Lots of games go through changes and iterations during development, but most of those changes aren't so radical that the project is barely recognizable in its conceptual phases. Infamous is one of those rare exceptions. With Second Son due out next week, Sucker Punch cofounder Chris ZImmerman has revealed that at its inception, the gritty superhero series had more in common with Nintendo's Animal Crossing.

"The original idea for Infamous, believe it or not, was that it was kind of Animal Crossing, but you were a super hero," Zimmerman told GameSpot. "We worked on that for about a year in that direction. So much more stylized, much more cartoony than what you end up seeing. We worked hard to see if we could make that work."

Aside from the cartoon aesthetic, this early version of Infamous was said to feature more detailed social hooks like Animal Crossing. And during this conceptual phase, the missions were much more light-hearted as well. Zimmerman described an early pitch that had your hero fighting a gang of purple gorillas, for the altogether heinous crime of stealing balloons. He said that idea "really wasn't coming together," but we can always ponder what-if.