History Main / PaletteSwap

* Creator/EpicMegagames' fighting game ''VideoGame/OneMustFall'' makes extensive use of palette swaps. The game has 11 distinct (sprite) models of robots, but many more colour-schemes, all of which are achieved by changing parts of the game palette. In tournament mode, you can customize your robot's colour-scheme in three areas, and the game provides you with 16 colours to choose from.

* A famous example of the skin-color aspect of this trope was the character Nakoruru from the FightingGame ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown''. The swapped palette used on her portrait in the character select screen made her look like her own EvilTwin. Naturally, the idea quickly entered {{Fanon}}, and ''Samurai Shodown V'' [[AscendedFanon actually turned "Evil Nakoruru"]] into her [[EnemyWithout own character]] and the local [[AntiHero anti-heroine]], Rera.
** This was most likely also a result of SNK actually intending the "Slash/Bust" division to represent good and evil sides (or at least different personalities), never being able to pull it off, and ultimately simply deciding to just make a couple variant characters and call it a day. The other, BTW, is Rastesumaru, a much, ''much'' different version of Haohmaru. (He has purple skin, for one. He's completely psycho, for another.)

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' had the [[KillerRabbit Looper]] enemies - as Arcadia has [[WeirdMoon six colored moons]], a different colored Looper is founds depending on what region you're in[[note]]They are:red Loopers in Nasr, green Loopers in Ixa'taka, blue Loopers in Yafutoma, purple Loopers in the Lands of Ice, yellow Loopers in Valua, and white/silver Loopers in the mostly empty region under the Silver Moon[[/note]]. There is also a far-reaching area in the world where you can find all six varieties of Looper, in addition to a [[GiantMook giant orange Looper]] that you must fight with your ship. Finally, a BonusBoss, Elcian, is a black Looper that is found in the Dark Rift.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' does this with the Noise. There are sometimes cosmetic differences between the various versions of each Noise species, and the boss versions of a few of the more powerful versions often have tattoos all over their bodies in addition to more threatening characteristics (bigger horns/tusks), but overall most Noise are palette swaps of about fifteen or sixteen different species. [[spoiler:Unlike all of the other bosses, who except for the two bat bosses and boss versions of normal Noise all have unique sprites, the BonusBoss Panthera Cantus is a palette swap as well, of two of the bosses, one on each screen.]]

* Not only do the line of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' figurines resemble more toward pre-G4 versions, but various background characters (sometimes [[GodCreatedCanonForeigner not even existing in the series]]) are palette swaps of the main characters, if their packaging graphic is anything to go by. For instance, look up Dewdrop Dazzle[[note]]of Twilight Sparkle[[/note]], Feathermay[[note]]of Rainbow Dash[[/note]], Flitterheart[[note]]of Fluttershy on her brushable packaging and collector's card, but her blind bag figure is based on Rainbow Dash[[/note]], Lulu Luck[[note]]of Rarity[[/note]], Plumsweet[[note]]of Pinkie Pie[[/note]], Snowcatcher[[note]]of Rarity also[[/note]], Diamond Rose[[note]]of Fluttershy again[[/note]], and Twinkleshine[[note]]of Rarity yet again[[/note]], if you're already familiar with the main G4 cast. Some other examples show attempt to differentiate however, such as "Cupcake" being a wingless version of Fluttershy, or "Sunny Daze" being a non-unicorn Sweetie Belle, or even "Minty" as an Applejack mold sans the hat.

* ''VdeoGame/PokkenTournament'' does this if you fight a character using the same Pokémon as yours. You can choose to make yours a different color as well. Sometimes it’s the shiny form, but sometimes it’s a different color completely. Pikachu also gets its Pikachu Libre variant and you can choose shadow Mewtwo after completing the story.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'': The game uses palette swaps mostly for changing the uniform color of different players in multiplayer mode (the green armor becomes indigo, brown and red for players 2, 3 and 4); however a variant of palette swap is used for one of the monsters: the Spectre is a Demon whose sprite's shape is replaced by a zone of transparent static.
* ''VideoGame/DoomII'': A palette swap was used to create the Hell Knight from the Baron of Hell; however, both sets of sprites are present in the game's data and the two are treated by the game as totally separate enemy types, other than being hard-coded against the usual rules for [[SetAMookToKillAMook taking and responding to friendly fire]]. [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom_RPG Doom RPG]], however, had "classes" of enemies that changed palettes according to their type and subsequent difficulty.

%%* Played for laughs several times in ''WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpants''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', on the other hand, use palette swaps mostly for changing the uniform color of different players in multiplayer mode (the green armor becomes indigo, brown and red for players 2, 3 and 4); however a variant of palette swap is used for one of the monsters: the Spectre is a Demon whose sprite's shape is replaced by a zone of transparent static. In ''Doom 2'', a palette swap was used to create the Hell Knight from the Baron of Hell; however both sets of sprites are present in the game's data and the two are treated by the game as totally separate enemy types, other than being hard-coded against the usual rules for [[SetAMookToKillAMook taking and responding to friendly fire]]. [[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom_RPG Doom RPG]], however, had "classes" of enemies that changed palettes according to their type and subsequent difficulty.

* ''VideoGame/ShuiHuFengYunZhuan'', an unofficial Chinese remake of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheRound'' (based on Literature/TheWaterMargin), blatantly plagiarizes sprites from various games as their enemies and bosses, to laughable levels (and [[TheJimmyHartVersion nicking some musical scores here and there too]]). There's notably bald axe-wielding mooks lifted from ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'', spear-wielding enemies taken from ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheRound'', and shielded soldiers from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfDragons'', with some minor edits here and there. Even without prior context of the plagiarism, something still feels a bit off in the game, since it's set in Ancient China, yet enemy soldiers are wearing Medieval armor that looks more fitting for the Authurian Era, holding long lances fitting for European knights, or viking-like shields and armours, because they're practically transplanted from a bunch of unrelated games set in Europe.

** Also in 3, various Palette swaps of Mao are important to the plot as "Inner Mao"s

* In the ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' series, palette swaps of regular enemies are common, and each successive version that appears is more difficult to defeat than the previous one(s). The fourth game has a notable example with the Lion: While all of them are asleep by the first turn, the attack power of each new version is higher; and by the time you meet the ''Red'' Lion in the BonusDungeon, expect to deal with an attack so strong (Biting Flurry) that will likely instantly kill many or all of your party members if their defense isn't high enough.

* ''VideoGame/SweetHome'' has several enemies with more powerful recolours in later portions of the game. (Wisp and Bane, Hound and Wolf, etc.) One interesting variation is Ghoul, in which the more powerful version is not only slightly redrawn (Missing an arm) but is also flipped upside down. (Indicating that it's dropping down/hanging from the ceiling.)

* While the Octarians are the main enemies of all three ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' games, ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' gives them all fur to fit with the "Return of the Mammalians" theme.

* The characters in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' look identical except for their unique colors. This is due more to the nature of the work ({{Machinima}} using the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' ColorCodedMultiplayer mode) than a stylistic choice.

-->-- '''Cranky Kong''', ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' (GBA)

* ''Fanfic/OjamajoDoremiRiseOfTheShadows'': The Shadows all look ''exactly'' like their Light Halves, except for color; most of them just have darker colors than their Light Halves. Black Queen and Evil Rin take this a step further; the former replaces all the white on the Queen's garb with black while the latter is black, gray, and silver.

* Novelty cake pans in special shapes (of the sort often used to make children’s birthday cakes) often come with a little insert suggesting how the pan can be used to create numerous different cake designs. Given the baker’s creativity will be somewhat limited by the shape of the pan, these “alternative design” suggestions are inevitably just palate swaps of whatever the “main” cake design is. So for example, if the pan is shaped like a truck, the alternative suggestions may be an “army truck” in camouflage colors or an “ambulance” which is just the truck in white with a red cross on it.

* The newer series of ''Franchise/KamenRider'' have tended to reuse the same [[PeopleInRubberSuits rubber suits]] for their MonsterOfTheWeek, with the differences ranging from a complete repaint to a differently coloured scarf. Sometimes this is given a lampshade, as in ''Series/KamenRiderAgito'' where monsters embody members of certain animal genera (and thus Agito fights three recolored jaguar monsters in the first two episodes). Considering that the cost of creating one of these expensive monster costumes from scratch greatly outweighs the cost of a simple repaint, it's more due to budget constraints rather than a lack of creativity. Some Kamen Riders also fall prey to the budget-saving repaint: most of the movie-only Riders, EvilTwin Ryuga from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'', the SuperPrototype Hopper Riders and EvilTwin Dark Kabuto from ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'' and Zeronos' DeadlyUpgrade Zero Form from ''Series/KamenRiderDenO''.
** Gold Drive from ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' was a very literal EvilKnockoff of the title hero created by the BigBad stealing Belt-san's tech (a recurring theme with him).
** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' had Kamen Riders Genm, a palette-swapped SuperPrototype of the title character, as part of its videogame theme.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' and its UpdatedReRelease, certain drivers are given alternate colors, some of which affect the colors of some of the vehicles they are driving.
** If the player preorders the Zelda/Animal Crossing [[DownloadableContent DLC]] for ''8'' they get access to all the Yoshi ''and'' Shy Guy color variations. In ''8 Deluxe'', Yoshi and Shy Guy's color variations are unlocked by default.
** In ''8'', the male [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Villager]] can be switched into the other gender, but this is more of a subversion as the female Villager has different stats compared to the male Villager. ''8 Deluxe'' averts this by giving the female Villager her own slot.
** Both genders of [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} Inkling]] each have three palette swaps. The color chosen also affects the color of the ink that is shot out from the ''Splatoon'' themed [=ATVs=] when getting a boost.
** Completing every course on 200cc unlocks Golden Mario, who is a palette swap of Metal Mario.
** A later update to ''8 Deluxe'' allowed [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] to be swapped between his typical green tunic and his appearance in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathoftheWild Breath of the Wild]]''.

** Some joining characters became iconic and immediately recognizable from other characters with the same class also thanks to their colors: i.e. Imoen is the trumpery fuchsia (BG1) or violet (BG2) hooded thief, Quayle the fuchsia shortie, Aerie is yellow and orange, Keldorn the paladin in orange armor (unless you change it), Nalia is sky blue and brown, Shar-Teel is bright red, Minsc has white hair (despite his portrait shows a bald head).

** The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' chapter came with two Survivors, Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine, who in turn can be skinned up as the Redfield siblings, Chris and Claire.

[[folder:Tower Defense]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonWars'' has a lot of this with its dragons. Kinnara and Garuda, Kastor and Borg, and probably others, are palette swaps of each other.