Sega Mascots 01: Pengo

Hi there, you 4 or 5 still reading my blog actually :P
Here's a new feature, I wanted to make a feature about mascots at some point, but in the mean time, having a look back at SEGA mascots, because a) I'm a SegaNerd and b) much people in the USA may not be that familiar with some of them (mostly because they've almost all grown up with Nintendo there unlike South America, Europe, Japan..)
 

PENGO

Today, I want to talk about classic arcade character Pengo!

SEGA Mascot: 1982 - 1985

Pengo was created for an arcade video game by SEGA in 1982.
He's not a really well known character now, but if you love or play a lot of 80s arcade games, chances are, you already played (a port of) one of his games.
Being from the early 80s, the games were ported a lot on many different systems.
Let's have a look at all his "official games":

Of course, like every other arcade classic, there's been a lot of clones around as well as unlicensed ports/copies. (And Sega ports on other systems such as the Atari,...).

Pengo was Service Games first original mascot for 1982 to 1985.
He was originally red but was changed to SEGA blue for his other games Penguin Land and Doki Doki Penguin Land.
Even if he's basically just a cartoony Penguin, I kinda like this lil' guy.

There's been really two different games where Pengo stared in.
Pengo is a top down arcade game not unlike Pac-Man were the gimmick is to squish enemies with a rock/boulder/ice part of the level.



There's also a fantastic 16 bit looking remake/sequel on the Megadrive:

With its fun multiplayer and brightly colored visuals, it helped resurrect Pengo in 1995 and the game was as good as any Bomberman - if not more addictive!

The second gaming series Pengo had are the Penguin Land, which started on the Sega  SG-1000 (Sega's first system during the Atari/Odyssey age).
Penguin Land introduced Pengo in his blue color for the very first time (which was a bit more SEGA-ysh) and a new gameplay.
This time it was a sidescroller, but using Pengo's Squash-and-kill-'em gimmick in a 2D view:



This video here was the sequel on the Sega Mark 3/Master System that many people had in Europe back then.

His main games were made for the Arcade, but were also found on most Sega Systems like the SG-1000, the Sega Master System and Mega Drive.
They even made it to the Sega Saturn on SG-1000/Arcade compilations such as this one:

Then, in the mid-80s... Pengo was replaced by a more original character...

To Be Continued...