"I Can Safely Say It's B**locks" - Ex-Rare Devs Debunk Killer Instinct 'Panel De Pon' Rumour

Time Extension • January 19, 2026 • technology

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The 1995 Super Famicom puzzle game Panel De Pon was rebranded as Tetris Attack for Western audiences, replacing its original fairy characters with ones from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
A longstanding claim suggested Nintendo considered a darker Killer Instinct theme for the Western release and approached Rare about it, based on a 1996 Nintendo Magazine System UK article quoting Nintendo's PR head.
However, interviews with three former Killer Instinct developers, including head programmer Mark Betteridge and designer Chris Seavor, revealed none had any knowledge of such a proposal, casting doubt on the claim's accuracy.
Chris Seavor explicitly dismissed the rumor as false, stating that if the head programmer was unaware, the story is