Games starring mascots of the company making them

[Woody Alien]

To clarify: this thread is not about games starring commercial mascots e.g. Ronald McDonald, Chester Cheetah, Fido Dido etc. but about these software houses that decided to make games about their own mascots.

I had the idea for the thread the other day when I remembered Titus making the game about Titus The Fox (even though it was originally about someone else) but only a few come to my mind.

www.giantbomb.com/dolucky/3025-2234/ The games starring Dolucky, the mascot of Zoom Inc. some kind of creepy almost spherical cat. They are two comical sports games and a puzzler.

www.mobygames.com/game/gameboy/boomers-adventure-in-asmik-world Asmik-kun, the mascot of Asmik, some kind of dinosaur that was renamed Boomer in the West. OK Boomer! The sequel never left Japan though.

I'm unsure on whether to include Compile's Randar games since technically Randar is a mascot but not Compile's official mascot (and I just found out that the third game doesn't ever star him), but I guess it's fair enough. Same for Konami's Moai-kun.

[ZenithianHero]

It's Mr. Pants is Rare's website mascot, gotten a GBA game. Originally meant to be a Donkey Kong title.

Segata Sanshiro was Sega's advertising mascot during Sega Saturn's prime. Got his own game on Saturn titled Segata Sanshirou Shinken Yuugi, a minigame collection with commercials included.

Nester, Nintendo of America's mascot for Nintendo Power has a Virtual Boy game titled Nester's Funky Bowling.

[spanky]

Captain Commando was Capcom's mascot in their early days. The old NES manuals used to have a cheesy illustration of him saying something like "CONGRATULATIONS FOR BUYING THIS HIGH FIDELITY 8-BIT GAME CARTRIDGE THAT PROMISES HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF PURE CHALLENGE" He also looks completely different than he does in his later arcade game.

I think he's also supposed to be the pilot of the ship in Vulgus or something like that.

[dsparil]

The Piczle games by Score Studios almost always have mascot Score-chan as a "story" character. She's only a playable character in Piczle Cross Adventure though as it's the only game that doesn't have you pick puzzles out of a menu.

[Woody Alien]

Ah yes, Captain Commando, how could I ever forget him? Thanks for all the other entries as well!
Also, I don't remember if Hebe from Hebereke/Ufouria was already Sunsoft's mascot or if became it after the fact.

[Snake]

Captain Commando is a good one.  Love his team mate super combo in Marvel VS Capcom!

Konami had Konami Man and Konami Lady.  Konami Man has a cameo in The Goonies 2, and is the main playable character alongside Konami Lady in Konami:Wai Wai World.  
Konami Lady makes a cameo in Goemon/Legend of the Mystical Ninja on Super Famicom/SNES, at the arcade mini game shops.  

[vnisanian2001]

Another forgotten Konami mascot was Pentarou the Penguin.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2021 14:57:26 GMT -5 vnisanian2001 said:

Another forgotten Konami mascot was Pentarou the Penguin.

I think those of us who post here will all remember this character fondly at least. It's a shame he hasn't appeared in such a long time of course.

[Woody Alien]

Oct 18, 2021 19:16:36 GMT -5 spanky said:

Captain Commando was Capcom's mascot in their early days.

I think he's also supposed to be the pilot of the ship in Vulgus or something like that.

Now that I remember, wasn't he also the guy with a jetpack from Section-Z?

[alexmate]

Cool Spot by Virgin Games basically featured their red dot logo as the character. It's also a good game.

[windfisch]

alexmate

Pretty sure Cool Spot was a sugar-drink mascot, the green bottles in the game may give you a hint. The European versions had the direct advertisement removed, though. No, I'm not gonna name the product, unless that company pays me a fee

But you're right, he might as well be a Virgin mascot.*

*edit: I mean, let's be real: Cool shades aside, who'd ever want to have coitus with that!?

[alexmate]

Oct 22, 2021 13:51:26 GMT -5 windfisch said:

alexmate

Pretty sure Cool Spot was a sugar-drink mascot, the green bottles in the game may give you a hint. The European versions had the direct advertisement removed, though. No, I'm not gonna name the product, unless that company pays me a fee

But you're right, he might as well be a Virgin mascot.*

*edit: I mean, let's be real: Cool shades aside, who'd ever want to have coitus with that!?

I never knew that. I thought Fido Dido was the mascot for the drink at the time. I thought the sponsorship was a bit like James Pond (Penguin biscuits) or Zool (Chupa Chups) were it was an afterthought to fund the game.

[dsparil]

Cool Spot was the mascot in the US only, and Fido Dido everywhere else. I doubt anyone is interested in 7-Up corporate history, but basically the original American company became separated from the International division and ended up with different mascots because of that.

[Apollo Chungus]

This is something of a half-example, but Traveller's Tales' insanely ambitious PS2 game Haven: Call of the King was originally going to feature the character from their old logo as the protagonist. He was later changed because the game's first publisher Activision felt it didn't fit the setting, going for various designs before eventually being an odd looking human with dreads.

The game's designer Jon Burton posted footage of the "Traveller" version of Haven featuring the original design, along with another video showing the various concepts for what he would become. Like I said, only a half-example since this never actually happened, but it's worth mentioning as it was the original plan.

EDIT: I'd completely forgotten that this prototype video showing off the ability to go into space and travel from world to world also features the original design, so have this video too!

[spanky]

Oct 21, 2021 6:57:24 GMT -5 Woody Alien said:

Oct 18, 2021 19:16:36 GMT -5 spanky said:

Captain Commando was Capcom's mascot in their early days.

I think he's also supposed to be the pilot of the ship in Vulgus or something like that.

Now that I remember, wasn't he also the guy with a jetpack from Section-Z?

I looked it up, and that's true! At last for the US localization of the NES game.

Looks like the pre-arcade game CC had TWO designs. The first is the sci-fi superhero guy on the left and the second is the pulpy astronaut guy on the right. I think I like the astronaut guy a bit better for no other reason than he has a wizened blue space monkey sidekick.