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Um Jammer Lammy
Um Jammer Lammy (1999)
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Advertisement/Commercial, Censorship, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, Regional Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 2, 2023
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Wally Bear and the NO! Gang
Wally Bear and the NO! Gang (1992)
subdirectory_arrow_right Shockwave (Game), Crossbow (Game)
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The subway train level of Wally Bear and the NO! Gang contains advertisements for Shockwave and Crossbow, two other unlicensed games by American Game Cartridges - it should be noted that Crossbow's NES version was never released.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Cameo, Cancelled Release, Product Placement, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 2, 2023
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Dog's Life
Dog's Life (2003)
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Attachment In the Japanese and original European versions of Dog's Life, there is product placement for Pedigree dog food. In the US, this was swapped for a fictional brand, Chow Chow.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Product Placement, Regional Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 1, 2023
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Final Fantasy XIV Online
Final Fantasy XIV Online (2013)
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Attachment In July 1999, the industrial metal band Powerman 5000 wrote and released the single "When Worlds Collide", which would become one of their signature songs.

On February 23, 2016, patch version 3.2 of the "Heavensward" expansion for Final Fantasy XIV Online would be released, entitled "The Gears of Change". During the Containment Bay S1T7 trial, there is a boss fight against Sephirot, the Fiend, in two phases. The first phase's music is a rearranged version of "Battle to the Death", a boss theme originating from Final Fantasy VI where Fiend first appeared, while the second phase's music was an original song entitled "Fiend", composed and arranged by Masayoshi Soken with lyrics by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox.

The same day, a thread was made on Square Enix's forums noting the similarities between "Fiend" and "When Worlds Collide". Powerman 5000 were somehow informed of this and took to Facebook on February 24 to accuse the game's developers of ripping off "When Worlds Collide" while writing "Fiend". They claimed they were only making these allegations because the song was used in a video game, stating "If it was a song made by a fan, we wouldn't care." After the story gained traction and several mixed responses were put against Square Enix and Powerman 5000, the band's frontman Spider One made another Facebook post on February 25 revealing that the band would not be taking legal action against Square Enix, while emphasizing that their original post was "Just an observation" about "a piece of music that was way too similar to be coincidence" and there was "no cry for attention or publicity", before briefly advertising their upcoming tour dates in March and April.

In response to the controversy, the game's producer/director Naoki Yoshida released a statement in the original forum thread that spurred the controversy explaining how they created "Fiend", and stated that Soken claimed to him he was unaware of "When Worlds Collide" when writing the song:

"Building upon the motif of Sephirot as a representation of the World Tree, to create ["Fiend"], we further incorporated story-driven themes of death and a warped obsession with life, all while utilizing [industrial rock,] which we believed would provide substantial emphasis to the message."
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Advertisement/Commercial, Bonus Content, Coincidence, Complaint, Development, Inspiration, Music, Plagiarism, Real Life, Similarities, Social Media
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month October 29, 2023
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Powerman 5000 - When Worlds Collide (1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU

Final Fantasy XIV Online - Fiend (2016):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9f44iJftVM

Final Fantasy XIV Online - Battle to the Death Rearrangement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNiVOpsZ0c

Final Fantasy XIV Online - The Gears of Change announcement trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yw4shsQsYk

First Powerman 5000 Facebook post (February 24):
https://web.archive.org/web/20170316063418/https://www.facebook.com/officialpowerman5000/posts/1163822686963071

Second Powerman 5000 Facebook post (February 25):
https://web.archive.org/web/20171006141827/https://www.facebook.com/officialpowerman5000/posts/1164522363559770

Naoki Yoshida Square Enix forum response (original thread post noting song similarities can be found by going to page 1 in this thread):
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/283311-Sephirot-Theme-%28-Phase-2-%29-sound-familiar?p=3589465&;viewfull=1#post3589465

News coverage of the controversy:
https://www.polygon.com/2016/2/25/11114168/final-fantasy-14-powerman-5000-song-ripoff
https://kotaku.com/band-says-new-final-fantasy-xiv-boss-battle-music-is-ri-1761120297
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020)
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Team Rumble (Game)
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Attachment Crash Team Rumble had been teased officially as far back as Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time's release date in 2020 - first in It's About Time! where, after 106% completing the game, the player could return to the start of the game and spin Crash's TV multiple times to show a mysterious Wumpa Fruit symbol. This would shortly be followed by a cross promotional video for Uncharted, where the symbol could be seen again on a banner with the words "Wumpa League".

Later in 2021, a Game Designers Conference talk with Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan would show two hints towards the game's existence: one on a graphic made to show the game's goals with a set of green "this game is..." post-it notes (such as "new vehicles" or "cartoony animation" and red "this game isn't..." post-it notes (such as "beat 'em up" and "open world") with Wumpa League put in the middle as a yellow "might be", obscured by another note; and a second where the screen very briefly flashes to concept art of "Wumpa League". Crash content creators and game journalists would soon receive Wumpa Fruit-shaped pinatas with the Wumpa League branding and colors, which was then followed by a set of meme tweets on the Crash Twitter account relating to Wumpa Fruit, one of which being a play on the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Pepe Silvia conspiracy board meme. Toys for Bob would later release a Crash anniversary celebration video showing the Wumpa League logo again along with a Gem variant. The Wumpa League logos would show once more in the background of a PlayStation crossover commercial. The final tease of 2021 would be in a Christmas package sent to the press which had the Gem sticker placed on the side of the box.

In 2022, the hints started rolling in again on St. Patrick's Day, when Toys for Bob posted a piece of concept art for Crash 4 edited to have four-leaf clovers littered throughout, asking players to find the seasonal hidden objects. However, the Wumpa League symbol was hidden alongside the clovers. Later, the press and Crash fandom would recieve another package, this time an Aku-Aku-branded pizza box promoting Crash 4's release on Steam, with "HUNGRY FOR MORE? TRY OUR NEW WUMPA PIZZA FOR $12.08!" written on the side - the price translating into the date of August 12, which was the date of the Game Awards, which is ultimately where Crash Team Rumble would be revealed.
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100% Completion, Advertisement/Commercial, Alternate Reality Game, Awards/Awards Show, Cameo, Development, Meme, Merchandise, Name Change, Real Life, Teaser, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 26, 2023
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Lead the Meerkats
Lead the Meerkats (2010)
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Lead the Meerkats was released in the midst of a boom in popularity for the African mongoose in the United Kingdom, started by a series of commercials for the Compare The Market insurance comparison website depicting a rivalry between the website and "Compare the Meerkat", a fake website run by Russian meerkats. This led to a very high demand for meerkat-related merchandise, meerkat exhibits in zoos, and pet meerkats. Since Lead the Meerkats was published by UK-based Lapland Studios, it is very likely that the game was inspired by, or made to cash in on, the fad.
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Advertisement/Commercial, General, Inspiration, Real Life, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 22, 2023
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Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (2010)
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (Game)
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Attachment For a week in the lead-up to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I's gameplay and title reveal, Sega posted a daily countdown showing a lineup of Sonic's friends' names, eliminating a set each week before landing on just Sonic. This was in response to a high demand from Sonic fans at the time for a game centered on just Sonic and Dr. Eggman without any of Sonic's allies assisting him nor any greater villains superseding Eggman.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Meme, Unused Character
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 20, 2023
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Pokémon Snap
Pokémon Snap (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon (Franchise)
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Attachment Early in the Pokémon franchise's life, the Poliwhirl line recieved a major push in marketing, comparable to that of series mascot Pikachu.

Mascot costumes were made of Poliwhirl for promotional events, the Pokémon Adventures manga featured Poliwhirl as one of Red's Pokémon, Poliwag was placed closely to Pikachu on the box art of Pokémon Snap, food and toy lines would near-consistently feature a member of the Poliwhirl line alongside Pikachu even when the pool of Pokémon was as limited as 3 or 4 (with exceptions primarily being ones that also lacked Pikachu), and, most famously, Poliwhirl appeared on the center of the cover of TIME Magazine's issue adressing the popularity of Pokémon.

This could be related to Poliwag being Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri's favourite of the original 151 Kanto species.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Mascot, Merchandise, Multimedia Adaptation, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 19, 2023
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Comedic video about bizarre Pokémon merchandise showing off many instances of Poliwhirl and Poliwrath merchandise - the nature of Poliwhirl's "mascot" status is discussed at the 13:06 mark:
https://youtu.be/Gri7-XW3no8

ResetEra thread about Poliwhirl that opens with multiple images of Poliwhirl memorabilia:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/pokemons-bygone-mascot.763622/

Video from a Kellogg's fan channel featuring box scans and commercials for Pokémon cereal with Poliwhirl:
https://youtu.be/4kEnxp0ihPI

Pop Tarts commercial featuring Poliwrath toys:
https://youtu.be/oKw6l1Skglc

Kraft Mac & Cheese advert featuring Poliwhirl:
https://youtu.be/Sj5lfgEz_bU

Video featuring a photo of a Poliwhirl mascot:
https://youtu.be/KR5oKvYi_PQ

KFC and Heinz commercials for promotions featuring neither, Poliwhirl nor Pikachu:
https://youtu.be/9HCDPTQGmrI
https://youtu.be/nNc1xl8uoMA

Tajiri talks Poliwag:
https://youtu.be/gplIo-J9Ttc?si=vXRHECazu6kGu4IQ&;t=433
Neopets Browser
Neopets Browser (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right Neopets (Franchise), Neopets (Company)
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Neopets' former CEO Dough Dohring was an avid Scientologist, and used L. Ron Hubbard's "Org Board" method for running the business. Neopets founders Adam and Donna Powell were unaware of Dohring's ties to the cult when signing on to allow him to run the company, and it supposedly did not affect the inner workings of the company, though most of the employees were Scientologists and Dohring would often propose implementing Scientology education into the website. Williams would claim of the ownership in a 2014 Reddit AMA:

"Yes. Although we were not aware of it at first as we were totally naive.

Basically the first group of investors (who were the guys that had spare office space in Glendale as their automotive firm was being downsized) were scientologists.

When we realised it was a bit of a shock. Somewhat awkward moment when you realise you started the biggest entertainment site visited by millions of children and teens, but the upper management you just signed the company over to are part of some weird religion that is banned in some countries...

The company was structured like a scientology org. It didnt really change anything that I noticed apart from some odd test that interviewees had to take consisting of questions like which straight line seemed friendlier and stuff like that. We also had a lot of obscure celebrities coming round the office for tours.

At one time there was some talk about putting scientology education on the site, but we killed that idea pretty sharpish.

Adam and I made sure that it never made its way onto anything site related. Religion and politics were two big no nos for us as far as site content went. Can't say the discussions we had to keep it that way were much fun though!"

Dohring would leave Neopets after it was acquired by Viacom in 2005.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Complaint, Corporate Affairs, Development, Product Placement, Religion, Secret, Unreleased Content, Unused Text
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 18, 2023
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McDonald's Chicken McNugget Tetris
McDonald's Chicken McNugget Tetris (2023)
subdirectory_arrow_right McDonald's (Franchise), Handheld Electronic LCD (Platform), McDonald's (Collection)
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Chicken McNugget Tetris was the first McDonald's LCD game known to have been released in 13 years, following the 2010 McDigital series in Thailand and Malaysia. It was also the first McDonald's LCD game to be released outside of the Happy Meal line of products.
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Advertisement/Commercial, General
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 16, 2023
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Rise of the Robots
Rise of the Robots (1994)
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The UK children's gaming TV show Bad Influence did major marketing work for Rise of the Robots, devoting a large chunk of its Christmas special to the game and designing a new opening sequence based on Rise. Ironically, when the game launched, Bad Influence gave the game an extremely low score, much like most other gaming publications that were hyping up the game.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Inspiration, Multimedia Adaptation, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 15, 2023
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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
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On June 12, 2008, the film studio Morgan Creek Productions filed a lawsuit against Nintendo of America, alleging that Hans Zimmer's song "You're So Cool" from the 1993 film "True Romance" was used in a commercial for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door without permission.

Six days later, Morgan Creek dropped the lawsuit without comment. Nintendo would later release a statement revealing that the day before the lawsuit was dropped, Leo Burnett, their advertising agent, gave Morgan Creek "a copy of a music license entered into between Leo Burnett USA, on behalf of Nintendo of America and Morgan Creek, for licensing of the song."
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Advertisement/Commercial, Music, Plagiarism, Real Life
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 12, 2023
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Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (1981)
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In a 1984 commercial promoting Donkey Kong-brand cereal, Mario can be heard with a distinctly Italian accent, even saying what would become one of Mario's catchphrases "Here We Go". This predates Charles Martinet portraying Mario with an Italian accent by 7 years.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Coincidence
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 12, 2023
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Franchise: Five Nights at Freddy's
subdirectory_arrow_right Chuck E. Cheese (Franchise)
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Attachment Throughout October 2023, children's entertainment restaurant Chuck E. Cheese held a promotion titled "Five Nights of Fun", coinciding with the release of a movie based on Five Nights at Freddy's, a horror game franchise inspired by Chuck E. Cheese and littered with references to the company's history. The marketing for Five Nights of Fun directly imitates the poster for the Five Nights at Freddy's movie and refers to the purple-furred character Mr. Munch as a "purple guy", referencing the overarching villain of the game series.

Despite the obvious parody, an alleged internal document was posted online at that time by a former employee, who had left Chuck E. Cheese days prior to the promotion coming under scrutiny, informing employees that they should feign ignorance of Five Nights at Freddy's during the promotion if asked by children or their parents. One example of terminology provided is:

"SAY THIS
Oh, is there a movie coming out...? That's news to me! We're celebrating Five Nights of Fun in a row this October!

NOT THIS
Yeah, they wanted to combat that idea of that people think that we are like that place they have in the movie... so they did this"
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Advertisement/Commercial, Multimedia Adaptation, Real Life, Reference, Rumor, Suggested
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 10, 2023
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Roblox
Roblox (2006)
subdirectory_arrow_right Friday Night Funkin' (Game), Sonic The Hedgehog (Franchise)
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Attachment When Sonic Prime was released on Netflix, GameFam Studios, the development team behind Sonic Speed Simulator, inserted officially-licensed Sonic Prime product placement into their other games on Roblox - however, this included the unauthorized Friday Night Funkin' fangame Funky Friday, which they would not legally be allowed to make paid content or promotions in.

Friday Night Funkin' creator ninja_muffin99 has expressed interest in taking legal action against GameFam and Sega, though later specified that it would not be through a lawsuit. It is unknown if any legal action has or will be taken.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Complaint, Fan Works, Plagiarism, Update Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 9, 2023
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Sonic Heroes
Sonic Heroes (2003)
subdirectory_arrow_right McDonald's (Franchise), McDonald's Sega Mini Video Games 2 Promotion (Collection)
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In 2004, a commercial for Sonic Heroes McDonald's Happy Meal LCD games was aired in Pakistan. This advert would become infamous abroad for the low quality of its CGI animation produced by the company Image Dynamics, with inexpressive and off-model Sonic characters playing sports. In particular, the segment for the game Amy & Rouge Tennis (incorrectly called "Rogue & Amy Tennis" by the narrator) features a version of Rouge the Bat who is unclothed and resembles a mouse, and the segment for Tails Soccer has a one-tailed Tails performing an own-goal.

An English-language re-upload of the commercial to YouTube in 2011 has managed to amass over 8 million views as of 2023, and in 2015 the Sonic the Hedgehog social media pages acknowledged the commercial as being "creepy".

In 2024, footage from more Pakistani McDonald's commercials promoting Sonic LCD games were found online through various portfolio accounts. These ads include an alternate Knuckles model which is simply Sonic's colored red without the dreadlocks implemented, and Big the Cat, who is absent from the better known commercial. Big has two models featured in the portfolios, one that retains his belt and face but gives him white sneakers in place of his sandals, and another that retains his sandals, but lacks his belt and gives him large eyes more closely resembling other anthropomorphic characters in the Sonic cast.
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Adaptation, Advertisement/Commercial, Meme, Multimedia Adaptation, Regional Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 9, 2023
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Floigan Bros.
Floigan Bros. (2001)
subdirectory_arrow_right Dreamcast (Platform)
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Despite Floigan Bros. being initially developed prior to the Dreamcast's release in 1999 (of which the main characters Moigle and Hoigle made cameos in the Dreamcast advertising campaign "It's Thinking"), and then-President of SEGA's American division Bernie Stolar saying that "Floigan will do for SEGA what Mario did for Nintendo", the game would go through developmental setbacks until finally releasing on July 30, 2001, months after SEGA ceased production on SEGA Dreamcast.

Because of this late release window, several pieces of monthly on-disc DLC for the game, as well as the concept of exchanging Moigles through the Dreamcast VMU, were left on the cutting room floor.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Cancelled Release, Development, Unreleased Content, Unused Content
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 9, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Soft & Cuddly
Soft & Cuddly (1987)
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Attachment To promote its graphic imagery, Soft & Cuddly was sold at trade shows with a barf bag.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Merchandise
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 7, 2023
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Smart Alex and Smart Alice: Curious Kids
Smart Alex and Smart Alice: Curious Kids (1996)
subdirectory_arrow_right Sega Pico (Platform)
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Attachment The Sega Pico has a variety of different mascots depending on territory:

• In Japan, the Sega Pico had a set of two mascots, who were originally hand-drawn, but changed to a CGI style upon the hardware's rebranding to the "Kids Communication Pico". These characters would appear in the opening titles for every Japanese Pico release and are not known to have appeared in any commercials.

• In Western territories, the Sega Pico used a mascot known as "Smart Alex", originating from the game Smart Alex & Smart Alice: Curious Kids. Box arts for Pico games in regions such as the UK and France would feature Smart Alex regardless of if he actually appeared in the game, he appeared in animated commercials for the hardware, and he had a mascot costume made for the 1995 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Smart Alex is the only Pico mascot to have appeared in his own game.

• In Korea, where the hardware was distributed by Samsung, it used a star-shaped animal character. The character would continue to be used for the Samsung Thinko, a Pico successor made without Sega's involvement, independent of its Japanese follow-up, the Advanced Pico Beena.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Character Design, Mascot, Regional Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 6, 2023
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Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong 3 (1983)
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Game), Green House (Game)
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The relationship between the protagonist of Greenhouse and Stanley from Donkey Kong 3 is ambiguous. The manual for Greenhouse - written before the release of Donkey Kong 3 - simply states the character to be named "The Fumigator", while print and TV commercials released after Donkey Kong 3 claim the character to be named Stanley, likely as a retcon of sorts to tie in with Donkey Kong 3.

Notably, Stanley is the only character from a Mario universe game that Mr. Game & Watch transforms into in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while moves based on games such as Mario's Bombs Away and Donkey Kong Junior have him retain his appearance as the pedestrian from Fire as he did in previous Super Smash Bros. games. Additionally, Super Smash Bros. Melee's trophy description for Stanley lists his debut as Donkey Kong 3 and not Greenhouse.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Cameo, Early Idea, Similarities
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 4, 2023
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Manual page that shows the Fumigator name:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221125191053/http://www.intheattic.co.uk/images/G&;W/Review/Greenhouse/Greenhouse_GH-54_Page6-7.jpg

TV ad for Greenhouse from after DK3's release which calls the protag Stanley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGGhQEgDGA&;ab_channel=Movie%26VideoGameTVSpots

Print ad for Greenhouse from after DK3's release which calls the protag Stanley:
https://www.oocities.org/qj_gw/flyers/zelda3large.jpg

Print ad for Greenhouse from after DK3's release which calls the protag Stanley
https://www.gameandwatch.ch/images/infos/flyer/flyer-pp-mag.jpg

Mr. Game & Watch's movesets from across all Smash games. Stanley can be seen at 0:17:
https://youtu.be/5rxzhgSKHLk?si=yLKpAZrrXm-vnrrS

Trophies from Melee, shows Stanley's debut as "Donkey Kong 3". Timestamp 38:57:
https://youtu.be/jDAr19vlkGw?si=OQOk3oUXCg5I6xeg&;t=2334
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