History Main / HeadSwap

* Among the most intentionally disturbing and hilarious of Head Swaps is one found in a mini-DLC for ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', when the model of [[TestosteronePoisoning testosterone-poisoned]] Mr. Torgue is reused for ''his grandmother''. Apparently she's just as badass as he is, or was in her day.
* Due to the limitations of the Gamebryo engine, ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' have three body types for human characters (athletic physiques for the men, big breasts and youthful bodies for the women, and petite figures for children). Apparently there are no fat people, slim men, or petite women in the Capital or Mojave Wasteland.

* ''VideoGame/ThemeHospital'' used a combination of this trope and ProceduralGeneration to vary up the patient sprites, with an assortment of head, torso and leg pieces thatwere semi-randomly mixed and matched. The variety wasn't particularly large, but it was mildly impressive for the mid-1990s.

* In the arcade version of ''Double Dragon'', the boss in Mission 1 is a head/palette-swap of Abobo with black skin and a Creator/MrT-like mohawk and beard, while Jeff, the boss in Mission 2, is a head/palette-swap of the Lee brothers [[MirrorBoss with the same moves as the player]].

* Lilith, who was introduced in ''Vampire Savior'' (the third game in the series) is a head swap of Morrigan with much smaller breasts, meaning that the head is not the only body part changed.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFight'', most of the enemies have head swap variants: Bred and Dug, Jake and Simons (who are themselves head swaps of Bred and Dug, but with jackets), El Gado and Holly Wood, Axl and Slash, and the three fat men (G. Oriber, Bill Bull, and Wong Who). Roxy and Poison, as well as all five Andore variants, are plain palette swaps, [[SubvertedTrope on the other hand]]. [[DoubleSubversion The boss Abigail is a headswap of them though.]]
** The SNES sequels (''Final Fight 2'' and ''3'') continued the tradition.
* In the arcade version of ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'', the boss in Mission 1 is a head/palette-swap of Abobo with black skin and a Creator/MrT-like mohawk and beard, while Jeff, the boss in Mission 2, is a head/palette-swap of the Lee brothers [[MirrorBoss with the same moves as the player]].

* In ''VideoGame/ThePunisherCapcom'', not only are most of the enemy grunts head-swaps of each other, but the two sole female [=NPCs=] (a bystander in Stage 1 and a hostage in Stage 2) are head ''and'' torso swaps of each other. They both wear the same type of skirt and high-heel pumps, but one of them is wearing a white blouse and the other a halter dress.

* Ryu and Ken and their various [[{{Shotoclone}} clones]] (Akuma, Dan and Sean) from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' franchise are the quintessential examples of this trope in action. Although Ryu wore red slippers and gloves, while Ken fought barefooted and wore armbands in the very first ''Videogame/StreetFighter'', their respective outfits became more or less identical from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' aside for the differences in color. Akuma on the other hand, usually wears a prayer beads around his neck and a pair of sandals and his hands are drawn differently in the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series, while Dan wears an undershirt and bends his knees differently.
** Yun and Yang from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'', who originally started out as having the same move set (even sharing the same slot on the character select screen), but evolved into different characters from ''2nd Impact'' and onward. Urien, who also introduced in ''2nd Impact'', is a head swap of Gill (the series' boss character).

** Averted with Fei-Long, who was supposed to be introduced alongside a head-swapped rival in ''Super Street Fighter II''. The rival ended up being replaced by Dee-Jay, who has a unique design.
** Karin Kanzuki was originally planned as a head swap of Sakura as well in her [[WhatCouldHaveBeen aborted]] video game debut in ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter'', but her final design in ''Alpha 3'' has an entirely different fighting stance and style.
* Joe Higashi and Hwa Jai in the original ''VideoGame/FatalFury''. Save for their difference fighting stances, many of their moves share the same animation frames.

* Lilith, who was introduced in ''Vampire Savior'' (the third game in the ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' series) is a head swap of Morrigan with much smaller breasts, meaning that the head is not the only body part changed.

* Hellhound and Freon from Strata's VideoGame/BloodStorm were head swaps of each other. Furthermore, the game had eight bosses who were head swaps of the eight playable characters (which meant, in turn, that Hellhound and Freon's boss counterparts Blood and Shadow were head swaps of each other - or, in Blood's case, a headless swap). Moreover, with secret codes, there were seventeen additional secret characters who were just the eight playable characters with the oversized heads of the developers or other people, including then-senator Joe Lieberman.

* Party member Aschen and antagonist Cardia in ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier'' have virtually identical facial expressions and poses in their dialog portraits, bodies that are a few minor details away from being a PaletteSwap, and use several similar or identical moves in battle. A {{justified|Trope}} example, since they're both androids from the same series and build by the same creator.

** Bioware ''really likes'' this trope, usually because their ambitious art goals vs. art budget. Nearly all character models in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' consist of a separate head model attached to the body, so that either element can be reused, and in the case of most {{Mooks}}, their "body" is reused from one of the player's body armor options (e.g. a bounty hunter wearing a combat vest uses the same model as the player or a party member wearing the same armor, except for the head).

*** Played across [[Franchise/MassEffect the entire series]], as characters are created with a base costume which then has a unique head on it that matches the skin tone. A mis-match of this in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' where a human head was attached to a blue-skinned Asari body made the rounds on tumblr.

* All the players in the ''VideoGame/NBAJam'' series during the Midway/Acclaim-era (back when the games featured digitized sprites) were head/palette-swaps of the same stuntman with a different NBA player's face for each.

* The "[[http://pokemon.alexonsager.net/ Pokefusion]]" meme involves taking one ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'' sprite's head and color scheme and switching it with another's, then giving the resulting aberration a {{Portmanteau}} name.

** For example, Harley-Davidson uses one engine for their Big Twin line, swapping frames, bodywork and other accessories to make new models out of existing parts, case in point the FX Super Glide designed by Willie G. Davidson where he took an FL Duo-Glide and installed The only other models in their current lineup which use a unique engine are the Sportster and Street.

* The "[[http://pokemon.alexonsager.net/ Pokefusion]]" meme involves taking one ''{{VideoGame/Pokemon}}'' sprite's head and color scheme and switching it with another's, then giving the resulting aberration a {{Portmanteau}} name.

[[quoteright:279:[[Franchise/StreetFighter https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ryu_Ken_type_head_swaps_3847.PNG]]]]

* Done literally in both, the original ''VideoGame/WonderBoy'' and ''VideoGame/AdventureIsland''. The boss in each world is actually the same bad guy with a different head. Every time he is defeated, he literally loses his head and gains a new one for the next round.

* The "[[http://pokemon.alexonsager.net/ Pokefusion]]" meme involves taking one ''{{VideoGame/Pokemon}}'' sprite's head and color scheme and switching it with another's, then giving the resulting aberration a {{Portemanteau}} name.

* Dolls and action figures are pretty much subject to this, utilising a common body design shared across most if not all characters in a line to save on production costs. This is also done to ensure that clothes for one character are mutually compatible with the other within a particular collection, in case a doll's owner wants to dress Maryellen in let's say Molly's Christmas dress for example. The key difference is mostly with the face paint or mold, hair, skin complexion and wardrobe, and for character dolls such as those from the Franchise/AmericanGirlsCollection, [[AllThereInTheManual their backstory]].

** Karin Kanzuki was originally planned as a head swap of Sakura as well in her [[WhatCouldHaveBeen aborted]] video game debut in ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesVsStreetFighter'', but her final design in ''Alpha 3'' gives an entirely different fighting stance and style.

* Ubiquitous in ''Warhammer40k''; rare indeed is the model that ''doesn't'' serve two or more purposes on the tabletop. It's especially prevalent in vehicles; for instance, the Space Marine [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier Rhino APC]] and [[TankGoodness Predator Tank]] are literally the same vehicle, the Predator just has a gun turret and two sponsons attached to the hull. The Imperial Guard Chimaera can be [[TanksButNoTanks virtually anything you want, except a tank]]: APC, self-propelled artillery, scout vehicle, flamethrower truck, all made by combining the same treads, one of two different hulls (enclosed and open-topped), and the appropriate gun(s). In many cases, these are explicitly the result of the same few vehicles (referred to as "Standard Template Constructs") having been produced across the galaxy over the last ''10,000 years'', making innovation as simple as finding a way to mount your new gun on the existing chassis.

* TechnoTheCyborg
** If you compare Starclaw's design to Kai's, you will notice she has the same body design as Kai, but with a pink and purple color and a feminine frame.

** If you compare Starclaw's design to Kai's, you will notice she has the same body design as Kai, but with a pink and purple color and feminine frame.

* If you compare Starclaw design to Kai, you will notice she has the same body design as Kai, but with a pink and purple color and feminine frame.