History Main / UnderGroundMonkey

* Some enemies in ''VideoGame/SingularStone'' are this, mostly based if you use [[WeatherManipulation Miku's ability to make snow fall]] in the area. One of the notable one are the Skyfish from the Canyon area: the blue one appears in group when it's snowing and quite weak, while the orange one appear in solitary when it's not snowing, but moves ''really'' fast and tough to fight.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' introduces the concept of regional variants: existing Pokémon species that have changed their typings, abilities and appearances after adapting to a completely different environment. Some of the regional variants introduced in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'' have new evolutions, too. In the latter's case, it's implied that the regional forms and the Pokemon that evolve into these forms (including some Gen 5 and Gen 6 Pokémon like Rufflet, Petilil, Bergmite and Goomy) have all become extinct in Sinnoh by the modern era.

** A mean estimate for the total number of beetle species is 1.5 million, 400,000 of which have been described. Beetles make up 40% of all insect species and 25% of all animal species. Some take this to an extreme and claim that there are '''''30 million''''' species, a number that is certainly a hyperbole but shows the extent of beetle species there are. There is even a quote (often attributed to Darwin, although [[BeamMeUpScotty no one knows for sure]]) that says "If there is a creator, he has an inordinate fondness for beetles."

Not to be confused with actual monkeys living underground, such as [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 beneath Dusty Dunes Desert]] or [[Manga/CromartieHighSchool under the sewers]].

Sprites and models are expensive[[note]]and use up precious memory, on older hardware[[/note]]. Original ideas for monster types are even more so. As a result, there is a tendency to keep the number of distinct enemy types small. In an RPG or similar game where the player is expected to become more powerful over the course of the game, this is a problem, as the monsters stop being challenging about the time you GetOnTheBoat.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Bug}} Bug!]]'' tended to use different enemies for each area, although some enemies are variants of others:

[[quoteright:349:[[VideoGame/DragonQuest https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bunch_of_slimes_5649.jpg]]]]

* In the ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuest Dragon Quest/Warrior]]'' series:

** [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda The very first game]] use of two palettes for most enemies and some bosses, usually a standard red/orange palette and a stronger blue palette. This would be re-used in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'' , the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''. Some of the palette swaps also have behavior differences, e.g. Red Wizzrobes TeleportSpam and take potshots at Link, while Blue ones more directly pursue him.

* Enemy types in ''VideoGame/SaintSeiyaOugonDensetsu Kanketsu Hen'' are only three: normal, [[BladeOnAStick spearmen]] and archers. They all use the same sprite, only changing colors as the player progress in the game.

** The Brain Sucker in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3'' is an upgraded skin-swap of the Drain Deimos with a [[PoisonousPerson poisonous attack]].

* In ''VideoGame/MOTHER1'', the Lone Wolf, Silver Wolf, and Wolf are all the same sprite with different colors, and the Stray Dog is a wolf sprite colored brown with a chain around its neck. ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' and ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' give the palette swaps goofy names. For instance, you have the 'Manly Fish' and his stronger swap, the 'Manly Fish's Brother'.

* ''VideoGame/{{Temtem}}'' has Chromeon and Koish, which both come in 12 forms, one for every type. Each form has a different colour scheme, head shape, and movepool.

* In the remake to ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', all of the new bosses save [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand Kabula]] are stronger versions of bosses from the original:

** The majority of monsters in the series have at least one recolor, including regular bosses. In fact, the secret boss of Dragon Quest 6 is a palette swap of an earlier boss. It's easier to count the few enemies with unique sprites. Special note must go to the [[MascotMook Slime]], which has taken this so far it has ''its own entire monster-class''. In almost every game, one of the first common enemies you encounter is the standard blue slime. Then, you meet the She-Slime (which is, in fact, [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale slightly stronger]]), or Red Slime in early games. Going beyond that, we'd have to split this up to organize it better. Note in advance that a lot of sub-types are basically cross-breeds between more established types of slime, with [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs an appropriate naming convention]]. The ''Dragon Quest Monsters'' spinoff series created all sorts of these.
** Slimes that retain their basic design include the Slime, the She-Slime, the Mottle Slime[[note]]Which appears in Dragon Quest VI and is your first major clue that something is very ''different'' about the world of the game[[/note]], the Mottle She-Slime, the Mottle Mendslime, the Behemoth Slime, ''the Beshemoth'' Slime, the Slime Stack (a tower of three slimes achieved by [[FusionDance slimification]]), and the King Slime (a slimification of ''eight'' slimes). We'll also count the Grandpa Slime, who competes for the top spot of all slimes with a handful of other slimes.
** KnightErrant: The Slime Knight series consists of slimes who run around carrying blade-swinging riders. There's the basic Slime Knight, the Metal Slime Knight (which is, strangely, ''not'' a MetalSlime kind of enemy), the Dark Slime Knight (who rides around on a Dark Slime and has an axe), the Dark Lancer from ''Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road'' (who rides on a Black Slime recolor and wields a JoustingLance), and Dragon Quest IX introduced the Slionheart, Prime Slime, and [[FourStarBadass Shogum]].
** TheMedic: The Healslime series, which in design are essentially floating jellyfish slimes, spend most of their time healing other monsters. There's the basic Healslime, the Cureslime, the Medislime, the Sootheslime[[note]]While the healslime is the basic variant, the Cureslime, Medislime, and Sootheslime bounce around in terms of power -- the Medislime was originally stronger than the Cureslime when it debuted, but later games demoted it to an intermediary level. Sootheslimes from DQIX furthered the gap by being situated between the Medi- and Cureslimes[[/note]], the [=Man'o'War=] (which [[StatusEffects inflicts paralysis]] instead of healing... and is usually the only one of these jellyfish to ''hang out near the ocean''), the Magic Slime (which appears in the GBA and NDS Monsters titles), and the King Cureslime (which is actually just a green PaletteSwap of the King Slime).
** MetalSlime: The Metal Slime (of course), the Mettle Slime (a "baby" Metal Slime that appears in Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2) the Metal Medley (which is three Metal Slimes stacked one atop the other) and the Gem Jamboree, the Liquid Metal Slime, the Metal King Slime, the [=DrakMetal=] (a crossbreed with Drake Slimes from DQVII), the Metal Kaiser Slime, the Platinum King Jewel[[note]]Creator/AkiraToriyama-inspired (and designed!)[[/note]] (and its variants Gem Slime, Slemperor, and Darkonium Slime), the Diamond Slime, and, as of DQM Joker 2 Professional, the Liquid Metal King Slime.

** The Fire Monk faction has the Blackflame Monks, [[PalatteSwap palatte swaps]] of the regular Fire Monks who have defected to the Godslayer cult and wield Blackflame instead of the Giant's Flame.

-->''It's a different color, so it's a bit stronger now.''

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' as a whole loves this. The anime itself has recolors who are merely a different attribute (such as say, [=BlackGarurumon=], who is a Virus-type counterpart to Garurumon), different element (such as Yukidarumon and Tsuchidarumon, snow and ground respectively), or just a recolor for the sake of being a recolor. The Digimon games add to this by not only having the original recolors included, but several entirely recolored evolution lines, Rookie to Mega, in Vaccine, Data and Virus flavors. Taken to an absurd extreme with likes of Soulmon, who is a Bakemon with a wizard's hat (that's the ONLY difference) and [=NiseDrimogemon=], which is merely a Drimogemon with a ''swirly mustache''. To top it all of there are the many, many variations of Numemon and Sukamon, including Gold- and Platinum-, just to name a few. Possibly parodied in the first season of the anime, where all the heroes' Digimon have to do to infiltrate an outpost of the bad guys is put on some wigs and pretend to be an entirely different, made-up species of Digimon.

** This has since become a recurring feature of ''Kirby'', having harder versions of the main game’s mini-bosses and main bosses with many new attacks and new colors (with a few having changes to the model itself as well), usually indicted by an addition to their name shared with most of the other upgraded bosses. ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'' has the EX bosses for the game’s Extra Mode, ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'' has the DX bosses for the ''Dededetour'' mode, ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' has the 2.0 bosses for ''Meta Knightmare Returns'', and ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' has the Parallel bosses for ''Heroes in Another Dimension''.

* The Super Hulk or Super Mech from ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' is a red version of the Medium Hulk that is much tougher and armed with homing missiles. The Fusion Hulk is [[DegradedBoss a scaled down version]] of the first boss armed with a Fusion Cannon. In the second game, the Spawn is a green version of the Red Hornet, and the Tiger or Red Fatty Jr. uses the same model as the first boss, although it is smaller and has completely different weapons.

%%* The personal teleporters of Alien captains in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D''.

* ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' has the weapon guards, which have different weaponry and/or levels of toughness.

* FPS games regularly do this with at least one of the more basic enemies (but tougher opponents sometimes get the same treatment). In the older era, this was done by changing the colouring of otherwise identical sprites, in 3D games it takes the somewhat more advanced and differentiating form of using different skins for the same model (or even different models for the same enemy). Common expressions of this include:
** Different weaponry and/or levels of toughness of the opponents (e.g. the weapon guards of ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' and its expansions, the Cabal followers of ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'', Barons of Hell and Hellknights in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/DoomII'', the Melee-based Skaarj Warriors and Weapon-based Skaarj Troopers of ''VideoGame/UnrealI'').
** Somewhat different abilities between the enemy types (e.g. the semi-invisibility of Spectres in the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' series, the personal teleporters of Alien captains in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', the ability to fire when shielded of the Elite Mercenaries of ''VideoGame/UnrealI'' compared to the non-Elite counterparts)
** Just plain diversity, especially common in regards to enemies meant to be more or less regular human beings. This in order to avoid the effect of feeling that the enemies faced are the same individual cloned countless times, usually to the effect of creating the impression that such cloning rather took place on [[YouALLLookFamiliar three to five different individuals]] instead.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 2'', Blind Ones, Fireborns, and Troopers are skin swaps of Sentinels, Endtrails, and Mantid Soldiers, respectively. The former two are literal underground mooks.

** An example that overlaps with OurMerfolkAreDifferent, ''D&D'' has a long history of populating underwater adventures or regions of the world by just taking an existing race and letting it breathe underwater. And usually slapping [[AmazinglyTechnicolorPopulation blue/green colors on it]] alongside gills and webbed digits. The most well-known example is the Aquatic Elf subrace, which is literally "elf, but blue, breathes water and swims good". Older monster examples include the merrow (underwater ogre), scrag (underwater troll) and koalinth (underwater hobgoblin).

* Slimes in ''{{VideoGame/Terraria}}''. At first there are only PaletteSwaps green slimes, blue slimes, red slimes, etc. As you venture further out though a unique slime can be found for each environment, ice slimes, jungle slimes, desert slimes, etc.

* Every boss not important to the story is simply a giant version of a normal enemy, a practice that would carry over to ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}''. {{Justified|Trope}}, due to the [[TheHeartless nature]] of the Shadows.

** Played straight with some of the ''Trainer classes'' -- while there are no palette swaps, and the in-battle sprites of the Trainer classes are all unique, several classes often share the same ''overworld'' sprite. While this problem was also prevalent in the first three generations, it's especially noticeable in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''. For example, Ace Trainers, Rangers, Bird Keepers, and Dragon Tamers look the same until you fight them (and the overworld sprite of all are clearly that of the Ace Trainers). [=PIs=], which is a Trainer class that wears a red trenchcoat and hat, also use the same overworld sprite as the Rich Boy Trainer class. The most egregious example is perhaps the Psychic Trainer class, as, despite being a class available for both genders, the overworld sprite for both genders is completely identical, meaning the only way to find out their gender is to battle them.

* ''Morrowind'' had a considerable lack of diversity amongst its native fauna, resorting heavily to underground monkeyism to create a wider range of enemies. This was somewhat justifiable in the sense that most of the game took place on a single island, and travelling northwest to the island of Solstheim introduced you to a set of entirely new creatures. Who also has some underground monkeyism, though unlike the base game most of them at least have new * ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' also has a small handful of these, thanks to palette swaps and the occasional replacement part in monster sprites (several Chariot Arcana demons the most obvious of the latter, using the same giant brute body with different heads and colors).

* ''Adan'' spoofs this trope in the video ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r-jmIOrgD8 The uninspired Boss]]'', where players being disappointed by the boss just being a slightly tougher PalleteSwap of what they were fighting before.