9 Scrapped Bosses Used In Other Video Games
The Resident Evil franchise has had killer dolls in the works for Years.
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00:00So, as you might expect, an enormous amount of effort goes into designing and programming
00:04all of those wonderful video game bosses that we cherish so fondly. And it's usually the
00:09result of dozens or even hundreds of team members coming together to deliver a truly
00:13unforgettable experience. But sometimes, for whatever reason, bosses end up scrapped and
00:18left on the cutting room floor. But, in some very rare cases, these forgotten bosses are
00:23resurrected and appear in other games.
00:26So let's take a look at some of the juiciest ones, shall we? As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:31and these are 9 Scrapped Bosses Used in Other Video Games.
00:359. Dark Souls 3's Snake Soul – Elden Ring
00:39Now, considering the many, many bosses featured in each and every FromSoftware game, it's
00:43little surprise that the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne left a number of tantalising
00:47bosses on the cutting room floor. And, given the design ingenuity of most every FromSoft
00:53boss, can you really blame them for recycling any of their discarded ones? Well, that's
00:57exactly what happened with the Ulcerated Tree Spirit from the developer's recent Elden
01:00Ring.
01:01Enterprising players dug into the game's code and discovered that it actually had the
01:05dataname Snake Soul, which to hardcore Dark Souls fans is a moniker that should sound
01:10familiar. Following the release of Dark Souls 3 in 2016, dataminers discovered references
01:15in the game's code to a creature called Snake Soul, which never actually appeared
01:19in the game itself. Furthermore, the Ulcerated Tree Spirit even bears a strong resemblance
01:23to a mutated tree-like creature that was featured in leaked alpha stills of Dark Souls
01:283, yet never appeared in the game proper. And so, we can freely deduce that the Ulcerated
01:33Tree Spirit is indeed the mysterious Snake Soul, finally closing the door on a years-long
01:38mystery.
01:398. Metal Gear Solid 2's Old Boy – Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater
01:44Hideo Kojima is one of those peerlessly productive creatives who comes up with far more ideas
01:49than he's ever capable of implementing, though one of his discarded bosses for Metal
01:53Gear Solid 2's Sons of Liberty actually ended up being reused for the third game.
01:58Metal Gear Solid 2 was originally set to feature a boss called Old Boy, a former mentor of
02:02Big Boss who was over 100 years old and rendered biologically immortal due to mutant enzymes
02:08in his body. For reasons unknown, Old Boy was scrapped, yet Kojima ended up recycling
02:12core tenets of his character for two of Metal Gear Solid 3's Snake Eater's most memorable
02:17bosses, The Boss and The End. Old Boy's backstory as a mentor to Big Boss became a
02:22defining aspect of The Boss' character arc, while The End was also roughly 100 years old
02:27and a supremely skilled combatant, not unlike Old Boy. Considering that The Boss and The
02:32End are ultimately two of the most compelling boss characters in the history of the Metal
02:36Gear franchise, it's fair to say that everything probably worked out for the best here.
02:407. No More Heroes' Nathan Copeland – No More Heroes 2 – Desperate Struggle
02:46One of the most memorable bosses in No More Heroes 2 – Desperate Struggle is Nathan
02:50Copeland, the hip-hop-loving assassin who deploys his shapeshifting boombox as both
02:54a weapon and armour. But the wonderfully wacky villain was actually conceived and created
02:59during production of the first No More Heroes, and was even supposed to be the first UAA
03:04member that protagonist Travis Touchdown took on. For reasons unknown, he was ultimately
03:08swapped out for the boss Death Metal, yet when it came to putting the sequel together,
03:12it was simply a no-brainer that Nathan would be making an appearance. In an interview with
03:15Nintendo Power, creator Suda51 said of Nathan,
03:18When I started working on this installment, I knew right away that I wanted to bring Nathan
03:22back. No More Heroes 2 just wouldn't be the same without Nathan, so it was certainly
03:26a smart call.
03:276. Crash Bandicoot's Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers – Crash Bandicoot 2 – Cortex
03:33Strikes Back
03:34The Crash Bandicoot franchise boasts a host of memorable bosses, two of which are undeniably
03:39Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers from the fantastic second game, Cortex Strikes Back.
03:44And yet, it turns out that both of these bosses are actually cast-offs from the first
03:48game's development. Unused cartoon clips originally intended to be included in the
03:52original game fleetingly show both bosses hanging out with Dr. Neo Cortex. Tiny Tiger,
03:57however, was actually originally known as Tasmanian Tiger, and later just Taz Tiger.
04:02Series composer Josh Mansell even eventually released an unused track that he composed
04:06for a boss fight in the first game against one of the brothers, Joe. But when the Komodo
04:10Brothers were brought back for Crash 2, he wrote an entirely new tune from scratch. Given
04:14that the original Crash was already a pretty stacked and challenging game as it is, it
04:18was probably for the best to save these bosses for the sequel.
04:215. Metroid Prime's 3D Kraid – Metroid Dread
04:25To be clear, Metroid's monstrous villain Kraid certainly made an appearance in the
04:29franchise prior to Metroid Dread, but each of those appearances was in 2D games. Kraid
04:34appeared in 2D in the original Metroid, its remake Metroid Zero Mission, and also Super
04:38Metroid, but it wasn't until last year's Metroid Dread that the iconic character finally
04:43got the full-fat 3D makeover that fans had long been requesting. Yet this was ultimately
04:47the culmination of almost 20 years of planning, as this big bad boy was indeed supposed to
04:52appear in 2002's Metroid Prime, enough that the boss had actually been fully designed
04:57and modelled. But due to Prime's famously rushed development, there wasn't time to
05:01implement it properly, so his planned boss fight was sadly thrown out. Fans then had
05:05to make do with the character's sporadic 3D appearances in the Super Smash Bros. games
05:09until Metroid Dread finally delivered on the promise of that Prime battle.
05:134. Halo Wars' Forerunner Sentinel – Halo Wars 2
05:17Halo Wars' eleventh mission, Cleansing, was originally set to feature a boss encounter
05:22with a Forerunner Sentinel during one of the level's later attack waves. The ship's
05:27development got far enough that its model was actually left within the game's code,
05:30such that modders had been able to add it back into the game. Concept art of the vessel
05:34was also later posted online by developer Ensemble Studios, but best of all, the impressive-looking
05:40machine reappeared in earnest in Halo Wars 2, now redubbed the Protector Sentinel. While
05:46the version in Halo 2 isn't a boss unit and is markedly smaller than the model from
05:50the original Halo Wars, as well as not sporting the same Super Sentinel beam, it's still
05:54neat that the original design wasn't simply thrown away forevermore.
05:573. Morpho Knight from the cancelled GameCube Kirby game – Kirby Star Allies
06:02In 2004, Nintendo announced a Kirby game for the GameCube, yet, due to design issues
06:07pertaining to multiplayer implementation, this game was quietly cancelled shortly after
06:11its formal unveiling. Yet when 2012's Kirby Dream Collection was released for the Wii,
06:16its instruction manual contained a page showing off one of the GameCube's discarded variations
06:20of Boss Meta Knight, a fiery, butterfly-like take on the iconic character. And when Kirby
06:26Star Allies was released for the Switch in 2018, one of its optional bosses was indeed
06:30the very same design, albeit with a few minor modifications. Now dubbed Morpho Knight, as
06:35in Metamorphis, get it? Considering how insanely cool that original design was, it's a relief
06:40that it finally got some action, and also subsequently appeared in Super Kirby Clash
06:45and, most recently, the highly acclaimed Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
06:482. Resident Evil 4's Killer Dolls – Resident Evil Village
06:53Back in 2003, Capcom released video of a gameplay demo for their highly anticipated upcoming
06:58sequel, Resident Evil 4, a version of the game which ultimately never came to pass.
07:03This brief demo included a memorably terrifying sequence where Leon is attacked by a sublimely
07:08creepy fleet of small dolls toting large knives. And though this concept was assumed lost,
07:13it finally ended up reappearing in last year's Resident Evil Village. Village's unforgettable
07:18level sees players fending off a clan of killer, clawed dolls sicced on them by Donna Beneviento.
07:24First of all is the horrifyingly grotesque ringleader, Angie, with whom Ethan is forced
07:29to play an especially gnarly game of hide-and-seek with until Ethan finally gets the better of
07:33Angie and her malevolent puppeteer, Donna. Considering that this level is largely accepted
07:38to be one of Village's high points, bringing the dolls back was definitely a smart call,
07:43rather than an uninspired attempt to recycle some cast-off ideas from almost 20 years prior.
07:481. Pokemon Red and Blue's Professor Battle – Pokemon Sun and Moon
07:53The legend of Pokemon Red and Blue's scrapped Professor Oak boss battle is so widespread
07:57that even the most casual Pokemon fans might well be aware of it. It was eventually discovered
08:02within Red and Blue's game data that there existed a trainer battle with Professor Oak.
08:06As per his ludicrously high stats, it was most likely intended to be a bonus boss fight
08:10right at the end of the game. Players have managed to access this battle using glitches
08:15or cheat devices, and though developer Game Freak removed the fight for reasons unknown,
08:19they ended up reusing the concept for Pokemon Sun and Moon a whole 20 years later. In Sun
08:25and Moon, the final battle of the Pokemon League is a similarly surprising showdown
08:29against the main Professor, and adheres to most of the gameplay parameters from the proposed
08:33Oak fight, namely being pretty damn difficult. Good luck.
08:37And there we go my friends, those were 9 scrapped bosses used in other video games. I hope that
08:41you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
08:44section below. As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ
08:48with a 0, or you can swing by Liv and Let's Dice where I do all of my streaming outside
08:52of work, and it'd be great to see you over there. But before I go, I just want to say
08:56one thing. Sometimes it can feel like we ourselves are left on the cutting room floor, but trust
09:00me my friend, you deserve all of the best things in life like love, happiness and success,
09:04and remember, above all else, you're never alone with your problems. Friends, family
09:08and professionals in the support industry, these people care about you and want you to
09:12do well, so let's get you back in the game so you can start smashing it. As always I've
09:16been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.