A diminutive Mexican luchador in Capcom’s Saturday Night Slam Masters, a 1993 professional wrestling arcade game. This masked Mexican wrestler amazes crowds with his high-flying speed and techniques. Also known as El Stinger, he is based on real-life Mexican wrestler Lizmark, who’s very popular in Japan.
A fictional character known in Japan as Kinopio who belongs to an anthropomorphic mushroom-like species of the same name in Nintendo’s Mario series. As a citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom, Toad is one of Princess Peach’s most loyal attendants. He was created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto.
A video game character created by Capcom. Ken, an American karate master, is a main character of the Street Fighter series and has appeared in all games in the franchise. In the original 1987 game, best friends and rivals Ken and Ryu were the only two playable characters.
A video game character created by Capcom. Ryu is a karate master and the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. He premiered in the original Street Fighter in 1987 as the lead character, along with his best friend and rival Ken Masters.
A video game character created by Capcom. Chun-Li, a master of Chinese martial arts, is notable for being the first female playable character in a fighting game. She was first introduced in Street Fighter II in 1991 and entered Street Fighter II‘s tournament as an undercover Interpol agent.
An infamous character in Duck Hunt, released in 1984 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the game, players use the NES Zapper light gun to shoot ducks on screen for points. The laughing dog became a hated icon of the game because he giggles every single time a player fails to shoot a duck.
Note: Apparently today is National Hunting and Fishing Day, so I chose between drawing this dumb dog, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam.
An almost-unstoppable enemy in Kid Icarus, which was an action platform video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, first released in 1987. The Eggplant Wizard (or, as we affectionately called him, the Eggplant Priest) could turn the protagonist’s (Pit’s) upper body into an eggplant by tossing eggplant projectiles at him. See this evil creature in action.
The first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports (baseball and football). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1985 and became a household name in 1989-90 through Nike’s “Bo Knows” advertising campaign. He was also the most unstoppable athlete in video game history (see “Tecmo Bo” in Tecmo Super Bowl for Nintendo).
The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and legendary damsel in distress in Nintendo’s Mario series. She was always in another castle.
The main protagonist in Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series of video games. Created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamot, this magical swordsman has been traveling through Hyrule, attempting to save Princess Zelda and her kingdom, since 1986. I love the music from the original Zelda game. A lot.
A giant ape, created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who stars in a series of Nintendo games. In the original 1981 video game, Jumpman (now known as Mario) had to rescue Lady (now known as Pauline) from this barrel-throwing ape.
If yesterday was Cinco de Mario, then today is Seis de Luigi. Here is more Nintendo-based childhood nostalgia in the form of Mario’s twin brother.
I’m taking a break from political leaders and revolutionaries for a couple of video game characters. Childhood nostalgia runs deep with this Italian-American plumber who first appeared over 25 years ago.
I briefly considered posting an 8-bit Mexican luchador today instead (as a weak tie-in to Cinco de Mayo), but the force of Nintendo was too strong.
The inspiration for Mascot Mashup was 8-bit childhood nostalgia. More specifically, it was QBasic Gorillas, a turn-based artillery game first distributed with MS-DOS 5 and published in 1991 by IBM. The gorilla had four animation states, which I have redrawn. All sprites created for Mascot Mashup will be based on this style and animation.
Tanooki (PETA) – No. 283
On November 14, 2011, coinciding with Nintendo’s launch of Super Mario 3D Land, PETA released a spoof Flash game called Super Tanooki Skin 2D as part of their “Mario Kills Tanooki” publicity campaign. According to PETA, “Tanooki may be just a ‘suit’ in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur.” In the PETA game, a skinned tanuki chases a blood-soaked Tanooki Mario to reclaim his fur.
PETA’s incendiary politics (and its inhumane 90+ percent kill rate of stray cats and dogs) aside, I enjoyed their 8-bit Tanooki game. Mario’s Tanooki Suit, which resembles a tanuki and gives him shapeshifting powers, first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990. In ancient Japanese folklore and popular culture (see Pom Poko), raccoon dogs are mischievous masters of disguise. My favorite tanuki is my part-Siamese cat Tanuki.