So recently, I had one of those weird dreams. I guess it wasn't really that weird - in fact, it seemed semi-plausible in parts - but I'll let you judge for yourselves.
Anyway, in that dream, I learned of a lost SNES game titled Mickey's Magical Adventure (not to be confused with the actual VTech game with that name). Apparently, it was a collab between Disney, Nintendo, and Sega, and even featured Sonic and Tails - and, for some strange reason, Dennis the Menace (the UK comics character, not the US one) - as guest characters. Apparently, it was considered "lost media" because while there were videos and magazine articles, there were no ROMs to be found anywhere on the Internet.
The thing that stuck out the most to me was that there were so many butts in the game. When you selected your character, there was a short animated cutscene of them with their back turned to the viewer, strutting down a corridor while shaking their behind (and yes, Mickey, Sonic, Tails, and even Dennis - who, strangely enough, was wearing his usual outfit, except that he'd apparently forgotten to put on his shorts, meaning that everyone could see his underpants - strutted while shaking their butts, too). I also saw a "Game Over" screen that consisted of a close-up of Sonic and Tails's butts as the duo wiggled them around (much like the "The End" screens in the obscure Sega Saturn platformers Bug! and Bug Too!), while the words "TRY AGAIN?" were on the top of the screen. I assume that was the same for all the characters.
As for the levels, I only remember one vertical grassy biome level, and another level where you were on the mast of a sinking wooden ship, which swayed left and right in Mode 7 fashion.
One more thing I remember about this dream is that I learned that the reason this game was "lost media" was that all parties involved, shortly after the game was released, became ashamed of it for whatever reason (perhaps they got a lot of complaints from soccer moms about the gratuitous booty-shaking?), and order that all future copies were to be destroyed, and all present copies be prohibited from sale.
So yeah, that's pretty much what I remember about my dream. Like I said earlier, it wasn't really all that weird - parts of it even seemed semi-plausible - but I just can't get those butts out of my mind.
I was today years old when I discovered the USA had their own version of Dennis the Menance.
And no, no one ripped off anyone. They were both released on the same day, same month, same year. 12th March 1951. With no connections between the artists.
I will admit tho, US Dennis just seems like a normal kid who causes slight inconveniences or small mischief whilst UK Dennis is just straight up committing war crimes on the daily
Beano Cardz: Dennis the Menace (Windows/Classic Mac, 2001)
Card-shaped mini-CD merch of the long-running British comic book The Beano, and of its most famous character, who coincidentally shares his name with an American character who debuted in the same month as him. You can download it here, and run it in your browser by dragging the .iso file onto the emulated Mac desktop here.
The featured contest's prize was tickets to the Chesstington World of Adventures theme park, which at the time had a Beanoland area themed around the comic. The Beanoland theming's closure in 2009 was commemorated with a massive pie fight.
and as i recall last week that i exposed all of you to a homophobic uk children's comic, i remember im not locked in with all of you, you're all locked in here with me.
TIL that not only is there a different Dennis the Menace in the US but that the UK and US versions were both randomly created with no contact between the authors and were published on the same day.
I thought "There is no way this is true" but all the sources I could find said it was true?!?! What an incredibly bizarre coincidence!
so I found this picrew dollmaker...just wanted to make the kids. Obviously the options make it so that they're not 100% accurate but I still think they look nice.
They should make more Dennis the Menaces. Not like as a franchise, but like, different nations around the world should have an artist create a rowdy boy character and name him Dennis the Menace. They all have no relation to each other except through sharing a name. Just like the two currently existing Dennis the Menaces.
the us and the uk having multiple instances of dennis the menace-type situations w/ shared household names of varying fame/reasons for notability never stops being confusing or funny to me. why would property expert phil spencer talk about gaming. do that many people really think radio dj chris evans is hot.
I like this guy on the Lazarus Project-- the main actor's winning me over, but this guy's got all the cool bits. But it's a little weird that I'm 5 episodes in, and the most notable style thing happening in this show is this guy's haircut.
The story is enjoyable enough-- it's a little dumb in places and very very self-serious, but I do like that there's a story happening (and not just "the lazarus project needs to stop some bad guys"). Or it takes its central science fiction premise too seriously for me, but it's doing some extrapolation at least-- it's thinking it out, at least. (Though again, boy it's just a little too serious about itself). The couple times the show actually flashes a kind of "hey we're making a sci-fi action show" grin at the audience really stand out and are enjoyable (the end of the big fight scene in the 4th one)-- they're just very rare.
But the harder bit to swallow is just how style-less the show is. UK Sci-fi shows used to have some style to them. Doctor Who or the Prisoner or the Emma Peel Avengers. Or even later shows like Life on Mars. But this show-- it's just people wearing Gap clothing, in grey buildings, being sad, constantly. Why can't any of them have a cool jacket? They dress nice on The Bear and that show is about chefs, not sci-fi-superspies-- why can't they dress nice on this show too??? It's just aesthetically very nowheresville-- I can't figure why. It's a spy show, for god's sakes. But it's got no hot sauce.
Except this guy's floppy-boy haircut. It's like a haircut he's 10 years too old for. It's fascinating every scene it's in. What if I just went to a barber and said "make me look like Dennis the Menace. Make me look like a middle-age man whose favorite time of day is recess"? What if I did that?? It's aspirational.