10 Video Games That Broke The Rules

Platformers, shooters, and sandbox titles like Grand Theft Auto 3, Skyrim, and The Last of Us

aren't just touted as classics, but rule-breakers, since they redefined what a game could do

Having said that, there are a few titles that took breaking the rules way too literally

I'm Jess from WhatCulture, and here are 10 video games that broke the rules

10. Hid a rant in the game's code, the new Tetris After the unprecedented success of Tetris, the iconic puzzle title was ported to every single system imaginable

Hoping to milk the property for as long as possible, Nintendo hired H20 Entertainment to work on an N64 game which captured the spirit of the original

Although the new Tetris was certainly solid, Nintendo were horrified to learn that the lead programmer, David Pretty, left a swear-filled rant in the game's code

In this hidden message, Pretty complains about his co-workers, assuming them of being cowardly, deceitful and lazy

He says the game itself sucks, but could be good with another, quote

month to finish this thing off after all the bugs are fixed. At the end of this long-winded speech, Pretty warns readers not to publish the text without

his consent or they will, quote, feel my wrath. Unsurprisingly, readers who found the text did not take this threat seriously and uploaded

it online and it only took them a mere three days after the new Tetris launched. Nintendo was so

outraged that they recalled every cartridge in the US, replacing them with copies that removed

the rant. It goes without saying that Nintendo never worked with H20 Entertainment ever again

Number nine, the game is a secret boot disc, Alien Resurrection. Much like the film of the

same name, PlayStation's Alien Resurrection was a bit, eh, that, that noise, it was eh. In fact

the most interesting aspect about the movie tie-in game isn't the game itself, but the fact that the

disc harbors a cryptic secret that's only come to light recently. 23 years after its release

one of the developers, Martin Piper, revealed that there's an elaborate cheat code that lets

Alien Resurrection be swapped for any burned PS1 game. Although this naughty trick can be performed

with certain games with a mod chip or a soft mod, Alien Resurrection didn't need any external

devices to do so. At the time, it might have been the only commercial game with this feature

though it wasn't public. Piper admitted that he turned the game into a boot disk just to see if

he could. When his little experiment proved successful, he decided not to tell anyone

since it was frowned upon and possibly illegal. When a game's development is complete

the developers are expected to submit all cheat codes to the publisher. And wanting to keep his

job, Piper decided to keep hush-hush about his little operation. That said, if Piper's actions

were common knowledge during Alien Resurrection's heyday, owners would have had a lot of fun fooling

around with the feature. 8. Creating multiplayer without telling anybody GoldenEye 007 It's hard to believe that there was any cynicism

towards Rare's GoldenEye 007, considering it revolutionized the genre and proved movie tie-ins

didn have to be crap even though a lot of them were However Nintendo had no faith in the James Bond shooter whatsoever believing it was too violent and glitchy They were so unhappy with the project that they cut funding for three months placing GoldenEye 007 future in jeopardy

Since Rare knew they were on thin ice at this point, it would have been unwise for them to make drastic changes or additions to the game without keeping their bosses in the loop

But as GoldenEye 007's development was drawing to a close, one programmer called Steve Ellis decided to implement a multiplayer option

Although Rare's management was against the idea, Ellis didn't listen and put it together in six weeks

Certain that Nintendo would reject the notion, GoldenEye 007 director Martin Hollis didn't mention the multiplayer mode to the higher-ups

until it was fully functional. If Nintendo had caught wind of Ellis' plan earlier

they could have canned the beloved multiplayer, which would have caused millions of N64 owners to miss out on what was one of the 90s' greatest gaming experiences

Number 7. Copying another game, Flappy Bird Plenty of mobile games have taken the world by storm, including Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Pokemon Go

But in 2013, it was all about Dong Nguyen's Flappy Bird. In this mobile title, the player needs to tap the on-screen bird to maintain his flight

If the bird collides with any of the pipes surrounding the stage, it's game over

When summarized like that, it doesn't sound great. And, well, to be honest, it wasn't

Nevertheless, Flappy Bird was the most downloaded free game on the App Store in January of 2014

earning $50,000 daily from ads. That's why it was bewildering when Nguyen removed it from online stores while it was still raking in money

According to the creator, he had Flappy Bird pulled after learning that young gamers were becoming dangerously addicted to it

However, it's more likely that he pulled the plug to avoid legal trouble

since his creation is a clone of Pew Pew vs. Cactus, released the previous year

Side by side, it's obvious that the pair have the same premise, design, and mechanics

The only thing about Flappy Bird is the titular character navigates around pipes instead of cacti

But since the pipe's aesthetic was also ripped off from Mario, it does make the potential plagiarism more apparent

Number 6. The First Gaming Secret. Adventure. As has been explained in Ready Player One, 1980's Adventure for the Atari 2600 was the first video game that ever harbored an easter egg

If the square-shaped hero makes its way into a supposedly inaccessible room

they'll find text that reads, Created by Warren Robinette, which is the name of the lead designer

This room is so well hidden that Atari didn't know about it until Adventure was released

Although the secret itself seems pretty simple, it's Origins or anything but

In the early days of gaming, publishers rarely credited their employees to ensure that they couldn't be recruited by competitors

When Atari refused to credit Adventure's creators or pay them royalties, many of them walked away and formed their own company, Activision

Just before Robinette stormed out, he decided to embed his name into Adventure without his

superior's knowledge. When Atari discovered Robinette's cipher a year later, they realized

it would cost a small fortune to have it removed One of the company directors Steve Wright believed secrets like this would encourage players to play more and thought it was best to leave the Defiant signature in

Sadly, this was not the last time that publishers refused to acknowledge the developers' work

which leads us to the next entry. Number five, snuck in credits, Sonic the Hedgehog

Even though Sega's mascot isn't as popular as he once was, 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog is still one of the most celebrated games

of all time. Due to the legacy the blue-furred speedster has maintained over the last 30 plus

years, you'd think that working on the original would have been a blast. But the development on

the original Sonic the Hedgehog was heartbreaking, according to its creator, Yuji Naka. As was

standard policy at the time, the developers weren't allowed to be credited for their work

Naka found this policy so disrespectful that he left Sega of America immediately after the

development of Sonic the Hedgehog wrapped. Similar to Adventure, the legendary programmer defied his

employer's wishes and inserted the development team's names in the opening screen before it reads

Sonic Team Presents. The credits are written in black text on a black background, so it's impossible

to see them without using a code. Since Naka flagrantly disobeyed Sega's rules, he could have

found himself in legal trouble, but due to Sonic the Hedgehog's astounding success, Sega of America

rehired Naka, gave him a promotion, and credited his team in all future projects

Number 4. Nudalities, The Apprentice Thanks to the woeful Legend of Zelda games on the Philips CD-i, the doomed console has never had a

great reputation. With that said, the system did have a few solid titles, including The Apprentice

The 2D side-scroller follows a young wizard called Marvin, who needs to perform a series of magical

trials for his master. Due to the kid-friendly aesthetic, The Apprentice looks like the last

game that would be considered controversial. But just before release, the creators decided

to do something a little bit, well, cheeky. Literally. During development, there were

rumors surrounding Mortal Kombat suggesting that fighters could perform nudalities. That is, causing their opponents to take off their clothes. Although this rumor was debunked

it incentivized the developers behind The Apprentice to implement the idea into their own game

If the player punches in a certain code just before the game over screen

it'll play a secret scene that depicts Marvin using magic to undress a woman

If that wasn't inappropriate enough, then one of the secret scenes is of Marvin decapitating a monkey

Just to remind you, this was a children's game. Even though The Apprentice is still remembered by fans, it's not for the gameplay

Number three, releasing the same game under four different names, Ninja Breadman

During the millennium, Data Design Interactive were tasked with creating a sequel to the Amiga

series Zool. When this plan fell through, the developers retooled the project into a new IP

called Ninja Breadman. Due to the sporadic camera, clunky controls, and the insultingly

short campaign mode, this buggy mess was deservingly eviscerated by critics. When a sequel was cancelled it looked like this abomination was gone for good Though that marked the end of Ninja Breadman its software lived on Rather than making new games from scratch Data Design tweaked the art and character design of

Ninja Breadman and just repackaged it as three separate games, Anubis 2, Rock and Roll Adventures

and Myth Makers Trivia in Toyland. This means these games are a repackage of a repackage

Though these duds look different on the surface, the awful gameplay and level layout was

identical. Although this practice isn't illegal, it's a deceitful way to encourage innocent

consumers to spend their money, not just on garbage, but on the same garbage they may have

already bought. Due to Date Design's reliance on asset flipping, it was no surprise when the

infamous company went out of business soon after. Number two, not getting the rights to make your

game. Liquid Kids, Commodore Amiga. Taito's adorable platformer centers around a heroic

platypus, erroneously referred to as a hippo, who must use an endless supply of water balloons to

save the land of Woody Lake. Okay, the plot isn't exactly Shakespeare, but Liquid Kids was a lot of

fun. Too bad most gamers never got a chance to experience it, since its initial release was

extremely limited. Although Liquid Kids could have been available on the Commodore Amiga

it hit a major snag. The game was considered a pseudo-sequel to The New Zealand Story

which was ported by Ocean Software. When Liquid Kids was being ported from the arcade

Ocean had their French subsidiary work on the Amiga version. There was just one issue with that

In the 10 months it took to port Liquid Kids, none of the developers double-checked if they actually had the rights for the Taito title

This means Ocean France spent almost a year making a game despite the fact nobody okayed the deal

Even though Liquid Kids has been released on multiple systems since, including the PS4 and Switch

it never saw the light of day on the Amiga. Number 1. The Blood Code. Mortal Kombat. Genesis Version

Even though Mortal Kombat popularized digital sprites and secret characters, it's been immortalized for over-the-top violence

Ed Boon and John Tobias' fighting title may be tame by today's standards

but the excessive blood and finishing moves were shocking back in the day

Since MK depicted combatants ripping out hearts and pulling out spines, there were concerns that the content could negatively affect players, especially children

Ed Boon himself thought the outrage was somewhat justified, saying, I wouldn't want my 10-year-old kid playing a game like that

Due to Nintendo's family-friendly policy, the SNES port of Mortal Kombat toned down the finishes and had the blood replaced with sweat

Sega, on the other hand, relied on a sneakier tactic to avoid controversy

When Mortal Kombat was released for the Genesis, the blood and fatalities were seemingly absent

However, all the gore became accessible by punching in A-B-A-C-A-B-B in the opening screen

This crafty trick worked since the Genesis port outsold the SNES version exponentially

proving to some degree that violence makes money. To maximize their profits, Nintendo and Sega left the gore uncensored in the sequels

I have no idea what kind of message or moral takeaway we have there, but it's definitely something