese release, three additional images with captions underneath them are shown during the montage of official artwork. These images appear to be drawings of ideas sent by young Japanese fans to Capcom that influenced the game's development, possibly as part of a magazine contest:
• The first image shown in the credits, submitted by 14-year-old Masahiro Onuma from Osaka, reads:
"Kobun Mole It comes out of the land on the ground, and comes out of anywhere in the cave. You can hit the body with a drill and crush the scattered soil and stones!"
This drawing appears to be the first design for the Servbot Borer that was later simplified for the final game and later modified again in Mega Man Legends 2.
• The second image, submitted by 11-year-old Takumi Miyayoshi from the Ishikawa Prefecture, reads:
"Kobun's Bomb Dummy dolls are passing one after another from right to left. (It's a bomb)"
This drawing may be the first design for the Servbot training minigame in the Gym, where a Servbot has to dodge and catch bombs volleyed at it by two other Servbots and then throw them back at targets behind them.
• The third image, submitted by 10-year-old Masashi Kaga from Tokyo, reads:
"Bonne Rocket Bazooka There is a roller under the trigger, so you can move while doing something!!"
This drawing appears to be the first design for the Bonne Bazooka, a weapon used by the Gustaff that can be developed by Servbot #31 after he obtains his skill and the Pipe from the Nakkai Ruins.
The text featured on the fan drawings themselves have been left untranslated in this submission as the pictures were scaled down to fit in the credits and thus appear smaller, grainier and more difficult to read.
Eliza's Story Mode text data commentary contains an ASCII picture based on fan art of Maya Amano from Persona2. When questioned about it, programmer Jonathan Kim explained that many messages and pictures like that found in the game's code were the result of him venting off steam while working on the game, and that after the game had been datamined by fans, he was forced to remove the majority of those messages and pictures, with some exceptions like the Maya Amano fan art.
On the game's Japanese cover, illustrated by Yoshiaki Yoneshima. Blaze Fielding's pose strongly resembles the same pose made by Hitomi Kisugi in an illustration by mangaka Tsukasa Hojo for a 1994 10 aizōban re-release of Shonen Jump's Cat's Eye.
In a promotional article published by Gamefan magazine, the game's art style was stated to have been heavily influenced by the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Looney Tunes shorts directed by Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones. On top of this, he was credited in promotional materials for overseeing some of the game's art direction and for choosing the game's flat-shaded, polygonal graphics, but was not credited in the final product.
In flashback scenes in the game, Adam Malkovich commands the Galactic Federation Battleship VIXIV. This battleship is named after the starship "Space Tank VIXIV" from the 1992 Japan-only Game Boy game X, which was also directed by Metroid: Other M's director and producer Yoshio Sakamoto.
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Sometime in 2016, Climax Development sold off all of their assets at the time on eBay, which included hundreds of development discs, including the assets of SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge. On one of the development discs for the PlayStation version, three pictures with the common filename "Naughty.jpg" can be found, and contain three sketches of SpongeBob having sex with Patrick, Patrick having sex with Sandy while holding an unknown object, and SpongeBob wearing a cross between a gimp suit and a dominatrix catsuit.
On December 23 2013, Namco Bandai released two alternate free-DLC costumes for Jotaro and Polnareff, based off of promotional material for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
In 2004, Namco contacted Don Bluth (known for Dragon's Lair and Space Ace) to do designs for a new Pac-Man game, under the working title "Pac Man Adventures". Don did concept drawings for the game, but it was ultimately cancelled for unknown reasons. Some of the ideas for the game were later used in Pac-Man World 3.
In both Super Mario Land games, 1-Up Mushrooms are replaced with hearts, most likely because, with the Game Boy's lack of color, it would be almost impossible to distinguish a 1-Up Mushroom from a Super Mushroom.
In the city set of Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker, a fried chicken store titled "Chick N' Chunks" can be seen. This is not the name of any one location from any Nickelodeon series, but its branding is reminiscent of the Chokey Chicken restaurant from Rocko's Modern Life, a connection further supported by Filburt and Dr. Hutchison's trailer home appearing on the same map.
Rocko's punching animation is directly traced from a sequence of animation in the Rocko's Modern Life pilot episode "Trash-O-Madness".
In the Limited Edition ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Box Set for PS3, an art book titled 'Shinwa wo Tsumugu' is included. It features some interviews with members of Team ICO and among them is Junichi Hosono, who claims Ueda derived Yorda's name from the character of Hilda in the Toei film, "Horus: Prince of the Sun".
In a Japan-exclusive Shogakukan Wonder Life Special guidebook authored by Nintendo and Ape Inc., there is artwork depicting Link praying before a Crucifix, contrasting the game's origin story of the three Golden Goddesses, but also fitting with the Japanese version of the game calling the Sanctuary a Church. The Church's name was changed to the Sanctuary outside of Japan, presumably due to Nintendo's international policy on religious imagery, although this artwork and the rest featured in this guidebook were never republished internationally as other publishers released their own guides instead.
Many locations in Isle Delfino feature a series of swirl-shaped glyphs. While seemingly unreadable to the average player, these symbols are actually a cipher for the Latin alphabet. Consequently, most instances of them can be decoded to generate coherent messages:
A game based on the critically reviled, but at the time still in production, animated film "Foodfight!" got far enough into development that it received a playable demo at Take Two Interactive's booth at E3 2006. According to the marquee above the demo booth, it was scheduled to be released in Spring 2007 to coincide with the film's planned release at the time. Due to numerous production issues and distribution setbacks, the film would not see a release until 2012, but the game would never be seen again. The only known evidence of its existence is a short 8-second piece of B-roll footage captured on the E3 show floor, and saved by the now-defunct Quake fan website PlanetQuake4.net.
In the end credits of the Japanese release, three additional images with captions underneath them are shown during the montage of official artwork. These images appear to be drawings of ideas sent by young Japanese fans to Capcom that influenced the game's development, possibly as part of a magazine contest:
Eliza's Story Mode text data commentary contains an ASCII picture based on fan art of Maya Amano from Persona 2. When questioned about it, programmer Jonathan Kim explained that many messages and pictures like that found in the game's code were the result of him venting off steam while working on the game, and that after the game had been datamined by fans, he was forced to remove the majority of those messages and pictures, with some exceptions like the Maya Amano fan art.
On the game's Japanese cover, illustrated by Yoshiaki Yoneshima. Blaze Fielding's pose strongly resembles the same pose made by Hitomi Kisugi in an illustration by mangaka Tsukasa Hojo for a 1994 10 aizōban re-release of Shonen Jump's Cat's Eye.
In flashback scenes in the game, Adam Malkovich commands the Galactic Federation Battleship VIXIV. This battleship is named after the starship "Space Tank VIXIV" from the 1992 Japan-only Game Boy game X, which was also directed by Metroid: Other M's director and producer Yoshio Sakamoto.
On December 23 2013, Namco Bandai released two alternate free-DLC costumes for Jotaro and Polnareff, based off of promotional material for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
In 2004, Namco contacted Don Bluth (known for Dragon's Lair and Space Ace) to do designs for a new Pac-Man game, under the working title "Pac Man Adventures". Don did concept drawings for the game, but it was ultimately cancelled for unknown reasons. Some of the ideas for the game were later used in Pac-Man World 3.
