Forgotten Gaming Mascots #8: Awesome Possum

On 02/09/2021 at 08:15 AM by The Last Ninja

Game: Awesome Possum....Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt (Gen/1993)

Mascot for: Tengen

Awesome Possum was the brainchild of Richard Seaborne, who was hired by Tengen to create a pro-environmental game. The story has the evil Dr. Machino sending out his robots to pollute the earth and endanger wildlife. With the help of Killer Bee and Rad Rhino, Awesome Possum sets off to destroy the robots and save the world (at least nobody got kidnapped). The gameplay is a little different from your typical platformer, as (in addition to platforming) the player will need to collect cans and bottles as well as occasionally answer questions about the environment. The game also has some digitized speech, which was just so rad back then. Tengen really pushed the game, even having a 12-page comic in the manuel that helped to teach kids about the environment.

What happened: First off, it didn't help that this game was basically an educational game. Most likely kids got the game not knowing that it would ask them questions like "How much ripe banana can a one-ounce short-nosed fruit bat eat in three hours" (I'm not kidding). Level design is also quite bland and AP's snide remarks get old quick. There was also a lawsuit over AP's design being stolen, but the case was eventually dropped. Upon release, AP received mostly negative reviews, and perhaps that is the simplest reason why we never saw Awesome Possum again.

Cary Woodham

02/09/2021 at 08:49 AM

Since I didn't have a Genesis as a kid, I never played this one either. And even if I did have one, i might've not played it anyway. I remember hearing it was pretty bad, and by then I was SO tired of me-too Sonic wannabes. Plus I was also already getting tired of all the 'save the enviornment' cartoons and games in the 90's. These kinds of games really made me lose my faith in 2-D platformers for a while (which is another reason why I was more into RPGs back then), and because of that, it's also one of the reasons why I don't like Sonic that much. Aside from dabbling in stuff like Super Metroid and Yoshi's Island, I didn't really regain faith in mascot 2-D platformers until Klonoa on PSOne came along. Oh man, now Klonoa would make an excellent topic for a forgotten game mascot!

The Last Ninja

02/10/2021 at 12:46 AM

There were TONS of Sonic rip-offs, they all kinda glob together in my mind (but these blogs help us to remember some of them).

Also, Klonoa is awesome!

Casey Curran Staff Writer

02/09/2021 at 02:28 PM

The irony of trying to copy Sonic and distinguish itself by including an environmental message when Sonic was about as pro-environmental games got as the time. Hell I'd say few games today have done a pro-environmental message as well as Sonic CD.

02/10/2021 at 12:48 AM

Now that you mention it, Sonic IS pro-environment isn't he. The difference is that the Sonic games didn't ask ridiculous trivia questions that no normal 8-year-old would know.

KnightDriver

02/09/2021 at 09:10 PM

I can understand why a lawsuit might have started over this, but then, it wasn't good enough to bother going through with it. I like Awesome Possum riding Rad Rhino though. Just like DKC but the rhino looks angrier.

02/10/2021 at 12:52 AM

Lawsuit: "You made a cute furry animal into a cool game mascot. That was MY idea."

Response: "Yeah? Get in line."

Lawsuit: "Let's settle this out of court."

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/11/2021 at 10:43 PM

Maybe the fruit bat thing was because of that environmental Robin Williams cartoon?

PixlBit