It has come down to number one. Like Sonic, this character needs no introduction; but, unlike Sonic, this character has been around much longer than the Sega Genesis, video games, or even color television. My Top First-Hand Nostalgia Sega Genesis character is... Donald Duck.
As almost everyone knows, Donald Duck is one of the marquee characters in the Walt Disney stable. Along with Mickey Mouse and Goofy, Donald Duck is highly visible in Disney entertainment, appearing in cartoon shorts, movies, merchandise, and, of course, video games. Some may thank Donald Duck for the advent of other successful Disney duck characters, like Uncle Scrooge, Launchpad MacQuack, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie of DuckTales fame, and Darkwing Duck. These characters went on to also appear in lucrative game ventures like the DuckTales games on NES and Darkwing Duck's own game. However, the focus here is on Donald Duck, who appears on two games for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive: Quackshot and World of Illusion.
In Quackshot, Donald Duck is an adventurer a la Indiana Jones, sporting a leather jacket and fedora along with a plunger gun. As one progresses through Quackshot, Donald Duck upgrades his plunger gun to plungers that stick to walls for climbing, and then to birds so that he can hitch rides under them. Donald also goes into a "berserker barrage" kind of frenzy when he eats five chilis, though this happens irregularly in the game. In any case, Quackshot was one of the first games I played on the Genesis and was memorable for its colorful sprites and catchy music, not to mention the irrepressible Donald Duck and his standstill animations.
World of Illusion was Donald Duck's second game, which can be played solo or cooperatively with Mickey Mouse. With a magic cape as a weapon, Donald Duck can flick his cape to transmogrify baddies into butterflies and flowers. Yet, the funniest aspects of Donald Duck's character in World of Illusion are, once again, his standstill animations (in which he shows his impatient side) and his big behind: to pass through tight spaces, he needs Mickey Mouse to pull him through because of his substantial derriere.
Admittedly, both games were not side-scrolling, platforming masterpieces, but I cannot deny the Disney mystique present in both games; up until recently, Disney was able to combine cartoon fun with a sense of dignity, as if we must acknowledge the classic nature of their characters and hold them in reverence. Some may count this as hubris on Disney's part (and I may not be making any sense here), but I used to buy into how "special" Disney characters were and how they stood apart from most other cartoon characters. I suppose that multiple trips to Disneyland and watching numerous Disney cartoons would engender such a reverence for drawn characters.
For all of the reasons stated above, Donald Duck stands at the top of my list of nostalgic Genesis characters. When I look back at my high school and college days and my days of Genesis playing, I hold Donald Duck in the highest regard, even though I know that there have been many other wonderful Genesis characters, like Earthworm Jim, Ristar, and Knuckles, whom I just recently got to play in Sonic & Knuckles. Do you disagree? If so, please comment -- I'm always eager to read other people's opinions regarding their favorite or best video game characters.
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