Did you know how much these games changed during development?
Devil May Cry was originally going to be a Resident Evil sequel
It’s one of the more famous examples of a massive gear shift for a videogame as Hideki Kamiya pitched a much more action orientated experience for Resident Evil with a super-enhanced, super cool hero. To show him off pre-rendered background were dropped, 3D came in and ultimately it was dropped. Except Resi creator Shinji Mikami liked it so much he recommend the project continue to Capcom, just as its own thing. And so zombies became demons, Tony became Dante, and DMC was born.
Star Fox Adventures used to be Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet was in development around early 2000. Rare were developing the title for the Nintendo 64 when Miyamoto visited. He noticed how similar the game was to the Star Fox series and asked the developer to alter the assets into Star Fox 64.
The canned Sabreman Stampede used to be Donkey Kong Racing
Another Rare game, another twisting development… When Microsoft purchased Rare, it had to rejig a lot of its then-current projects to exorcise Nintendo characters. Donkey Kong was replaced with the studio’s character, Sabreman, but the game was cancelled.
Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean machine is a rebadged Puyo Puyo game
Sonic the Hedgehog is an internationally recognised symbol. The Puyo Puyo games… well, not so much. As such, Sega rebranded the game – with the exact same gameplay – as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for its release in PAL and NTSC regions.
GoldenEye 007 started life as an on-rails light gun game
GoldenEye 007’s development was a harried affair. The game was pitched as a side-scrolling platformer, but studio heads wanted to take a more Virtua Cop route. Over two years later, the semi-sandbox game released – an entirely different beast.
Final Fight began life as Street Fighter ‘89
Street Fighter sold so well that Capcom’s financial arm asked developers to refer to the in-development Final Fight as a Street Fighter game and it was going to release with Street Fighter branding until late into development.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a re-skinned Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic
While the Japanese arm of Nintendo was developing a platformer based on Fuji Television’s Yume Kojo mascots, America was obsessing over Mario. For the American release, the main characters were altered to Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach. The rest is history.
Thrill Kill was cancelled and Wu-Tang: Taste The Pain was born
The 3D fighting game was built using practically all the same assets and engine architecture of Thrill Kill. Riffing off the popular Mortal Kombat, Thrill Kill pushed the violence a bit too far and funding was pulled. Activision swooped in, resurrecting the game.
Sleeping Dogs was supposed to be True Crime: Hong Kong
It started life when Activision funded United Front Games to create an open world game, tentatively called Black Lotus. But Activision wanted the True Crime moniker. Delays and budget issues lead to United Front signing its game to Square Enix.
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