The path to character creation is a long road, and you might not recognize some of your favorite video game characters as they were when they were first conceived! Here's a collection of concept art and sketches for some classic video game characters. These are typically released in collector's books or as parts of live cast events where the developers talk about the past of certain games or characters!
Sonic
Sega needed a new mascot, and hence work on a character originally called 'Mr. Needle Mouse' began. This name was also used as a code name for a couple of Sega projects pre-release. Sonic has come a long way since his original sketch!
Crash Bandicoot
Here's Crash Bandicoot looking a little less polished than you're probably used to seeing him. The team originally developed a character called Willy Wombat who would instead become Crash, which is definitely a better name!
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is a familiar face in many Nintendo console games now, but his first appearance was as the antagonist in the arcade classic version of Donkey Kong!
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
For some reason, Sora was originally a lion. Everyone else seems to hate this, but I actually kind of like this concept art better.
Pokemon
It's easy to recognize Lapras in this early game concept sketch even though there were clearly some changes made later, but do you know who's in the second picture? It looks like Weedle's evolution went through a big change before the game being finished. The creators wanted Weedle to have a cooler final evolution, and the unnamed beetle in the image didn't make the cut.
Spyro The Dragon
Preliminary sketches for everyone's favorite fire breathing dragon showed a very different animal, but those rough drawings were quickly refined into the dragon we all know and love.
Yoshi
In his infancy Yoshi was looking like one of those novelty drinking birds! Thankfully he got a full overhaul from this early design.
Riddley (Super Metroid)
The big boss of Super Metroid went through some dramatic changes before his platform debut! I'm not really sure which design I like better for this one.
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