What the heroes of popular games were originally supposed to look like (9 photos)

It's no secret that game and cartoon characters are not invented right away. Before approving the final version, a considerable number of initial sketches and sketches are created. And in this article I would like to show how, according to the original plan, the characters of popular games of the 90s should have looked.



Sonic



As you know, Sega and Nintendo were fiercely competitive, so they tried to keep up with each other. The symbol of the Nintendo company was the famous plumber Mario, so the bosses of the Sega company decided that they needed their own symbol.

Then, the company employees decided to express their ideas about a new character and sketch out their own version of a new mascot for the company. The staff began brainstorming, resulting in several hundred sketches being submitted.

There were many of them: a warrior with a sword, a mischievous jester, a kangaroo, a parrot, a cat, a boy in a dragon helmet, etc. But the greatest preference was given to a rabbit and a lookalike of Theodore Roosevelt with glasses and a large mustache. The latter, by the way, eventually became the prototype for Dr. Robotnik, the main antagonist of the game.





But then programmer Yuji Naka suggested using curling into a ball as an attack, which was in no way possible to implement with the help of that same Roosevelt double. Therefore, the authors began to look for more suitable options in which the character could curl up into a ball.



The final elections included a porcupine, a hedgehog and an armadillo. But as you already know, it was the Hedgehog who won (a sort of mixture of Felix the cat and Mickey Mouse), who was dubbed Mr. Needlemouse. But in the end, the creators decided to give the speedy hedgehog a more meaningful name. Many options were considered, but in the end everyone liked the name Sonic (Supersonic).

Gordon Freeman



We all know that the main character of Half-Life is a silent, bespectacled scientist named Gordon Freeman. But according to the original plan, it should have looked completely different.



Initially, this character did not have a name or his signature glasses, but he had a long and thick beard, an evil look and a powerful spacesuit. This character received the nickname "cyber woodcutter", although the developers among themselves called him Ivan the Space Biker.



But then it was decided to change the main character. According to Valve head Gabe Newell, they decided to make an unusual protagonist. So, instead of making another brutal hero, they created a humble, bespectacled scientist in a lightweight spacesuit, which was out of line with the video game standards of the time. The main character even got his last name Freeman in honor of the physicist Freeman Dyson.

Crash Bandicoot



The game about Crash Bandicoot began to be developed when the Sony Playstation console had not even entered the market. According to the founder of the Naughty Dog studio, Andy Gavin, they wanted to make the main character some cute real-life animal, but there was no thought that it would be the mascot of the new console.

As a result, the developers created a character that resembled a large potato with legs and dubbed him Willie Wombat, although they were well aware that this would not be the final version.

The creators offered other options for the character, but in the end they settled on a slender bandicoot with a mask a la Zorro and a long tail. However, it turned out that the mask and tail created additional problems with animation, so it was decided to abandon them.



But before the game was released, a new problem arose. Since the character was never given a name, he was still Willy Wombat. But as it turned out, one of the cartoon characters about the Tasmanian Devil already had this name, so it was urgently necessary to come up with a name suitable for the bandicoot.

As a result, the developers agreed that the character's name should reflect his desire for destruction, which is why he received the name Crash (crash, disaster).

But Universal's advertisers didn't like the name and insisted on something wombat-related. But the game's creators refused this, threatening that they would refuse further development. As a result, Universal accepted their terms.