After intense training under his mentor, Scamper, Moshiro Mouse enters the Sprite Fight 2002 tournaments, sure of his skill, his mighty Moshuriken in his grasp, his...
Ah, screwworm. Moshiro HAS no storyline. I now open the file to:
RAQs (Rarely Asked Questions)
Q: So what exactly IS Moshiro?
A: Moshiro is a common house mouse (mus musculus), trained in intensive ninja arts, combined with street savvy and cunning.
Q: So what happened to him?
A: Happened?
Q: Yeah, you know, is he a bio-nuclear mutation of some sort?
A: Nah, he's an ORDINARY mouse who HAPPENS to come from one of those cartoon worlds where animals stand on two legs and speak fluent English (or Japanese, German, Esperanto, etc. ...)
Q: An alternate universe? Cool.
A: Not at all; just a cartoon world... ours.
Q: What do the symbols on Moshiro's scroll mean (see logo, above)?
A: Those are "letters" of the Japanese katakana phonetic alphabet, forming Moshiro's name by syllable: Mo, Shi, Ro. (Source: GAMES Magazine, April 1995.)
Q: What does Moshiro MEAN, anyway?
A: It doesn't MEAN anything. It came from a combination of perfectly common Japanese syllables and may come from the English phrase "mouse hero", which he is.
Q: Moshiro looks INCREDIBLY familiar.
A: That's because this is an almost direct port of the original Moshiro Mouse of Sprite Fight 2000; see his ReadMe file (About Moshiro!) for more information.
Q: Can't. Don't have Sprite Fight 2000.
A: Okay, then, here's that information again:
The world's smallest ninja...
NAME: Mel "Moshiro" Mouse
AGE: 3
HEIGHT: 4"
WEIGHT: 2 lbs.
ORIGIN: Los Alamos, CA
FIGHTING ART: Modified ninjitsu
FRIENDS: His sister Maria, his mentor Scamper, his friend Hopper, and the "Mad Ninja", Askaji
RIVALS: Max the Merciless and Dr. Sven Völkner
A character I made up some time ago for a series of doodled cartoons and the occasional Arcade Game Construction Kit game for the Commodore 64 (before I got a Mac), Moshiro Mouse is, well, a ninja mouse. His job is to collect food and protect his friends from forces that would see them destroyed. Mo makes his home in the Goodman estate, where mice, rats, grasshoppers, etc. seem to have free range.
Yatata yatata yatata...
I hope that answers your question: that's a LOT of typing.
Q: You mean you just retyped all that?!
A: Ayep.
Q: WHY?!
A: Like a fool, I made the original file a Read Only.
Q: How does a 4" mouse weigh two pounds?!
A: I don't know; I've never actually weighed him. I guess that's with his nija gear.
Q: It seems you tossed a lot o' names out without explanation. Who are Mo's friends and rivals, exactly?
A: I'm glad you brought that up:
MARIA MOUSE: Moshiro's sister, who helps Moshiro out with her own brand of ninja, taught to her as well by Scamper.
SCAMPER IKARAT: Moshiro and Maria's tutor, who lived for a year in a movie theatre specializing in martial arts films. It was from these that Scamper taught himself the martial arts and passed them on to the willing Mel Mouse after an unfortunate accident left Scamper injured for a week. The brand of ninjitsu Moshiro utilizes, in fact, comes fourth-hand from Sho Kosugi.
SHO KOSUGI: Some actor.
HOPPER LEAFLET: A grasshopper in charge of protecting the Queen Bee, Barbra, who helps Moshiro out from time to time. (Both Barbra and Hopper, but mostly Hopper, as Barb has duties of her own.)
ASKAJI TAKAHASHI: A human ninja living in Los Alamos, who wears a permanent grin from a painful slash across the face at an early age, earning him the name of the Mad Ninja. Askaji is actually a crimefighter, and helps Moshiro, as Moshiro helps him.
MAX THE MERCILESS: A dangerously cruel cat who took up residence in the Goodman estate and nearly crippled Scamper, necessitating the creation of Moshiro. Max was driven out by Mo's heroic fury, but remains a fixture in the streets.
DOCTOR SVEN ILIYCH VÖLKNER: A mad scientist from Sweden whose German colleague, Dr. Ludvig von Vilder, a specialist in controlling animals to do his bidding, was killed in a lab fire caused by accident as Moshiro was saving one of his friends' brother from Dr. Vilder's mad scheme. Dr. Völkner thus vows vengeance but has yet to decide how.
Q: Will we see any of these characters in Sprite Fight 2002?
A: No, but there is a picture immediately below...
Q: Where do I send E-mail to ask more questions, complain, compliment, etc.?
A: My online address is RHMagnussn@aol.com.
Q: What else besides Moshiro have you created?
A: Well, I created a patch that gives SF2002 3-D titles, a set for the Gravis GamePad, a backdrop called Butcher's Alley, and an angel character, Halo, with her own backdrop, Blue Heaven, rendered in Infini-D.
Q: What else are you planning?
A: Well, I plan to create a digitized ninja character (a fighting game can't have too many ninjas, can it?), Halo's arch-enemy and his/her/its backdrop, at least one rendered 3-D character, and a few surprises...
