Essential Mouse Characters |
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Animal mascots have long since been a staple of video game history. We have seen all breeds from geckos to foxes, and even the occasional bobcat (in 3-D, no less!). In exploring this phenomenon, it feels appropriate to begin with the lowest rung on the food chain. Mice! Mouses? Meeces? Which ever way you pluralize it, the tiny, scurrying critters played a surprisingly important role in an assortment of notable games in a wide variety of genres. Spanning platformers and racing games to RPGs and coin-ops, mouse characters have left a mouse-shaped imprint. The most recognizable entries may even surprise you or perhaps disgust you! So, grab that block of Swiss cheese and keep your housecat at the ready, it's time to count 'em down. Let's take a look at PPM Top Ten: Essential Mouse Characters. |
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Jerry - Tom & Jerry Starring in a prototypical platform game on Super NES, Jerry the Mouse makes a cheese-tastic 16-Bit debut as he faces Tom's dastardly traps. |
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Fievel Mousekewitz - An American Tail: The Computer Adventures of Fievel Based on the animated film series, Fievel's adventure follows the young immigrant mouse in a harrowing journey to reunite with his family. |
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Speedy Gonzales - Los Gatos Bandidos Suspiciously similar to the Sonic series on Genesis, Speedy zips through desert towns in this action-platform game, collecting cheese bits all the way. |
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Pinky - Pinky & The Brain: World Conquest Proving their mousey worth, the famous lab mouse duo enters the video realm in this PC title that blends puzzle-solving with zany antics. Pinky, of course, wins the nod over Brain. Narf! |
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Minnie Mouse - The Great Circus Mystery Minnie Mouse joins Mickey as a fully playable character in this circus-themed platformer. Using various circus costumes, she can utilize specialized abilities. |
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Mickey Mouse - Castle of Illusion The immensely popular Illusion series for Genesis gets its start with Mickey venturing through a magical and dangerous world to rescue Minnie. |
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Mouser - Super Mario Bros. 2 A signature boss of Super Mario Bros 2, Mouser is a memorable round-eared villain with a nasty tendency to hurl an endless string of bombs onto our plumber hero. |
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Mappy - Mappy Mice may usually fear cats, but Namco flipped the script with their cat-chasing Mappy, a fearsome police officer with an affinity for trampolines. |
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Pipsy - Diddy Kong Racing The adorable Pipsy triumphs with the best acceleration and handling stats among the DKR roster. She is a star racer in Diddy's gang and a cutie-patootie to boot! |
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Pocket Monsters on Game Boy may not have landed on North American shores at the time of this article, but you can be certain that this headliner will be making waves before long. It's Pikachu! This creature, described in Japan as an electricity-zapping mouse, is one of many monsters players can choose to capture and train for thrilling battles. According to Nintendo's marketing, including Japanese advertisements and the somewhat-infamous animated television show, Pikachu is front-and-center. From plush figures to trading cards, this mouse is inescapable. Nintendo even created a key-chain-style virtual pet device based on him, a slice of news we explored further in our Bonus Bytes segment. In it, Pikachu gobbles up electric power and blasts owners with that same electricity when displeased and desires attention. He makes for a useful companion in the Game Boy titles as well, proving a powerful enough force with lightning attacks to electrocute rivals to submission. Shocking, isn't it? | |||
 [Article from the May-June 1998 Issue of PPM] | |||
