Did You Know???
Sent in by Mike Radon
Did you know, that a LOT of video games had cartoons? With the exception
of Captain N, there was Mega Man, Pac-Man, Pole Position, Frogger,
Donkey Kong, Mario (1,3, and world) Zelda, Darkstalkers, Batman And
Robin, Spiderman, Superman, Wing Commander, Mortal Kombat, Street
Fighter, Double Dragon, TMNT, and Biker Mice From Mars. That's all I can
think of for now. But I saved the best for last!!! In Japan (For Japanese
Animation or RPG Fans) look in your area for a place where you can buy
Japanese Animation on Video because........THERE'S A JAPANESE
FINAL FANTASY CARTOON!!!! YEAH!!!!!
Did you know that there is (was) a Super Mario Bros. and Zelda cereal and
board game?
Did you know that on the same day in 1986, Kid Icarus and Metroid were
released as the first games to use the password system? And yet, On TV,
Metroid was advertised in the same commercial as Rad Racer.
Strange. (Note: For RPG buffs, Rad Racer 1 and 2 were created by
Squaresoft. See, they don't just make RPG's!)
Did you know that Star Fox wasn't even supposed to be released
to the public? It was just a testing program for the Super FX
Chip but the designers liked it so much they told Nintendo to
market it!
Did you know that in it's first six weeks of sales, Mario Kart 64 hit
one million copies sold! Yikes!!!
Getting back on the subject of Metroid, Did you know that this game was
not popular at all in Japan? But Nintendo bit the bullet and released in
the U.S. only to be a smash hit!!
Did you know that in Japan, F-zero has been out for a while now? An
add-on to the Japanese N64 called Sattellivison, much like the rumors
about downloading game updates with the 64DD, is required to get it?
It's the only way so far to get a copy of this futuristic racing game.
For the Gamer who likes to collect game merchandise, see if you can find
these Video Board Games! Did you know that Donkey Kong, Frogger,
and (heaven forbid, but I have to say it for the fact itself!!!) Sonic all
have board games!!
Well Nintendo owners who subscribe to magazines have probably noticed
articles about FF7 (Final Fantasy 7) But are wondering where the leap
from 3 to 7 came to be, well here it is in chronological order (time
order) the list of Final Fantasy games. FF1 (US and Japan) FF2, 3, 4 (Japan)
FF4 (FF2 in U.S.) FF6 (FF3 in U.S.) and now FF7 for PSX.
Did you know that Virtual Boy Sold 1,000,000 systems in 1 week? Why
wasn't it that popular? Because more than half of them were returned!
In Fiscal Year 1996 (ended 3/31/97), Nintendo's sales were
$3.25 billion, or 400 billion yen.
More than 40% of American homes own a Nintendo system.
NOA's Consumer Service Department logs more than 120,000
phone calls, letters and e-mails per week.
Nintendo's magazine, Nintendo Power, is the most widely-read
video game publication in North America, with a readership of over
750,000.
Nintendo and the Starlight Foundation have placed more than
1,000 Fun Centers in hospitals, providing terminally ill children with
interactive entertainment during hospital stays.
Mario is recognized by more children than Mickey Mouse.
Mr. Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America, named
Mario after the owner of Nintendo's first warehouse.
It took a team of 16 people over 3 years to make Super Mario
World for the Super NES.
In Japanese, "Nintendo" means "we do all that we can, as
best we can, and await the results." In other words it is a
commitment to excellence.
Shadows Of The Empire: Originally had 17 levels including a scene where
Dash had to shoot down TIE fighters through the canyons of Gall and a
scene where the freighter attacked Luke and Dash. When The SOTE
development team left the cutting room, only ten levels remained.
Mario Kart 64: Candyland (a course that's been buzzing with rumors
about a hidden way to get it) was a battle mode course that was cut for
Skyscraper.
Mario Kart originally had 10 characters this time. However, Kamek (The evil
magikoopa from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's island) was cut for Wario and Koopa
Troopa (cry me a river) was cut for DK.
Number of systems that have been sold.
Nintendo 64: 2.6 million hardware units (U.S. only)
Super NES: 40 million hardware units, 300 million games
Game Boy: 45 million hardware units, 200 million games
NES: 62 million hardware units, 500 million games
Mainly all NES games are collector's items now due to the fact that
they stopped making them. But, did you know that Mike Tyson's
Punch-Out was discontinued? They had to take his name off of it
after he was sent to prison. So if you're like me, and own a
copy, congratulations! You own a game that was recalled!
Did you know that September 1st, Beanie Baby madness starts again???
This time, It's in the Mushroom Kingdom!!! Nintendo has 4 beanie toys
based on their games! Look for Beanie Mario, Beanie Yoshi, Beanie
Bowser, and Beanie Donkey Kong. Will more come out??? Will they sell as
fast as the one's at McDonalds???? Who knows? Chances are, Nintendo's
decision to make these was probably a good one.
Did you know, that there was an NES Mega Man game that NEVER
made it to the USA? We have Mega Man 6, Japan has Rock Man 7.
Sent in by Cory You
Did you know Acclaim had its own cartoon series in 1991? The cartoons
included: NARC (Of the ultra violent late 80's hit) Wizard's & Warriors,
and that one Tomato Game Boy game.
A lot of hit games that come to the U.S. have had a name change...here is
a list of some of the US/Japanese names.
Resident Evil/Biohazard
Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki-Doki-Panic
Contra/Probotector
Secret Of Mana/Seiken Densetsu 2
Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka
Mega Man/Rockman
Wild Guns/Blood Brothers
Streets Of Rage/Bare Knuckles
Growl/Running Arc
U.N. Squadron/Area 88
Gradius/Nemesis
Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest
Rival Turf/Rushing Beat
Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Run
Street Fighter Alpha/Street Fighter Zero Tuff-E-Nuff/Dead Dance
Rad Action/Ninja Taro
Bad Dudes/Dragon Ninja
Did you know sometimes the original concept for a video game is
sometimes light years from the final conception. Here is a list of
games, and their original name/idea:
Final Fight/Street Fighter 89'
Mortal Kombat/Universal Soldier
Fighting Force/Streets Of Rage 4
Crime Fighters/Running Man
Misconception sequels...Many people think the following games are sequels,
but in fact are not:
Guardians of The Hood (Not the sequel to Pit Fighter)
Life Force (Not the sequel to Gradius, since their is a Gradius 2)
Hyper Sports (Not the sequel to Track & Field)
Rainbow Island (Not the sequel to Bubble Bobble)
College Slam (Not the sequel to NBA JAM)
Total Carnage (Not the sequel to Smash TV, though similar)
Pheonix (Not the sequel to Galaxian, or Galaga)
Stun Runner (Not the sequel to Road Blasters)
Sent in by Michael D.
Both the Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2 were suppose to be endless. Each new
quest the stages switched around. But the games both froze when the stages
switched into certain places, and the idea was scratched.
Star Fox 2 was released in Japan, but never made it to North America because
we got Donkey Kong Country instead, Japan didn't.
Sent in by John Hooks
Did you know that the Super NES was going to have a CD add-on but it was never
released?
Sent in by alweiss@interaccess.com
Super Mario Bros. 2 was originaly Doki-Doki-Panic in Japan, an identical
game with different characters (one could float), no Mario Music (for
sub space, 1-ups, invincibility, etc.), no Mario-Related graphics, less
jumping gravity to make up for the fact that you couldn't run (no, you
couldn't run.) Also, it was set in more of an arabian style.
Also, in both English and Japanese versions, many sfx were stolen from
Zelda. (Japanese version Zelda sfx were different.)
Sent in by Sean Kelly
Did you know that the Rumble Pack was designed with a fishing
game in mind.
Did you know that when the Rumble Pack was being shown at the
Shoshinkai/Space World show the games it shown were Star Fox
64 and Blast Corps. While Star Fox did come out with a Rumble
Pack capability, Blast Corps ended up not.
Did you know that the Rumble Pack went through a lot of different
names while in development. The names included the Jolt Pack,
Jumping Pack, and Force Pack.
Did you know that in Japan Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 were
reprogrammed an rereleased with Rumble Pack capabilities.
Sent in by Ken
Did you know that there are more Nintendo cartoons floating around
in the world. There was a Mario/Zelda cartoon, Captain N (which
featured a gigantic Game Boy and Mother Brain, from Metroid), a Super
Mario 3 cartoon, a short-lived Super Mario World cartoon. That was
all the Nintendo cartoons until 1997, when Nelvana started doing 26
episodes of a new cartoon based on a hit game. It's playing only in
Canada on a special cartoon channel called Teletoon. The name is
Donkey Kong Country, and features some of the Kongs. It shows all
the Kongs from Donkey Kong Country and Dixie from Donkey Kong Country 2.
It even has a new Kong called Bluster. It still has King K. Rool and his army
of Kritters (the common green Kremlings), even though the last main boss is
Baron K. Roolenstein.
Sent in by po59@ndti.net
In 1991 Shigeru Miyamoto said "Who knows what Mario will look like
in the future. Maybe he will wear metallic clothes!"
Sent in by sneakytanuki@vt.edu
The original Metroid game was a flop in Japan because it was only
released on the disk format that the Japanese Famicom supported
for awhile.
The Mike Tyson's Punch Out! game was not recalled. The fact that his
name was dropped was not related to his prison sentence. His contract
with Nintendo ran out after awhile, and that's why he wasn't in the
Punch Out games released later as part of the "classic" series.
Of course, the contract might have been renewed if he hadn't been
in prison at the time.
Sent in by Gambit9641@aol.com
Did you know that Balrog's name in Japan was M. Bison
(Bison/Tyson, get it?). Since they didn't want to be faced
with any legal action, M. Bison's name was changed to Balrog,
Balrog was changed to Vega, and Vega was changed to M. Bison.
Also, for Street Fighter Alpha, Charlie's name in Japan was
Nash (his full name is actually Charlie Nash) and Gouki's name
was changed to Akuma (for some reason unknown to me).
Sent in by riptide@norden1.com
Hudson Soft Controllers, for the Nintendo 64, are programmed to
unlock secret levels in Bomberman games.
Sent in by Sean Kelly
Did you know that Nintendo had planned to release Star Fox 2
in North America. But I guess when Nintendo of Japan started
making Star Fox 64 they just decided not to release it.
Did you know that Luigi was planned to be in a bonus level of
Super Mario 64. But he was dropped because Nintendo didn't
have the time to perfect him. Also because Nintendo planned
to switch the Camera from Mario to Luigi it would also have
been to confusing.
Sent in by Crono
Did you know that Dr. Light has a love for music? Mega
Man's real name is Rock, while his sister's is Roll!
Protoman's other two names, Blues and Break Man, also
are musical names. So that's Rock and Roll, Blues, Break
dancing, and would you love to Rush to Tango to a Beat?
Dr. Wily is trying to get back with Bass and Treble. Oh,
well.
(If you didn't get the earlier joke, Rush is a robotic
dog, Tango a robotic cat, and Beat a robotic bird.)
Sent in by Neiman4@aol.com
Did you know that Link has always been a lefty? He's been that
way ever since the original Zelda on the NES.
Sent in by Kevin Corrie
Did you know that Zelda 64 will be the sequel to Zelda 2?
"What happened to A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening?"
you say? They were prequels. Here's the order the games go
in: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of
Zelda: Link's Awakening, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend
of Zelda II: Link's Quest, and The Legend of Zelda 64.
Did you know the games jumped around like that?
Sent in by Shadow
Did you know that Mega Man's real name is Rock? That's why is sister's
name is Roll! Get it, Rock & Roll!
Mike Adds: Also, Protoman's real name is Blues. Since he's sort of
Megaman's brother, It kinda makes sense.
Sent in by Nick Garner
Did you know that the company of Nintendo is over 100 years
old? It started off making playing cards. It also made toys and
then started making video games. The word Nintendo means we'll
always try our best. It is something like that.