CH4 - E1: Garden Warfare

The Hungry King:
Back when this series was Heroes of the Gamingverse, this episode was planned to have a team-up between Villager and Bomberman. The two would have faced King Dedede as he attacked Villager’s town looking for food. The episode was planned to end with Radec and the Helghast flying in and kidnapping Bomberman and King Dedede, leaving Villager to track Radec down. This episode was very largely changed with New Game’s reboot.

CH4 - E2: Unbreakable Determination

Mortal Kombat:
Similar to the last episode, the Heroes of the Gamingverse version of this was fairly different from the final product. This version of the episode only featured Ryu as he entered a fighting tournament run by Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat. The episode was planned to have more conflict, but then I rebooted the series. At this point, Shao Kahn is only merely mentioned in the No More Heroes episode.

Murasame Castle:
After the reboot, the two Ryu’s were always planned to be part of the same team, but were originally also going to be joined by Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle. The plot would’ve had Takamaru guarding the Murasame Mask in place of Black Jewel, with Hayabusa trying to unveil it. This would’ve ended in a fight against Murasame itself without Ganondorf or his army. Takamaru was replaced by William Adams since William’s character has more depth and fighting styles to compliment the team, and Murasame was replaced with Black Jewel mainly for its resemblance to the Shadow Crystal.

CH4 - E3: Trials and Tribulations

Have Some Faith:
This episode went through multiple small changes throughout its creation. The first change was the removal of Faith Connors from Mirror’s Edge, who was initially planned for the episode until I couldn’t find a place for her. The fight against Brio was also originally going to be in the city streets, but I changed the setting to the airship because it was cooler and let me show more of Cortex and Master Mind’s plan.

Team of Three:
This episode also wasn’t originally going to feature the return of Cole’s group. The plot would’ve remained relatively the same, with Phoenix Wright attempting to find Agent 47, just without Cole’s team. This was changed in order to bring that group back into the story using Marcus Reed’s ties to the police force.

CH4 - E4: Dragonborn

Robots:
This episode was a fairly difficult one to write, mainly because I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted this group to do. Because of this, many plot points such as Fat Princess and the Eggplant Wizard were added close before the writing process. The only major difference was that Dr. Eggman was not going to be the main villain. Instead, they would’ve faced off against Lin Kuei cyborgs that were attacking the area. I wasn’t sure how to flesh out this idea, so I eventually scrapped it and sent in Eggman.

CH4 - E5: Strike the Earth

Fight the Helghan:
The very original version of this episode would have been a sequel to Villager and Bomberman’s episode. It would’ve had Villager teaming up with the Boy and Blob from A Boy and His Blob in order to infiltrate the Helghast and save Bomberman. This episode wasn’t fleshed out past this and it was scrapped.

A Boy and His Blob:
When I returned to what would become the final version of this episode, it was still planned to include Boy and Blob. The episode was planned to have the Helghan soldiers steal Blob away from Boy to use as a weapon for Radec. Shovel Knight would help Boy board the ship and save Kratos. It would end the same with them cornered, this time making use of Blob’s mech form. They would’ve fallen from the ship with Blob transforming into a trampoline to save them. In the end, I decided to replace Boy and Blob with Spyro. Radec would likely find a dragon more useful than a blob and Spyro fit the more medieval style Shovel Knight brought in. I also wanted to give Spyro a good amount of screentime with an earlier episode due to how well-known he is.

CH4 - E6: Payday

Hatred:
The villain for this episode was originally going to be the Crusader. Similar to how he replaced Dallas in the Back in the Groove episode, Dallas replaced him in this one. The episode was planned to have Cole Phelps and Booker DeWitt called to the same situation happening in the city. They would’ve found Alex Mercer who, like in the finished episode, is thought to be the cause of the problem. Eventually, the three would find the Crusader causing trouble in town. He would be defeated and then become possessed by Master Mind to create a dark Crusader, which our heroes would defeat. Salem also wasn’t present in this version.

CH 4 - E7: Through the Valley

To Hell and Back:
The original version of this episode took place mainly outside of Hell. This episode’s team consisted of Joel, Ellie, the Slayer, and Blackthorne from the game Blackthorne trying to stop Firebrand as he and his demons escape Hell. Firebrand was originally going to capture Ellie as our three heroes try to rescue her, instead of the two teams of two in the final version. The final fight against Firebrand would start outside of Hell, but end with our heroes trapped there. Blackthorne was replaced with Drake since Blackthorne isn’t too well-known and I wasn’t sure what I would do with him. I also just thought putting in a character from a bad game would be funny and almost serve as a redemption for Drake.