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Top 10 Biggest Video Game Screw Ups

Top 10 Biggest Video Game Screw Ups

Mistakes happen all the time. After all, the people making games are exactly that – people. But in an industry as huge as games, mistakes made can be visible on a scale most work-related screw-ups aren’t. Something that seems harmless, or even intended as a joke can have thousands of dollars, literally, of consequences. Other times, they just become inside jokes or memorable bits of trivia. Here are our top ten favorite gaming screwups, for all the reasons above and more.

E for… Everyone?

E for… Everyone?

Gal Gun is… not a family-friendly game. I mean, when you boil it down to the basics, it’s about shooting underage girls with an orgasm gun so they stop uh, chasing you. So obviously, it gets an M rating from the ESRB. But that doesn’t mean manufacturing errors don’t happen. The physical Vita version shipped with a misprinted back, labeling the game with an E rating, despite the qualifier being “Sexual Content.” That’s just hilarious.

The Half a Million-Dollar Ass

The Half a Million-Dollar Ass

Halo 2 ran into some drama that we never truly knew the story behind for years. Shortly after originally shipping on PC, that version of the game was recalled, and replaced with the exact same game, only with “Nudity” added to the already M-rated ESRB label. Turns out a photo of a Bungie staff member mooning for a camera was hidden deep in the game’s code as an inside joke… and of course hackers found it somehow. Legend says that Microsoft lost half a mil on the recall/reprint. Woof.

Allan Messed Up!

Allan Messed Up!

A small, but easily discoverable error found in Hitman: Blood Money became a pretty good gag that has made its way into several Hitman games since. Items you could pick up in the game had little bits of flavor text, but for one random object, the in-game text was missing, and a placeholder reminding a forgetful employee to add some details later was there instead. Poor Allen will be roasted for this forever, but it’s all in good fun.

The Minus World

The Minus World

I wanted to generally avoid putting glitches on this list, but the “Minus World” in Super Mario Bros . is just too legendary not to mention here. If you jump awkwardly into the wall above the exit pipe in the first underground level, Mario will clip through the wall into the Warp Zone. A single pipe will take the hapless plumped into world “-1,” in which he’ll be stuck in an endless loop of a water stage that never actually ends until he dies or runs out of time.

Okami Box Art Reverse Theft

Okami Box Art Reverse Theft

You’d think having art assets on hand for designing box art would be the least trivial matter at a large company like Capcom. But Okami on the Wii was a port, and perhaps some parts of the process were outsourced. Or maybe someone got a little lazy on a Wednesday. Either way, the game’s box art has a big ol’ IGN watermark on it, which is just too funny. Capcom would eventually give out alternative, extremely dope box art replacements for free.

Revelations Is Hard to Spell

Revelations Is Hard to Spell

Resident Evil: Revelations is a pretty solid game that has been ported a million times since originally appearing on the 3DS. But the game is also famous for having a spelling gaffe make it all the way through to manufacture and shipping, on the freakin’ case spine. Capcom acknowledged the error in an interview, saying that not only did it get through Capcom, but nobody at Nintendo or the ESRB noticed the error either. That’s amazing.

Yeah, Hot Coffee Is on the List

Yeah, Hot Coffee Is on the List

This one’s like the Halo butt, but a million times worse. Rockstar originally had a sex minigame made for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , but decided to drop it to make sure the game would get to keep the intended M-rating. Of course, instead of removing it entirely they just removed access to it from the regular game, and we all know where this story goes. Intrepid hackers were able to simply use a Gameshark to find the content, and a media circus ensued.

DLC Woes

DLC Woes

Before loot boxes, day one patches, and season passes, the controversy of the moment was DLC itself. Yeah, we’ve given up a lot of ground over the years. Much of the fighting about DLC was all over the place, from horse armor to online passes, but Capcom ended up facing a lot of gamer ire due to Street Fighter X Tekken . Most of the DLC content for a slew of new characters was already on the disc, the disc that people paid their money for upfront. Of course, the data wasn’t complete, but that didn’t stop the narrative from spinning out of control and doing serious damage to Capcom’s reputation.

Another, Less Funny, Expensive Joke

Another, Less Funny, Expensive Joke

Some goof at EA Sports thought it would just be the funniest gag ever to cram the South Park pilot episode into the last but of free space on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99 PlayStation disc. Of course, being a PlayStation CD, anyone who popped it into a PC could look at the files and easily play the video. Thousands of copies of recalls later, I have a feeling the joke may not have been worth it in the end.

Naughty Dog’s Unofficial Assassin’s Creed Crossover

Naughty Dog’s Unofficial Assassin’s Creed Crossover

You know, I get that when you’re slapping together some environmental bits people aren’t really supposed to notice, such as a picture frame, it’s easy to just grab some stock art from Google. But it’s probably a good idea to make sure what you found is actually stock art, and not concept art from a fellow video game company. Especially if your game is called Uncharted 4 , and the art is from Assassin’s Creed . Just saying!

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