http://www.rareware.com/games/upcoming/mrp...ants_intro.html
‘The History Of Pants’ 'A look back in time to trace the origin of Pants...
Rareware website editor Leigh Loveday sat in his office, wondering what the hell to do. Needing some character art to spruce up an otherwise dull survey section of the site, Loveday pleaded with staff artists to create a small render which he could place on the survey page and claim it as a mascot. Following several blank stares and a swift kick to the nether region, he took it upon himself to come up with his own character. The result? Mr Pants. And so it began.
Like a particularly ruthless bout of wildfire, the Pants phenomenon spread quickly. Adding extra spice to Rare’s popular mailbag Scribes, Mr Pants became somewhat of a cult figure among Rare followers. For some extremely odd reason, the pants-wearing survey man transfixed readers. When someone had the bright idea to modify the existing Mr Pants, the horrifying Rubbish Picture Attachment (RPA) era got the kick in the arse it so desperately didn’t deserve.
If Mr Pants had any sceptics to the extent of his fame, these cynics were left to wipe the egg from their faces when Mr Pants made his first official appearance aside from the mind-numbing blueness of the company’s website. Jet Force Gemini became the stage that launched the Pants phenomena to its most dizziest of heights. Designed to be found by only the most curious of players, Rare hid a crudely drawn version of Mr Pants deep within the castle ruins of Tawfret. But having the half-naked man himself inscribed on the wall wasn’t enough for Rare, and setting 300 ant heads as the price, players were able to shoot the living crap out of Mr Pants in a specially designed world where Pants became the hunted. It didn’t matter that 95% of the people playing the game had no idea why the hell a 2-dimensional stick figure was dancing around in his undies, but for the 5% that did, there was not a finer ‘stupid in-joke’ in the history of video games.
With his appearance in Jet Force Gemini, gamers began to envision Mr Pants in a game of his own. ‘Mr Pants 64’ boxart became the norm in editions of Scribes, as did the establishment of new characters to the world of Mr Pants. Mrs Pie, Mr Pie and Mr Trout made their glorified entry to the realm, prompting the amount of RPA’s to skyrocket. Not content with just a cameo however, one faithful Scribes reader went out of his way to develop the first ever playable Mr Pants game. Called 'Mr Pants 2000', the gameplay was simple, yet oddly addictive, and so good Rare themselves paraded the game for all to see.
Things settled down soon after, readers starting to tire of the pantless-one. That was until the arrival of Banjo Tooie, which caused an uproarious howl from the Rare fanbase upon the discovery of Mr Pants flaunting his curves across two different locations in the Banjo world. Mr Pants could be found gracing the tellie in Boggo’s Igloo, and more craftily, among the stars in Dodgem Dome. If anything, this double appearance cemented Mr Pants as the true mascot of Rare, and laid the foundations for what would eventually arrive…
The infamous Microsoft acquisition of Rare in late 2002 took much of the spotlight away from the likes of Mr Pants, but following the news of the buyout, the Pants made a comeback. Sporting a spectacular new makeover, Mr Pants materialized on the newly-designed Rareware.com in early January 2003 sporting his very own column, The Pantsboard. While the makeover reduced some of the character of Mr Pants, readers soon took to his re-design, and the Pantsboard became hot property. In late July, Rare Extreme became aware of several new trademarks registered by Rare Ltd. Among them sprung the oddly named ‘It’s Mr Pants’. Weeks passed until anything further was mentioned on the subject, until IGN ran a story announcing a deal between THQ to publish a number of Rare titles. Amongst them? ‘It’s Mr Pants’.
As it stands, Rare is yet to release any gameplay details; only going as far as to say the game is definitely on its way. Intriguingly however, rumours are already abound ‘It’s Mr Pants’ is actually utilizing the same engine and gameplay mechanics developed for the little known ‘Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers’, a game thought to have been canned after the buyout. Is ‘It’s Mr Pants’ Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers in disguise?
Whatever the case may be, Mr Pants has proven his lastability, and with his current popularity and the upcoming release of ‘It’s Mr Pants’, our favourite survey man will be at the forefront of Rare’s future, deservingly or not.
Moggo