The levels Witchyworld, Glitter Gulch Mine and the lava side of Hailfire Peaks in Banjo-Tooie were originally intended for Banjo-Kazooie, but couldn't be included there due to time constraints.
In a case of Refitted For Creator-Driven Successor, the scrapped level Fungus Forest made its way into Donkey Kong 64 as Fungi Forest. Many of the songs that composer Grant Kirkhope wrote for Dream, the project that would eventually become Banjo-Kazooie, found a home in Donkey Kong 64 as well.
Bayonetta 3: Less "for sequel" and more "from cancelled project". Bayonetta fighting alongside the massive demons she summons brings to mind the dragon controlling aspect of Scalebound, a cancelled title from PlatinumGames. Considering that game's lead designer, Yusuke Miyata, went on to direct Bayonetta 3, this was likely intentional. Additionally, Viola's heavy resemblance (both in looks and backstory) to Nero from the Devil May Cry series seems to also be recycled from Scalebound, whose main character was a Nero Expy named Drew.
Blood (1997) was planned to have a mechanic called Bloodlust where killing enough enemies would briefly turn Caleb into a creepy demon-thing called a Beast, which is visible on certain HUD configurations in an Orphaned Reference. This was ultimately dropped due to playtesters finding that it wasn't fun to lose all their guns and be limited to claw attacks as a "reward" for playing the game well. Due to the game having multiplayer, the Beast happened to have a full set of sprites, which meant that the Plasma Pak expansion could repurpose the Beast as a Final Boss.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has a level ("Contingency") with a setpiece that can't be seen during normal gameplay — as you fight off enemy forces, Price goes inside the Russian submarine and launches a nuclear missile. It was originally possible to follow Price inside the sub yourself (instead of being stuck outside on the dock), and could watch as he went through the process of arming and firing the missile in real-time. Come Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the first level of the game concludes with a sequence where you follow your AI partner inside a similar Russian submarine to disable it and then launch its missiles at the rest of the Russian fleet, using the same animations and level layout as the scrapped sub interior from the previous game.
Modern Warfare 2 also had a planned (but scrapped early on) sequence where Russian forces would invade the International Space Station (ISS), forcing the onboard staff members to defend the station and prevent it from being hacked. This was stripped down in the final game to an interactive cutscene where an astronaut watches the nuclear device detonate before being hit by a shockwave. Call of Duty: Ghosts reuses the level idea for the first stage, where a pair of scientists defend the ODIN space station from enemy forces before it disintegrates and the player character(s) accept their fate.
Call of Duty 4 had a pair of levels intended for its Variety Map Pack, "Invasion" and "Favela", which were ultimately cut from the DLC before being released as default maps for Modern Warfare 2.
More like "Refitted For Another Franchise," but the beta for Danganronpa, originally called DISTRUST, had a trust mechanic that decided the fates of certain characters. This would later be reused for Virtue's Last Reward, the second game in the Zero Escape series, also by Spike Chunsoft.
Concept art for Mondo Owada had a design that would later be used for Gundham Tanaka in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Similar, one initial design sketch for Sakura Ogami, depicting her as much more petite and wielding a wooden sword, would be used to influence Peko Pekoyama's design.
The death of Ryoma Hoshi from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony was reworked from the unused execution of Aoi Asahina in the first game. Similarly, the execution of Kirumi Tojo has some elements of Kiyotaka and Byakuya's unused executions.
LINUJ, creator of the fan game Danganronpa Another, initially planned to reveal Kanata Inori as Cute and Psycho, but got cold feet and eventually decided against it. He took another swing at the concept in its sequel Super Danganronpa Another 2, this time through Kanade Otonokoji.
The original Darius was planned to feature 26 bosses, one for each level, but this was not possible for the final release due to time and space limitations. Some of the scrapped bosses (Driosawm, Hyper Sting and Little Stripes) would be featured in Darius II instead and the original 26 bosses plan was restored for the game's Super Darius port, 3 years after the release of the arcade version, as well as the 2019 Genesis Mini port of the original Darius as an option in the settings menu.
According to a Famitsu interview, series director Hideaki Itsuno wanted to implement a motorbike weapon into the series as early as the second game, but was limited by time and struggled to return to the idea until Devil May Cry 5 with the weapon Cavaliere, which acts as a motorbike and splits into dual buzzsaws, and is a fan favourite weapon.
Devil May Cry 4 was forced to cut multiple aspects due to limited development that were brought back in Devil May Cry 5.
Nero was originally going to receive a more traditional Devil Trigger◊, but ultimately only had a ghostly Devil Trigger. At the end of the 5th game, Nero finally achieves his true Devil Trigger◊.
Dante was originally going to receive his Devil Arms from bosses as he did in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, with the defeated bosses becoming weapons, but in the final game he only fights the same bosses as Nero. One of his weapons, Gilgamesh, was repurposed as a boss in the 5th game, though likely in a different fashion than originally intended.
The second mission of Dishonored's first DLC, The Knife of Dunwall ("Eminent Domain"), in which lead character Daud is tasked with infiltrating Dunwall's Legal District, meeting informant Thalia Timsh and either tricking her or assassinating her, was originally planned for the base game, notably being the site of the first gameplay demo shown to journalists, along with promotional photos shown in various gaming magazines. Some minor changes were made for the DLC, including the change of the target from the planned barrister Arnold Timsh to Thalia, and a few changed level markers and encounters.
An early version of Doom II's Map 10 can be found in an alpha version of the first game. It was designed by Tom Hall, giving him the unique distinction of having contributed to Doom II despite having left id Software before the game was even conceived.
The footage leaked from the original version of Doom 4 showed human soldiers preparing to fight off a demonic invasion on Earth, meant as both a supposed sequel to the events of Doom³ and a remake of Doom II. While the game ended up turning into the rather different Doom (2016), the "Hell on Earth" concept was reused for its sequel Doom Eternal.
Dragon Age II was supposed to receive an Expansion Pack, titled The Exalted March, which would concern the eponymous holy crusade against Kirkwall and Hawke's efforts to repel it. Due to DA2 cold reception, the plans for the expansion were aborted, but Word of God is that most of its storyline was incorporated into Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third core installment, in one way or another.
The developers intended to use the song "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" by The Ink Spots in the intro for the original Fallout, but were unable to get the license, so they replaced it with "Maybe", another song by The Ink Spots. "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" was then planned to be used in the ending of the cancelled Fallout: Van Buren before finally being used in Fallout 3's intro.
Van Buren was canceled, but the majority of the plot and Caesar's Legion was incorporated into Fallout: New Vegas. And the parts of Van Buren that weren't part of New Vegas proper were used for DLC, namely Honest Hearts.
The DLC to New Vegas is based around this. Originally the base game was going to have another companion named Ulysses, a Legion sympathizer. He was removed from the main game, but was expanded to having a major role in the backstories of the first three DLCs and then becoming the Big Bad of Lonesome Road.
Fallout 3 includes an unused model for a freezing weapon called a Cryolator, which becomes usable in Fallout 4.
Fallout 4 contains an unused, roughly textured model of a harpoon gun. A harpoon gun could later be obtained in the Far Harbor DLC, though with a different design.
Far Harbor itself was going to contain a compound bow weapon, which would later be in Fallout 76 along with a regular bow and a crossbow.
SNK employee Nobuyuki Kuroki pitched the idea of a karate practitioner with a pompadour haircut as one of the new characters for Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, but was turned down. His concept would eventually make it across the finish line in the form of Marco Rodrigues in Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
One of the new characters designed for the unmade Garou sequel was a young female Muay Thai fighter who have acted as Joe's next generation equivalent in the same way Rock, Marco and Hokutomaru did for Terry/Geese, Ryo and Andy, respectively. This idea was eventually resurrected over two decades later as Preecha in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses: A datamine of the game reveals a member of "those who slither in the dark" named Cleobulus, who was ultimately unused. The name Cleobulus reappeared, however, in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, as the name of the TWSITD member who replaced Cornelia.
Final Fantasy II had a dungeon theme composed for it that, for whatever reason, ultimately went unused. It was later fleshed out, rearranged, and worked into Final Fantasy VI as "The Magic House".
Moogles were meant to debut in Final Fantasy II. Originally called Cryons, they would reside in cold environments and were ultimately replaced by beavers in the final game. The sprite was reused in Final Fantasy III and they were renamed moogles.
When the whole dev team was working together to come up with Jobs for Final Fantasy V, Tetsuya Nomura came up with two - a new variant of the Ninja that had a Canine Companion, and a Gambler who used slot-machine-based magic and dice-roll-based damage. Neither made it into V due to time constraints, but Nomura was given creative control over two party members in Final Fantasy VI who have these Jobs - Shadow, and Setzer.
The Final Fantasy VIIIFinal Boss track "The Extreme" was originally written for Final Fantasy VII (probably an alternate version of the Jenova battle theme) - you can hear the five-note Leitmotif of that game incorporated into the arrangement.
During the planning stages of Final Fantasy VII, the writers considered killing Barret Wallace but ultimately decided against it because they didn't think it would have enough of an impact. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, Sephiroth stabs Barret through the chest in order to draw out the Whispers; he would have died had they not intervened.
The original game was originally meant to feature female scientists, one of whom would have betrayed Gordon and sold him out to the military. The concept of a traitorous lady doctor would eventually be realized with Dr. Judith Mossman in Half-Life 2.
An idea for Xen was that Gordon would end up causing a Vortigaunt revolt, winning them over as allies. While the revolt didn't make the cut, the base idea would later be used in Half-Life 2.
Dr. Gina Cross was, at one point, intended to be Gordon's spouse and a playable character, with the player choosing between her or Gordon at the start of the game. The character you didn't choose would be an NPC you would encounter and interact with throughout the game, but Valve considered the idea unfeasible at the time and Gina was recycled into the holographic instructor for the Hazard Course, then later became a playable character in Half-Life: Decay.
Valve planned a number of multiplayer gamemodes beyond Deathmatch, but were forced to cut them due to time constraints. This video shows remnants of a cut cooperative mode left in the "Subtransit" multiplayer map. A cooperative mode would finally be realized with Decay.
Hollow Knight: Silksong started out as another DLC for Hollow Knight (which was promised by its Kickstarter goal incentive) until the developers saw how large and ambitious it was getting and, quite similar to the example with Breath of the Wild below, decided to just make it a full-on sequel.
Kingdom Hearts was originally going to have Disney Castle and Pride Lands as playable worlds. Playable Disney Castle did appear in a beta trailer, but the programmers couldn't figure out the mechanics of playing as non-anthropomorphic animals in Pride Lands. They were later used in Kingdom Hearts II.
In a case of "Refitted for Crossover", Ursula's death in Kingdom Hearts II, where Prince Eric grabs Triton's trident from her and impales her with it, is based on the storyboard for the movie (where she is instead impaled by Eric's ship).
The Final World in Kingdom Hearts III was originally planned for the first game for when Sora sacrificed himself to free Kairi's heart. The result of his sacrifice was changed to him becoming a Heartless instead.
The King of Fighters '95 was originally going to have a Samurai Shodown-themed team consisting of Nakoruru, Haohmaru and Galford. However, the team was cut due to worries that Samurai Shodown wouldn't be a popular enough series to boost sales, though Nakoruru was still included in the Game Boy port. In 2022, Team Samurai would finally make their official debut as a DLC team in The King of Fighters XV, albeit with Galford replaced by Darli Dagger.
A section of Chapter 5 of Kings Quest (2015) consists of some ideas that were developed for earlier chapters (according to some concept art) but cut, among them a goblin riding on a rat and an entire song by Whisper. They surface here when old Graham becomes confused about the earlier stories he had told his granddaughter Gwendolyn, with her correcting him on the details as a meta-commentary (she literally says that the Whisper song, in particular, would've "made that chapter too long.")
Two scrapped ideas the dev team had for copy abilities in Kirby's Adventure were a "Mini" ability that could shrink to squeeze into tight gaps and an "Animal" ability that could scratch and bite at enemies. These abilities were eventually realized in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror and Kirby: Squeak Squad, respectively. Another ability let Kirby ride around on a rocket, which was realized in Amazing Mirror by letting Kirby become a rocket when he gets the Missile ability. Also, Masahiro Sakurai's design document shows Kirby cutting rope with the Sword ability to drop hanging platforms. This idea wouldn't make it into Kirby's Adventure, but was introduced in Kirby Super Star and became a staple of the franchise since.
The superboss of Kirby Star Allies, Morpho Knight, was originally designed for the cancelledGameCubeKirby game. Its concept art for said game was shown, without context, in the commemorative booklet about the franchise's history included with Kirby's Dream Collection in 2012.
Left 4 Dead originally was planned to have DLC and content updates that would added to the base game like more campaigns, melee weapons, and other ideas. The amount of ideas and new mechanics ballooned so greatly that Valve felt it would be better to make a sequel incorporating the new stuff rather than trying to change the original game to make everything fit, and thus Left 4 Dead 2 was made.
The Horse Call in Twilight Princess dates back to this game. It was originally a Reed Whistle but was scrapped in favor of Epona's Song. Another planned mechanic with Epona for the 1998 game was being able to use swordplay while riding her, which was added in Twilight Princess as well.
The game was originally planned to have a Wind Temple and an Ice Temple, which would be replaced with the Forest Temple and Water Temple respectively (the Ice Temple ended up being relegated to the Ice Cavern to a Mini-Dungeon). This explains why the Medallion icons for the two temples are modeled after wind and ice and also explains why the Forest and Water routes in Ganon's Tower are themed around wind and ice, again respectively. The Wind Waker eventually introduced the Wind Temple, while the posthumous former sage of that dungeon, Fado, is named after the character who was going to be the sage of the scrapped Ocarina version before Saria took the role for the repurposed version. Ice-themed dungeons went on to appear in subsequent games, including Snowhead Temple in Majora's Mask, and an Ice Temple by name in Phantom Hourglass.
The Hero's Shade teaching you moves in Twilight Princess is similar to an unused concept for Majora's Mask where Link learned skills via cutscenes.
Eiji Aonuma stated that this is the case for the two additional dungeons that didn't make the cut due to time constraints, which is why the HD remake didn't incorporate them, though he's never revealed which Zelda games made in the interim used those scrapped concepts.
The E3 announcement trailer for the game shows that Link originally had a sneaking ability for stealth portions of the game. It was replaced with hiding inside barrels. Years later, Breath of the Wild implemented a stealth ability.
Dummied Out code for Twilight Princess indicates that there was supposed to be a regular Shield Surf mechanic rather than the more limited snowboarding on Snowpeak in the final version. Shield surfing ended up being featured in Breath of the Wild, and you could do it anywhere from the moment you found your first shield.
Breath of the Wild had more DLC conceptualized than what was officially released in the Expansion Pass. However, as the number of DLC ideas and the size of the content were substantial, the development team decided these ideas would serve better as building blocks for the direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom.
The E3 demo of Luigi's Mansion featured a ghost that would sneak up behind Luigi and scare him. The ghost (referred to by fans as the "Basher") was removed from the final game, but a similar ghost with the same color and function called the Sneaker appears in the sequel, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
Marathon 2: Durandal had a set of concept art produced for it around "fungal zombie" versions of both alien enemies and human allies, with growth stalks coming out of their necks which pushed their heads aside. This would never be realized in the Marathon series itself, but Bungie did bring the concept back to Marathon'sSpiritual SuccessorHalo in the form of The Flood.
Mario Kart: Kamek was originally set to make his series debut in the Wii U version of Mario Kart 8 after his spot in Mario Kart 64 was taken by Donkey Kong, but ended up being Dummied Out, as his kart emblem was discovered in the game's files. It wouldn't be until Mario Kart Tour, 23 years after 64, that he would make his playable debut, and it wouldn't be until 8 Deluxe and the Booster Course Pass that he would be properly added to the former game.
During the development in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Hideki Konno proposed the idea for bikes but was rejected due to Miyamoto doubting the concept. Bikes were eventually used in Mario Kart Wii and later Mario Kart 8.
According to pre-release interviews, Bioware took a series of side missions which were scrapped from Mass Effect 2 (which apparently took place on the Citadel) and repurposed them for use in Mass Effect 3.
2 also has an unused concept for an NPC companion called "Sparky the Dog", which would have resided on the Normandy and been referred to as a loyal friend for Shepard. This was later reused for the "KEI-9" robot dog companion, which was included as part of the Collector's Edition.
Dummied Out files in the first game reveal nearly completenote the only thing really missing is the assets for Love Triangle confrontations assets for the two human squadmates to be romanced by a same-sex player character. Male Shepard and Kaidan were given the option of a legitimate Relationship Upgrade in the third game.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge incoporates a concept for Ron Gilbert's original pitch for The Secret of Monkey Island (at this point called Mutiny On Monkey Island), where Melee Island was led by the dictator Governor Fat [sic], now renamed Phatt and running an island he has named after himself. Much like the original idea, he is an aging dictator who once struck fear in the hearts of inhabitants but now is too lazy to do anything and thus gets his inept right hand man to do his dirty work.
Artbooks showed early ideas for Hunters to be able to use various bugs to assist and fight monsters. This was finally implemented in the fourth generation as the 4th generation's Insect Glaive, World's Scoutflies, and Rise's Wirebugs.
The artbooks also feature concept art of an unused "Crypt Hydra", a two-headed mummy snake creature, hailing from before it was decided that the series would go for a Low Fantasy setting. The two-headed serpent concept was eventually reused in Monster Hunter Generations with Nakarkos, with the hydra heads serving as disguised tentacles for the giant cuttlefish-dragon.
Some artwork from Generations shows a scrapped gunner weapon taking the form of a "Hunting Hound", a customizable canine companion which the player would guide into battle. The idea was later revisited in Monster Hunter: Rise with the Palamute companions.
In Abe's Oddysee, there was originally going to be three native areas to visit in order to get the power of the Shrykull: the temperate forests of Paramonia, the dusty buttes of Scrabania and the lush jungles that would be the home of the Meeches. The last one was scrapped, but the idea of a jungle area was reused for the over-ground areas of Necrum in Abe's Exoddus.
Oddworld: Soulstorm has quite a lot of this, due to its nature as being how the second chapter of the quintology was originally envisioned.
The 'Slig Mama' riot suppression tank is very similar in design to a more typical tank design seen in concepts for The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot, the unreleased spiritual sequel to Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.
A concept design for the Fleeches in Abe's Exoddus imagined a blob creature with only one mouth and a very long tongue. This idea was scrapped, but was refined into the Sleeches of the Necrum Sanctum.
The original concept of Sligs had a pole sticking up on top of their mechanical legs that flags and other accessories could be attached to. Soulstorm is the first game to fully use the concept, having every Slig wear an antenna on the pole.
Concepts of the Intern guards of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee show some of them wielding an electric stun baton called a 'Shock Rocker'. This weapon is wielded by some Sligs in Soulstorm.
The original concept for Rise Kujikawa was a blonde, chain-wielding ice queen delinquent who was a fully-controllable party member. By the time of the final game, Rise's blonde hair was lost when she was redesigned to look more like her voice actress (some aspects of the original design went to Social Link NPC Ai Ebihara), the delinquency aspect was dropped to avoid redundancy with fellow party member Kanji Tatsumi, and she was moved to a Mission Control role providing support for the party. In the next game, party member Ann Takamaki uses a number of these rejected concepts: delinquency, blonde hair, and a frontline Action Girl who fights with whips.
Originally, the Killer was going to have been either Yosuke or Yukiko, but their intended motives were considered too generic. The concept of a party member being one of the antagonists was later used for Persona 5.
Concept art had the Killer, Adachi, wearing a yellow raincoat. Persona 4: Arena Ultimax has him wear one during his intro.
Word of God says most of the new Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver were originally planned to be in Red and Blue before being cut for space. Subverted with the Kotora family and Meowth's pre-evolution Kōnya, however, since they were cut from Red and Blue, added into the Space World prototype of Gold and Silver, and then cut again. The Kotora line may have ultimately gone on to inspire the Shinx line in Diamond and Pearl, another three-stage family of Electric-type big cats.
The Pokémon Gold and Silver Space World demo featured many scrapped Pokémon that would eventually be repurposed later on in the series: Evolutions for Lickitung and Tangela, a pre-evolution for Mr. Mime, and a Grass-type Eevee evolution were cut from Gold and Silver, then made a reality once Pokémon Diamond and Pearl was released several years later. Another scrapped evolution from the Space World demo was an evolution for Farfetch'd; decades later, Farfetch'd would finally gain an evolution in the form of Sirfetch'd in Pokémon Sword and Shield. And an unused turtle character drawn by Ken Sugimori for a magazine cover (which wasn't originally intended as a Pokémon) resembles Tirtouga, which was first introduced in Pokémon Black and White.
Gold and Silver were planned to let you slather honey on trees to attract wild Pokémon. This mechanic was likely replaced with headbutting trees, but was used in Diamond and Pearl.
Pokémon Gold and Silver were originally going to contain a skateboard in addition to the bicycle; an idea that ultimately never made it into the final game. Years later in Pokémon X and Y, the player character is given roller skates in addition to getting the bike later on.
The music for the Clefairy dance on Mt. Moon in Gold & Silver is recycled from an early draft for the Trainer victory theme in Generation I. This tune was recycled again in Pokémon Stadium 2 and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
The Azure Flute was intended to allow the player to access an in-game event in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl to obtain Arceus, but was never distributed. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the flute becomes avalible to the player once they obtain all of Arceus's plates, and even acquirable for its original purpose in the generation four remakes if you defeated Arceus in Legends Arceus.
The side-mission "The Smell of the Grease Paint" from Red Dead Redemption 2 is a tweaked version of one cut from the first game that was found by modders in the files of the PC version. Arthur has to help a woman in a traveling show with her giant and dwarf castmates. The original version in I was to find lonely a lonely giant and lonely dwarf and try to get them to be friends.
Resident Evil Village reuses a lot of elements that originally came from the scrapped "Fog" and "Hooked Man" versions of Resident Evil 4. The genre shifts from Sci-Fi Horror into Gothic Horror, including a lengthy sequence involving Creepy Dolls, the plot revolves around the protagonist getting infected with a dangerous virus that eventually results in their death (though Ethan doesn't die directly from the virus, whereas Leon would've), has some layers of supernatural and psychological horror, and the game later focuses on the true origins of Umbrella.
Elements from the planned DLC, Enter the Dominatrix, became part of SR4, a DLC pack for said game also called Enter the Dominatrix, and Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell.
The concept where Maria Tachibana joined the Flower Division as its latest recruit from America following the Great Kanto Earthquake in Sakura Wars (1996) would later be reused in Sakura Wars: The Movie, with Ratchet Altair taking Maria's place.
Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens was originally going to have Ichiro Ogami travel to New York City and Taiwan to lead the new combat revues that were based there. However, the plans were soon scrapped because the Dreamcast was ending production and Overworks was given only ten months to finish the game. The New York setting was eventually used for Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.
Shanghai was one of the original Combat Revue candidates for the 1996 game, but it was scrapped before development began. It would eventually be included in Sakura Wars (2019).
At the end of The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush was originally supposed to follow LeChuck into an alley and down into an underground passage. The underground passage was brought back in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and if Guybrush takes the elevator up he can go to the alley from the first game, only with a barrier blocking the way to the street. A remnant of this in the first game is the way that LeChuck (disguised as Fester Shinetop), calls you into the alley - entirely optional, but if you do it, you would automatically expect to go there later in the game as the door is locked at that point.
Earlier builds of Serious Sam: The First Encounter featured a Death Ray weapon called the "Ghostbuster" that was scrapped due to issues with the model. The weapon was reimplemented in the Serious Sam Classics: Revolution port, the version 2.90 update for Serious Sam II, and the "Death Ray" add-on to the Lasergun in Serious Sam 4 functions similarly to it.
Risky Boots, Bolo, and Rottytops were all going to be playable in a multiplayer mode for a Game Boy Advance entry that never got off the ground. Years later, the fourth entry in the series (Half-Genie Hero) would give Risky Boots, Bolo, Rottytops, and Sky their own campaigns; "Pirate Queen's Quest" and "Friends to the End", respectively.
One of the pieces of Pirate Equipment that was scrapped in Pirate's Curse was a grappling anchor. It was later incorporated into the "Pirate Queen's Quest" mode of Half-Genie Hero.
A minor example. When the original game was pitched for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the PC, Shantae's red outfit would have upgraded to a triumphant blue near the end of the adventure. While this doesn't happen in the final Game Boy Color release, some entries in the series would go on to have the blue outfit available as an alternate color, either unlockable after beating the game once or as a starting option.
One of the prototype character designs for Sonic was a rabbit who would be able to grab and throw objects and enemies with his long prehensile ears. The idea was scrapped in favor of a hedgehog that could roll into a ball, and while throwing objects never became a mainstay of Sonic's gameplay, Sonic Adventure 2 included an unlockable upgrade called "Magic Hands" that allows Sonic to turn enemies into throwable objects, and the night stages in Sonic Unleashed involve a lot of grabbing as well. Sonic Team also went on to create another game based on the concept of grabbing and throwing, Ristar, and one of the enemies in that game is a rabbit which attacks using its ears.
Another prototype character design was an armadillo, which proved popular among staff members alongside the hedgehog concept. While the hedgehog won out in the end and became Sonic, the armadillo concept was revisited and became Mighty in SegaSonic the Hedgehog, who went on to become a recurring side character in the franchise.
Early concepts gave Sonic a human love interest named Madonna, but she wound up being dropped. Eventually, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) gave Sonic a human love interest named Elise.
Vector was originally supposed to be part of a rock band with Sonic in the first game, which was going to be seen on a sound test screen which showed them playing whatever music was selected. The concept was scrapped when that screen had to be cut out due to memory limitations. He was reintroduced in Knuckles Chaotix, and became a recurring character; although the idea of him and Sonic being in a band has since been mostly dropped, as have the other band members. Sonic himself was in a band with his siblings in the animated series Sonic Undergroundnote and prior to that screen being dropped, he was in a band in Sonic the Hedgehog Story Comic, and Vector plays music (badly) with his teammates in Sonic Heroes.
The first game was originally going to contain a rabbit enemy named Splats, which was scrapped so late in development that it managed to receive official merchandise. Decades later, Splats appeared in Sonic Mania, both as an enemy and broken down in piles of trash.
There's dummied-out data in the first game's code that shows Sonic was meant to leave skid marks behind him while running, but this was not implemented until the sequels. The Sonic Jam port of the game adds it back, but the later ports didn't keep it.
Time-traveling was a concept first conceived for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 but wasn't added into a game until Sonic CD. Sand Shower Zone, a crumbling, worn-down variation of Green Hill set in a "bad present" where Dr. Robotnik has succeeded in taking over the world (the name of which was often attributed to a desert level seen in pre-release screenshots), may have been revived as Sonic Forces' decidedly arid take on Green Hill.
Generally, the idea of a desert level in a classic Sonic title had been floating around since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with the scrapped Sand Shower Zone (often confused for "Dust Hill Zone", which was an early name for Mystic Cave Zone). When Christian Whitehead was tasked with developing the 2011 remaster of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, he wanted to include a new zone called Desert Dazzle, which was rejected by Sonic Team, who wanted the remaster to be faithful to the original. Finally, the idea, as well as unused assets, were fully implemented in Sonic Mania as Mirage Saloon Zone.
The canceled arcade Puzzle GameSegaSonic Bros. contains music which was later repurposed for the "Get Blue Spheres" special stage in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which also uses similar gameplay mechanics. The same game depicted Sonic as being a triplet, a concept which also appeared in the early cartoon Sonic Underground. The concept of an arcade game with previously-unseen red and yellow counterparts for Sonic appearing alongside him (and the trio being crammed into the title screen's logo) was also used for SegaSonic the Hedgehog. SegaSonic Bros. itself subverts this by containing within its data, but not actually using, sprites of the band members who were originally intended to appear on Sonic 1's scrapped sound test screen.
Sonic & Knuckles is another unusual example. It consists almost entirely of material that was originally intended for Sonic the Hedgehog 3; partway through development, Sonic 3 had to be split in half due to time and cartridge space constraints, and Sonic & Knuckles is essentially the second half of that game. The two games can however be locked onto each other to create Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which is the official full game (with only minimal differences from how it would have been had it not been split in half), and is the longest in the original Sonic trilogy.
In a rather unique and bizarre example, Sonic Crackers was a prototype game which featured Sonic and Tails tethered together by rings that were connected via an energy beam. Although it appears to have primarily been an engine test and many elements of it were dropped completely, up to and including the title and main characters, it was revisited and heavily reworked (retaining only the music and "duo connected by special rings" mechanic), becoming Knuckles Chaotix.
Sonic Adventure: The music used for the "Pleasure Castle" section of Twinkle Park was first meant to be used in Sonic 3D Blast. The original intent for said game was for the Special Stage music to change depending on whether you accessed it through Tails or Knuckles; unfortunately, Knuckles's Special Stage theme was cut due to cartridge space limitations, and Tails's theme was used for both varieties.
The plot was originally supposed to be Darker and Edgier than previous titles and to feel less kiddie and "more like the flavor of Harry Potter". Sony vetoed this idea, but a similar idea was reuse years later with the first Continuity Reboot, The Legend of Spyro.
The game was also supposed to introduce a pink female dragon named "Ember". Due to developmental change, there wasn't anywhere in the game for her. She was scrapped but reused in Spyro: A Hero's Tail, where Ember shortly appeared for two scenes in the game (and can be played using a skin).
Star Ocean was originally meant to have two fully explorable worlds, one medieval and one futuristic, but infamously ran out of space on the cartridge, forcing the developers to leave around ninety percent of the futuristic world, Fargett, on the cutting room floor. The sequel, thanks to the ability to spread the game over multiple discs, was able to use the medieval-to-futuristic transition much more successfully with Energy Nede.
Street Fighter II: Fei Long from Super Street Fighter II was initially concepted as one half of a pair of Kung Fu twin brothers from Hong Kong. The plans fell through over not wanting another pair of Head Swaps, resulting in Dee Jay being added to the roster, but Capcom eventually had another go at their initial plan through Street Fighter III's Yun and Yang.
Not so much a sequel, but another series in the same extended universe. One of the potential characters designed for Street Fighter III was "American Girl," a young female fighter clad in a red, white and blue outfit and a pair of boxing gloves. While she didn't make it into III, elements of her design were seemingly recycled for Tiffany Lords from Rival Schools, another Capcom fighting game.
Not only was Street Fighter V meant to have a more photorealistic art style (in lieu of the more stylized look the final game had), but Ryu's default costume, which was eventually relegated to an alternate, had him missing his gi top and sporting Manly Facial Hair. Flash forward to the reveal trailer for Street Fighter 6, which not only showcases a photorealistic look for its characters, but also depicts Ryu as shirtless and bearded.
Nova Terra was the main character of the StarCraftGaiden GameStarcraft: Ghost, a third-person shooter. The game went through a long Development Hell until it was finally cancelled, but Nova becomes an important side character in StarCraft II.
Shigeru Miyamoto once stated he had wanted to have Mario ride a dinosaur as early as Super Mario Bros.. However, the NES limitations prevented it from happening (they got closer to the concept in Super Mario Bros. 3 with Goomba's Shoe, which is functionally similar to Yoshi). It was deemed impossible until the fourth main game, Super Mario World for the SNES.
Miyamoto also wanted the end-of-level flags in the first game to only go up as far as Mario grabbed the flagpole, which would finally happen 26 years later in Super Mario 3D Land.
Originally, Super Mario Galaxy was going to feature more levels, characters, enemies, and power ups (such as the Cloud Flower and the Rock Mushroom, as well as the inclusion of Yoshi), but all of them were dropped from the final version of the game. They were planned to be implemented in an expansion pack called Super Mario Galaxy More, but the development team decided that they had more than enough ideas to justify making a full-fledged sequel instead, which became Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Bowser, King Dedede, Marth, and Mewtwo were planned to be in the first game; they did not get in due to time and budget constraints. Bowser, Marth, and Mewtwo would eventually make it into Melee, while King Dedede would not join until Brawl.
Final Smashes were intended to be included as early as the original Nintendo 64 game, but the console couldn't handle how the developers wished to implement them, so they weren't added in until Brawl on the Wii.
Ditto from the Pokémon series was meant to be among the Poké Ball summons introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee, with the idea being that it would take the form of the player who activated it and function as a temporary AI teammate. The GameCube couldn't pull this off without crashing, however, so the concept was shelved until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 17 years later.
Masahiro Sakurai stated in response to a fan inquiry that, if he had time to implement one more fully original character in Melee, it would have been Wario. He ended up being one of the first characters revealed for Brawl, though he was based more heavily on the WarioWare games, which came out after Melee.
Pit was also considered for Melee as a retro character (among many other characters), but the Ice Climbers were added over him due to their gameplay potential. Pit would go on to join in Brawl with an updated appearance, which would inspire Sakurai to create a new game in the series.
Hideo Kojima had given Masahiro Sakurai his blessing to add Solid Snake to the series as soon as Melee, but was not able to include him in the roster due to development being nearly complete at the time. He would instead make his debut in Brawl.
Miis were considered to be added in Brawl, but Masahiro Sakurai decided against adding them because he could not figure out how to implement them at the time. They join in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, being characters with fully customizable movesets and appearances.
The Villager was considered to join the battle in Brawl, but Sakurai couldn't think of how to implement them due to how peaceful a game series Animal Crossing was. He ended up figuring it out when it came time to plan the base roster for 3DS and Wii U.
Shigeru Miyamoto personally requested Pac-Man be made a playable character for Brawl, as Pac-Man is his favorite video game character, but Sakurai was unable to think of a good moveset at the time. He would make his debut in 3DS and Wii U, which happened to be the first Smash game developed by Bandai Namco, which owns the character.
Although Sora won the ballot deciding the final DLC character for the fourth game, the rights for him couldn't be obtained in time; so Bayonetta, the next-in-line amongst possible, negotiable characters, was added instead. Four years later, Sakurai finally managed to negotiate Sora's inclusion, and he became the final DLC character in Ultimate.
Tekken was intended to have Devil Kazuya with wings (as seen in concept art), P. Jack with the ability to fly (he has a jetpack in the game though it is not functional), and Kunimitsu as a female character (she ended up using Yoshimitsu's male assets due to space limitations). In addition, the boss characters would have differed more substantially than being Moveset Clones with a couple of extra moves. These were all implemented in Tekken 2, as the hardware was now up to the standard to include them.
Undertale was originally going to have a magic system, but as the lore developed and humans were firmly established as non-magical, it had to be cut. Deltarune has you play as multiple people, and all of the non-humans do have access to magic.
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an interesting example. The game was intended to be significantly more ambitious than the finished product ended up being, with regular online content updates continuing the story and extra Ages to explore. When the online component was cancelled, some of said content was reused into a pair of expansion packs. When the online was Un-Cancelled, several plot threads were picked up for a bit before the online was dropped again and the plot was Left Hanging. Everything was eventually finished in Myst V: End of Ages, and one scrapped Age was recycled for the later Spiritual Successor, Obduction.
The original Virtua Fighter was planned to feature a Saudi Arabian fighter named Siba, who wound up being dropped and replaced with Akira for the official release. Siba would later make his playable debut in Fighters Megamix.
for Crash Bandicoot (1996) briefly features Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers; bosses who aren't in the game, but do appear in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, indicating they were meant to have appeared in the original game. The music composer even made a track for the boss
