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ScrollBoss Minus World: Kriss Krossovers make you jump-jump
Could-be Crossovers and Cameos.
It was Lo Pan (crazy old basket case on wheels, not the 9-foot tall roadblock) who once said "Many mysteries, many unanswerable questions, even in a life as short as yours!" Oh how right he was. Since the start of this site, I've run into far more mysteries than I've solved. Some of these are oddities that I thought only I gave a darn about until I browsed the intarwebs more and saw others who are also pondering such ponderables. Better sites have areas like Flying Omelette's section chock full of cameos) that did this MUCH better than I did, but I'd like to talk about a few of my personal favorite side-scroller instances.
| Altered Beast - The Graves |
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Let's start with an oldie-but-goodie. Until I made a (horribly) re-done version of Altered Beast's first stage for MUGEN (that wacky modular fighting game), I never really noticed that some of the graves had "Stella" written on them. Never thought that I'd ever figure out why either. While checking out the OPCFG website, I read Dire's Altered Beast Oddities feature and noticed the "Alex" stones. I never noticed them at all, because they show up much later in the stage and I don't think they appear unless you miss the opportunity to evolve into the werewolf before Neff's (the boss) first appearance. Many theories were given, including what I thought was logical: a running gag with dead characters named Alex (later to be the guy that dies in the beginning of Golden Axe, programmed by the same team). That's what I thought before I noticed the start screen for the Alex Kidd arcade game... |
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Yup. The girl who is the second player in the game is named Stella. I never really noticed what the female 2nd player's name was until the night before I wrote this years ago. It's kinda sad when you think about those two precious lil' tykes decomposing six feet under. It's probably not really them, so don't go crying at the thought of those cute lil' mascots being infested with squirming maggots. Oddly enough, Opa-Opa, the ship from Fantasy Zone, makes an appearance in the very same game (as well as some of the oddest enemies I've ever seen in a video game). At least this will put those "A Streetcar named Desire" reference rumors to rest... maybe... |
| Blaze Fielding's arcade game ancestor? |
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Blaze, the Flash Gal? While putting this site together, I tried to check out as many early side-scrollers as I possibly could and found this old Sega gem. I'm not the only person to notice that the heroine in the side-scroller, Flash Gal, looks a heck of a lot like Blaze Fielding (of "Streets of Rage" fame). I'm not sure what it is, but Flash Gal just happens to look like Blaze, including the bracelets. Appropriately, someone on the Streets of Rage OnLine site caught this too. Flash Gal even fights a suit-wearing criminal boss armed with a machine gun at the end of her game. He also sits in a similar "throne room" as Mr. X does. However, looking at U.S. marquee art, she seems to be more of a Wonder Woman clone. Of course, U.S. artwork of Japanese games is about as accurate as the aim of a PCP-addled Stormtrooper with cataracts, so you can take that with a grain of artificial salt. |
| Kazan: time-traveller? Descendant of another Jaleco hero? total co-incidence? |
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During a session of browsing through old arcade game listings, I decided to see what arcade games that Jaleco, creators of the Rushing Beat/Brawl Brothers games had made. I found this one, called Iga Ninjyutsuden or other. I was caught a bit by suprise to see the name on the hero's lifebar was Kazan, also the name of the ninja in Rushing Beat 2/Brawl Brothers. They even have the same hair color and a slightly similar outfit. I've heard that the Japanese version of the Rushing Beat games actually have a storyline (if you play Brawl Brothers in Japanese mode, notice that the bosses have different post-fight dialogue). If someone has a translation of these, please let me know, because that might actually shed some light on this one. Maybe one of you "Cult of Kazan" people might know about this lil' tidbit. |
| Karnov: the Legend Continues? |
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Okay, we know that Karnov just LOVES to pop up in every other Data East game that he possibly can. But how many of you ever paid close attention the hostage takers in the arcade version of Robocop? Maybe it's just a coincidence or maybe there's a reason that he's drawn almost completely different from all the other drone enemies in the game. |
| Super Mad Gear Brothers or Capcom Celebrity Fit Club? |
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The big man on the left is Bill Bull from Capcom's Final Fight. The smaller man beside him is Bull from Final Fight 2 for the SNES. I know, I know. Other than both of them having Bull in their name, wearing gray clothing and having very similar beards, they're nothing alike. Well, check out this tidbit from Bill Bull's profile in Capcom Classics Collection:'But lately he has been a little concerned about his weight and has gone on a diet.' Interesting. If you go by Guy's SFA2 stage, it kinda looks like he failed. Badly. Casually chewing on barbequed dinosaur legs is probably out of bounds even for the Atkins diet. Then again, that background is said to be non-canon and retconned away to explain Cody's transformation into a thug-tard. Maybe it's Bull... maybe it's his brother... or maybe this is all random BS. I only care just enough to have typed this out. |
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Here's Wong Who from Final Fight and Wong from Final Fight 3. I'm not trying to get all 'fan-fic' on you or anything, but look at these two. Both are named Wong, have a thing for wearing green clothes, have their hair in ponytails and are fans of Iron Shiek curly-toed footwear. Other than this being an odd coincidence, either Wong Who got on one hell of a diet and excercise routine or the Wong from Final Fight is his relative (brother?) who was good enough of a cook (lurking at the end of FF3's round 4 kitchen) that, well, look at Wong Who. You know that boy didn't miss no meals, man. |
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