A History of Gaming - Data East - Karnov (Part 2)

The silhouette you observed yesterday happens to be the strangest mascot ever. When you think Mascots, you think of Cartoony plumbers or Anthropomorphic animals. Data East said "Fuck that shit!" and threw us a curveball in the form of Karnov.

Karnov had his own self-titled platforming adventure on the NES. In which you play as the Russian Strong-man on a treasure hunt.

Karnov attacks the unusual bevy of enemies using his super-circus fire breath, which can be upgraded through the use of items. The item system, though initially frustrating to use, is implemented fairly well. You get access to items such as jump boots and a ladder that magically spouts from your belly. The joys of 8-bit simplicity.

Though the game isn't as renowned as other platformers of the time, it's just as good as any of it's other contemporaries. To keep this brief, we'll discuss Karnov further in it's own Retronexus! Karnov will also be featured in tomorrow's Data East game, in which he'll be playing a Villain. A villainous mascot, Data East are such rebels!

- Kyle K.