In your quest to gobble, shoot, pounce, and roll, did you ever pause to wonder, "Why a hedgehog?" Back in the 80s, when most games involved green dots shooting yellow blobs, developers wanted to beef up the gaming experience by making the characters more personal or even loveable if they could. As graphic technology developed, game mascots became less cartoonish and more heroic.
One of the earliest attempts of a gaming mascot was the little yellow smiley profile of Pac-Man. Although many believe the yellow circle with a wedge for a mouth was designed after a pizza, developer Toru Iwatani originally shaped Pac-Man to resemble the Japanese character for mouth, Kuchi. The Kuchi, however, is more of a squared shape, so Iwatan, rounded it out and code named the character "Pakku-man” because of the paku paku sound of the opened and closed mouth. The game’s final name was to be Puck Man, but when the U.S. got hold of it, they worried that teen gamers would replace the "P" with an "F." So they changed the name to the politically correct Pac-Man.
Here is a mascot that was a total fluke of gaming nature. The ape that became Donkey Kong was intended to be a Bluto look-alike from Popeye. But since the Popeye license was not available, developer Shigeru Miyamoto had to improvise. Bluto was transformed into an overgrown monkey to follow the King Kong fad of his era. He was called "Donkey" Kong as a mistranslation of Japanese to English where Miyamoto thought the word meant stupid. It was stupid, but apparently stupid brings in the bucks, because Donkey Kong was one of the most popular games of its time.
The first Mario game was a spin-off of Donkey Kong, where Mario played a stubby carpenter dude known as "Jumpman." When the little man became a plumber and got his own show and went American, he had to have a real name, because that’s what Americans do; we name things before we can even think about using them. Mario’s name came to Nintendo developers when their warehouse landlord, Mario Segale, came looking for the rent. Mario’s overall look was the result of Shigeru Miyamoto’s limited artistic ability. The hat kept him from having to draw moving hair, and the coveralls provided a better display of movement. The mustache just emphasized his big nose.
Sonic the Hedgehog was like the Mickey Mouse of the 90s. In 1991, when Nintendo’s Mario series dominated the video game universe, Sega founder Hayao Nakayama set a goal to totally upstage the little plumber boy. Nakayama wanted a mascot as popular as Mickey Mouse, but way cooler. The company held a contest for its employees to come up with the ultimate gaming mascot. The two best choices came down to an armadillo and a hedgehog, and Naoto Ohshima’s hedgehog design won the contest. Everything about Sonic’s cool look had a purpose. His red sneakers indicated his super speed. His hair was spiked so as not to confuse him with a cat. I’ve no idea why he is blue, but the general idea is that blue means cool.
Nintendo made a sharp iconic comeback with its popular Zelda series. The character of Link appealed to young players who could relate more to a somewhat normal looking boy than an ape or a plumber. A left-handed cross between Peter Pan and a Keebler elf, Link played out the imaginary boyhood adventures of his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Bungie Studios went even further to fuse player and character with their first-person shoot’em-up alien adventure, Halo. The mascot of this game is a futuristic cyber soldier named Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. Master Chief’s background has him taken from his family at the age of six and trained to become the perfect soldier. As a child, Master Chief was cybernetically altered to further enhance his power. Note that you never see Master Chief’s face. This was intentional on Bungie’s part, because it gave the player a better sense of being Master Chief, rather than just controlling him.
Gaming Mascots have come a long way since the days of Pac-Man. As these graphical characters evolve into loveable, personalized icons, they become more than just marketing banners. We stick by them throughout our games, helping them along the way, caring about their successes and failures. They become our friends. Developers are aware of this bond and do their best to create the perfect mate. So next time you spin a hedgehog or lift a cybernetic soldier onto his feet, tip your hat to his creator, and remember the efforts that were put out for your enjoyment.
By C. Frost | VEESH Writer | MAY.08.08