What are the obscure info/games you know about Nintendo?

[led-naruto]

You've heard them, people ignore their existence, Nintendo forgets them, Reggie denies them. It's probably one of the biggest things you know in gaming next to the sexuality of Birdo and Vivian, the burial of the E.T. cartridges in New Mexico, and Polybius.

But for the sake of not having fights here and there, no rumors allowed. Maybe very old ones, like Polybius, but no recent ones like E3 stuff and companies hiring/firing people.

I'll start with a bit of a fact I read some time ago: before Nintendo started on the video game industry, they were toy manufacturers and love hotel builders. Now you can see some of the toys they made in games like Warioware and Pikmin 2.

Source before anyone started questioning my credibility: http://www.businessinsider.com/before-m ... els-2011-8

One of the games that you may (a few) or may not have heard (a few) is Mario Artist Talent Studio. A title that was somehow similar to the concept of Mario Paint for the Nintendo64DD. But rejecting the idea of the N64DD for more titles it was just send via mail to a single few in Japan. The plan of it was quite ahead of its time: the idea behind it was that the players would create their own mini games and then share it to the people on the internet.
This is just a preview of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUusg9gD6G8

So, go ahead, share your Nintendo lore.

[Einar1025]

Not many people know, Nintendo is over 100 years old. They were founded in the late 1800's and their first product were honafuda(sp?) cards. (Japanese playing cards)

[HammerGalladeBro]

Not many people seems to know that Nintendo developed, but didn't publish, Snoopy Concert, a SNES Japan-only game featuring Peanuts characters.

[CM30]

That the professor guy from Wario Land 4 is actually a character from a Japanese only game 'For the Frog the Bell Tolls'.

[dkanddiddy]

You might have heard of this one, but in 1982 Universal Studios sued Nintendo because they alleged that Nintendo's video game Donkey Kong was a trademark infringement of King Kong, the plot and characters of which Universal claimed for their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_ ... o_Co.,_Ltd.

[Eternal Rain]

You know the game Body Harvest for the N64? It was a somewhat obscure sci-fi action-adventure game where you played as a time traveler from the future who goes back into the past to try and stop an alien invasion on Earth in different places and time periods, gaining an assortment of weapons, driving many vehicles, and completing different missions. The game may not look like much today (especially graphically, it was originally supposed to be a launch title but then got delayed until 1998 where at that point the game even looked "meh" by N64 standards, especially compared to titles like Ocarina of Time), but the gameplay was where it was at.

One aspect about the game was a little ahead of it's time was it's semi-free roaming nature, and the areas you could explore were pretty big for a game back then. It's really a good example of gameplay over graphics. It should even be noted that the game was developed by none other than the company we now know today as Rockstar North, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, though at the time they were known as DMA Design.

How is this relevant? Well you see, back in 1996, Body Harvest was originally announced as a game Nintendo would publish themselves for the then-upcoming Nintendo 64 platform. After how well things were going with Rare at the time, Nintendo was branching out with more Western devs (Rockstar North is based in Scotland), and signed a deal with the company to make Body Harvest an N64 exclusive for the system's launch. However, it missed the N64 launch, and got delayed to 1997. Unfortunately, the game got delayed yet again into 1998.

Apparently Nintendo's higher management got fed up with the delays and dropped their publishing deal with DMA Design. DMA would eventually strike a deal with Midway for publishing Body Harvest in North America, and Gremlin Interactive in Europe, but one still wonders what may have happened if Nintendo still published it. Apparently DMA was even making a version of the original Grand Theft Auto for the N64 around this time, but was canceled after the deal with Nintendo and Body Harvest fell through. Is it possible that if Nintendo published Body Harvest maybe would have seen GTA on Nintendo platforms more often? Maybe even a small chance Nintendo would have bought DMA and GTA would be a Nintendo exclusive? It's hard to say, and is obviously something that only exists as a "what if" possibility.

[YoshiRider123]

After Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Shouzou Kaga, game designer and the series creator of Fire Emblem, left Intelligent Systems to form his own company, Tirnanog, for reasons unknown. Shortly after, Enterbrain published Tirnanog's first game, TearRing Saga: Yutona Eiyū Senki, a strategy RPG for the PlayStation that can easily pass as a new Fire Emblem game.

Before release, TearRing Saga had been known as Emblem Saga, but it was eventually changed most likely to avoid corporate litigations. However, Nintendo filed many lawsuits against Enterbrain and Tirnanog for claims of copyright infringement and would eventually win the case for ¥76,000,000 although the game was ruled as not being a breach of copyright.

Tirnanog would eventually develop another game for the PlayStation 2, called TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia chronicle chapter 174...or just Berwick Saga for short. Berwick Saga revamped its gameplay significantly from TearRing Saga and wasn't met with any lawsuits.

Berwick Saga was released in 2005. It is now 2012. Tirnanog and Shouzou Kaga have never been heard from since then.

Sources:

Wikipedia - TearRing Saga
Serenes Forest - TearRing Saga
Serenes Forest - Berwick Saga
YouTube - Fire Emblem Retrospective Part 6 by illiteratedino

[HammerGalladeBro]

The original Japanese relase of Ice Climber has Topi as a seal, it was redesigned for overseas release as a yeti-like creature, this was because issues regarding animal cruelty, this change was carried over in Super Smash Bros. Melee and WarioWare: Twisted!, although the Japanese GBA Classic NES Series and the special Famicom Disk System versions have the yeti-like Topi, and Western WarioWare: Touched! has the seal Topi.

Japanese Topi:



Western Topi:

[MoldyClay]

Some probably well-known stuff, but Ocarina of Time:

- Originally, the game was built as a sort of remake of A Link to the Past, even using models based on the game's sprites (for example, Poes and Octoroks, as well as townspeople). While the game is different enough from ALttP in the final version, you can still see that it follows the basic structure of the game (Light/Dark world similar to Child/Adult worlds, the collect 3 items-get master sword-save sage/maidens-fight ganon set up) and has variant weapons (Light Arrows instead of Silver, Fire/Ice Arrows instead of Rods, 3 magic crystals instead of 3 magic medallions, etc) and so on. Ocarina acts as a prequel to ALttP, but it's interesting in how, essentially history repeats itself (but switched in-game from the real world).

Also with OoT, there was originally an Ice Temple and Wind Temple (both of which have Medallions hidden in the beta), but presumably the Ice Temple just became the Ice Cavern and was demoted since they didn't need the Water and Ice Temples. The Wind Temple was eventually merged with or became the Forest Temple, which is potentially why the Forest Room in Ganon's Castle contains fans and revolves around wind movement. It may also have to do with the design of the Forest Medallion which could be interpreted as a fan or wind-like. This could also be why the Forest Temple in Skyward Sword is called the Skyview Temple, and the weapon in the Forest Temple in TP is the Gale Boomerang, implying a connection between the wind/sky and the forest.

Speaking of Medallions and Temples, OoT originally allowed you to use the Medallions as items. This gave more weight to the "adding their power to yours" comments from completing the temples as an adult. This also explains why the Shadow Temple's entrance had a huge Fire Medallion symbol on the floor, as Din's Fire's properties were presumably used by the Fire Medallion originally, instead.

Also worth noting is that Link could originally do a sort of jump and downward thrust type of move, could fire sword beams, and originally had a Grass Whistle to call Epona, similar to how you can use the grass in TP to call Epona or the hawk.

And before I stop, a little Majora's Mask:

Originally the game was intended for the 64DD, but was moved to the N64 before completion since the 64DD was not really doing that well (similar to why the OoT DD never happened, which would've added new epilogue areas, items and dungeons as well as potential editing), but it also began with intent on being a sort of parody game, according to Miyamoto.

The game also had an Adult Link mask (and artwork, seen in Historia; Presumably lead to Fierce Deity) and retained some items from Ocarina that are not in the final game. Goron Link, for example, could use the Megaton Hammer as a B button move in place of the sword. And there was a minigame where Zora Link collected Deku Sticks. There were also images for the Ocarina icon that went with the instruments of each form (so Zora Link actually had a Guitar icon in place of the Ocarina).

I'm sure people knew a lot of this though.

That the professor guy from Wario Land 4 is actually a character from a Japanese only game 'For the Frog the Bell Tolls'.

Why haven't we gotten "For the Frog The Bell Tolls"? Considering the fact it's also referenced all over Link's Awakening.

[YoshiRider123]

That the professor guy from Wario Land 4 is actually a character from a Japanese only game 'For the Frog the Bell Tolls'.

Why haven't we gotten "For the Frog The Bell Tolls"? Considering the fact it's also referenced all over Link's Awakening.

I don't think that the reason behind that is known. It just...didn't happen.

I've personally played through the game and don't see what could've discouraged Nintendo from bringing it over. It's an excellent Game Boy game.

[led-naruto]

Here's one not too obscure: Mother/Earthbound series creator Shigesato Itoi's big inspiration are the works of the Beatles, more likely John Lennon. Itoi chose the title "Mother" not only because he wanted a title that sounded less like a game, but also because of Lennon's song "Mother". He felt so horrible when hearing Lennon's big "Mother" cry that he wanted the players to feel the same.
You can watch an interview about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... g5M#t=372s
And if you're wondering who's the other guy in the video, he's part of a music group called "Sha Dara Parr". Why is this important you ask? They worked on the music of this specific commercial.

Speaking of Mother, in Mother 2 there's a character that mentions a restaurant and recommends it to the kids. It's actually a real restaurant near the Nintendo building in Kanda. Guess the employees like to eat there! http://youtu.be/tZNuBTvUNRk

And I'm sure you all know this but this is the texture map for the Metroid in Smash Brawl.

Spoiler:

Yup. No reason why it's there, probably just for fun, like Sakurai's cat.

If you ever want a 3D tour through Lylat: http://youtu.be/tIe_dnDslwQ

[MoldyClay]

That the professor guy from Wario Land 4 is actually a character from a Japanese only game 'For the Frog the Bell Tolls'.

Why haven't we gotten "For the Frog The Bell Tolls"? Considering the fact it's also referenced all over Link's Awakening.

I don't think that the reason behind that is known. It just...didn't happen.

I've personally played through the game and don't see what could've discouraged Nintendo from bringing it over. It's an excellent Game Boy game.

That's very unfortunate. D:

In a perfect world, Nintendo will put it on Japanese 3DS VC and then they will start an Import thing like on Wii and bring it over here for a dollar or so more.

But Nintendo? Translate an old Gameboy game to sell for like $5-6? Never.

[HammerGalladeBro]

Maybe not so obscure, but, Pokémon has some references to Pulseman, a SEGA-published Genesis/Mega Drive game developed by Game Freak in 1994, 2 years before Pokémon Red/Green, these references are prominently present on GenIV:

*Pokemon´s GenI and GenII art style (seen in the artworks) has a similar style with the art style of Pulseman.

*Pikachu's signature move, Volt Tackle, acts in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer, in Japanese, the move is called Volteccer as well. And both moves seem to be a reference to Tekkaman's most powerful attack (which also happens to be its signature weapon), Voltekka.
The Volt Tackle seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl operates in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer.

The computer Pulseman was born on is named the Saint Ann, which is also the Japanese name of the S.S. Anne.

*Rotom seems to be a reference to Pulseman himself, eve posesing a similar ability to get inside electronics. Commander Charon from Pokémon Platinum, who is said to have first discovered Rotom, has a very similar hairstyle to the Doc Waruyama, the character who created Pulseman.

*Bisharp greatly resembles Pulseman as well.

*Remoraid resembles the Gunfish enemy that appears underwater in Stage 6 of Pulseman.

*Team Galactic from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum is a reference to Pulseman's villianous team, Galaxy Gang, even Team Galactic's Japanese name is the same as Galaxy Gang.

*The design for May and her counterparts can be based off Lisa Hatfield, a news reporter from Pulseman.

*Barry's battle music has several notes that resemble a portion of Neo Tokyo's music from Pulseman.

List of References.

[CM30]

Maybe not so obscure, but, Pokémon has some references to Pulseman, a SEGA-published Genesis/Mega Drive game developed by Game Freak in 1994, 2 years before Pokémon Red/Green, these references are prominently present on GenIV:

*Pokemon´s GenI and GenII art style (seen in the artworks) has a similar style with the art style of Pulseman.

*Pikachu's signature move, Volt Tackle, acts in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer, in Japanese, the move is called Volteccer as well. And both moves seem to be a reference to Tekkaman's most powerful attack (which also happens to be its signature weapon), Voltekka.
The Volt Tackle seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl operates in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer.

The computer Pulseman was born on is named the Saint Ann, which is also the Japanese name of the S.S. Anne.

*Rotom seems to be a reference to Pulseman himself, eve posesing a similar ability to get inside electronics. Commander Charon from Pokémon Platinum, who is said to have first discovered Rotom, has a very similar hairstyle to the Doc Waruyama, the character who created Pulseman.

*Bisharp greatly resembles Pulseman as well.

*Remoraid resembles the Gunfish enemy that appears underwater in Stage 6 of Pulseman.

*Team Galactic from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum is a reference to Pulseman's villianous team, Galaxy Gang, even Team Galactic's Japanese name is the same as Galaxy Gang.

*The design for May and her counterparts can be based off Lisa Hatfield, a news reporter from Pulseman.

*Barry's battle music has several notes that resemble a portion of Neo Tokyo's music from Pulseman.

List of References.

Now that's pretty interesting. Didn't know Game Freak reference Pulseman that much.

Do they reference any of their other non Pokemon games in the Pokemon series?

[dkanddiddy]

Spoiler:

Maybe not so obscure, but, Pokémon has some references to Pulseman, a SEGA-published Genesis/Mega Drive game developed by Game Freak in 1994, 2 years before Pokémon Red/Green, these references are prominently present on GenIV:

*Pokemon´s GenI and GenII art style (seen in the artworks) has a similar style with the art style of Pulseman.

*Pikachu's signature move, Volt Tackle, acts in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer, in Japanese, the move is called Volteccer as well. And both moves seem to be a reference to Tekkaman's most powerful attack (which also happens to be its signature weapon), Voltekka.
The Volt Tackle seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl operates in a similar way to Pulseman's Volteccer.

The computer Pulseman was born on is named the Saint Ann, which is also the Japanese name of the S.S. Anne.

*Rotom seems to be a reference to Pulseman himself, eve posesing a similar ability to get inside electronics. Commander Charon from Pokémon Platinum, who is said to have first discovered Rotom, has a very similar hairstyle to the Doc Waruyama, the character who created Pulseman.

*Bisharp greatly resembles Pulseman as well.

*Remoraid resembles the Gunfish enemy that appears underwater in Stage 6 of Pulseman.

*Team Galactic from Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum is a reference to Pulseman's villianous team, Galaxy Gang, even Team Galactic's Japanese name is the same as Galaxy Gang.

*The design for May and her counterparts can be based off Lisa Hatfield, a news reporter from Pulseman.

*Barry's battle music has several notes that resemble a portion of Neo Tokyo's music from Pulseman.

List of References.

Did not know that. Didn't even know who Pulseman was. Is he a popular character? Because I've literally never heard the name. It sounds like a Mega Man boss.

[HammerGalladeBro]

Now that's pretty interesting. Didn't know Game Freak reference Pulseman that much.

Do they reference any of their other non Pokemon games in the Pokemon series?

Sadly, only a brief mention to Mario & Wario in Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow/FireRed/LeafGreen at Copycat's House when checking the SNES, stating that "There's a game showing Mario with a bucket on his head".

And unless there are hidden references to Drill Dozer in future games, I don't think so. Although, something that could be considered to be the closest to Pokémon references in other Game Freak games is that Drill Dozer uses the same sound effects and music composition from the GBA Pokémon versions, especially FireRed/LeafGreen/Emerald.

Did not know that. Didn't even know who Pulseman was. Is he a popular character? Because I've literally never heard the name. It sounds like a Mega Man boss.

He's not really as popular as some people think he is, as his game wasn't localized, except for a brief release through SEGA Channel and its Virtual Console Import release in 2009, it was still in Japanese, but it doesn't requiere basic understanding of the language to enjoy it. But he still has its fandom.
And I'm not really sure, but from what I read once, Pulseman (as a game) is more or less a Mega Man clone. I can't verify this, since I manged to get Pulseman on the VC, but I haven't played any of the Mega Mans (I know >_<), I recently got Mega Man ZX, but I'm yet to play it.

[YoshiRider123]

Now that's pretty interesting. Didn't know Game Freak reference Pulseman that much.

Do they reference any of their other non Pokemon games in the Pokemon series?

Sadly, only a brief mention to Mario & Wario in Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow/FireRed/LeafGreen at Copycat's House when checking the SNES, stating that "There's a game showing Mario with a bucket on his head".

And unless there are hidden references to Drill Dozer in future games, I don't think so. Although, something that could be considered to be the closest to Pokémon references in other Game Freak games is that Drill Dozer uses the same sound effects and music composition from the GBA Pokémon versions, especially FireRed/LeafGreen/Emerald.

I don't know of any references to Game Freak's others games, but when you bring up Mario & Wario, I'd like to add in Pro Wrestling. Gold/Silver threw in a reference to the game's infamous line and was even retained in the DS remakes. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum also had this line.

[led-naruto]

Time for some Kirby obscurity!

Coming from the Melee's trophy:

Dedede is the self-proclaimed king of Dream Land. While he says he's king, Dedede prefers no administrative functions and the citizens of Dream Land continue to live as they always have. He's able to suck in air and fly like Kirby does, but only as a result of vigorous training he undertook after being bested by Kirby.

The Hal rooms have been some sort of staple in the Kirby series. In Kirby's Adventure, you have to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzGUn7hlEiw to reach it. In it's remake, it can't be entered the same way due to the programming, but it's still in the game's code.

If you're patient enough, talk with Magolor around the end of the game and in the "second" part, he heavily implies he knows a certain character that you're familiar with (some guesses are Marx), both Nova and the Star Rod were made in Halcandra, and he can be related to a certain black blob with an only eye.

And Meta Knight's original design:

Spoiler:

[HammerGalladeBro]

Maybe not so obsucre, but this one will include a small bit of hidden info.

As you may know, Nintendo licensed its characters to appear in 3 EA games (Gamecube versions):

*Little Mac from Super Punch-Out!! is featured in Fight Night Round 2, along with an emulated version of the SNES Super Punch-Out!!.
Some Screens:

Spoiler:

*Mario, Luigi and Peach are featured in NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour.
NBA Street V3 having the team called Nintendo All-Stars (with their embelm being a ball with Mario's cap), and just like any other player, they can perfom Gamebreakers, a Mario/Nintendo-themed cort, when Mario, Luigi and Peach are playing Super Mario Bros. SFXs will play when they make a trick, pass, etc., called Nintendo cort, as well as having a small rap remix of SMBs Underground Theme for their introduction. Another thing worthy of being mentioned, this is the game where Peach debuted with her current sports outfit (pink tank top and shorts).
Now here's the hidden info you might never heard about. In Japan, the Gamecube version has a subtitle to reference Mario's appearance, being called NBAストリートV3 マリオでダンク, which can be translated as NBA Street V3: Mario Dunks In. Another difference are the Nintendo logos being colored blue (their original color) instead of red.

Some screens:

Spoiler:

Western boxart:

Japanese boxart:

Exclusive Loading Screen:

Japanese Emblem:

Gameplay Screens:






Nothing like Peach kicking Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James' asses

SSX on Tour has a Mario/Nintendo-themed track called Nintendo Village, which has nice Mario scenery and Nintendo logos, while Mario and Luigi are on snowboards, Peach skis, and they can perform Monster tricks too, unlike NBA Street V3, Mario, Luigi and Peach have voice clips, some of them are unique to this game, and has more SFXs from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. In Japan, the game is called SSX On Tour with マリオ(Mario)

Some screens:

Spoiler:

Western boxart:

Japanese boxart:

Artwork:

Screens:

Personally, outside Sonic Chronicles (which was developed by the now-EA Bioware), these are the only EA games I'm interested in playing.

[Zanreo]

- Donkey Kong was originally meant to be a Popeye game. When the license to use the characters ran out, they got replaced by Miyamoto's own characters.
- In 1986, Nintendo published a Japan-only "game" for the Famicom called "I am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater" teaching you how to knit sweaters with Mario characters. This was developed by Royal Industries, a sewing machine company.

[led-naruto]

Some random tidbits:
Getting the highest score possible in Kirby Quest/ Kirby Master in Mass Attack in the last chapter will give you an extra boss to fight. Who is it? I'll let you guess on that and try to achieve it, since it's a nice addition that would ruin the fun if I told you exactly.

Many of you should already know the random book you can find in Mario Sunshine, but have you wondered why it's there in the first place? Apparently it was an object left out from the game's missions, you were supposed to grab the book that the old Noki lost inside the bottle and return it to him, but this was opted out for another "grab the red coins" mission instead. At least it's not alone in the left out objects that serve no purpose in the game but to look mysterious and pretty (toy train in Galaxy).

Lastly, in e3 2010 there was this. No one knew what was the point of it, but it meant nothing as of now.

[CM30]

Some random tidbits:
Getting the highest score possible in Kirby Quest/ Kirby Master in Mass Attack in the last chapter will give you an extra boss to fight. Who is it? I'll let you guess on that and try to achieve it, since it's a nice addition that would ruin the fun if I told you exactly.

Many of you should already know the random book you can find in Mario Sunshine, but have you wondered why it's there in the first place? Apparently it was an object left out from the game's missions, you were supposed to grab the book that the old Noki lost inside the bottle and return it to him, but this was opted out for another "grab the red coins" mission instead. At least it's not alone in the left out objects that serve no purpose in the game but to look mysterious and pretty (toy train in Galaxy).

Lastly, in e3 2010 there was this. No one knew what was the point of it, but it meant nothing as of now.

Do we actually know what the train in Mario Galaxy was meant for? Because I didn't consider it as beta, although I could be wrong.

Here's a few things I know that maybe only a few know:

Did you know Super Mario Land has a theme to it? The worlds must seem so random, right? Egypt, water land, Easter Island...

But think about it. The theme is alien abductions/extraterrestials/mysteries. Egypt? Because of the theories that aliens built the pyramids. Muda? Bermuda Triangle, where planes and ships supposedly vanished, some say due to alien activity. Easter Island? Some theorised the moai statues were by aliens. It's a bunch of shout outs to conspiracy theories and mysteries, with Tatanga himself being an alien invader.

As for China, the old folklore name for it was the celestial kingdom. Something about it being under heaven or something. Which kind of explains why you end up in space fighting Tatanga after going there, in a roundabout way.

Did you know Fishin' Boo was intended to be in New Super Mario Bros Wii? One unused/broken enemy is called 'EN_GHOST_JUGEM', with Jugem being the Japanese name for Lakitu, hence Ghost Lakitu/Fishin' Boo.

Finally, it's not 100% confirmed, but it's likely that in the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker, the cut dungeons were at Great Fish Isle, Fire Isle and Ice Isle. Why? Well, not only is the first one bleedingly obviously a part of the story where a significant amount of content was cut out (you just get the pearl after a cut scene rather than after a dungeon?), but if you look at them all on a map, you'll note that all of them have warp points. The only other areas with this are all plot relevant with either a dungeon or a town. Also, on a map, Great Fish Isle when linked to Dragon Roost Isle, Forest Haven and the triangle isles makes a giant triforce symbol with the Tower of the Gods in the centre:

[led-naruto]

@CM30
...Well it's obviously not a beta element since it's right there in the released version of the game, it's an object left out with no purpose but to look pretty there.



Something small to contribute at least: Hal Labs worked on a Blade (the movie of the vampire hunter) game for the Game Boy Color

[RumbleMcSkirmish]

Actually that wasn't Hal Laboratory at all. By then they were working exclusively for Nintendo and the last and only licensed game they made was New Ghostbusters II on the Famicom/Game Boy. Hal had gotten into financial problems just before the creation of Kirby's Dream Land and then split into two different companies with the other calling themselves Hal Corporation. It was Hal Corporation who worked with Activision to make Blade. They eventually closed down in 2002.

Ghostbusters II is another interesting case. Activision had the license everywhere but Japan so Hal decided make their own game. It was far better then the one Kemco made for Activision. Oddly enough Activision decided to release Hal's Game Boy port in North America and dropped the New from the title. It's a good game only hampered by the limitations of the Game Boy screen size and the new inferior soundtrack.

[HammerGalladeBro]

Maybe not so Nintendo-related, but still worthy of being mentioned, nonetheless.

Kenichi Nishi (co-founder and former vice president of skip Ltd.) used to have a dog named Tao, which was featured as a character in some of the games he worked, like Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, LOL: Lack of Love, GiFTPiA, Chibi-Robo! and Captain Rainbow.
Sadly, Tao died in October 2009 due to kidney complications. Kenichi Nishi really loved Tao.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenichi_Nishi#Personal_life
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/11/all_dogs_go_to_heaven_kenichi.php
A note about Tao passing away from Route 24 website (in japanese)