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Mr. Pants is a Rareware video game character that originated as a joke on the company's website. Identifiable as an underpants-wearing stick figure, he became so popular within the company that he went on to cameo and sometimes star in several of their games, becoming their unofficial mascot.
Origins: 1997 - 2000
Upon the launch of the Rareware website (dubbed Rarewhere) in 1997, there were many entertaining and curious pages of information to be found about the company. The site also had, tucked away in the 'Bites' section of the site, a survey section. To encourage visitors to participate in their survey, Rare offered this explanation:
"Wait! Wait! We know that surveys are Evil incarnate, but we've got Mr. Pants the Survey Man to lead you through ours. How can you resist? Go on, give us a few minutes of your time - you might even convince us to change something if you slate it hard enough."
Visitors that delved into the Survey section found it being introduced by a very badly drawn stick man with pasty white skin who wore nothing but a bowler hat, a pair of blazing red underpants, and an amused grin. A piece of paper with squiggles on it (presumably a survey) was sometimes seen tucked into his undergarments of choice. His creator, Leigh Loveday, later commented that it's not Mr. Pants unless he's drawn in a frenzied rush.
Loveday explained that Mr. Pants was created in 30 seconds when the other artists didn't have time to create a new render of an existing Rare character at the time for the Survey page. *
Mr. Pants quickly gained a cult following, with many fans writing into the 'Scribes' section of Rarewhere, asking when he was going to get his own game. While not getting his own video game, Mr. Pants did cameo in two of Rare's other games. The first was the space-shooter adventure Jet Force Gemini, where he appeared on both a hidden mural and as a bonus unlockable - if you collected 300 Drone Heads, it would activate the cheat 'Ants Into Pants', which turned all the Drones into Mr. Pants. He also appeared in Banjo-Tooie, hiding in a constellation in Witchyworld's Dogdem Dome arena and also being broadcast on Boggy Bear's widescreen TV in Hailfire Peaks. On September 16, 1999 at the end of the "Snippets" spam section of the site's Scribes section, Loveday also introduced an equally badly drawn character during this period, known as Mrs. Pie. Her creation is in response to reader "Kieron"'s claim that Mrs. Pants is Mr. Pants's wife. *
In early 2000, a flood of fan-made Mr. Pants images began getting sent to the site. Images of Mr. Pants fighting in Jet Force Gemini, Mr. Pants action figures made out of clay, Mr. Pants 64 box art and other imagery made its way onto the site.
2001 - August 2002
Near the end of May in 2001, Rareware received a complete overhaul and became a more traditional corporate website. Some of the offbeat British humor was retained, most specifically the continual inclusion of Mr. Pants, who reappeared as an animated GIF:
"See me fly! See me fly, ma! Hey, you might think a new site design would spell the end of Mr. Pants, but you'd be wrong: the Site Survey is my domain, and my domain only. With my fantastic imaginary superpowers I'll defend it to the death!"
At the start of November in the same year, Mr. Pants would return to host a Merchandise Poll for the site. A short message introducing the poll was included, with Mr. Pants commenting "Oh yeah! My survey domain extends into jive-talkin' poll territory! Large."
September 2002 - present
On the 24th of September 2002, the Rare website received another site overhaul to reflect the Microsoft acquisition announcement on the same day. The site was dubbed "Welcome to Rare" by some fans so that it could be identified from the previous versions of the site (the name itself comes from the heading in capitals on the main page). In late November of the same year, Rare's now infamous mascot reappeared, sporting a new "sketch-like" look and his very own section of the site, dubbed 'The Pantsboard'. This section of the site poses a question to readers to get feedback and general thoughts of the subject.
August 2003 saw the announcement of THQ publishing the four Rare Game Boy Advance games that went missing during the Microsoft acquisition. Interestingly, one of the announced games was titled It's Mr. Pants, but no further information was given on the game contents.
Also, in June of 2004, Mr.Pants made a minor cameo in Sabre Wulf, a gameboy advance game Rare developed based on their iconic Sabreman character. Mr.Pants could be seen in the form of a pair of bright red underpants strung up on a laundry line outside of Sabreman's campsite.
In late October Grabbed by the Ghoulies, an old-school style zombie beat-em-up starring a teenager called Cooper, was released. Strewn throughout the title were various Mr. Pants references, including Mr. Pants pictures on pinboards and walls, a drawing of him on the schoolroom whiteboard, and packages of Mr. Pants Chocolate Treats.
It wasn't until August 2004 that Mr. Pants was really heard from again. Video game site IGN released a preview of It's Mr. Pants, the game that had not been heard of for almost an entire year. The game itself turned out to be a puzzle game starring Mr. Pants, Mrs. Pie, and a whole host of other bizarrely-drawn stick figure characters, most wearing bright red underpants. The game was released in limited supply in December of the same year, proving to be very difficult to find.
References and appearances in games
- Jet Force Gemini - Nintendo 64 (October 1999)
- Banjo-Tooie - Nintendo 64 (November 2000)
- Grabbed by the Ghoulies - Xbox (October 2003)
- Sabre Wulf - Game Boy Advance (June 2004)
- It's Mr. Pants - Game Boy Advance (December 2004)
External links
"Mr. Pants"