History ChuckCunninghamSyndrome / Videogames

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'': Between the second and third games, there is a nineteen year timeskip and many characters from the former end up not returning for the latter. The vast majority eventually return in later games, but a handful of them never show up again. At least Jun Kazama gets mentioned on a semi-regular basis, even if she has yet to reappear, but Kunimitsu never does despite being Yoshimitsu's rival, as does the first Kuma, whom the fandom theorized dies in between the games.
** According to Harada, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirknWQxhFs Kunimitsu was most likely removed]] for being unpopular in earlier games. [[LegacyCharacter Her daughter takes her role]] in ''[=T7=]'' most likely due to being [[https://twitter.com/Harada_TEKKEN/status/365395288652918784 highly played in TTT2]].

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'': Was it due to [[CreatorsPest SNK's hate of him]]? Was it due to fear of a lawsuit by Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo, creator of ''Manga/{{AKIRA}}''? Regardless, after ''2002'' SNK went out of their way to pretend that K9999 never existed - replacing him with [[MovesetClone Nameless]] in ''2002'''s UpdatedRerelease, editing him out of images in the gallery of ''XIV'', and making it company policy that even alluding to him was forbidden. This lasted for 20 whole years [[SubvertedTrope before he was finally repackaged and reintroduced]] in ''XV''.

** Every non-standard human character Camelot creates for their ''Mario'' sports spin-offs tends to fall into this, such as Plum, Charlie, Sonny, Harry, and Maple, from ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, and Alex, Nina, Harry and Kate, from the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor version of ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' (and the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance sequel, ''Mario Tennis: Power Tour''). None of them has made a single appearance in any game since, unless you count Plum's cameos in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' as a trophy and sticker respectively. Not to mention that that's ''five out of fourteen'' playable characters in ''Golf'', while the four of ''Tennis'' were the protagonists of the GBC version's story mode.

** All the original characters from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' like Geno or Mallow [[ExiledFromContinuity are property of]] Creator/SquareEnix, therefore they simply vanished from all the subsequent Mario games except from a brief cameo of Geno in ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Superstar Saga]]'' (and even ''that'' was removed from the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS remake), and his apperances as a Mii Costume in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' and as a Spirit as well in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''.

** Kiddy Kong appears as the playable sidekick in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' and its UsefulNotes/GameBoy counterpart. The instruction manual for ''Donkey Kong 64'' says he's Chunky's baby brother and he was going to be in the cancelled ''Donkey Kong Racing''. He never appears nor is even mentioned again.