History Main / CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel

* Zig-zagged in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''. While the animation is noticeably more advanced, some of the technology is a lot less advanced than it was/will be in the first movie, like the scare training dummies (which move very mechanically and are clearly made of wood here, whereas in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' they look exactly like real children).

* An example that only briefly appears: ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaBloodAndChrome'' takes place some time before ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' -- something like 30-40 years prior, considering the main character's age. In ''Blood and Chrome'', a pre-mission briefing is conducted using something like virtual reality goggles. By the time the main series rolls around, plastic figurines on a two-dimensional map are used instead. Justified in that the Galactica is a museum piece by the time of the reimagined series, and furthermore, the ship eschews many forms of high technology (the computers aren't even networked) to protect against Cylon viruses.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': According to ''[[AllThereInTheManual Hyrule Historia]]'', the events of the game diverge into three timelines. One of these leads into the first four games of the franchise (as well as the ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' released three years after, and the two UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS games ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTriForceHeroes Tri Force Heroes]]''). The book calls this the "era of decline", and all those games show a visible technological regression due to Hyrule and the other associated kingdoms being ravaged by the war against the forces of evil, especially during the first two NES games.

* While ''[[VideoGame/ShovelKnight Shovel Knight Dig]]'' is [[https://twitter.com/YachtClubGames/status/1574123850396073984 chronologically set before any of the previous]] ''Shovel Knight'' games, the game goes for a 16-bit art style with music composed in the Yamaha YM-2608 sound chip[[note]]The sound chip used in the UsefulNotes/PC98, which composer Jake Kaufman notes has a similar sound to the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis' sound chip ([=YM2612=]) with several key differences.[[/note]] as opposed to the original game's 8-Bit, NES-inspired look.

* Played with in regard of ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower''. The show takes place in an AlternativeContinuity from the Lotr cinematic trilogy, but it borrowed so many elements and MythologyGags from the movies that they count at least as a SpiritualSuccessor or a BroadStrokes prequel.

* Zig-zagged in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''. While the animation is noticeably more advanced, Some of the technology is a lot less advanced than it was/will be in the first movie, like the scare training dummies (which move very mechanically and are clearly made of wood here, whereas in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' they look exactly like real children).
* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpiesTheMovie''. Despite being a prequel and origin story for the spies, Includes Gadget & Set Designs (such as the cloths changing mechanism on the girl's compowders) that weren't seen on the show until the 3rd Season.

* ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'' (released in 2011, set in 2613) is set two decades before the original ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' (released in 1987, set in 2633), but the weapons and technology shown in the game are way more advanced than anything featured in the original arcade and NES games, or even the 16-bit installments ''Contra III'' and ''Contra: Hard Corps''.

** Every ''Star Trek'' show up through the TurnOfTheMillennium maintained the look of the original series during time travel to that era, most notably a couple of episodes in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'': sets or props that didn't exist anymore were painstakingly remade to resemble the originals. This went out with ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', which is contemporary with the ''Enterprise''-1701 but looks more advanced than even the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' theatrical films. Season 2 implies that the ship is a testbed of not-ready-for-prime-time technology, and that viewscreens instead of holograms is Captain Pike's personal preference. However, this doesn't entirely explain why holocoms and other innovations are never seen again until [=DS9=], decades in the future. The novel ''Desperate Hours'' describes the holocoms as "total data hogs", with the implication that this is why they never became standard. The ''Enterprise'' is also shown, modernized but not redesigned like in the [[Creator/JJAbrams Abrams]] movies.

A game, movie or TV show will come out, and run its course. Sometime later, the same developers, or a new team will decide to create a prequel to the original. Compared to when the original came out, technology has advanced, allowing better graphics, better features, better special effects, etc. However, even though the setting of the prequel is [[WordOfGod stated to be less "advanced" than the setting of the original]], you wouldn't know that from just observing it.

See, this can be a bit of a dilemma when it comes to visual and interactive media, concerning not only {{prequel}}s, but {{spinoff}}s as well. Designers often try to evolve and make their works look better than their previous ones, even when the story they're working on occurs way before their earlier designs. The end result is that their designs for the prequel/spinoff looks or feels better than what they ''had'' in the current storyline. That's what this trope is all about.

This is common in prequels to sci-fi works created in the mid 20th century, but whose prequels were done in the late 20th or 21st century. While the original is rife [[TechMarchesOn with outdated technology]], the more "primitive" prequel will have tech that looks like it came straight out of an Apple Store ([[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture iPod look]] optional).

If technology [[PrequelInTheLostAge had regressed in-universe]] in the time between the prequel and the original (for instance, if the original is set AfterTheEnd and the prequel is set JustBeforeTheEnd), this trope does not apply.

* While ''[[VideoGame/ShovelKnight Shovel Knight Dig]]'' is [[https://twitter.com/YachtClubGames/status/1574123850396073984 chronologically set before any of the previous ''Shovel Knight'' games]], the game goes for a 16-bit art style with music composed in the Yamaha YM-2608 sound chip[[note]]The sound chip used in the UsefulNotes/PC98, which composer Jake Kaufman notes has a similar sound to the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis' sound chip ([=YM2612=]) with several key differences.[[/note]] as opposed to the original game's 8-Bit, NES-inspired look.

This is common in prequels to sci-fi works created in the mid 20th century, but whose prequels were done in the late 20th and this century. While the original is rife [[TechMarchesOn with outdated technology]], the more "primitive" prequel will have tech that looks like it came straight out of an Apple Store ([[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture iPod look]] optional).

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks "Genesis of the Daleks"]], an OriginsEpisode for the Daleks, the Dalek props used have the final codified Dalek design used from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase "The Chase"]] onwards, rather than the design used in when they first appeared in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]], to say nothing of the fact that the Daleks here don't seem dependent on being feed an external electric current as in their debut serial and generally seem considerably more powerful. This has led to fans theorizing that the Daleks in "The Daleks" were a fringe group that became technologically crippled from constant warring with the Thals, though from a behind-the-scenes perspective it amounts to a simple continuity error.

* ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'' (released in 2011, set in 2613) is set two decades before the original ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' (released in 1987, set in 2636), but the weapons and technology shown in the game are way more advanced than anything featured in the original arcade and NES games, or even the 16-bit installments ''Contra III'' and ''Contra: Hard Corps''.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''. Some of the technology is a lot less advanced than it was/will be in the first movie, like the scare training dummies (which move very mechanically and are clearly made of wood here, whereas in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' they look exactly like real children).