The Puggsy character originated in a series of demo animations made for the Amiga in the late 80s and early 90s. The game was originally planned for release several years earlier. In the animations Puggsy was silver rather than red; Nik Wild of Psygnosis claimed that the change was made to help people with black and white TVs.
A Super NES version of "Puggsy" was in development, but was cancelled before it was released, due to publisher Psygnosis disappointed in sales from the Genesis version.