The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => Hardcore Gaming 101 => Topic started by: redrum on September 09, 2020, 10:24:52 PM
Title: unknown konami character
Post by: redrum on September 09, 2020, 10:24:52 PM
i've been on a lifelong crusade to figure out just who in the hell this is... (https://evilsquirrelsnest.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/weird-guy.jpg) you run into them in the goonies 2 in a room off to the side and they tell you the obvious goal of the game. their inclusion seems pointless, but everything about it seems to indicate it was added in after the fact.
there's no character like this (that i've noticed) in the first goonies game or the movie, and the game is chock full of cameos. the detail oriented can find simon belmont and stinger (twinbee) through the transceiver messages, konami-man is pretty prominent throughout the game, and one could even argue that pentarou is in the ice stage as an enemy. there are a number of characters that serve no purpose and are not cameos, but i feel this is something different. (https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/oldwoman.gif)(https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/oldman.gif)(https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/eskimo2.gif)(https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/fishman.gif)(https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/alien.gif)(https://www.inverteddungeon.com/redrum/Images/goonies2/konamiman.gif) we tried to figure this out long ago when i was ripping the data for this game, but ended up inconclusively marking it as "alien".
i dug up the credits and most of the staff worked on castlevania, gradius/life force, twinbee, and other konami games. this, among other factors, leads me to believe that it's someone from big K's pantheon. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/konamiverse/images/c/c8/Konami%27s_Official_Recruitment_Banner.jpg) i have scoured their rosters tirelessly (not hard, given the parodius and wai wai titles), but still i have come up short.
is it a discolored konami-girl? that's about the closest thing i have to a guess and it seems pretty unlikely. i reached out to Kenji Shimoide (worked on goonies 2, gradius 3, contra 3, etc) to see if he might be able to answer this, but as of yet have received no reply.
and sure it's easy to say that it doesn't matter who this no-name character is in a forgotten game from 1987, but at this point it's about the principle of the thing. i have to know. help me, konami-man. you're my only hope.
Title: Re: unknown konami character
Post by: theplottwist on September 10, 2020, 03:32:36 AM
That character seems to be Ambassador Magma (https://tokusatsu.fandom.com/wiki/Ambassador_Magma), a character created by Osamu Tezuka. What Konami has to do with that? Well, it seems they had a toy line based on Tokusatsu characters (https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/t748756363)and this character was one of them. He does look similar. As similar as an 8-bit sprite can be, at least.
(https://i.imgur.com/4pQtuEC.png)
I could be wrong here because I couldn't find when this toy was released. The search I did was based on what the character is known as in Japanese (コナミ大使 Konami Ambassador) and the JP public seems to recognize the same connection. That's the only "Ambassador" with little antennae and golden appearance Konami seems to be connected to. Could be just a cheeky parody.
Title: Re: unknown konami character
Post by: redrum on September 10, 2020, 06:03:30 PM
holy smokes, ask and you shall receive! no wonder everyone was so stumped. he's even pointing like his 8-bit counterpart.
what a strange answer to a mystery that has lasted for most of my life.