10 Video Game Characters That Were Created For The Most Shocking Reasons
1. Mario And Donkey Kong Were Originally Popeye Characters
Seeing as both Mario and Donkey Kong are some of the most recognizable characters in video game history, you would think that their designs were created after much deliberation and planning. And yet, apparently, Shigeru Miyamoto made the two simply because his original vision couldn't see the light of day.
Originally Miyamoto wanted to base the plot of his game on, of all things, the old Popeye cartoons. He wanted to recreate the love triangle between Bluto, Popeye, and Olive, which is a little weird considering one of these characters was eventually turned into a gorilla.
His plans had to be dropped, as Nintendo wasn't able to acquire the necessary licenses for the characters. Miyamoto was forced to quickly come up with replacements. Bluto became Donkey Kong, Olive became Pauline, and Popeye was turned into Nintendo's future go-to character named... Jumpman. Just kidding, Miyamoto eventually revealed that he had originally thought up the name "Mr. Video", and was then quickly persuaded into choosing the iconic Mario name.
It just goes to show you that even the greatest ideas don't have to start off great.