Gamertell

Its surprising the success Japanese mascots can find. (No, I’m not talking about Mr. Sparkle.) I’m talking about characters who were originally designed to act as a mascot for a company or product, which suddenly reach new heights of popularity and become a marketable figure on their own.

So it isn’t surprising when these icons suddenly get their own video games. After all, if they’re successful and popular, chances are their creators will want to make as much money off of them as they can. Today, Important Importables is going to look at Dejiko, Domo-kun and Docomodake, three mascots popular enough to merit their own games.

Dejiko

Dejiko is best known as the heroine/protagonist of the Di Gi Charat series of manga and anime. Originally, Dejiko, the green-haired cat-girl, was created as an advertisement and mascot for the Japanese store Gamers and its parent company Broccoli. Dejiko became a huge success, and spawned multiple animated series, a movie, many mangas and a spin-offs featuring Piyoko.

There have been four Di Gi Charat games released so far in Japan. Two are the same game - a visual novel, dating sim game called Di Gi Charat Fantasy. It was originally released on the Dreamcast, and then brought to the PS2. In it, the player and the Di Gi Charat girls (Dejiko, Puchiko and Rabi~en~Rose) accidentally get transported to another world, with the player working with an amnesiatic Dejiko while trying to get home.

The other two games are Di Gi Charat: Di Gi Communication and Di Gi Communication 2 in 1 Datou! Black Gemagema Dan. Both are GBA titles, and are shop management sims. You manage a Gamers store, and the Di Gi Charat stars serve as your employees. You have to try and make money by selling merchandise with the Di Gi Charat characters’ images on it. I’ve only had the opportunity to play Di Gi Charat: Di Gi Communication and it was surprisingly engaging.

Domo-kun

Surprisingly enough, Domo-kun even has a game already. Domo-kun is the brown monster character with huge teeth who only says, “Domo.” He was originally created as a mascot for the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) network, becoming popular enough where he ended up getting short episodes of his own on Nickelodeon and also a mascot for Target stores for Halloween 2008.

Domo-kun no Fushigu Terebi is a GBA mini-game collection released in 2002. Domo-kun is watching TV when the satellite dish is hit by a meteorite. The dish is destroyed, and Domo-kun is sucked into the TV while trying to repair it the only way he knows how (hitting it). The only way he can escape is by rebuilding the satellite dish by going through the channel grid, playing mini-games and collecting satellite pieces. Despite being a mini-game collection, there’s a lot of variety and replay value without being generic. Plus, its pretty cute.

Docomodake

In Japan, NTT DoCoMo is a cell phone network in Japan, and its mascot is an anthropomorphic mushroom known as Docomodake. He’s become quite a celebrity in Japan, as he stars in NTT DoCoMo commercials and Docomodake toys are available. So far, audiences outside of Japan haven’t had much exposure to Docomodake.

That’s all about to change though. Docomodake’s DS game, Pororon! Docomodake DS, is actually making it’s way to the US. Ignition is bringing it to North America as Boing! Docomodake in the beginning of 2009. The game is a classic action/platformer, where you try to get Docomodake from point A to point B in various levels. I haven’t had a chance to try Poron! Docomodake DS, but Siliconera  played through the game and has a great summary of the title.

COMING NEXT WEEK: Important Portables celebrates its 50th installment with a list of 50 things gamers love about Japan. If you don’t miss a single installment of Important Importables, or want to know right away when the next column is up, then sign up for the Gamertell Newsletter and RSS feed.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about some creepy Japanese games in honor of Halloween.

Read [Siliconera] Site [Club Nintendo Japan] Site [Club Nintendo Europe] Site [Club Nintendo Australia] Site [Club Nintendo South Africa] Site [Play-Asia]