We're actually amazed it has taken this long for us to spot this, but it looks like defunct developer Hudson Soft might have cheekily copied the palm trees from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog for its 1992 NES platformer Adventure Island III.
As spotted by CometRobot, the palm trees in the NES game showcase an uncanny resemblance to those in Sega's 16-bit epic.
Sonic launched in 1991, with Adventure Island III coming a year later – so it's very likely that one of Hudson's artists aped the design.
While the trees aren't 100% identical, they're close enough to make it fairly obvious one was inspired by the other.
The Adventure Island series is an offshoot of Sega's Wonder Boy franchise; the original game 1986 Adventure Island (known as Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima in Japan) is an adaptation of the arcade game Wonder Boy.
Perhaps this was a cheeky way of referencing the Sega connection?
Do you think Adventure Island III copied Sonic's palm trees? (420 votes)
- Yes
- No
- Erm, I don't know?