History Main / UndergroundMonkey

Contrast MookRecycling, that's when an enemy appears in places and quantites that defy its original context.

* Done for quite a few enemies in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', with certain areas having [[PaletteSwap recoloured]] versions of common enemies with higher stats. The dream worlds also tend to have dream versions of the monsters found in the real world location, with higher stats than them. Indeed, the recoloured enemies are even called [Enemy Name] R, with the R possibly meaning 'recolour'.

* Several of the bosses in ''VideoGame/WonderBoyInMonsterLand'' do this, such as the Red Knight/Blue Knight/Silver Knight, the GrimReaper / God of Poverty, and the Giant Kong/Snow Kong.

* In the first two ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games, the Elites got different-colored armor based on their military rank (AuthorityEqualsAsskicking by the way). The higher classes, such as Honor Guards, and Councillors, as well as Generals and Field Marshals in ''HaloReach'', also have more ornate armor. In ''Halo 3,'' the Brutes got a similar treatment, with each higher rank having more elaborate armor, and sub-ranks (Major, Minor, Ultra) being represented by palette swaps. The [[KingMook highest class]], Brute Chieftains, have red or gold-accented black armor and warbonnet-like helmets.
* The later levels of ''PathwaysIntoDarkness'' feature Ghasts (aka Earthquake Zombies), Venomous Skitters (which as their name implies, inflict [[StandardStatusEffects poison status]]), and Greater Nightmares(who are armored and shoot homing projectiles).

-->--'''[[spoiler: Viridi]]''' on the [[StarfishRobots Aurum]], ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' also produced several colors of its major enemies, indicating their strength. Versus Books' StrategyGuide for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' characterized the White Wolfos as being "like regular Wolfos, only, um, whiter."

* The queen of palette-swap fighting is arguably ''DissidiaFinalFantasy''. Every enemy in the game is just a crystallized palette swap of the 22 characters you can use in the game, and all the bosses are just those same characters, only normal. And it has a single-player mode that can last up to 40 hours or more if you have to beat every bonus chapter. So you better hunker down and get ready to fight Tidus about 500 times or more. The only enemy that is at all different is the FinalBoss, Chaos.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 2'' recycled a lot of enemies from ''Prime 1'' with new models. Some were barely changed (like the recoloured Triclops) while others were given a complete overhaul, the Beetle becoming the much smaller Splinter, the Elite Pirate the Ingsmasher, Baby Sheegoths becoming Grenchlers, Chozo Ghosts becoming Pirate Commandos, etc. There's also a few examples in the games themselves, like the normal / ice / plate Parasites in ''Prime'' and the light / dark creatures in ''Echoes''.
** The Ingsmashers simply reused the elite pirate combat codes from Prime 1 with only a small tweak being the shield thingy.
** Speaking of light and dark, several enemies are barely fought in their normal form before the Ing show up to possess them
*** Done to a much less noticable extend in ''Prime 3'', though the Phaz-Ing are rather noticable for being the exact same enemy as in Prime 2, but of different origin, so them being named after the Ing from the previous game makes absolutely no sense.
*** Amusingly, Prime 3 also did this with ''energy pickups''. First, you have the classic energy balls, then phazon after acquiring the new suit, and finally anti-phazon in the last section of the game.

** Many early arcade games did this, due to the hardware limitations of the day. Some examples include ''{{Berzerk}}'', ''MissileCommand'', and ''Pengo''.

* ''SuperMetroid'' had half a dozen different colours of Space Pirates, of increasing power. From the wimpy grey Pirates in Old Tourian to the nasty red variant in Maridia that required the plasma beam to harm. There were also a pair of gold Pirates that served as sub-bosses before Ridley's lair.

* ''MonsterTale'' applies it not only to the enemies but also to one of the heroes; Ellie's partner Chomp has three basic body types (Child, Teenager, and Adult), and all of Chomp's various forms are variations of those - one may be the basic form plus wings, another plus a tail, with spikes, with just one eye, etc.

* ''VideoGame/GuildWars Eye of the North'' has plenty of enemies recycled from the three previous campaigns, but the most egregious example is re-using a species of monsters called "Mandragors". These insect/plant hybrids are found in the deserts of ''Nightfall'', burrowing under the sand. In ''Eye of the North'', identical monsters with the same name live in cold climate and burrow under snow, without as much as a LampshadeHanging to explain it.
** See also: the frogmen (though this is lampshaded by the fact that each color appears to designate a different tribe. This doesn't stop them from being modified versions of the Heket from Nightfall, though)
** At the same time, ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' will often subtly alter the mesh of different "species" of the same sort of enemy (the Tengu, the minotaurs, the Nightfall insects, and so on)
*** Specifically, [=ArenaNet=] will keep the skeleton of a mob intact to make use of its animations, but rework the attached mesh. The most obvious example of this is the Margonites. Several use basic class skeletons, but others used include the Damned Cleric, Mursaat, Seer, and even the Undead Lich, an end-game boss.
* ''PhantasyStarOnline'' does this in Episode I. The Forest enemy type Boomas, the Caves enemy type Sharks, and the Ruins enemy type Dimenians all have the same basic "skeleton" and body structure, and the same attack animations. Later episodes seem to avert this, possibly because they were designed for more powerful hardware than the Dreamcast original.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' changes the colour and increases the size of a monster to indicate that it is a higher level. Nearly every zone has some version of a wolf or boar to kill.

** Played extra-straight with the monster (and quest) Terokkarantula. Tougher than the smaller spiders nearby, as would be expected by it's named nature and elite status, the player who hasn't been there before is probably STILL not expecting a spider that's larger than a good-sized HOUSE.
** Somewhat averted in expansions as the developers go through a good deal of work to create a few "unique" creatures for each expansion (especially the alien planet Outland). Still, you're unlikely to hit a zone that doesn't have at least two or three models you've seen before.
** An extra bit -- some of the more recognizably human of the undead monsters you fight use the same model types available for Undead characters (Justified as they share a common origin -- reanimated by the Scourge).
** It is found already with the creeps in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''
* ''Lord of the Rings Online'' -- similarly to VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft above -- re-skins meshes all the time.

* ''EverQuest 1'' used this extensively. It may have been possible to fight a "variety" of [[DemBones Skeletons]] -- sharing one model and possibly one texture (with {{Palette Swap}}s) -- all the way from level 1 to max level.
** ''EverquestII'' has some sort of skeleton or zombie in almost every zone.

*** The Feral Ghouls in Vault 34 wear vault jumpsuits or armor and are named according to their human roles, but statwise are identical to normal Ferals or Glowing Ones, except for the Overseer, who is a boss version of the Reaver type with stats similar to ''FO 3'''s Reavers. Similarly, Camp Searchlight is inhabited by Feral Ghoul-ified NCR Troopers, which wear trooper armor and attack with knives or other melee weapons.

*** The Feral Ghouls in Vault 34 wear vault jumpsuits or armor and are named according to their human roles, but statwise are identical to normal Ferals or Glowing Ones, except for the Overseer, who is a boss version of the Reaver type. Similarly, Camp Searchlight is inhabited by Feral Ghoul-ified NCR Troopers, which wear trooper armor and attack with knives or other melee weapons.

*** The ''Point Lookout'' expansion adds swamp versions of Feral Ghouls, Mirelurk Hunters, and Mirelurk kings, as well as the Robobrain Sentries that guard the FinalDungeon, which really are just palette swaps with slightly different abilities.

*** The second version of Mouser is a different color, takes twice as many hits to kill, and throws bombs with greater frequency. The original ''DokiDokiPanic'' included an even tougher albino Mouser, which was replaced by [[GiantEnemyCrab Clawgrip]] in ''SMB 2''.

*** The second version of Mouser is a different color, takes twice as many hits to kill, and throws bombs with greater frequency. The original ''DokiDokiPanic'' included an even tougher albino Mouser, which was replaced by Clawgrip in ''SMB 2''.

*** Normal Super Mutants, Overlords(''Broken Steel'') and Behemoths are ''very'' easy to tell apart and are fought with different strategies; unfortunately the Brutes and Masters only have slight armor and HP varieties from the standard ones.

The solution many games go for is to have a small set of monster types, but have them appear with different graphics. Often, this change of design will be accompanied by a new adjective to go with their name (if the monster was based on a mythological or cryptozoological creature, subsequent names will be alternate names for the creature ([[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot to Sasquatch to Yeti]]), or the name of a similar creature (Cockatrice to Basilisk)). Typically, all such monsters will be vulnerable to the same strategy, or a variation thereupon, but later colors will tend to be more powerful. Elemental variations are a common version of this trope as are variations in size and adding or removing features like horns, [[FlyingMook wings]], or [[KingMook crowns]].

-->--'''Viridi''' on the [[StarfishRobots Aurum]], ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''

->''First [[HordeOfAlienLocusts they devour planets]]; now they're copying enemies? Ugh. Lowlifes!''
-->--'''Viridi''' on the [[StarfishRobots Auruum]], ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''

** There's now specific models for veteran Space Marines, with custom boltguns that look a bit different and shoulder pads that have embossed icons for non-codex chapters. Of course, these models are more expensive, so some players stick with the old palette swap method.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is a more modern 3D game and as such gives every human character different appearances. And while all Feral Ghouls look the same, the different species of Ghoul are easily identifiable. Ferals are the standard, Reavers from the ''Broken Steel'' DLC get a different face ''and'' abilities and Glowing Ones... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin glow]]. ''Broken Steel'' also adds Hellfire Troopers, which are Enclave troops with high-impact fire-resistant armor and heavier weapons, and Albino Radscorpions, albinistic versions of Giant Radscorpions that are much faster and tougher, and regenerate HP in sunlight. Fire Ants look like normal Giant Ants but also spit fire. Mirelurk Hunters are bigger, tougher, and have a different model than base Mirelurks, Nukalurks are a glowing blue version of Hunters found in the Nuka-Cola plant, and Mirelurk Kings are a completely different species. The Mister Gutsy robot is an upgraded version of Mister Handy with better armor and a plasma cannon in addition to the standard flamethrower. Normal Super Mutants, Overlords(''Broken Steel'') and Behemoths are ''very'' easy to tell apart and are fought with different strategies; unfortunately the Brutes and Masters only have slight armor and HP varieties from the standard ones. Other monsters in the game usually only have one type. Then comes the ''Point Lookout'' expansion, which adds swamp versions of Feral Ghouls, Mirelurk Hunters, and Mirelurk kings, as well as the Robobrain Sentries that guard the FinalDungeon, which really are just palette swaps with slightly different abilities. Likewise for Maintenance Protectrons (lack the US Army livery) and Nuka-Cola Security Protectrons (painted with the Nuka Cola logo) in the base game.
** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons, the Spore Carriers are reskins of the Trogs from ''The Pitt'', with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character.

*** Super Mutants have a blue-skinned variant known as Nightkin, who are equipped with {{Invisibility Cloak}}s and different weaponry than the normal Mutants.

*** ''Old World Blues'' introduces the Mr. Orderly, a medical version of Mr. Gutsy.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is a more modern 3D game and as such gives every human character different appearances. And while all Feral Ghouls look the same, the different species of Ghoul are easily identifiable. Ferals are the standard, Reavers from the ''Broken Steel'' DLC get a different face ''and'' abilities and Glowing Ones... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin glow]]. ''Broken Steel'' also adds Hellfire Troopers, which are Enclave troops with high-impact fire-resistant armor and heavier weapons, and Albino Radscorpions, albinistic versions of Giant Radscorpions that are much faster and tougher, and regenerate HP in sunlight. Fire Ants look like normal Giant Ants but also spit fire. Mirelurk Hunters are bigger, tougher, and have a different model than base Mirelurks, Nukalurks are a glowing blue version of Hunters found in the Nuka-Cola plant, and Mirelurk Kings are a completely different species. The Mister Gutsy robot is an upgraded version of Mister Handy with better armor and a plasma cannon in addition to the standard flamethrower. Normal Super Mutants, Overlords(''Broken Steel'') and Behemoths are ''very'' easy to tell apart and are fought with different strategies; unfortunately the Brutes and Masters only have slight armor and HP varieties from the standard ones. Other monsters in the game usually only have one type. Then comes the ''Point Lookout'' expansion, which adds swamp versions of Feral Ghouls, Mirelurk Hunters, and Mirelurk kings, as well as the Robobrain Sentries that guard the FinalDungeon, which really are just palette swaps with slightly different abilities. Likewise for Maintenance Protectrons (lack the US Army livery) and Nuka-Cola Security Protectrons (painted with the Nuka Cola logo) in the base game. Pitt Raiders from ''The Pitt'' are tougher and have better weapons and armor than the Wasteland Raiders, while Wildmen are The Pitt's analogue of the latter.
** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons, the Spore Carriers are reskins of the Trogs, with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character.

*** Mr. Steel is a repainted Mr. Gutsy found solely in the New Vegas Steel plant, and ''Old World Blues'' introduces the Mr. Orderly, a medical version.

** Speaking of ''The Pitt'', the Spore Carriers in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons are reskins of the Trogs, with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character. Lakelurks are renamed Mirelurk Kings. Mr. Steel is a repainted Mr. Gutsy found solely in the New Vegas Steel plant, and ''Old World Blues'' introduces the Mr. Orderly, a medical version. The Feral Ghouls in Vault 34 wear vault jumpsuits or armor and are named according to their human roles, but statwise are identical to normal Ferals or Glowing Ones, except for the Overseer, who is a boss version of the Reaver type. Similarly, Camp Searchlight is inhabited by Feral Ghoul-ified NCR Troopers, which wear trooper armor and attack with knives or other melee weapons. Golden Geckos are upgraded yellow versions of the standard Geckos, Fire Geckos are spinier and breathe fire, and Green Geckos from ''Honest Hearts'' spit acid. As for Super Mutants, they have a blue-skinned variant known as Nightkin, who are equipped with {{Invisibility Cloak}}s and different weaponry than the normal Mutants.

** There's a lot of enemies like this in Metroid games. Nearly every zone has its own variation of the basic Geemer (which itsef comes in a few different colour in both the original game and Super Metroid), Sidehoppers and Desgeegas are the same enemy with different skin, Ripper IIs are faster moving Rippers...

** Speaking of ''The Pitt'', the Spore Carriers in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons are reskins of the Trogs, with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character. Lakelurks are renamed Mirelurk Kings. Mr. Steel is a repainted Mr. Gutsy found solely in the New Vegas Steel plant, and ''Old World Blues'' introduces the Mr. Orderly, a medical version. The Feral Ghouls in Vault 34 wear vault jumpsuits or armor and are named according to their human roles, but statwise are identical to normal Ferals or Glowing Ones, except for the Overseer, who is a boss version of the Reaver type. Similarly, Camp Searchlight is inhabited by Feral Ghoul-ified NCR Troopers, which wear trooper armor and attack with knives or other melee weapons. Golden Geckos are upgraded yellow versions of the standard Geckos, Fire Geckos are spinier and breathe fire, and Green Geckos from ''Honest Hearts'' spit acid.

** Speaking of ''The Pitt'', the Spore Carriers in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons are reskins of the Trogs, with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character. Lakelurks are renamed Mirelurk Kings. Mr. Steel is a repainted Mr. Gutsy found solely in the New Vegas Steel plant, and ''Old World Blues'' introduces the Mr. Orderly, a medical version. The Feral Ghouls in Vault 34 wear vault jumpsuits or armor and are named according to their human roles, but statwise are identical to normal Ferals or Glowing Ones, except for the Overseer, who is a boss version of the Reaver type. Similarly, Camp Searchlight is inhabited by Feral Ghoul-ified NCR Troopers, which wear trooper armor and attack with knives or other melee weapons.

** Speaking of ''The Pitt'', the Spore Carriers in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and its add-ons are reskins of the Trogs, with an added ActionBomb capability. The Trog model is also reused for the Tunnelers in ''Lonesome Road'', some of which can [[KnockBack knock down]] or [[StandardStatusEffects poison]] the player character.

* ''LegendOfMana'' notably had Underground Crabs in the very first dungeon.
* ''{{Okami}}'' has the same set of tactics with occasional additional attacks for the successive areas of enemies. Difficulty is achieved late in the optional extras with nigh-endless waves of enemies.
* Games based on ''{{Bionicle}}'', since the toys are pretty much like this. "You are attacked by an Air Burnak." "You are attacked by a Stone Burnak." "You are attacked by an Ice Burnak."

* While the main-series KingdomHearts games largely avoid this by simply scaling the strength of enemies found in later worlds, 358/2 Days plays it straight, with up to 3 different versions of many mooks where the only difference is size, a design choice that may have been mandated by limited space for the game data.

* ''MetroidPrime 2'' recycled a lot of enemies from ''Prime 1'' with new models. Some were barely changed (like the recoloured Triclops) while others were given a complete overhaul, the Beetle becoming the much smaller Splinter, the Elite Pirate the Ingsmasher, Baby Sheegoths becoming Grenchlers, Chozo Ghosts becoming Pirate Commandos, etc. There's also a few examples in the games themselves, like the normal / ice / plate Parasites in ''Prime'' and the light / dark creatures in ''Echoes''.

** Different weaponry and/or levels of toughness of the opponents (e.g. the processed humans of ''VideoGame/QuakeII'', the Cabal followers of ''{{Blood}}'', Barons of Hell and Hellknights in ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} II'').

* It all started with ''PacMan'', where the color coding of ghosts let the designers get away with only having one enemy type -- the colors indicated different AI strategies in how they pursued the heroic circle.

* ''GuildWars Eye of the North'' has plenty of enemies recycled from the three previous campaigns, but the most egregious example is re-using a species of monsters called "Mandragors". These insect/plant hybrids are found in the deserts of ''Nightfall'', burrowing under the sand. In ''Eye of the North'', identical monsters with the same name live in cold climate and burrow under snow, without as much as a LampshadeHanging to explain it.

** At the same time, ''GuildWars'' will often subtly alter the mesh of different "species" of the same sort of enemy (the Tengu, the minotaurs, the Nightfall insects, and so on)

** It is found already with the creeps in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III''

*** Which was further [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade Hanged]] in a later introduced dungeon in Evendim, [[spoiler:where you actually ''can'' encounter boars. If you kill one, a quest starter item will drop giving you the quest to ''finally'' bring the original questgiver his boarmeat.]]

* Perhaps parodied with ''KingdomOfLoathing'' with the [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Perpendicular_bat perpendicular bat]]. Its description when you fight it is "This bat is perpendicular to the ground! That makes it totally different from a regular bat!" ''Definitely'' parodied with the [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Completely_different_spider completely different spider]], which is nothing of the sort.

* RagnarokOnline has a few of these: (Archer/Soldier/Pirate) Skeletons, Kobolds/Goblins and to some extent Orcs, the [[MascotMook Poring family]] and some others. There are also lots of monsters that have just one stronger palette-swapped version, and a few families of monsters that have the same name and behaviour, but different colors and attacks/stats/elements appearing in the same areas.

* Likewise, in ''SuperMarioBros'', red-shelled Koopas were implied to be "more powerful", at least in that they had enough sense to not stroll off of cliffs like their green counterparts.

* In ''{{Purple}}'', basic mooks like slimes, bats and cannons get {{Palette Swap}}ped at least three times, each with a slightly different behaviour.

* ''{{Descent}}'': The Super Hulk or Super Mech 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.

* ShiningForce uses this in all of its games and it is jarring. The original, for example, had regular [[GoddamnedBats Bats]], and their aquatic cousins, ''Sea'' Bats.

** In ''{{Nethack}}'', this can also lead to YetAnotherStupidDeath, in ways both obvious and surprising. Not only might the player not distinguish between a dwarf lord and a mind flayer, in some contexts ''the game itself'' doesn't distinguish between them. Ooh a blessed scroll of genocide! You'd better cap the mind flayers, having to remap levels is a bitch. What's that? You were playing as a dwarf? Congratulations: you have succumbed to death by palette swap. (Blessed scrolls genocide a class of monsters, in this case h, Humanoid)

** ''CrisisCore: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' took this to ridiculous extremes. If a monster got a special white coloration with feathers, & a pattern of a certain character's face, it became a 'copy' of said character. Despite essentially being the same monster, it was implied to be much more powerful as a result.

*** ''IX'' has a few palette swaps; the ten [[FairyBattle Fairy Battles]], and the Crystal versions of the Four Fiends.
* Gameboy games had the lack of memory needed to justify {{Underground Monkey}}s, but, being monochrome, had no way of switching palettes. Generally, this led to enemies either never improving or simply gaining more hit points, though turn-based [=RPGs=] (Such as the ''[=SaGa=]/FinalFantasyLegend'' series) were able to circumvent this by... giving the sprites new names. (Say, isn't that Master Dragon the exact same size as the Baby Dragon from the start of the game?)
** Interestingly, this hardware limitation led to an inversion in ''{{Metroid}} 2''. In the original, getting Samus's Varia armor made the sprite change color, which wasn't possible on the Gameboy. To compensate, gaining the upgrade gave the Varia suit the huge shoulders that are now the character's trademark look.

* ''{{Persona 3}}'' is another good example of this trope--practically every enemy inside [[ItsAllUpstairsFromHere Tartarus, the game's sole real dungeon,]] uses one of a select number of sprites, and most sprite-sharers are vulnerable to the same kinds of tactics (if not necessarily always sharing elemental weaknesses).
** Not only that, but every boss not important to the story is simply a giant version of a normal enemy, a practice that would carry over to ''{{Persona 4}}''.

** ''{{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).

* ''GrandiaII'' starts doing this about halfway through the game.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' does not perform "{{PaletteSwap}}s" of its [[{{Mon}} monsters]] aside from rare "shiny" Pokémon which are the exact same species. The closest thing to recycled enemies might be evolved forms of previously encountered Pokémon, or the ''same'' Pokémon at higher levels. This lack of palette-swapping monsters makes sense when you consider the whole premise of the game is built on having a wide selection of Pokémon to customize your team with. There are many Pokemon based on similar animals who are mostly differentiated by the location they live in though. Take Pachirisu, an electric squirrel of the Sinnoh region and Emolga, an electric flying squirrel of the Unova region. Pikachu, a rare electric mouse that lives in forests and Maril, a rare river dwelling mouse. Also, the same species of animal may be represented more than once in the same area such as Pansage, Pansear and Panpour who are all forest monkeys but each of a different elemental type.

** It also features ''literal'' Underground Monkeys. With ''wings''.

* ''{{Albion}}'' does this a little differently. The enemies are different on each continent, but come in a small variety. Stronger versions of certain creatures accompany larger packs. They don't even bother with creative names (Animal3)

* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'', although otherwise unrelated to this trope, had a tribe of CloudCuckoolander monkeys living underground in a desert.
** Actually, ''Mother'' plays this trope quite often. For example, 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.
** The entire trilogy does this, although VideoGame/EarthBound and Mother3 give the palette swaps goofy names. For instance, you have the 'Manly Fish' and his stronger swap, the 'Manly Fish's Brother'.

* ''UltimaV'' contains literal monkeys found only underground -- the Mongbats -- but they resemble nothing else in the game.
** ''UltimaIII'' has multiple enemy types with the same colours where the only difference is the name - however, that's ''literally'' the only difference. No change in stats, health, damage dealth, weaknesses... Just Orcs, Goblins and Trolls, all exactly the same.

* [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Color-coded dragons]] predate most video games, as they appeared in the TabletopGames ''DungeonsAndDragons'', which was first published in 1974. Evil ("Chromatic") dragons have scales of a particular solid color reflecting their place in the ElementalRockPaperScissors spectrum, and good ("Metallic") dragons have scales of precious metal. Interestingly, though, these aren't "palette swaps"; as it is possible to readily identify different species of dragons in greyscale artwork (for example, white dragons have a peculiar vertical crest on their head, while silver dragons have backward-pointing horns and a ribbed frill along their necks).

*** Although one 3rd edition ''{{Dragon}}'' article about creating monsters included "But this one's blue!" in a list of how ''not'' to do it.
** Fourth Edition includes at least one extra variety of every monster in its Monster Manual entry. Many of these fall into UndergroundMonkey status, being simply higher level versions from a different environment-normally, a different plane. Notably, the Feygrove Choker is a ''reverse'' UndergroundMonkey, being a creature from thick forests in the Feywild, while the base creature lurks in the Underdark.

* Other toys use a similar system, often called redecos (when identical molds are used but the color of plastic is altered) or retools (when most parts stay basically the same but are altered to include, for example, new accessories; this can also include a redeco). For example, in the most recent series of ''{{Transformers}}'', [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Storm_Cloud#Classic_Series Stormcloud]] is a redeco of [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Powerglide#Universe_.282008.29 Powerglide]], while [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sideswipe_(G1)#Universe_.282008.29 Sideswipe]] is a retool of [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Sunstreaker_(G1)#Classic_Series Sunstreaker]].

* For most of its run, ''{{Bionicle}}'' sets were just recolors of each other with slight differences in assembly and parts. Sometimes, the ''only'' difference would be their [[CoolMask masks]] and their tools/weapons. Then, the Mahri Nui saga came along in 2007, and the [[EvilOverlord Barraki]] were released, each looking very different from each other. Since then, the sets have been largely {{Averted}} this trope.

* As mentioned in the trope description, the TropeNamer is RPGWorld, and was originally a LampshadeHanging by showing a number of "Underground (animal not usually found in caves)" enemies in succession.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the webcomic Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}, where the Ice Dragon, boss of the Ice Cave, paints himself red and calls himself a Fire Dragon to fool adventurers.