Games: Mr. Nutz (SNES, Gen, GB, GBC, GBA/1993), Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad (Amiga/1994)
Mascot for: Ocean
The first Mr. Nutz game has the red squirrel taking on a yeti who wants to use his magic powers to freeze the world. This is a pretty generic platformer. Mr. Nutz can jump on most enemies, strike them with his tail, and throw nuts at them that he has collected. While the game looks nice, its level design is completely uninspired (a common symptom of most Sonic rip-offs). The sequel was released for the Amiga in Europe only (a Genesis version was planned, but never happened). Published by Ocean, this game was made by a different developer (Neon Studios) and is a bit different from its predecessor (but still bland).
What happened: Both games seem to be plagued by bad decisions, the first being the name of the protagonist (seriously, who thought "Mr. Nutz" was a good name???). The sequel has Mr. Nutz fighting against space chickens (again, who approved this idea?). Both games received mostly positive reviews, although I'm not sure how well they sold. The fact that the second game's port to Genesis was dropped should tell you that Ocean didn't think the game would do well. He's just a generic animal mascot, one which I don't think anyone fondly remembers.
Another mascot platformer I never played. Again, I wasn't about to pay full price for these kinds of games back then, and if it wasn't available at my local rental place, I didn't play it. Probably didn't help that there was another squirrel video game mascot then, too. Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel was a spinoff to Aero the Acrobat, another furry animal game mascot. If I had to say something nice about Mr. Nutz, it's that the graphics look nice.
Cary, don't feel bad, most kids probably didn't play all the dozens of Sonic rip-off games. Also, you'll be seeing Zero very soon.
I sometimes wonder at the lack of creativity in some of these games. Someone's just put together the ideas based on marketing research and totally forgetting how to make something fun and interesting.
It's so obvious when a developer just wants to have a big hit (like Sonic) but they're not willing to put in the effort to make it something great. That's 99% of these mascots.
Ha ha ha. That's pretty funny.
He kinda reminds me of Conker and Screwy Squirrel in a weird way. It's interesting how they all have iteresting names though if you think about it.
I was gonna say, he should team up with Conker for a sequel.
