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{{trope}}
[[File:ambidextrous-
{{quote|"Hey, I'm pretty sure it was the ''other'' headlight that was broken when I left."
|'''Detective Inspector Hector''', ''[[Hector: Badge of Carnage]]''}}
Sprites are pixel art characters used in video games. Unlike a 3D model, you can't simply rotate a sprite to get a new view of it. Additional clothes, poses, and each frame of animation for actions have to be made almost entirely from scratch. For this reason, artists will usually make sprites perfectly bilaterally symmetrical. That way, any poses or actions made facing left could simply be flipped to make the same poses and actions facing right. There were also memory size concerns on earlier platforms - it was often more efficient to mirror the sprite than to store the opposite poses.
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{{examples}}
== Played Straight ==
=== Action-Adventure Games ===
* ''[[Bubble Bobble|Puzzle Bobble 3]]'' aka ''[[Title Confusion|Bust-A-Move '99 (or 3)]]'' had Lunaluna (or, since the names were not outright revealed, "that one fortune teller lady with the crystal ball and affinity for tarot cards"). [[Peek-a-Bangs|Her hair was made so that the left side of her head was covered with a very long bang that covered quite a bit of length of her body.]] [[Fashionable Asymmetry|The other side was barely shoulder length.]] All artwork depicting her throughout the game had shown her with the long hair to her left, including splash screens, the ending, etc, but there was one problem. When playing her as Player 1, she is flipped so her long hair is on the wrong side and can't be fixed. It is only fixed when you face her (but you aren't the one in control) or when you play as Player 2 (in which [[Color-Coded Multiplayer|her hair is now green]]).
** Something similar happens with Lip's hair in ''[[Panel de Pon]]''; she has a swirl on the right side of her head and a flipped-up part on the other. Naturally, this gets reversed when any of her sprites are mirrored.
* Link is left-handed, but in the first few ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' games his sword and shield will switch hands depending on which way he's facing. The player's guide for ''A Link to the Past'' mentioned how Link [[Serendipity Writes the Plot|superstitiously kept his shield between him and Death Mountain]].
* ''[[Metroid]]'' - In the original NES game, Samus' arm cannon would spontaneously switch arms, depending on which way she's looking. Notable because every sequel averts it, even ''Metroid II'' for the Game Boy.
* [[Muramasa: The Demon Blade]] justifies this with non-player characters by giving them turning animations, allowing them to move whatever objects they're holding around so that they look the same facing the other direction (like Torahime switching her bow from one hand to the other.)
=== Action
* It's not just limited to sprites, either. ''[[Gears of War]]'' mirrors your character's skeleton if you put your back to cover in a way that'll make your character use his left hand. Even some of the weapons magically mirror scopes, bolts etc.
* ''[[Contra|Contra: Hard Corps]]'' - Brad Fang has a cybernetic arm on the side closest to the background and a gun on the foreground side. [[Multiple Endings|While even the different endings are not consistent]], the promotional illustrations depicts his left arm as his gun arm.
* ''[[Rastan Saga]]'' - The enemy guards in the castle stages are demon-headed humanoid warriors that have one half of their skin in green and the other half in white flesh tone.
=== Beat-'em-ups ===
* Most games in this genre do this whenever a character is holding a weapon. They change hands when they look in a different direction. This is especially noticeable in weapon-based belt-scrollers like Sega's ''[[Golden Axe]]'' and Capcom's ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (video game)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' games.
* ''[[Final Fight]]''
** The suspender on Mike Haggar's pants tends to switch sides depending on whether he's facing right or left. In most official artworks and character select profiles, it is shown going around the right side of his chest. This is averted in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'', where his suspender is always on the right shoulder.
** The enemy grunts [[One-Letter Name|J]] and Two P have designs on the back of their jackets that are flipped whenever either of them change directions. It's particularly notable with J's jacket, who wears an atomic symbol on his back that has the word "BAD" written atop of it, which is mirrored when J is facing to the right.
* ''[[Alien vs
** Linn Kurosawa has a large studded shoulder guard on her left shoulder, as well as knife holster on her right leg. Strangely, they're switched by default on her in-game sprite, since all the player characters start the game facing right. The hilt of the katana she carries on the back of her waist also switches sides to the opposite of her current direction.
** Dutch Schaeffer has a cybernetic right arm that switches to his left arm (the arm closest to the foreground) when facing left.
** Both of the Predators wield weapons that they hold on their right arms by default (a spear for Predator Warrior and a halberd Predator Hunter). Hunter also wears a claw on the same hand he uses to wield his weapon.
* ''[[
** Machine Gun Willy, the final boss, wears a single spiked shoulder pad which switches from his left shoulder when facing left and to his right when facing right. The promotional illustrations for the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120511145551/http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?id=1639 arcade] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20130327235428/http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?id=512 Famicom] versions clearly shows Willy wearing his shoulder pad on his right shoulder.
** The cardboard box used as a weapon by the Rowper enemies in Mission 2 has "TJC" (the initials for Technos Japan Corp.) written on it. The letters are flipped whenever the cardboard is "facing" to the left.
** In the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'', the enemy grunt Rowper wears an eyepatch which switches to his left eye when he's facing right and vice-versa. He didn't wear it in any other installment in the series.
* ''[[
* ''[[Punisher]]'' - Another arcade game by Capcom, the two player characters, Frank Castle and Nick Fury, both have a gun holster on one of their legs. The [http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=825 official brochure] depicts them wearing the holsters on their respective right legs.
* ''[[Growl]]'' - Nitroman, the Round 1 boss, wears a shoulder pad and an armband on the side that he's not facing.
=== Eastern RPGs ===
* Done in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]''. Not only are the battle sprites flipped, making characters wield their weapons on different hands depending on which way they are facing, the overworld and talking sprites are also mirrored. The latter is usually not a problem, since most of the characters are rather symmetric... except with Zexion, whose right eye is (supposed to be) covered by his hair. The mirroring of his sprites is thus a little bit more noticeable.
* The Runaway Five's van in ''[[EarthBound]]'' ...doesn't do a particularly good job of this. During part of the trip, when it's driving left, it reads YAWAИUЯ.
** Ness's sprites when walking horizontally or diagonally are mirrored. However, he's also the sole character whose "walking towards the screen" animation doesn't use simple mirroring.
* ''[[One Piece]]'' has several characters that are asymmetrical. Despite the aversion(s) listed below, earlier games often had only one sprite set for Sanji, a character that very distinctively has one eye covered by his hair, and the other one has a curly eyebrow. Other characters that should have issues are Luffy, with his scar under his eye, Zoro, with his chest scar, Nami with her tattoo, Chopper who technically has one of his antlers reattached, Franky, who has different weapons on different sides and are named as such (IE Weapons Left), and at one time Brook had a crack in his skull. I don't think any of the other ones have been issues, either due to clothes covering them up, the details being too pixelated to tell anyways, or the character simply not having been around long enough to have been in a Gameboy game.
* The first two ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' games had some of this.
** Quite possibly done intentionally, seeing how the fact that all the characters literally ARE 2-D is a selling point.
* ''[[Luminous Arc]]'' tried very hard not to flip one character's chat portrait since she was basically [[Fashionable Asymmetry]] embodied and [[Rummage Sale Reject|ludicrously over-accessorized]]. Whenever she's flipped, her [[Rainbow Pimp Gear]], [[Mismatched Eyes]], star-shaped beauty mark on one breast, and so on, and so forth, are all reversed, and it's distractingly obvious. You'd think [[WTH Costuming Department|someone on the design team would keep that whole]] "[[WTH Costuming Department|sprite flip]]" [[WTH Costuming Department|thing in mind]], but no.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', the pirates have eye patches. Whether they're looking left or right, the eye patch is always over their visible eye.
* Happens to Sion in ''[[Treasure of the Rudras]]'' after his eye is taken out early in the game. His right eye gets taken out, but if he's walking right his eye is left un-patched, a mirror to his sprite when walking left.
* ''[[Inazuma Eleven]]'' had this hold true in the overworld sprites of their DS games, which is jarring when hand-in-hand with [[Peek-a-Bangs]] characters such as Kazemaru and Edgar, or those with eyepatches like Sakuma.
=== Fighting Games ===
* In general, 2D fighting games (even titles created in a 3D engine) are designed so that the characters do not turn their backs to the camera, as 1) giving characters two unique sprite sets puts extra work on the development team, and 2) characters can gain/lose an advantage from being on a particular side, which can lead to combos not working (or, worse, can create [[Game Breaker|infinite combo opportunities.]]) Always having one sprite set evens up the odds of victory.
* Sagat from the ''[[
** Guile has the American flag tattooed on both of his shoulders, but the Stars and Stripes mirror backwards depending on which way he's facing.
*** This is something of a [[Truth in Television]]. Guile's tattoos mimic the flag patches on military uniforms. Since the US flag has no lateral symmetry, there are certain rules as to how the patches are worn. Notably, the blue field and stars are supposed to be oriented toward the front of the wearer, meaning a patch worn on the left shoulder looks like normal US flag, but a patch worn on the right shoulder is mirrored. It's symbolic of the flag flying backwards as the soldier charges into battle.
**** He's only correct in the old ''[[
** Vega wields a talon on his right hand. The talon switches hands depending on which way he's facing. It even happens in ''[[
*** Incidentally, both Vega and Sagat actually avert it that game. Sagat's eyepatch and scar finally staying correctly aligned regardless of which way he's facing, as does Vega's dragon tattoo and asymmetrical sash.
*** Which was present in ''[[Older Than They Think|Street Fighter Alpha]]''.
** However, characters' move sets in ''Street Fighter IV'' are still mirrored so that they never turn their backs on the camera. Old habits die hard.
** Tyler Wilde of GamesRadar [https://web.archive.org/web/20081006103018/http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/f/the-worst-street-fighter-characters-ever/a-2008032172243393086/g-20071017175621759060/p-4 had a field day] with Oro from ''Street Fighter III'', who binds his right arm to [[Willfully Weak|stop himself from killing his opponent.]] This didn't stop him from being subjected to this trope, however.
** Dee-Jay's pants have MAXIMUM printed on them, instead of something else less vertically symmetrical (like MANTIS), for this very reason.
** While Cammy for the most part was symmetrically designed, she had a few issues with mirroring. In ''Super Street Fighter II'', the red triangle on her chest and leg camouflage would switch locations. She wore a different costume for ''[[X
** In ''[[
* Baiken from the ''[[
** Dizzy's wings flip, too. If you use that Overdrive with Necro, you can even see the coffin is flipped.
* Genjuro from ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' has a diagonal scar on his back. [[Yagyu Jubei]] has an eyepatch. They flip when the characters turn around.
** That's not the worst of it. Haohmaru doesn't look as bad as some others (two-handed grip can just shift). One-handed weapon wielders (Charlotte, Cham Cham, Ukyo) can be handwaved by saying they're holding it in their other hand. Some two-handed wielders can get away with this too (Wan-Fu and Caffeine Nicotine
* In the 2D ''[[Bleach]]'' [[Fighting Game
* Ragna the Bloodedge of ''[[
** Similarly, Sol Badguy of ''[[
** Carl's hat hat and Nirvana's ring also dance from left to right.
** Nu's [[Eyepatch of Power]] is completely covered by her [[Cyber Cyclops|Murakumo unit visor]], possibly to avoid such issues.
** Litchi's hair ponytail location also switch between left to right at times.
** And, despite using 3D models, Freed of ''[[
*
** Kano's bionic eye in always faced the camera until the series went into 3D.
** ''[[Mortal Kombat 4]]'', despite using 3D models instead of digitized sprites, would still employ mirroring if the characters reversed sides. It was especially noticeable with weapon-wielding characters.
** Cleverly averted in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'' with [[Guest Fighter]] Freddy Kruger. [[A Nightmare on Elm Street|In his canon,]] he wears his razor-glove on his right hand, but the game designers give him a second one on his left hand simply to avoid this trope.
* ''[[The King of Fighters]]'', due to using sprites for a majority of their games until ''[[The King of Fighters XIV]]''.
** Rugal Bernstein's bionic eye and Brian Battler's shoulder padding both originated in ''[[The King of Fighters '94]]; these were carried over for their future appearances in ''[[The King of Fighters '98]]'', ''[[The King of Fighters 2002]]'', and the ''[[Capcom vs. SNK]]'' games.
** K' wears a red glove on his right hand, which is mirrored in-game for all of his appearances prior to ''The King of Fighters XIV''.
** [[Canon Immigrant]] Bonne Jenet from ''[[Garou: Mark of the Wolves]]'' has the Jolly Roger on the left side of her dress mirrored during gameplay.
* The ''[[Rave Master]]'' game for the GameCube uses 3D characters, but the scenes between fights uses 2D images, which it flips, of course. For some characters, this is just fine, even on Musica one might not notice that his piercings moved to the other side of his face, but the tattoo that takes up half of Sieg Hart's face or, worse, the tattoo that covers half of Go's ''body'' are impossible to miss.
* Heart Aino of ''[[
* In ''[[
** Utsuho has the same problem that Mega Man does: her control rod/arm cannon is suppose to be on her right arm, yet it switches sides depending on which way she's facing.
** Suika's ribbon on one of her horns.
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* The American flag on the back of Geese Howard's gi in the first ''[[Fatal Fury]]''.
=== First-Person Shooters ===
* ''[[Unreal Tournament]] 2004'' gives the option for players to have their guns appear in the lower right (standard), center, or left of the HUD. Left-handed guns are mirror images of the standard view—which wouldn't be noticeable except that some of the guns have serial numbers on them, which are backwards on the left-handed versions.
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' is guilty of this, as well. Most weapons don't have text on them, but those that do are reversed, as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2wWiJPNs0 this video] of a ЯƎϤϤAϨ-OЯTϽƎ˩Ǝ illustrates.
===
* In ''[[Maple Story]]'', ''every piece of equipment'' will follow this trope.
** Also happens in the suspiciously similar MMORPG ''[[
* ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' has this with its 2D sprites, though some headgears are not flipped/mirrored(Such as the ribbon).
* ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]'', being a 2D MMO, also follows this trope.
=== Platformers ===
* ''[[Drawn to Life]]'' makes an interesting case of this. It's played straight in the Rapo of Heather, who has a face that's half yellow and half black (think like [[Batman|Two Face]]), yet inexplicably, when she turns to either side, you always see the yellow side. However, since the player makes the player sprite himself, whether it uses this trope or not is up to him or her.
* [[Mega Man (
** An upgrade in ''[[
** Note that the original ''[[Mega Man (
*** Interestingly enough, this is [[Continuity Nod|referenced]] in ''Super Adventure Rockman'', {{spoiler|where Rock uses the twin Mega Busters to defeat the Big Bad}}.
** This animation error carries over to X's knock-off [[Expy
** This was actually [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[
*** Lampshaded in every sprite comic ever, actually.
** This is sort of [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] in ''[[
** Somewhat averted with the games bosses, as bosses with [[Arm Cannon
* The once freeware game [[
** Played straight: The main character {{spoiler|Quote}} always holds the current weapon in his left hand when facing right, and visa versa.
** Averted: {{spoiler|Ballos}} has his white eye when facing left and red eye when facing right.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[The Lost Vikings]] II'', Baleog's robotic arm would switch arms depending on which way he was facing. A bit more obvious when climbing ladders.
* In ''[[
** ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles
* ''[[
** ''[[Scribblenauts]]'' does this, as well; the rally car inexplicably named "GEORGE" has a 5 on it, which is reversed when facing left.
* Rare 3D platformer game example: Rosalina from ''[[
* Happens to Stinkoman in ''[[
** There is [http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Flipped_Images an entire article] on the ''[[
* The GBA ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' titles do this. The final boss of the first game has a metal helmet over half his face, which switches if you somehow get past him. The {{spoiler|second-to-last}} boss of the second has a whacking great projectile claw on one arm and is designed to face both ways in his battle routine, but does this anyway.
=== Puzzle Games ===
* The most egregious example in ''[[The Lost Vikings]]'' would be Baleog's bionic arm in the second game. However, the first game has a curiosity: Baleog's character portrait (which faces right) shows his sword in the opposite arm from his right-facing sprites.
* In ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]]'', the front-on sprites used in the Phoenix/Apollo arcs are changed to sprites seen from the side (as if conversing with each other). This results in Franziska's mole and jacket buttons changing sides. Gumshoe's band-aid, Kay's scarf, Calisto Yew's jacket... the list goes on.
=== Simulation Games ===
* Due to its [[Isometric Projection]], ''[[SimCity]] 2000'' takes this trope to the next dimension. Though each building in the game has only one sprite, there are ''four'' different viewing angles. This is made especially glaring as most of the buildings are obviously asymmetrical yet appear exactly the same when viewed from the north or south. When viewed from the east or west, the sprites are simply mirrored.
** [[Alien Geometries|GYAAAAAAH!]]
* ''[[
* In the Amiga version of ''Outrun'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52fMZVASEcU#t=0m40s the driver and passenger swap seats] when turning right. Oddly the number plate on the car doesn't flip over.
** The original arcade ''Outrun'' kept the car occupants on the right sides but the horse hood ornament was always flipping.
* Whoever designed the main characters in ''[[Harvest Moon]] Grand Bazaar'' did not think about how they would be affected by this trope. They have a feather that they wear on one side of their hat, and a small bag they carry on one side of their body, both of which constantly switch places as they change direction.
=== Strategy Games ===
* Really obvious in the ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'' games with the Alt Eisen. In the Rampage Ghost attacks in the second game, the autocannon and revolver stake will magically switch places halfway through the attack, in the case of the stronger variation you actually get to see the change as it happens onscreen. Also in a scripted event midway through the first game you see Kyosuke say that the left arm is unusable before proceeding to use an attack which uses a weapon usually on the right arm, but as he's an enemy for that mission it appears on the left.
* The ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' series uses this and you can see it when a unit uses a weapon. They will use the weapons in either hand, similar to Link from the Zelda games.
* Done in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] 3''. One particularly noteworthy example is the walking dead, which can swap which of its arms is missing based on the direction it is facing.
* Wookiee aircraft from ''[[Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds]]'', for whatever reason, have engine pods hanging off one side, but not the other. Which side, ehm, ''depends''. Every other non-infantry unit (and most of the infantry, for that matter) are symmetrical, though, so they manage to avoid this.
* In ''[[
** Also happens in ''[[
* ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'''s sprites have this a lot, due to having different weapons in each hand for the most part.
* [[Nippon Ichi]] games have this for all characters.
* Played straight in ''[[Vandal Hearts]]'', which has sprite characters in 3D environments. Pretty noticeable seeing as no model is symmetrical
=== Western RPGs ===
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] II: Daggerfall'' allows your character to switch between a weapon in his left hand and one in his right hand, even switch hands while fighting completely unarmed. Despite this difference, the animation for your chosen weapon hand always appears on the right side of the screen.
== Aversions ==
=== Action-Adventure Games ===
* ''[[Iji]]'' averts this.
* ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]'' avoids this: Will always wields his flute with his right hand, Freedan uses his sword right-handed, and Shadow slashes with his right arm.
* ''[[Soul Blazer]]'' does as well; Blader is exclusively a righty. Even his crabwalking animations are exclusive to each cardinal compass direction.
* In ''[[
* While 2D ''Zelda'' games usually include this trope, ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle
* From ''[[Metroid
* Averted in ''[[
** Also as he's coming down from a jump, he holds his hat in place with his left hand regardless of which direction he's facing.
* Surprisingly (for such a bad game), Two-Face's sprite in Batman Forever (for SNES and Mega Drive) is not mirrored.
** On the other hand, in Batman Forever: The Arcade Game (released on [[PS One]]), his bad and good sides switch places depending on which side he faces.
=== Action Game ===
* The main concept of ''[[Silhouette Mirage]]'' is an aversion of this trope, as main character Shyna is one of few beings in the game who is half Silhouette and half Mirage - literally, being split down the middle with one attribute on each side. Since she generally faces left or right during the game, only one half is seen at a time, and the visible half determines the affinity of her attacks. Sprite mirroring is still used, since she has the ability to swap her Mirage and Silhouette sides in order to use their attacks in opposite directions.
* In ''[[
* Partially averted in ''[[Doom (
* ''[[Marathon
** The correct answer is [[Guns Akimbo|both]].
* In the SNES ''Jurassic Park'' game, all eight views of Grant depict him holding his weapon on his right side.
* In the ''[[Fist of the North Star|Hokuto no Ken 2]]'' game for the [[Mega Drive]], Kenshiro wears bandages around his left arm and an armband on his right. The bandages and armband are drawn accordingly based on the direction Kenshiro is facing. Note that this was changed in the game's overseas version of ''[[Divorced Installment|Last Battle]]'', where [[Dub Name Change|Aarzak]] wears bandages on both of his arms.
* In the MSX2 ''[[Metal Gear]]'' games (''[[Metal Gear
** Solid Snake himself and some of the enemy soldiers also have separate sprites when they're facing east or west. However, the original game plays this straight when Snake is unarmed (this was corrected in ''Metal Gear 2'').
=== Eastern RPG ===
* Averted in ''[[Pokémon]]''. When viewing the status of the Pokemon in your party or your PC, asymmetrical Pokemon like Absol or Roselia aren't flipped like symmetrical ones are.
** And in the first ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' games, the Absol that joins you is the only one to have two different portraits.
***
** But in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|D/P/PT]]'', (at least) when running or riding your bike, the part of your scarf that hangs off your neck switches sides depending on whether you're going east or west. And yes, it is supposed to be on only one side, as you can see by going north or south.
** ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver|HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'' have a mechanic where your lead Pokemon follows you around throughout the game. Asymmetrical Pokemon get different "walking west" and "walking east" sprites. Bizarrely, they did that for the Pokemon but STILL not for the human characters.
** ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' averts this with the PC sprites (scarves and such), as well as Ghetsis' (because of his weird...monocle thing).
* Every ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' game ever.
** The Japanese version of the first one (and ''only'' the first one) cheated its way out - the characters always face the screen... as in, they move around like pieces in a board game. (''Dragon Warrior'' fixed this by giving everyone separate walking sprites for each of the four cardinal directions.)
** This is sometimes used as an odd visual form of [[Nominal Importance]]. Important characters will have sprites that switch directions, unimportant [[NPC
* In ''[[
* Roddick's sprite for the [[Enhanced Remake]] of ''[[Star Ocean]]'': First Departure has this, but instead of wielding the sword in one-hand he's always shown wielding the sword with ''two'' hands. (As opposed to just one) Other characters like T'Nique and Welch wield their weapons in two-hands, and Ilia attacks with her fists (Which can be drawn from ''either'' side and make sense) but other characters switch hands a lot.
* Rena's sprite in ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' has the crescent-shaped pin swap sides whenever she turns.
* ''[[
=== Fighting Games ===
* Gill from ''[[Street Fighter III]]'' was designed specifically to show that the CP System III (the arcade hardware the game was originally released on) could be used to avert this problem. The red half of his body always faces to the left of the screen, and the blue half always faces to the right, no matter which direction he turns. His special attacks even change depending on which way he's facing. His secretary who shows up in his win poses has an asymmetrical haircut for this reason as well.
** And then they played it straight with Oro in the same game, as noted above.
* All of the character models in the ''[[
** The same goes for Capcom's other early 3D fighters, ''[[
* Dee-Jay is another ''[[
* ''[[Neo Geo Battle Coliseum]]'' may not have aversions at the first glance, but should you only look at Ai's baseball cap and it all comes obvious.
** Ai has an aversion, but not Shiki which was carried directly from ''SvC Chaos.'' Well, you know. Her eyes.
* Jax in ''[[Mortal Kombat]] 3'' has two bionic arms instead of the one his designers had wanted, for the reason that it would have taken more work to stop his bionic arm changing sides when he turned around.
* In ''[[
* In the first ''[[Dragon Ball
* Two-Face, in the ''[[Batman Forever]]'' [[Beat'Em Up]] for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive, possesses not only separate sprites but 'entirely different movesets' depending on which way he's facing, as a nod to his dual nature.
* The ''[[Soul Series|Soul Calibur Series]]'' completely averts this by having character's backs face the screen. You will see the front or back of your character depending on what player you are.
** Raphael is, however, left handed solely so he can face the screen when wielding his rapier when selected by player one.
=== Platformers ===
* Interesting case of aversion in ''[[Donkey Kong Country (video game)|Donkey Kong: King of Swing]]'': Towards the end of the tutorial segment, Cranky Kong turns to the opposite direction and walks away. His sprites are mirrored, of course, but in his turn-around animation, he actually switches his cane to the other hand, making the sprite-flipping seamless.
** However, it's played straight with K. Rool, whose larger eye switches sides when he turns. This happens in numerous other games in which he's appeared as well.
** Donkey Kong also does this in ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''. He holds barrels one-handed and switches hands when he turns around.
** This also happens in ''[[Odin Sphere]]''. If you look closely, you can see your character, [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|whoever it may be,]] switch their weapon in their hands so the sprites can work while mirrored.
** And the 2D ''[[Metal Slug]]'' games.
** Also, in ''[[
** ''[[Kirby]]'s Dream Land 3'' does this with the Mirror Rod during the final boss fight.
** This also happens with the protagonist's gun in the [[ZX Spectrum]] game ''[[Zub]]'', specifically because [http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/archive/view.php?post=101 this trope annoyed the developers].
*** Note that these cases count as aversion because most games with mirrored sprites usually [[Instant 180
* ''[[
* In the Master System game ''[[
** Only one of Bocke's forms (a fire-spitting Lizardman) has his sprites mirrored.
** However, Mouse-Man uses the wrong sprites when climbing a left-facing wall or a ceiling.
* In ''[[Alter AILA]] Genesis'', one of the main character's eyes is different from the other, and if you look at the sprites you can see it changes depending on which way he's facing.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131125153121/http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kagiri/kagiri.htm Kagirinaki Tatakai]'', a Japanese computer game brought out of obscurity by [[Hardcore Gaming 101]], features multiple technical innovations for the time it was made. Among others, it averts this trope by featuring separate sprites for facing left or right, in a game stored on cassette tape (meaning there wasn't much memory to work with) and written for the Sharp X1 computer [[Older Than the NES|in 1983]].
=== Sports Games ===
* The switch-hitters from ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball]]'' have mostly mirrored sprites and gimmicks when they come up to bat, but the face is never mirrored.
=== Strategy Games ===
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fire Emblem: Sword of Flame]]'', Nergal's turban always hides his right eye. {{spoiler|No points for guessing [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|what he reveals under it]] in the last chapter...}}
** Idenn of ''Sword of Seals'' has [[Mismatched Eyes]].
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*** And [[The Ojou|Priscilla]]. The portrait and the animations show her wearing a feather behind her left ear, but when she's mirrored it gets flipped too, meaning that in some conversations she appears to be wearing white feathers behind both ears.
*** Most obvious for Canas, who wears a monocle that always flips. His concept art shows it on his right eye.
** ''[[Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'' may be the series' first complete aversion: Krom has been seen with two different portraits for facing different ways. It remains to be seen if the same will go for everyone else, but given that characters similar to Krom (such as Ike) haven't had this done to them before...
=== Other ===
* Averted flawlessly in ''[[Yume Nikki]]''. Any asymmetrical features of the protagonist are correctly placed no matter which direction she faces. This is most prominent with the knife effect, because you can even switch which hand holds it.
* Averted during one part of [[Tales of the Drunken Paladin]]. The trope is mainly played straight when the main character Anebriate faces left or right because he has no asymmetrical features showing. One area of the game changes his sprite because he dons a winter parka to deal with the harsh cold weather. During this part, he carries his spear with him, and it stays in his right hand regardless of facing up, down, left, or right.
==
=== Film ===
* Live-action version of sorts: In the third ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' film, there's a visual gag in which the camera flies "through" a mirror and "into" the scene being reflected. This causes the scene to become a mirror image with Harry's scar on the wrong side of his forehead.
* The animated film ''[[Astro Boy (film)|Astro Boy]]'' was an interesting case. In the manga, Astro Boy's asymmetrical hair spikes face the same way no matter which way he faces. The film was CGI, meaning Astro Boy needed a 3-Dimensional model. This left them with the problem of his hair looking awkward or even backwards when viewing him from the wrong side. They solved this by giving Astro Boy multiple models with his hair on either sides, and switched them between cuts if necessary.
=== Newspaper Comics ===
* In ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'', it's been repeatedly shown that Odie has a spot on both sides of his body.
=== Web Comics ===
* Done in ''[[A Modest Destiny]]'', probably for deliberate nostalgia reasons.
* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Homestuck]]'' when Spades Slick gets his [[Eye Scream|eye sewn shut]] when his ''other'' eye needed repair... [http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003200 because his sprite was facing the wrong way at the time.]
** He also loses his arm with the [[Bar Code Tattoo]] on it, but gets it back. [[Memetic Mutation|you got to]] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003249 FLIP it TURN-WAYS] (note that the tattoo itself is an aversion, since it's always on the left arm).
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''. [[Better Than a Bare Bulb|Naturally]], it's been [[Lampshaded]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0401.html a couple] of [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0580.html times].
** Although in the first case, it wasn't so much that Roy's supposed to be wearing two different sized boots (and the gag is they swap feet), as that the boot nearest the reader looks bigger because it's closer (and the gag is that it actually is bigger. And they swap feet).
* Being a sprite comic, ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' naturally does this. Played with [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2006/02/09/episode-659-my-new-sword-technique-is-unstoppable/ when Black Mage loses a hand], [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2006/02/11/episode-660-when-it-rains-it-pours/ then an arm], [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2006/02/18/episode-663-surgical-precision/ and then loses both arms somehow].
* ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', especially when you see [[Fashionable Asymmetry|Angelo or some of his followers.]]
=== Web Original ===
* In the Flash series ''[[TV Tome Adventures]]'', Zetto's character has one robotic arm, and it switches sides when he turns around.
* Many of the characters in ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' have aspects that switch from side to side due to the image being flipped. For instance, Lumpy has one inverted antler; Russell has an eyepatch and hook hand; and Nutty has a lazy eye. All of them tend to switch from side to side, repeatedly within the same episode even.
* This happens occasionally on ''[[Homestar Runner]]''. In the Cheat Commandos shorts, the Blue Laser Commander's eyepatch will switch sides every time he turns around, as a parody of the old [[G.I. Joe]]-style animation it's based on.
=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'': Since the ponies are made of Flash objects, they—or parts of them—often appear mirrored. It's more complicated than a simple flip, though. The ponies seem to have a "good side" that, in nearly every shot, starts out facing the camera. When a pony turns around while visible in a shot, all of her features remain left-right consistent, and the other side shows—unless they turn around very quickly, in which case the Flash object gets flipped, and the "good side" stays to the fore.
** This is especially prominent in the case of Fluttershy and Rarity, whose manes can obscure their faces. They always begin every shot with their bangs out of their faces, whether facing right or left, ''except'' when the shot calls for Fluttershy to look [[Peek-a-Bangs|extra shy]] or Rarity to look worried or depressed.
** Occasionally, because the Flash objects aren't double-sided, you can get a glimpse of a pony's cutie mark on the ''inside'' of the thigh.
* ''[[The Problem Solverz]]'', another Flash-animated show, is quite obvious about this. Sometimes it isn't ''too'' noticeable, as most of the characters have symmetrical appearances, but it just looks weird when a question mark on their shirt is backwards.
* On ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' (which ''isn't'' flash-animated), this happens to Gumball's whiskers (he always has three on one side and two on the other, but they often flip sides) and Carrie's asymmetrical [[Peek-a-Bangs]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Ambidextrous Sprite]]
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