There’s nothing like the announcement of a nostalgic collection or celebration to make you crave a look back on your childhood. And with the recent news of the oncoming PlayStation classic, it can be fun to see how different some of your favorite games could have been. While the mini-console won’t include all of these gems, there are aspects to some of them that could have been altered (for better or for worse) and had massive effects on the games themselves. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Sony’s PlayStation deserves to be celebrated as the milestone that it was. It brought 3D gaming into the mainstream with stellar titles like Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Resident Evil, all of which would go on to build up respectable (for the most part) franchises. And the way that it came about was by total accident.
The video game kings at Nintendo had originally partnered with Sony in the early 90s to create a CD-based add-on for their Super NES. After backing out of that deal, Nintendo actually forced Sony to create their own console. But what was a bad idea for Nintendo was certainly great for all of us. Because the console Sony would craft would be one of the pinnacles of the industry.
The impact that the PlayStation had on the market can still be felt to this day through several consoles and countless experiences. In honor of that feat, here are 25 amazing things deleted from PlayStation games that would have changed everything.
25 Spyro The Dragon: He Was Originally Green
It’s hard to imagine the feisty little guy without his signature purple scales, but that wasn’t always the case. During development, Spyro was originally green.
The problem with this was he would blend into any environment with grass.
Green is a standard color for a dragon, or at least as standard as a color can be for a fictional creature. So it makes sense that Insomniac would have chosen that shade. But if they had kept it, the frustration that came from it likely would’ve turned away many players. Purple was definitely the right call.
24 Crash Bandicoot: He Was Willie The Wombat
While this wouldn’t have had an effect on the gameplay, Crash was almost an entirely different character. Naughty Dog founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin originally had Crash as a wombat. This was right after Sony offered them the chance to make a game specifically for their console, so they had more resources than ever before.
The drawing above was done at Hanna-Barbera by Butch Hartman, of Johnny Bravo and The Fairly OddParents fame. But along the way, he was changed to a bandicoot and the name “Crash” was created out of his love for crashing into those boxes.
23 Resident Evil: Censorship Galore
The international version of Resident Evil, while still violent for its time, was heavily censored compared to the Japanese release.
The live-action opening, for example, had to censor some of the grosser moments and the shot of Chris Redfield during the credits because he was smoking. During the first zombie encounter, it dropped the head it was munching on and the camera showed it close up. Then there’s the unlockable alternate version of the end credits, which features the characters being eliminated in a variety of ways. How fun.
22 Silent Hill: Dangerous Pits
The original Silent Hill provided a thoroughly spooky experience by giving players almost no means to defend themselves against horrifically designed nightmare creatures. Though there was one feature that was left out that would’ve made it a bit more difficult.
It is possible to hack the game so that Harry Mason falls into bottomless pits, ending him instantly. It is thought that these pits were originally intended to be traps, as they showed up in the sequels. And these bottomless pits are just left over from that idea.
21 Final Fantasy VII: Deleted Enemy Data
Of the many different genres of gaming, none pack as much content into their titles quite like RPGs. And the Final Fantasy series is one of the biggest around. There were a ton of aspects left out of the seminal Final Fantasy VII, many of which have to do with enemies.
Not only did the game not use many test enemies, but certain encounters and abilities were deleted as well.
Within the game’s code, some players have found unused battles for Ho-chu and Tonberry, which are only fought at specific locations, and unused moves for Dual Horn and Acrophies.
20 Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver: The Priestess
Before Amy Hennig gifted the world the Uncharted series, she worked on an entirely different action-adventure franchise. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was the second installment and focused on a vampire named Raziel who was ended and resurrected, out for revenge against his slayer.
It isn’t often that a game will cut out an entire character, but the High Priestess of the vampire worshippers was deleted before release. It is believed that she would have operated as a boss. And while she doesn’t appear in the game, concept art exists and she did show up in the tie-in comic.
19 Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage: Grundy The Hippo’s Second Challenge
Since Spyro the Dragon was such a hit, a sequel was naturally on the way. And Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage promised to be bigger and badder than the previous entry.
But there was one difficult challenge that was left out of the game.
Grundy the Hippo can be found in the Oasis and offers the player an orb mission where they have to free her 8 relatives from blocks of stone in a certain amount of time. The unused mission, however, would have raised the number to 15.
18 Resident Evil 2: So Many Helpful Weapons
Another difference between the international and Japanese versions of the first Resident Evil was the difficulty. There were less helpful items, such as ammo and ink ribbons, to be found in the international release.
The sequel kept up the difficult tradition, in that there were many weapons cut from the final release.
These weapons can still be found in the game’s code and can only be used through hacking. They include another pistol, grenades, and a machine gun. Including these weapons probably would’ve made the game a bit easier.
17 Tekken 3: A Different Ending For Anna
Tekken 3 is widely regarded to be one of the best of the long-running fighting franchise though the ending for one of its characters had to be changed for Western audiences.
The cutscene featured Anna and fellow fighter Nina lounging by a pool when three muscular guys tried to show off to them. And while Nina wanted nothing to do with them, Anna got up and started showing off. So as a joke, Nina untied herself and Anna was left embarrassed. The ending was changed to basically have Anna show off and walk away pleased with herself.
16 Crash Bandicoot: Stormy Ascent
Sometimes, deleting something for the sake of the player’s sanity is the right move. In the original version of Crash Bandicoot, the level Stormy Ascent was deleted from the final version because Naughty Dog thought it was too difficult.
However, players could still access it through a Game Shark cheat as it was still on the disc. It was also included as DLC when Crash Bandicoot: N’Sane Trilogy was released in 2017. As it turns out, Naughty Dog was right. And many players may have wished the level stayed buried.
15 Vagrant Story: Bad Elixirs
While Final Fantasy may have been the RPG series to thrive and evolve on the PlayStation, there are several forgotten gems that enhanced the system’s library. Vagrant Story is one such action-adventure RPG that focused on a kingdom being ripped apart by civil war.
Your character in the game could use several elixirs which all had various stat boosts. However, the game’s code reveals that bad elixirs were also intended to be in the game. These would’ve had the opposite effects of the regular elixirs.
14 Gran Turismo 2: Multiple Unused Tracks
The Gran Turismo racing series has been going strong for twenty years now and it got its start on the first PlayStation. The second entry received critical acclaim despite the fact that there were several tracks the developers cut from the final release.
Some of these were mirrored versions of the Test Course, Super Speedway, and Laguna Seca Raceway. There are also two unnamed courses that can only be accessed by a cheat code, though it’s obvious upon playing that they were never completed.
13 Tomb Raider: There Was A Male Equivalent
While this was very early on in development, the team behind Tomb Raider initially intended to give players the option to choose between a male and a female protagonist. But after realizing that this would force them to do more work on the game’s cutscenes, they decided to stick with one character.
Toby Gard, the man credited with the creation of Lara Croft, was the one to elect the hero to be female.
Not only did he like Lara’s design better, but he also noticed that whenever he saw people playing Virtua Fighter, they tended to gravitate towards female fighters.
12 Final Fantasy VII: More To Do In The Honeybee Inn
The Honeybee Inn is an optional location from Final Fantasy VII that can lead to a sidequest, but there was originally more to do. There are three unused maps buried in the game’s code. One of them is for a reception area that would’ve triggered an event with the character Palmer. The other two are for a waiting room and a lobby; the Inn was originally meant to have two floors.
Players have also been able to dig up mountains of unused text in the game’s code, pointing to the initial inclusion of more NPCs to talk to.
11 Silent Hill: Extra Monsters
As if there weren’t enough horrible creatures in Silent Hill, the creators originally had a lot more designs they were going to include. And in 2017, a modder unearthed them.
There were six in total that went unused and these include giant frogs, hairless monkeys, massive slug-like creatures, large moths, manta rays, and demonic ostriches. These, of course, are the closest way to describe the beasts. The graphics don’t look too scary by today’s standards, but encountering those giant slugs in 1999 would have been petrifying.
10 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: More Unused Items
Capcom sure loves to take things out of their games, though it could be argued that it makes the final product more polished. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis features many items in the code that didn’t make any appearances within the actual game.
Unlike Resident Evil 2, the majority of these items aren’t weapons.
One of the more interesting items found are three coins with a demon inscribed on them. No one knows what these would have been used for. Various keys, a bottle of chemicals, a chain, and various other small items have also been found.
9 Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night: More Moves For Richter
Richter Belmont may be joining the Super Smash Bros. roster soon, but he started his career as a monster slayer in some of the most well-received entries in the Castlevania series. And to this day, many still believe Symphony of the Night to be the best addition to the franchise.
Within the game’s code, unused sprites for different movements and attacks for the character can be found. Many of these would be included in the Nintendo DS title Portrait of Ruin, such as a spin kick, a spin jump, and a sweep kick. There are also different colored outfits.
8 Spyro: Year Of The Dragon: Unreachable Locations
The unused content of Spyro’s first two adventures is nothing compared to the amount cut from Spyro: Year of the Dragon. There are multiple areas that were left out entirely of the final game.
While a few are just unused rooms of larger locations, others seem to have been much more important at one point.
There is an island that can be seen in the level Midnight Mountain that was originally intended to be the location of the Super Bonus Round portal, but that was moved. There’s also a cave in Fireworks Factory and an arena in the Dino Mines.
7 Final Fantasy VIII: Selphie Was Much Stronger
The Final Fantasy series has always featured lovable and unique characters. One from the eighth installment, Selphie Tilmitt, was an energetic and clumsy girl that used nunchaku to fight.
And she could have been a lot more powerful.
Selphie’s limit break, or ability, is slots. Using this in battle will bring up what looks like a slot machine, allowing for spell combinations with various effects to occur. But there are two powerful spells that weren’t included in the final game. These are Percent (drops HP of all enemies to critical levels) and Catastrophe (deals heavy non-elemental damage to all enemies).
6 Dino Crisis: A Prolonged Experience
Sometimes when developers take out certain things from a game, it’s to create a more streamlined experience. Such is the case with Dino Crisis, an action-adventure game that tasked players with surviving an outbreak of vicious dinosaurs.
There are several items found within the game’s code that would have prolonged certain events. There’s the locker room key that went unused because the door was made to be unlocked. There’s a keycard for some security doors and different batteries that the player would need to power certain machines. All in all, these items would’ve given the game a slower pace.
