Having some downtime today (Give it up for standardized testing!), I've been doing my fair share of perusing the interwebz for prototype related articles.  In doing so I stumbled across this gem:

http://protodudesrockmancorner.bl...

According to these extremely early Megaman/Rockman scans, the game was originally title "The Battle Rainbow Rockman."  Oh how un-bad-ass that names sounds. 

Anyone know of any similar title changes that occurred prior to release?  I know that it happens often enough when games are released in different regions (Bomberman is probably the best example), but I don't know of too many that were changed while in development.

- Bignose and The Witch Doctor became Big Nose Freaks Out
- Castle of Demons became Castle of Dragon
- Caveman Ughlympics became Caveman Games
- Darc Seed became Zombie Nation
- Dragon Ninja became Ninja Gaiden
- Final Mission became SCAT (though the famicom release was still called Final Mission
- Flying Dragon II became Flying Warriors
- Francesca's Wand became Krion Conquest
- Jump Burger was the working name for Short Order before it was combined and released with Eggsplode
- Mechanoids was released as Metal Mech
- Mickey Dream Balloon became Kid Klown
- Power Blazer was changed a bit to become Power Blade
- Obviously, Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch became Power Punch II
- Where's Waldo 2 became The Great Waldo Search
- White Lion (when the children cry?) became Ghost Lion

That's all I got for confirmed working titles, but it's not a bad start.

Dragon Ninja is actually the Japanese title for "Bad Dudes"
In PAL it was "Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja"

No, Crash was based on the sequel.

Thats weird, considering ninja gaiden came out before bad dudes in all regions. I was thinking maybe they changed the name because of bad dudes. thanks for posting, interesting.

The first time I read it I thought the exact same thing as you, it doesn't make any sense to me at all either.  There is one really bizarre screen cap in that add too, very interesting stuff.

Frank:  I removed Crash and the Boys Soccer and simultaneously farted in your direction.  Thanks for the correction.

Anyone else have any other confirmed working titles for released games?

Virus becoming Dr. Mario...the code name on the VS Unisystem has it as VU also...

Return of Donkey Kong I'm not sure what happened to that one....if it became Donkey Kong CLassics or was killed and eventually became Donkey Kong Country..

I know NES Open Golf had a name change Mario's Open Golf or something? Might have stayed that way for the PlayChoice version....