History Main / DivorcedInstallment

* ''VideoGame/{{Remothered}}'' started out as a 2D remake of ''VideoGame/ClockTowerTheFirstFear'', but the developers made the decision to go all the way and make it its own IP after deciding to make the jump to 3D. In addition to being an excellent game in its own right, it also still manages to capture the spirit of the original ''Clock Tower'' series quite well.

* ''Family Pinball'' was originally a [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]] game in Japan, but a different publisher brought it to the U.S. as ''Rock 'n' Ball''. The Namco characters were replaced with generic equivalents, and the ''VideoGame/PacMan'' table was not only genericized but slightly altered in layout.

* ''Film/Chaos2005'' was going to be a remake of ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'', though the change was so last minute that both films are still extremely similar.

** ''Film/MastersOfTheUniverse'' was itself written to be a ''ComicBook/NewGods'' film, which is why it imports its cast to Earth, something that was never an element of the franchise, but makes total sense if it's Orion fighting Darkseid.

** ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'' started life as ''Film/LethalWeapon4'', making it a Divorced Installment ''and'' a DolledUpInstallment.

** Arnie's character in ''Film/RedSonja'' was supposed to be Conan, but the film did not have the rights to this name. It was later stated that it ''was'' Conan, just under one of his traveling names.

** Speaking of which, ''Film/Halloween1978'' was originally a sequel to ''Film/BlackChristmas1974''.

** The ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' novel, ''The Burning Heart'' was supposed to be a crossover with ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' but after the failure of the [[Film/JudgeDredd 1995 movie]], Dredd was replaced with Adjudicator Joseph Craator.

* Goldrush, a one-shot character from Creator/GeoffJohns' ''Comicbook/{{Justice League|Of America}}'' run, was originally supposed to be the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] heroine Lady Luck.

* The UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 platformer ''VideoGame/KeithCourageInAlphaZones'' was originally one of many games based on then-popular anime series ''[[Anime/MashinHeroWataruSeries Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru]]''. The story went from being about a kid pulled into a spirit realm to battle demons, to being about an adult who is part of a military organization that fights aliens. However, the game's title screen still shows a Creator/{{Sunrise}} copyright, perhaps because only the ExcusePlot was actually altered.

** ''VideoGame/WonderBoyInMonsterLand'' had a [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] version by Creator/{{Jaleco}} titled ''Saiyūki World''. This version inspired its own sequel (''Saiyūki World II''), which was localized for the NES under the name of ''Whomp 'Em'' and had its ''Journey to the West'' motif replaced with a Native American one.

* ''Black Belt'', a side-scrolling [[BeatEmUp beat-'em-up]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem, is a localization of a ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' game for the Mark III in which the graphics were altered to remove all traces of the original license. Kenshiro was renamed Riki and his blue vest and jeans outfit was replaced by a white karate gi, while all of the other characters and backgrounds were modified as well, changing the game's locations from post-apocalyptic deserts and towns to modern-day temples and cities. The Japanese [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Mega Drive]] sequel, ''Hokuto no Ken: Shin Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu'', was released overseas as ''Last Battle: Legend of the Final Hero'', but the changes made during the localization were lazier by comparison to the first game. All the sprites were recolored and the names were changed, but the character designs remained almost identical and the seemingly nonsensical script (which consisted mainly of out-of-context dialogue transcribed verbatim from the manga) was a word-to-word translation of the original, aside from a few minor changes. Gore was also removed for the overseas release.

* ''Street Combat'' for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES]] was originally a ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' game in which you played as either male or female Ranma and battled the rest of the anime cast. The U.S. version turned Ranma into a mulleted soldier named Steven (female Ranma was Steven in street clothes, while male Ranma was Steven in PoweredArmor), and the Ranma cast with all sorts of things (Kodachi, for example, became a ''clown''). This was averted with the sequel, which was brought to the U.S. as ''Ranma ½: Hard Battle''.

* The first ''VideoGame/BattleTanx'' started out as a UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}} port of ''[=BattleSport=]''.

** ''Renegade'', ''VideoGame/SuperDodgeBall'', ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'' (aka ''Street Gangs''), ''Nintendo World Cup'', and ''Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge'' were all localizations of different games in the Japanese ''Kunio-kun'' series that were westernized (or in the case of ''Nintendo World Cup'', globalized) in order to make them more marketable overseas. The UsefulNotes/NeoGeo version of ''Super Dodge Ball'', along with the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS games localized by Aksys Games, are the only games in the series where Kunio and Riki retained their Japanese identities in the overseas versions.

* ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' is a borderline example. The WorkingTitle was ''Advance Wars: Under Fire'', but Nintendo decided to change the name due to the fact that it was a very different game from the original ''Advance Wars'' and it wouldn't have made much sense to release a game [[SuperTitle64Advance named after]] the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance on the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]] (it's still part of the overall ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Wars]]'' series, though). In Japan, the game was released as ''Totsugeki! Famicom Wars''.

* The [[UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar Jaguar]] shooter ''Hover Strike'' was originally meant to be a remake of ''VideoGame/{{BattleZone|1980}}''.

* The UsefulNotes/Commodore64 game ''Astérix and the Magic Cauldron'' was released in the United States as ''Ardok the Barbarian'', likely because ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' was not popular enough there to be worth licensing.
* ''Tower of Doom'' for the UsefulNotes/{{Intellivision}} was to have been the third ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] Cartridge'' for the system (and the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 as well), but it was released without the license after Mattel abandoned the game and the console midway through development; most gamers couldn't tell the difference, of course. (The later Capcom UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragons: Tower of Doom'' is completely unrelated.) The two earlier [=AD&D=] games would have the license stripped out for emulated {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, appearing under their {{Working Title}}s ''Adventure'' and ''Minotaur''.

* ''Heavenly Guardian'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} was originally announced in Japan as ''Kiki Kai World''. Apparently, the ''VideoGame/KikiKaiKai'' characters were replaced with original ones because the developer somehow lost the license.

* ''VideoGame/RageOfTheDragons'', a UsefulNotes/NeoGeo fighting game by Evoga and Noise Factory, was originally intended to be a sequel to the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'', but the developers were unable to get a hold of the rights. Thus, all the characters were turned into [[CaptainErsatz ersatzes]] of the ''Double Dragon'' cast: the Lee brothers became the ''Lewis'' brothers, while Abobo became ''Abubo''.

* ''VideoGame/Pikmin2001'' was planned to be a ''Mario'' game at one point in its development, its idea being in part born thanks to the ''Super Mario 128'' tech demo for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube.

* Creator/{{Codemasters}} distributed the Spanish UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game ''Phantomas'' under its original title, but distanced its sequel from it by retitling it ''Vampire''. Interestingly, ''Phantomas'' and ''Phantomas 2'' began development as unrelated but similar games, but Dinamic convinced the coders of both games to use the same main character.

* ''Jimbo'', released with the March 1995 issue of German UsefulNotes/Commodore64 magazine ''Magic Disk 64'', doesn't do much to hide that it was originally developed as the fourth game in Creator/{{Codemasters}}' ''CJ's Elephant Antics'' series. (The third game was never released in any form. The first game, for that matter, was built on the engine of an unfinished Commodore 64 port of ''VideoGame/TheNewZealandStory'', different from the one actually released by Ocean Software.)