Ever since Super Mario Bros. hit the NES in 1985, Nintendo’s red cap wearing mustachioed hero has reigned supreme as a prominent face for his company Nintendo and video games as a whole. With the introduction of Mario and its success came a new sub-genre of video games, dubbed the “mascot platformer” in which a colorful character would hop, run and swim his way through vast and colorful worlds filled with Unique characters and challenges that await the player upon popping in a cartridge. Through the years, there have been plenty of games that have come and gone that tried to emulate Mario’s success, with many developers introducing fresh, new characters that have tried their hands in surpassing Mario in popularity.
It was during this time, the mid 80s through the late 90s, that mascot video games were a big deal. It seemed that Every game studio had to have a mascot. Some were very well-known, others not so much, and some were even easily forgotten as quickly as they were introduced. To put it bluntly; For every Mario, Crash Bandicoot and Sonic the Hedgehog there were a hundred Bubsy the Bobcats, Glover and Aero the Acrobat.
Although the success rate of this video game genre can be hit or miss, we can never dismiss their involvement throughout our gaming experiences growing up and more importantly the Music that these games provided us within each new world we encountered.
So this is why THIS STAGE of the Retro VGM revival Hour we are covering some of the best Music from various unknown, forgotten or in certain cases HATED mascot Video games.
So get your Power item of choice and be ready to encounter weird, unique and interesting worlds filled with amazing music just for you. Let’s get started!
Download this episode directly HERE (right-click and choose “Save As”!)
Full track listing:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Game – Composer – Title – Company⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
1.) Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind – Matthew Berardo – “War of the Woolies, Woolering Heights & Hill Stream Blues“ – May 1993 – Accolade – SNES, Sega Genesis & Windows PC
2.) James Pond: Underwater Agent – Richard Joseph – “License to Bubble, Dangerous Cave & Title Screen (alternate)“ – 1990 – Millennium Interactive – Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes & Sega Genesis
3.) Blinx: The Time Sweeper – Mariko Nanba, Keiichi Sugiyama & Naofumi Hataya – “Boss battle, Tom-tom attack & Final boss (momentopolis)” – October 7, 2002 – Artoon/Xbox Game Studios – Microsoft Xbox
4.) Glover – Rob Lord, Paul Weir & Mark Bandola – “Title Theme, Boss Battle (Guardians of Atlantis) & Boss Battle (Frankenstein’s Monster)” – November 16, 1998 – Interactive Studios/Hasbro Interactive – Windows PC, Nintendo 64 & Sony PlayStation
5.) Rocky Rodent – Rikei Hirashima – “Highway Runnery, All This Climbing For an Egg! & Something Quirky“ – September 18, 1993 – Irem – SNES
6.) Awesome Possum… Kicks Dr. Machino’s Butt – Earl Vickers, Doug Brandon & Nu Romantic – “Dr Machino’s Domain & Boss battle“ – November 25, 1993 – Tengen – Sega Genesis
7.) Aero the Acro-Bat – Rick Fox – “Circus (Act 2), Circus/Funpark Boss & Museum Boss“ – August 1, 1993 – Iguana/Sunsoft – Sega Genesis, SNES & GBA
8.) The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy (Fantastic Dizzy) – Matt Gray – “The Forest 2, Zak’s Castle & Mine Cart Ride“ – April 1991 – The Oliver Twins/Codemasters – NES, MS-DOS, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Commodore Amiga, Sega Game Gear & Amiga CD32
9.) Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure – Matt Furniss – “Title Theme & Sewer City“ – November 18, 1994 – Interplay Productions – Sega Genesis & SNES
10.) Alex Kidd in Miracle World – Tokuhiko Uwabo – “Main Theme, Swimming & Scopaco Cycle (Unused)“ – November 1, 1986 – Sega – Sega Master System
11.) Croc: Legend of the Gobbos – Karin Griffin, Martin Gwynn Jones & Justin Scharvona – “Snow Island, Underground Overground (Area 1) & Chumly’s Snow Den (Area 2)“ – September 29, 1997 – Argonaut Software/Fox Interactive – Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn & Microsoft PC
12.) Ristar – Tomoko Sasaki – “Shooting Ristar, Du-Di-Da!! & Greedy Game (Theme of Kaiser)“ – January 1995 – Sega – Sega Genesis
13.) Bonk’s Adventure – Tsukasa Masuko – “Round 5, Boss 1 & Boss 2“ – December 15, 1989 – Red Company & Atlus/Hudson Soft – TurboGrafx-16, NES, Game Boy, Commodore Amiga & Arcade
14.) Jersey Devil – Gilles Léveillé – “Root Canal, Chemical Wasteland Boss & Opening (PAL ver.)“ – December 12, 1997 – Megatoon Studios/Ocean Software – Sony PlayStation & Windows PC
15.) Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel – Rick Fox – “Title/Map Screen, Beach & Factory (Stage 1)“ – October 1994 – Iguana Entertainment/Sunsoft – Sega Genesis & SNES
16.) Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension – Patrick Phelan & Neil Biggin – “Candy Land, Tool Land & Boss Theme “ – October 1992 – Gremlin Graphics – Commodore Amiga CD32, Acorn Archimedes, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis & SNES
17.) Wild Woody – Ron Thal – “Minotaur Maze, Bonus Round & The Pit“ – September 1995 – Sega – Sega CD
18.) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger – George Stamatiadis – “Bull’s Pen, Beyond the Black Stump & The Gauntlet“ – October 9, 2002 – Krome Studios/Electronic Arts – GameCube, PS2, Microsoft Xbox & Windows PC
19.) Punky Skunk – Harumi Fujita & Yasuaki Fujita – “Boss Theme, 8th Stage Theme & Final Boss Theme“ – November 1, 1996 – Ukiyotei/Visit – Sony Playstation
20.) Titus the Fox: To Marrakech and Back – Christophe Fevre – “Title Theme, Desert Experience & On the Foxy Trail“ – 1991 – Titus Interactive – Commodore Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Game Boy & GBA
21.) Rocket Knight Adventures – Konami Kukeiha Club (Masanori Oouchi, Aki Hata, Michiru Yamane, Masanori Adachi & Hiroshi Kobayashi) – “Stage 1-1 (Kingdom of Zebulos), Boss Theme & Stage 7 (The PIG STAR!)“ – August 6, 1993 – Konami – Sega Genesis
