Easter eggs, references, secrets, facts & trivia thread

Video games contain many secrets, easter eggs, references and some very interesting stories from a game early design to the final product and years after its released. In this thread, post any any video game easter eggs, references, secrets, facts & trivia. Feel free to source them from other site.


Casshan/Casshern
The influence of Casshern can be seen in various video games. Starting with the third game, Mega Man featured a dog partner which could transform into different vehicles. The entirety of the Megaman X series story is closely based on Casshern. The design and background of its main antagonist, Sigma, also closely resembles Braiking Boss. Also, In Viewtiful Joe, the protagonist's outfit bears a strong resemblance along with the V shaped headpiece and the retractable mask. The character M. Bison from Street Fighter II also bears a strong resemblance to Braiking Boss. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden wears a bio-suit and fights with a sword which can discharge electric energy. In the trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden is also accompanied by a robot dog.

Vanquish
In Vanquish, developed by Platinum Games, the art style is based on Casshern. In one of the boss fights the main character drills through a robot by spinning in place at high speed, similar to Casshern. Concerning the game's development, director Shinji Mikami is quoted as saying: "I was inspired by Casshern, so I wanted to make a game like that. If I went ahead and made the exact game I wanted, it probably would have been like Casshern, where you punch and kick the entire way through. But obviously if it were a game with only punching and kicking, I already did that with God Hand. So, I'm done with that, something else now. So this time he wanted to make a game where you defeat robots with guns. So now, you're going at it with guns, but he wanted to make sure the feeling of speed is still there, that was really important to him, so that's why he introduced the element of the sliding boost." In addition, the protagonist of Vanquish has a facemask that periodically comes off to show his human side, much like Casshern himself. According to one of the game's character modelers, Yoshifumi Hattori, a support robotic companion dog was designed to fight along with the main character, including transforming into ability enhancing armor. Although this dog was successfully modeled, it was cut from the finalized version of the game, along with another female android partner character.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casshan