History Main / PaletteSwap

* In ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', Red Koopa Troopas are smart enough to turn around when they come to a ledge, while Green ones walk right off, even into a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}.
** Water and lava used the same sprite with different colors. It wasn't until the All-Stars port that gave water and lava their unique sprites.
** Mario's brother [[DivergentCharacterEvolution Luigi]] also began life as no more than a palette swap, but he later evolved into the taller, thinner look that he is known for when the Japanese game ''Doki Doki Panic'' was ported to the west as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''. This differentiation between Mario and Luigi has stuck ever since, as did the alteration of their shirt and overall colours (switching in [=SMB2=] from red/green overalls and blue shirts to the more natural blue overalls and red/green shirts).
*** This was parodied in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': Mario could change his shirt and hat color to green by wearing the L Emblem badge. Despite this being the only change, the ''president of the Luigi Fan Club'' (and no one else[[note]]except for Pennington, but he mixes them up even when Mario is wearing red...[[/note]]) can be fooled when Mario uses this badge. In fact, this is how you solve one of the troubles.
**** A more subtle joke lets you get Waluigi's purple colors by mixing the L badge with the W badge (which normally gave you Wario's colors).
*** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', similar to the Koopa Troopas of SMB fame, there are actually two colors of Shy Guy, although the two colors are closer. The difference is exactly the same: Shy Guys in pink turn around when they hit edges; Shy Guys in red walk right off. The three kinds of Birdo have more strikingly different colors, and they indicate what they spit: eggs only, fireballs only, or both. Snifits come in even more colors with a wider variety of behavior, from walking off of cliffs to turning back to spontaneously changing directions to jumping and firing more rapidly. Also, the flicker of damaged enemies or things about to explode changes based on what character you're using.
**** The flicker changing colours by character choice is because all sprites on an NES screen[[note]]Actually, on a horizontal line, but [=SMB2=] can't actually take advantage of that since the throwing things play mechanic means sprites could end up ANYWHERE.[[/note]] can only make use of one of four sets of three colours (chosen from a palette of 53). In most games, the player character gets one of these sets, and in [=SMB2=], each player character uses a unique colour set. But since you don't want enemies changing colour based on which character you're playing, that only leaves 3 sets left for every single other sprite, which includes vegetables and pretty much anything else that has to move around the screen.[[note]]Though note that it's moving around the screen that matters here: tiles - the other type of object used in NES games - get their own four colour sets, and can be animated by flicking through a series of tiles, but they have to fit into the grid, and the NES can only have a limited number of tiles ready to use at the same time.[[/note]] You can't change the colour scheme assigned to the enemy without changing all other enemies and whatnots using that colour choice, but you can switch that particular enemy's sprite to one of the other colour sets, and the player character's colour set is about the only one that's at all predictable.[[note]]By the way, this restriction actually determines what vegetables are used in a level. The new vegetables seen in the battle against Wart use his (or his bubbles') colour scheme, for example.[[/note]]
** Also in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', [[MemeticMutation the graphic used for the bushes is simply a recolour of the one used for the clouds.]]
*** Also also, the 1up Mushroom was a Super Mushroom with different-colored cap and spots. Although this was the case with the Poison Mushroom in the original version of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'' (which wasn't originally released outside Japan until the remakes), it gained a more distinct appearance in later versions of the game to make the game slightly less [[NintendoHard frustrating]].
*** Additionally, the darker effect for the underground levels is achieved by Palette Swapping everything, including the enemies, with the Goombas' blueish appearance being the basis of the appearance of the Gloomba line of enemies in the ''PaperMario'' games, which also appear underground.
**** ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' had different colors of Shy Guys seemingly just for variety; however, most color changes in enemies do indicate an increase in difficulty. Red and Blue Goomba, the minibosses for the Prolouge, have slightly different HP, for example.
*** Fire Mario is a palette swap, and star power switches through palettes rapidly.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' expanded on this by giving us ''four'' colors of Koopa. The original two colors retained their behaviors, while Blue and Yellow were a little different. Take note that a Koopa wears shoes that correspond to their shell color, which can change if a Koopa enters a different colored shell. Additionally, while Yoshi had a shell in his mouth that was a different color than green, he would have a certain power. We also see different colored Yoshis right off the bat. Yoshis other than green ones add the corresponding shell color's power as long as they have shells in their mouths, so you could actually have two at once.
*** Don't forget about these: a Koopa climbing into a Yellow Shell would become a color-flashing and resilient Koopa that relentlessly chases you down, and a Koopa stomped out of a Blue Shell would become a shell-kicker. The caped, flying Koopas are from red, green, and blue shells.

** ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' also had Koindozers, which were similar to Klobbers from the second game, but were a palette swap of Koin (a Kremling that used a DK Coin as a shield).
*** The rest of Donkey Kong follows suit with different coloured Kremlings and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou other mooks]], this gives away whether or not some are DemonicSpiders (The grey Klobbers that rob you of lives) or InvincibleMinorMinion (Red Zingers and NighInvulnerable Green Zingers)

** The ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' series used this fairly often. For example, the Phaz-Ing in 3 are reskins of the Inglets in 2, the Mechlopses in 2 are reskins of the Triclopses in 1, 2 used reskins to create "Dark" versions of many enemies, and so on. In a somewhat odd aversion, the Bombus from 1 were reused as Luminoth drones in 2 with no changes to appearance and only the most minor alterations to activity.
*** Although the Phaz-Ing can be seen as a continuity nod, seeing as how both Metroid Prime and Emperor Ing were leviathan guardians descended from the same planet.
** Even the weapons get this; the Ice Beam and Plasma Beam in ''Prime'' show up in ''Echoes'' slightly reskinned as the Dark Beam and Light Beam, respectively. The scan for the Metroids in Echoes even mentions that they're vulnerable to the "freezing effects" of the Dark Beam.
* ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' uses different palettes for the Helpers and their enemy counterparts (with the exception of Wheelie). Of note is that the Helpers' colors are in fact their standard palettes as {{Mook}}s in ''other'' Kirby games. ''Milky Way Wishes'' adds a third palette to most (all?) enemies, and the ''Helper to Hero'' mode in ''Kirby Super Star [[VideoGameRemake Ultra]]'' adds a ''fourth'' to their playable versions.
** Several of the bosses reappear under different palettes, as well, though they aren't acknowledged as different bosses.
** Not to mention ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror'', where you get three palette-swapped helpers and the ability to change your color. You can change colors in ''VideoGame/KirbySqueakSquad'' as well.
** Many of Kirby's hats for his copy abilities are palette swaps of each other, including bandannas, backwards baseball caps, and crowns.

* Averted by the main characters in the arcade versions of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' and ''Super Contra'', which used different sprites for Bill and Lance (Bill wore a white tank top, while Lance was shirtless). Due to hardware limitations of the NES, their versions of both games used the same sprite for Bill and Lance, changing only the color of their pants, making Bill the "blue guy" and Lance the "red guy". Oddly enough, ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' for the SNES followed this convention as well.
** In ''Super C'' and ''Contra III'', the red colored enemy soldiers are usually the ones who actually shoot their guns.
** The four main characters in ''Contra 4'' (Bill and Lance, and their "counterparts", Mad Dog and Scorpion) are all palette swaps of the same sprite, with no real playing differences between them. This was due to a 4-Players Mode that was DummiedOut from the final version of the game. The extra characters (Probotector, Sheena, Lucia, Jimbo/Sully) all happen to have four selectable color palettes each as well.

* As noted above, the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' franchise does this a lot, particularly ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', which is notorious for reusing character models and animations. Although it's understandable why a polar bear would share the same model as a grizzly bear, it's slightly jarring when you encounter a boss like Murmur who is clearly a copy of Ragnaros with only minor changes.
** Even in the {{RTS}} games, some units share the same model as another one. Like how a tinted Acolyte model was used for a "Fallen Priest" and "Heretic" in the Orc campaign for ''Reign of Chaos''. But some are more subtle like how Harpies use a modified Gargoyle model.

** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Sun'' and ''Red Alert 2'', the 3D models of each units used a palette with some "remap" colors, which were assigned to the team colors. The rest of the palette didn't change.
*** The entire franchise does that, and the first two games had unit sprites in common.
*** The first two games made no attempt at a distinction between the basic infantry and some of the buildings. This even carried over games, as the Soviets had pretty much the same tanks and infantry as GDI, except they were red as opposed to yellow. The Allies and Nod had some tiny variations, since they changed the sizes of some of the tanks to differentiate them, but otherwise the Allies was a palette swap of Nod.

*** Incidentally, the way this was done (put the "hero" unit on another team and set that team/unit to "rescuable" status, meaning that you gain control of it when you get close enough to it, then put it right next to your starting units) also led to the unit's appearance being accompanied by a short audio jingle, as if to say, "[[HeroMustSurvive I'm important, so don't go getting me killed, kthx]]".

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'' uses this for alternative costumes.
** [[ColorCodedMultiplayer If players choose the same characters for team battles, the brightness on the characters are changed.]]
*** To a lesser degree, in some of the games there were characters with move sets very similar to each other with small deviations such as their speed and power (Mario/Luigi, Pikachu/Pichu, ect) though later games tended to give new moves and bigger deviations so that similar characters felt a little more unique.

** Because green is a natural colour, eh.

*** Some versions of ''Alpha 2'' (specifically the U.S. arcade release and the ''Zero 2 Alpha'' released in Asia) allowed players to control alternate versions of certain characters such as Zangief, Dhalsim, Ryu, Ken, classic outfit Chun-Li, Sagat and M. Bison who used their movesets from ''Street Fighter II Dash'' and had alternate color schemes. Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma were also palette-swaps of their regular counterparts.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' takes the palette-swapping tendencies of fighting games and runs right off the rails with them, often designing alternate color schemes to be [[ShoutOut visual references to other franchises]]. Observe [[MightyGlacier Tager]] as GaoGaiGar, [[ShrinkingViolet Noel]] as [[{{FLCL}} Major Kitsurabami]], [[LittleMissSnarker Rachel]] as [[{{Vocaloid}} Hatsune Miku]], and [[EyesAlwaysShut Hazama]] as [[MichaelJackson a Smooth Criminal]]. There's more, but the full list would probably eat the page.
** Interestingly, [[LivingMacGuffin Ragna]] as [[Manga/{{Gintama}} Sakata Gintoki]]. Made even better by the fact that they share the [[ActorAllusion same]] [[TomokazuSugita voice actor]] (as parodied [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZj2_YelvMg here]]).
* Subverted in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha A's: The Battle of Aces'', where the three Materials are not just recolours of the PowerTrio, but full-on {{Evil Twin}}s with distinct personalities.

* ''PrimalRage'' does this for the stages where you're fighting the character you chose to play as. Does have a benefit there as it helps you stay sure of who's who.
** In addition, Blizzard and Chaos seem to be palette swaps of each other, as do Sauron and Diablo.

* The first ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' does this with the Grunts and Elites. You can tell how powerful these enemies are simply by their color. The in-game explanation is that their armor is [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority color-coded]] by rank.
** The subsequent games also do this, but also add fancier armor for certain EliteMooks.
** Bungie's earlier ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' series used palette swapping extensively. An alien's uniform color denoted its rank, while a human's denoted his department.

** Palette swaps combined with translucency are also used to give the enemies shadows. Squash a copy of the sprite vertically, put it on the ground, put an all-black palette on it, then make it translucent.
*** Some levels also use all-black translucent palette swaps of sprites to add nice shadows to certain areas.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is the epitome of palette swaps - not only are the classes identical save their team colour, at least three levels contain what are basically palette swapped bases, with changed materials and propaganda posters.
** Not only that, but the September 30, 2010 update allows players to paint their hats.

* Some old games palette swap ''everything'' after each level to give the player a sense of progress. ''Desert Falcon'' for the Atari 2600 looped between about eight colors as enemies moved slightly faster, so even field below changed from yellow to green to... pink?
** Even the NES version of ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' does this as the game's level increase.

** Some of them have distinct fighting styles though.

** In [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda the first game]], most monsters came in Red and Blue, with one color (usually blue) being tougher than the other. In ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', orange was added for weaker variants of enemies, with red being stronger than orange and blue being stronger than red, though with armed enemies the weapons often change with the color (such as the orange variant of the Daira enemy in Death Mountain swinging its axe at Link and the red variant ''throwing'' axes at him). It's even common to palette swap ''Link'' for his different tunics. Same style and cut, different color. Like the fire-proof tunic (red), and the [[AWizardDidIt inexplicable]] ''water-breathing tunic'' (blue). Boy, it's astounding what they can do with cloth shirts these days. It wasn't until ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' that the different tunics actually looked different beyond their colors.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' is a lazy-designer example of PaletteSwap: Almost ''all'' of the {{mooks}} and {{NPC}}s, as well as a few of the masks, were ported over from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]''. At least the map and the bosses were different.
** It was "explained" in the game. Termina seems to be a sort of "mirror-universe" next-door to Hyrule (dimensionally speaking)...in several cases, the names don't even change, regardless of how similar the counterparts are to each other aside from appearances -- notably, Koume and Kotake, whose Hyrule counterparts were stated to be [[BigBad Ganondorf's]] surrogate mothers, are merely shopkeepers in Termina's Southern Swamp and not evil like the former two. In other words, the people of Hyrule have mirror counterparts in Termina. This is a common sci-fi and fantasy trope.
** It was also originally intended to be an expansion of Ocarina of Time on the ill-fated N64DD, so they were limited by that concept during development.
** ''All'' the ''Legend of Zelda'' games are guilty of this. In [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda the first game]], most monsters came in Red and Blue, with one color (usually blue) being tougher than the other. In ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', orange was added for weaker variants of enemies, with red being stronger than orange and blue being stronger than red, though with armed enemies the weapons often change with the color (such as the orange variant of the Daira enemy in Death Mountain swinging its axe at Link and the red variant ''throwing'' axes at him). It's even common to palette swap ''Link'' for his different tunics. Same style and cut, different color. Like the fire-proof tunic (red), and the [[AWizardDidIt inexplicable]] ''water-breathing tunic'' (blue). Boy, it's astounding what they can do with cloth shirts these days. It wasn't until ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' that the different tunics actually looked different beyond their colors.

** Not to mention ''Amazing Mirror'', where you get three palette-swapped helpers and the ability to change your color. You can change colors in ''Squeak Squad'' as well.

* In ''TokusouSentaiDekaranger'' and ''Series/PowerRangersSPD,'' MakeMyMonsterGrow mostly took the year off, in favor of each [[MonsterOfTheWeek alien criminal of the week]] having his or her own HumongousMecha. While the monster suits each looked original, the mecha started to repeat themselves, with minor details, and yes, colors, changed. (A few times, there wasn't even a repaint!)) ''Two'' once-used monster suits per week was just not gonna happen.
** The ''Dark Rangers'' in ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' were simply repainted Putty costumes. They were unimpressive at best.
* In DenjiSentaiMegaranger, the suits, which often have some sort of variety per season, are rather homogenous this time around save color. Perhaps a moment of FridgeBrilliance, since this season was about video games, particularly ones made in the mid-90s.

* The newer series of ''KamenRider'' have tended to reuse the same [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suits]] for their MonsterOfTheWeek, with the differences ranging from a complete repaint to a differently coloured scarf. Sometimes this is given a lampshade, as in ''KamenRiderAgito'' where monsters embody members of certain animal genera (and thus Agito fights three recolored jaguar monsters in the first two episodes). Considering that the cost of creating one of these expensive monster costumes from scratch greatly outweighs the cost of a simple repaint, it's more due to budget constraints rather than a lack of creativity. Some Kamen Riders also fall prey to the budget-saving repaint: most of the movie-only Riders, EvilTwin Ryuga from ''KamenRiderRyuki'', the SuperPrototype Hopper Riders and EvilTwin Dark Kabuto from ''KamenRiderKabuto'' and Zeronos' DeadlyUpgrade Zero Form from ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}''.

**** The flicker changing colours by character choice is because all sprites on an NES screen[[hottip:*:Actually, on a horizontal line, but [=SMB2=] can't actually take advantage of that since the throwing things play mechanic means sprites could end up ANYWHERE.]] can only make use of one of four sets of three colours (chosen from a palette of 53). In most games, the player character gets one of these sets, and in [=SMB2=], each player character uses a unique colour set. But since you don't want enemies changing colour based on which character you're playing, that only leaves 3 sets left for every single other sprite, which includes vegetables and pretty much anything else that has to move around the screen.[[note]]Though note that it's moving around the screen that matters here: tiles - the other type of object used in NES games - get their own four colour sets, and can be animated by flicking through a series of tiles, but they have to fit into the grid, and the NES can only have a limited number of tiles ready to use at the same time.[[/note]] You can't change the colour scheme assigned to the enemy without changing all other enemies and whatnots using that colour choice, but you can switch that particular enemy's sprite to one of the other colour sets, and the player character's colour set is about the only one that's at all predictable.[[note]]By the way, this restriction actually determines what vegetables are used in a level. The new vegetables seen in the battle against Wart use his (or his bubbles') colour scheme, for example.[[/note]]

* Not only do the current (as of 2011) line of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' figurines resemble more toward pre-G4 versions, but various background characters (sometimes not even existing in the [[hottip:series:not yet anyway]]) are palette swaps of the main characters, if their packaging graphic is anything to go by. For instance, look up Dewdrop Dazzle[[note]]of Twilight Sparkle[[/note]], Feathermay[[note]]of Rainbow Dash[[/note]], Flitterheart[[note]]of Fluttershy[[/note]], Lulu Luck[[note]]of Rarity[[/note]], Plumsweet[[note]]of Pinkie Pie[[/note]], Snowcatcher[[note]]of Rarity also[[/note]], Twinkleshine[[note]]of rarity yet again[[/note]] if you're already familiar with the main G4 cast. Some other examples show attempt to differentiate however, such as "Cupcake" being a wingless version of Fluttershy, or "Sunny Daze" being a non-unicorn Sweetie Belle, or even "Minty" as an Applejack mold sans the hat.

** Note that the default ninjas in all four [=2D=] ''Mortal Kombat'' games for the arcade (counting the original version of ''3'' and the ''Ultimate'' edition separately) actually had different fighting stances from each other, so they were not full-fledge palette swaps. However, the hidden variants played this straight.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}} by Cranky Kong in the Game Boy Advance version of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', after a boss battle with "Really Gnawty", a recolored version of the first boss, "Very Gnawty", which is itself a [[KingMook big version of a normal enemy]] called "Gnawty". The quote at the top of the page comes from after defeating Master Necky Sr., a palette swap of Master Necky Jr.

*** The rest of Donkey Kong follows suit with different coloured Kremlins and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou other mooks]], this gives away whether or not some are DemonicSpiders (The grey Klobbas that rob you of lives) or InvincibleMinorMinion (The Red Zingers)

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' had brown Paragoombas that hopped along the ground, and tan Paragoombas that actually flew around, dropping Microgoombas. Gold Cheep-Cheeps and green Parabeetles were among the DummiedOut enemies.

*** Don't forget about these: a Koopa climbing into a Yellow Shell would become a color-flashing and resilient Koopa that relentlessly chases you down, and a Koopa stomped out of a Blue Shell would become a shell-kicker. The caped-and-flying Koopas are from red, green, and blue shells.

[[caption-width-right:300:And that's not even counting Reptile, [[SuperSmoke Smoke]], [[MindOverMatter Ermac]], [[MakingASplash Rain]], [[CastingAShadow Noob]]...]]

** The pre-"Extended Cut" ending to ''MassEffect3'' was a rather infamous example of this. While there were some minor differences between each of the MultipleEndings, the difference between the vast majority of the footage was [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPelM2hwhJA a matter of the color of the particle effects]].

* The Koubu mecha in the first ''SakuraTaisen'' games are identical aside from color. The second game added another set of sprites for the two characters with European designed mecha. Once the games entered 3D with the third game, each characters mecha became more individualized with unique emblems, animations, and weapon models.

[[folder:Roguelike]]
* {{Roguelike}} games such as ''VideoGame/NetHack'' use standard ASCII characters in place of actual graphics, so using different colors is the only way to have a large number of distinguishable objects or creatures.
[[/folder]]

** The NES version has Glass Joe and Don Flamenco, Von Kaiser and Great Tiger, Bald Bull and Mr. Sandman (returning from the arcade game), [[InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou Vodka Drunkenski]] / [[FrothyMugsOfWater Soda Popinski]] and Super Macho Man (returning from the arcade sequel Super Punch-Out), and Piston Honda and Mike Tyson / [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Mr. Dream]].

* The various enemies in ''ShiningInTheDarkness''.

* ''Videogame/ShiningTheHolyArk'' was really bad with this, to the point where simliar looking enemies would reappear in the dungeon after the next. It was probably because they were all heavily animated (for the time) so the game couldn't physically have as many enemies.

* This is the difference in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode [[Recap/CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation Physical Education]] between [[spoiler:Abed]] and his IdenticalStranger.

** The pre-"Extended Cut" ending to ''MassEffect3'' was a rather infamous example of this. While there were some minor differences between each of the MultipleEndings, the difference between the vast majority of the footage was a matter of the color of the particle effects.

** The pre-"Extended Cut" ending to ''MassEffect3'' was a rather infamous example of this. While there were some minor differences between each of the MultipleEndings, the difference between the vast majority of the footage was a matter of the color of the particle effects.

->''"It's just like the old days, reusing the boss, changing its color and pretending it is completely new."''

This is seen in some platformers, but it most often appears in {{Role Playing Game}}s and {{Fighting Game}}s. In fighting games, this is commonly used to differentiate players using the same character, but it is also employed to create "new" characters. In the 8- and 16-bit era [=RPG=]s, it was pervasive: because of console limitations, disk and screen space were serious concerns. {{Palette Swap}}ping was used to create a [[UndergroundMonkey large variety of different enemies]], often using different colors for various power levels. (The most famous group of these are probably the Slimes, topped by the powerful MetalSlime, of DragonQuest fame.)

* In ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster'' , the Stage 6 and 7 bosses are palette swaps of the Stage 2 and 4 bosses, respectively. The palette-swapped versions were [[ThatOneBoss very hard to beat]] [[spoiler:without using the [[GoodBadBugs grenade-pause cheat]]]].
* The handheld ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}'' games since ''HarmonyOfDissonance'' have been accused of palette swapping (some point out the Saturn Port of Symphony of Night had Maria's spells being copied out of ''Gradius'' games, showing that this practice has been around much longer then most initially suspected). Some think the naming of the recolored Minotaur in ''Aria of Sorrow'' as simply Red Minotaur might be a LampshadeHanging.
** The palette swapping of the Metroidvania games shares a common source point: ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood''. Almost everything else is from SymphonyOfTheNight instead. This is literally sprite reuse going from 1993 to about now. Harmony was worst about this though: many enemies had level 2 and even level 3 versions.

* The ''StreetsOfRage'' series used palette swaps for enemies very often

* ''FinalFight'' mostly averts this by making variants of the same enemy {{head swap}}s as well, but there are a few notable exception: Roxy is just Poison with orange hair and everyone in the Andore clan are identical except for the colors of their clothing (lavender for the standard Andore, red for Junior, gold for Father, black for Uncle and blue for Grandpa). There are also red-clothed variants of Holly Wood who carries Molotov cocktails instead of his usual knives.

* The arcade version of ''NinjaGaiden'' (aka ''Shadow Warriors'') features six stages, the same four staple adversaries, a few novelties here and there, three distinct end of stage bosses, one final boss, and a different palette for each stage. There are also ninja mooks who are just palette swaps of the player characters ([[ColorCodedMultiplayer who are already themselves palette swaps of each other]]).

* ''MortalKombat'' was one of the most notorious examples of this trope with its "Palette Swap {{Ninja}}s". There was an increasing number of ninja characters (Scorpion, Sub-Zero, et al.) of three basic types -- male, female, cyborg -- in the games, almost all of whom used the same basic set of sprites, with the color scheme altered to match the individual character. Illustrated [[http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/1/3/0/93130_v1.jpg here]]. With the advance of video game technology, in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'' and beyond the various ninjas have been redesigned to avoid this, however - particularly Reptile and Rain.

* In the FightingGame ''SoulCalibur'', the character Kilik is a Palette Swap -- in the shared motion data sense -- of Seung Mina. (This is explained in game by both characters using the same fighting style: Ling Sheng Su.)
** Hwang is an odd case. In the original ''SoulEdge'', he was a "motion swap" of Mitsurugi for Korean localization. In ''SoulCalibur'', he became a swap of Xianghua, but shared some kicks with Seung Mina. By ''SoulCalibur III'', he was the representative of the Chinese Sword style.

* In ''[[TheConduit Conduit 2]]'', the models of the soldiers are all the same, but the armor they wear is chosen randomly.
* ''MetroidPrime 2: Echoes'' has Samus' arm cannon weapons use the same "configuration" models as the ones used in the previous game with the only difference being the textures of the inner workings (Samus' arm cannon changes shape based on what beam weapon is currently in use). Dark Beam=Ice Beam, Light Beam=Wave Beam, and Annihilator Beam=Plasma Beam.

* One of the first games to use Palette Swaps was ''PacMan''. If you haven't noticed, each of the 4 Ghost Monsters has a different way of chasing the player. [[note]] Namely: Blinky (the red ghost) actively chases you, Pinky (the pink one) tries to maneuver around you and then cut off your path in an ambush, Inky (the light blue ghost) tries to avoid you unless he really has to chase you, and Clyde (the orange ghost) will keep searching for you in every nook and cranny even if you are right in front of him.[[/note]]

* ''PhantasyStarOnline'' plays this straight for their non-unique weapons. All basic weapons only differentiate in color and name to denote how powerful they are (from weakest to strongest, the colors are green, blue, purple, red, and yellow.)
** ''PhantasyStarUniverse'' takes this a step further. In addition to non-unique weapons differentiating in color, both non-unique and rare weapons have a bland-looking "Kubara" version that usually has worse stats, but offers larger grind bonuses.

* ''CityOfHeroes'' makes frequent use of Palette Swapping in uniformed enemy groups such as Arachnos, where different ranks (and sometimes entirely different classes!) of enemies share the same uniform with a modified color scheme. I.E. Psychic Fortunatas wear red versions of the normal Night and Blood Widow uniforms. Arbiters (who are the highest ranking members of Arachnos, said to be above even the four Archvillains in terms of authority) wear shiny versions of the [[FacelessGoons Wolf Spider]] uniform.\\

* RuneScape Classic used this trope: the game environment was 3d but the enemies were 2D sprites, so enemies such as "thief" "man" and "farmer" were often simply palette swaps of one another. Also, the customizable player character models could be considered this as well.

[[folder: Platform Game ]]
* In ''SuperMarioBros'', Red Koopa Troopas are smart enough to turn around when they come to a ledge, while Green ones walk right off, even into a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}.

** Also in ''SuperMarioBros'', [[MemeticMutation the graphic used for the bushes is simply a recolour of the one used for the clouds.]]
*** Also also, the 1up Mushroom was a Super Mushroom with different-colored cap and spots. Although this was the case with the Poison Mushroom in the original version of ''SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'' (which was only released outside of Japan via the VirtualConsole), it gained a more distinct appearance in later versions of the game to make the game slightly less [[NintendoHard frustrating]].

*** Don't forget about these: a Koopa climbing into a Yellow Shell would become a [[strike:multicolored]] color-flashing and [[strike:invincible]] resilient Koopa that relentlessly chases you down, and a Koopa stomped out of a Blue Shell would become a shell-kicker. The caped-and-flying Koopas are from red, green, and blue shells.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Cranky Kong in the Game Boy Advance version of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', after a boss battle with "Really Gnawty", a recolored version of the first boss, "Very Gnawty", which is itself a [[KingMook big version of a normal enemy]] called "Gnawty". The quote at the top of the page comes from after defeating Master Necky Sr., a palette swap of Master Necky Jr.

** The ''MetroidPrime'' series used this fairly often. For example, the Phaz-Ing in 3 are reskins of the Inglets in 2, the Mechlopses in 2 are reskins of the Triclopses in 1, 2 used reskins to create "Dark" versions of many enemies, and so on. In a somewhat odd aversion, the Bombus from 1 were reused as Luminoth drones in 2 with no changes to appearance and only the most minor alterations to activity.

* ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Super Star'' uses different palettes for the Helpers and their enemy counterparts (with the exception of Wheelie). Of note is that the Helpers' colors are in fact their standard palettes as {{Mook}}s in ''other'' Kirby games. ''Milky Way Wishes'' adds a third palette to most (all?) enemies, and the ''Helper to Hero'' mode in ''Kirby Super Star [[VideoGameRemake Ultra]]'' adds a ''fourth'' to their playable versions.

* Averted by the main characters in the arcade versions of ''{{Contra}}'' and ''Super Contra'', which used different sprites for Bill and Lance (Bill wore a white tank top, while Lance was shirtless). Due to hardware limitations of the NES, their versions of both games used the same sprite for Bill and Lance, changing only the color of their pants, making Bill the "blue guy" and Lance the "red guy". Oddly enough, ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' for the SNES followed this convention as well.

* ''{{Purple}}'' reuses enemy sprites with different colours and [[UndergroundMonkey gives them different behaviour]].

** In the ''StarCraft'' campaign, special units were often assigned a different team color so the player could tell them apart from their normal counterparts. Only Kerrigan in her Zerg form had a completely unique character model.

* ''StarWars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption'' example: Grand Admiral Thrawn's flagship, the ''Admonitor'', is a blue version of the ''Accuser'', Captain Piett's ship from the original ''Empire at War'', but with a different special (all Star Destroyers have a tractor beam special).

* The ''FinalFantasy'' games feature a lot of these, including {{Underground Monkey}}s. Perhaps the most noticeable example is ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'''s Monster Arena, where all the bonus monsters are simply previous enemies and bosses colored differently (save for Neslug).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' still uses {{Palette Swap}}s, but rely on them a lot less than the past games did. For example, dragons and wolves will still come in different colors, but will also have other features added to make them different from their weaker counterparts, such as spikes on the skull, sport flaming eyes, being larger than the previous monsters, etc. However, the animations are still recycled for all monsters that are in the same family tree. There are mentions of migration and evolution of creatures occasionally in the lore, though, which explains a good few examples... but not why the wolves' basic attack is an uppercut performed with their snouts[[note]]since they use the same animations as the Hyenas, which have a sharp horn on their muzzles that the wolves lack[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' did this, but had the decency to occasionally add subtle changes to their swapped sprites (a dog-collar on the wolf sprite to make a 'stray dog', rust marks on the robot sprite to make the 'scrapper'...)

* While ''{{Pokemon}}'' avoids doing this with their own {{Mons}} (with the possible exception of Plusle and Minun, who are palette swaps of each other on purpose), the anime likes to [[http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/features/recycling.html reuse trainer designs they've already done]], including an ''audience'' for Contests.

* ''The7thSaga'' has the infamously GenreSavvy BountyHunter Pison, who, after begin defeated the first time, shows up unexpectedly later in the quest and proudly announces that he is now ''Red''-Pison. Turns out to be ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and you immediately fight a stronger version of the original enemy, now palette-swapped to red. He even does this ''again'' even later on, becoming Metal-Pison and getting a gunmetal gray recolor.

* The various ''PhantasyStar'' games have used this. The first Phantasy Star had one notable (for an ancient 8-bit game) detail: the [[DemBones skeleton-type]] enemies had a different shield design for all three of their swaps.

* In ''Cthulu Saves the World'' they switch palettes on several early goons to be used again later. The trope is called out sarcastically in one monster's description, "Definitely not just a palette swap.".

* In ''PunchOut'', each of the boxers (except King Hippo) has a swapped counterpart with a different face:

** A similar effect is seen in most other NipponIchi titles, including ''LaPucelle'' and ''MakaiKingdom''. ''PhantomBrave'' did it with the titles attached to characters instead of classes.
** [[spoiler:This is why Fuka [[MistakenForMurderer mistook]] [[CainAndAbel Desco for Des X]] at first - the fact is even lampshaded by Emizel when they meet proper.]]
* The ''FireEmblem'' series plays this in several different ways:

** Boss portraits are perhaps the more obvious example of this trope in the series, as after the NES era it wasn't really an acceptable break from reality based on technical constraints, unlike everyone's battle sprites being identical. The older the game, the more likely you'll run into a lookalike boss with a random palette. [[FireEmblemJugdral Jugdral]] is most notorious for this since it was done with semi-important villains, though [[FireEmblemAkaneia Akaneia]] was even worse. After ''[[FireEmblemElibe Sword of Seals]]'', which memorably had [[ExaggeratedTrope six palette swaps of the same boss character all as the bosses of the same chapter]], the practice waned through the [[FireEmblemElibe rest of the]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones handheld games]] before finally ending for good in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Tellius]].

* ''LuminousArc'' and [[LuminousArc2 its sequel]] are horrible about this. There are probably less than ten different monster sprites that are recolored to make all the generic enemies you face.

* Not only do the current (as of 2011) line of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' figurines resemble more toward pre-G4 versions, but various background characters (sometimes not even existing in the [[hottip:series:not yet anyway]]) are palette swaps of the main characters, if their packaging graphic is anything to go by. For instance, look up Dewdrop Dazzle[[hottip:*:of Twilight Sparkle]], Feathermay[[hottip:*:of Rainbow Dash]], Flitterheart[[hottip:*:of Fluttershy]], Lulu Luck[[hottip:*:of Rarity]], Plumsweet[[hottip:*:of Pinkie Pie]], Snowcatcher[[hottip:*:of Rarity also]], Twinkleshine[[hottip:*:of rarity yet again]] if you're already familiar with the main G4 cast. Some other examples show attempt to differentiate however, such as "Cupcake" being a wingless version of Fluttershy, or "Sunny Daze" being a non-unicorn Sweetie Belle, or even "Minty" as an Applejack mold sans the hat.

It was also [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a discussion between the BigBad and his minion, where the BigBad complains he has no time because he has to create new monsters to send after the protagonists, and the minion points out he usually just takes an existing monster and puts 'Ice' in front of it's name.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': The Underlings of Sburb are all the same basic few monster species given countless different colours themed after grist types, and all bearing [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot some combination of the attributes of the players' prototypings]]. Given that it's an ersatz RPG in webcomic form, it's probably a homage to the PaletteSwap practice in general.
* In ''BobAndGeorge'', many of the characters were recolors. Indeed, [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000425c this might be the first recolor ever.]] [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000501c And this the first intentional one.]]

** [[spoiler:Stewie creates an even eviller clone of himself and the only appearance change is that the colours of his clothes swap.]]