> The building looks an awful lot like the Sears Tower in Chicago. My guess would be > that they didn't get permission to use the likeness, and the lawyers got nervous and > had them alter it at the last minute to avoid legal problems.
Agreed 100%. Legal approval is often done very late - in this case the mask roms for the tilemap were probably already done so they came up with a hack to make the building less distinctively the Sears Tower.